Шейла Нортон - Charlie The Kitten Who Saved A Life

Laura laughed. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not expecting you to learn vegetarian cooking, Julian.’

‘But I’m going to,’ Caroline said, sitting up a bit straighter. ‘That’s only fair, if I want to eat differently from you, isn’t it? And anyway I think it’s really interesting. I can cook stir fries with lots of nuts, and make lentil bakes, and …’

‘We picked up a recipe book in the supermarket too,’ Laura told Julian.

‘And I’m going to start on tonight’s dinner as soon as I’ve changed out of my school uniform,’ Caroline said, running off towards the stairs.

‘I do realise the novelty of cooking for herself will probably wear off after a while,’ Laura said, smiling at Julian. ‘And I’ll supervise anyway. But it won’t do her any harm. We can both learn, together. I don’t think it’s going to be as difficult as it sounds. We might even decide to join her, a couple of days a week. Too much meat is bad for you, you know,’ she added.

Really? I found that hard to believe. I couldn’t imagine how anyone could survive without eating meat. Even when I was living in such reduced circumstances with the feral cats, it was the scraps of horrible burgers and sausages from the bins, together with the occasional treat of fresh fish of course, that kept us alive. But to be honest I was just so very, very happy to hear that Caroline wasn’t really ill after all, I didn’t care what strange things she wanted to eat, as long as they made her feel better.

‘Dr Pearson also reminded me that she’s approaching puberty,’ Laura added quietly, ‘which, as well as the anaemia, would account for her having been so tired and emotional.’ She paused for a moment, and then smiled and said, ‘And moody, and bad-tempered!’

I was glad poor Caroline wasn’t in the room to hear that.

‘Really? She’s at that stage already? She’s only eleven!’

‘Coming up for twelve,’ Laura said. ‘It’s not at all out of the ordinary, Julian. I should have realised that myself, but I kind of expected that she’d have a slightly delayed adolescence, if anything, after going through her illness and the chemotherapy. But the doctor said that doesn’t necessarily happen.’

‘The trouble is, we’ve both been seeing all the signs, but thinking they meant something else. Something much worse. So we couldn’t see the wood for the trees.’

‘Yes, you’re right. Well – thank God, she’s going to be fine now.’ Laura reached out and touched Julian’s paw. ‘It’s such a relief, isn’t it?’

A relief to me too, of course. In fact I felt quite weak with it. I was going to have to have a lie down. But first, I needed to wind myself around Caroline’s legs until she picked me up, so that I could give her face a really good licking to show how happy I was.

Later that night, after Jessica had gone to bed and Caroline had gone back upstairs to do her homework, Nicky came round. Apparently she’d been desperate to hear how the doctor’s appointment went, too.

‘I’m so glad it’s nothing serious,’ she said after Laura had told her all about it. ‘So it’s nothing to do with the new school, either? I was a bit worried she was finding it too much.’

‘No, she absolutely loves the school,’ Julian said. ‘And we’re both completely certain now that we’ve done the right thing, aren’t we, darling?’

Laura nodded. ‘She’s so happy at Great Broomford High, going off on the bus with all her friends, and being in the same class as Grace. And it is a good school, so I’m sure she’ll do well there. Thank goodness there was still a place available for her there when we changed our minds.’

‘Yes,’ said Julian. ‘If only we’d sat down and talked to her about it properly, instead of just insisting we knew what was best for her. The private school might have a wonderful reputation, but what’s the point, if she was going to be miserable and resentful? Now she’s got her circle of friends here, after all that time of being lonely, it’s quite understandable that the most important thing for her is to be with them. No wonder she felt so cross and upset with us.’

‘But she’s happy now, and she’s going to be fine, that’s what matters,’ Nicky said gently. ‘What about the concussion, though? Did the doctor say that wasn’t causing her any of her symptoms?’

‘Oh, he did say it might be adding to the problem, yes,’ Laura said, ‘although the anaemia is the real issue. But I must say, he agreed with what they told us at Mudditon Hospital – if Caroline hadn’t been taken to hospital, it could have been a different picture altogether. Can you imagine what might have happened if she and Grace had carried on wandering off on their own like that – while she was suffering from concussion, not to mention the bleeding from her wounds? It could have been … well, a catastrophe,’ she finished in a very quiet voice.

‘Thank God she went to hospital. So it looks like Charlie really did save her life,’ Nicky said.

‘Yes.’ Laura looked at me and smiled. ‘He did.’

‘It feels like we’ve got our Caroline back now, in more ways than one,’ Julian said, and I thought I could hear a funny wobble in his voice. Laura must have heard it too, because she put her paws round him and hugged him. He smiled at her and added, ‘And you ’ re so much happier too, darling, aren’t you? Now the baby’s started to settle down.’

‘Poor Laura was tired out, Julian,’ Nicky said. ‘What on earth did you expect?’

‘You were worried I might have had postnatal depression, weren’t you?’ Laura said, turning to Julian. ‘But Nicky’s right, I was just completely exhausted.’

‘Men just don’t get it,’ Nicky said, shaking her head. ‘Dan was absolutely useless too, after I had Benjamin.’

‘I know, I know,’ Julian said, smiling. ‘Well, we don’t like to admit we’re worried, you see …’

‘Excuses, excuses.’ Nicky laughed. ‘You’re all the same. If you don’t like us being tired and ratty, you should be looking at how you can help us. And honestly, Julian – I’m glad we’re close enough friends that I can say this to you now – it really wasn’t the most wonderful idea in the world, taking the family to Mudditon for a whole month and leaving them there to get on with it.’

Oh, at last, somebody was saying what we’d all been thinking right from the start! I rubbed my head against Nicky’s legs and purred.

‘I know,’ Julian said. ‘I think I realised I’d messed up, even before we got there, but I was trying to convince myself it was going to somehow make everything better. Instead, I’ll admit it, it was just a bloody disaster!’

‘Oh, come on, there were some good things about the holiday,’ Laura said, nudging Nicky and doing that thing with her eyes that humans call winking. ‘It was quite fun really apart from the girls running away, Charlie going missing, Caroline getting herself concussed and carted off to hospital, and … oh, well, none of us being able to relax on the beach because of the seagulls. But that pales into insignificance compared with the rest!’

‘Next year,’ Julian said, when they’d all stopped laughing, ‘ you choose the holiday, right? That’s a promise.’

‘And Charlie can stay with us,’ Nicky said firmly. ‘Wherever you go, you’re not going to risk taking him with you again and letting him get lost.’

‘You’re on,’ Laura said. ‘Thank you. The cattery is supposed to be very good, though.’

‘No!’ I meowed. ‘I want to stay with Nicky. I’ll be really, really good! I won’t mess up her washing or get inside Benjamin’s cot or anything.’

‘I think he’s saying he’d rather stay with us,’ Nicky said, stroking me. Perhaps she actually did understand a bit of Cat!