Hiro Arikawa - The Travelling Cat Chronicles

A fact of life in the feline world. Kittens that are awkward to bring up, or slow, are easily abandoned. No matter how hard she tries, a mother cat has only so much milk, and she won’t waste any on a lethargic kitten.

One of my siblings was like that. Overshadowed by the rest of us, it was the kind of kitten you were never sure was there or not, and one day we suddenly noticed it was gone, as if it had never existed.

This orange tabby was on the small side for his age; to be honest, not the type you’d expect to make it in life. Yoshimine had done a great job bringing him up. And despite him being the ill-mannered kind who’d grab you by the scruff of the neck the first time he met you, Yoshimine hadn’t just looked the other way when a troublesome kitten turned up, so it was clear to me he was an individual who had a lot of love to give.

Even people who are big and strong are sometimes thrown in the gutter. If he’d been a cat, Yoshimine would have been the top priority in the litter.

Okay, be that as it may…

You probably shouldn’t have made it, little kitty, yet you’ve been given a new lease of life, so shouldn’t you show some gratitude to Yoshimine for that? Yes, you. I’m talking to you .

The orange tabby looked as though he was listening for a moment, but then, clearly not getting what I was saying, he started to play around with my tail. Hmm. Guess I’ll have to simplify this a bit.

Tell me, do you like Yoshimine?

I seemed to have got through. As he chewed on my tail, he nodded. Hey, that hurt. I flipped my tail up.

If you like Yoshimine, don’t you want to make him happy?

The orange tabby grabbed my tail again and recommenced chomping with his mini jaws.

I told you, that hurts! I flipped it up again.

You do know Yoshimine wants cats to catch mice for him, don’t you? So, if you can become a real cat who can catch mice, I’m sure Yoshimine will be very pleased.

The orange tabby stopped his chomping for a moment. I seemed to have struck a chord.

But the way you’re behaving, forget it. You’re useless. You couldn’t even catch a lizard, let alone a mouse.

Okay, what if I teach you the basics of hunting? And not just hunting, but train you to hold your own in a fight with other cats. Yoshimine will be worried if you lose every scrap.

Putting everything in simple terms like this, I think I got through to the kitten. He sat up straight and asked me to teach him. Good. In the cat world, good manners are a must.

I was about to lead the orange tabby into an Intro to Hunting when Satoru said, ‘Oh! Look, Yoshimine. They’ve started playing together.’

‘Aren’t they fighting?’

‘No, Nana’s going easy on him.’

This isn’t a game, folks, I’m teaching. Whatever.

‘If they carry on together like this, maybe I can convince you to keep Nana for me.’

Well, I’m doing my thing here, so you chaps keep doing whatever you’re doing. Don’t mind us.

Satoru watched as the orange tabby pounced on the toy mouse the way I taught him to, and his eyes narrowed into a smile.

‘He’s so excitable, just like the cat I used to have years ago.’

You’re right about that. When he’s supposed to crouch quietly and blend in, he madly waves his tail around instead. I stretch my tail out smoothly, but this little kitten waves his around like a helicopter. And when he crouches down ready to pounce, he keeps his body way too high off the ground.

‘What was Nana like when he was little?’

‘I found him when he was a grown cat, so I don’t know what sort of kitten he was. I wish I could have known him then. I’m sure he was adorable.’

You’re right there. My level of cuteness when I was a kitten was such that passers-by vied for the privilege of leaving me a little something to eat.

‘Now that you mention it…’ Yoshimine said, as if suddenly remembering something, ‘did you see that cat you adopted ever again?’

‘Unfortunately, no. It died when I was in high school.’

‘I see,’ Yoshimine said, his voice respectfully mournful.

‘I wish you could have seen him. Sorry about that. But I really didn’t want the word to get back to my aunt.’

Whoa there, Satoru. What on earth are you hinting at here?

I ordered the orange tabby to run through the exercises I’d taught him on his own, and turned my attention to Satoru and Yoshimine’s conversation.

YOSHIMINE’S PARENTS’ DIVORCE went through without a hitch, his father getting custody of their son. This was because Yoshimine wanted to live with his grandmother. It also meant he could avoid the inconvenience of changing his last name.

As if they had been set free, both his parents went off on overseas postings, and appeared to be doing well. And, as ever, Yoshimine found that living with his grandmother suited him down to the ground.

A year passed and, during the first semester of their last year in junior high, the class went on a school trip to Fukuoka.

Yoshimine realized that something was bothering Satoru only after he’d found out what had happened on a previous school trip – that Satoru’s parents had died in an accident.

Satoru had looked glum from the moment they departed. On their first day in Fukuoka, when they had some free time, he was uncharacteristically quiet, even though he was with his usual group of friends.

Yoshimine was concerned that the trip had tapped into depressing memories, but with all the other students around it was hard to find an opportunity to talk to him about it.

After dinner, when they were browsing through the souvenir shop in the hotel, he finally found his chance.

‘Are you okay?’

Satoru looked worried. He glanced up at Yoshimine and said in a low voice, ‘I was wondering if I can get to Kokura.’

From Hakata Station in Fukuoka to Kokura was about twenty minutes by the Shinkansen train. So of course it was possible. But only if they weren’t on a school trip. Which they were.

Always alert to the dangers of the students wandering off, the teachers chaperoning the trip had set up a tight surveillance system. The daily activities were scheduled to the minute. After checking into the hotel, it was strictly forbidden for students to go out on their own. A teacher was always stationed at the hotel entrance. If a student were to try to slip out to have fun at night, there was a very real risk that they might be sent home.

So for Satoru to go to Kokura on his own was, in the circumstances, not an option. Yet the obedient, sharp-witted Satoru wouldn’t have said such a thing unless he had a very good reason.

‘How come?’ Yoshimine asked.

So Satoru told him.

It had to do with the cat he’d had back when his parents were still alive. When they died and his aunt took him in, he’d had to give up the cat, and relatives in Kokura had adopted it.

‘My aunt’s always so busy I can’t ask her to take me to Kokura just to see the cat… So I was wondering if, when we have a free moment during the day, I could slip away and go there to visit it.’

‘Do you really want to see the cat that much?’

‘He’s family,’ Satoru replied.

‘I see,’ Yoshimine said, folding his arms. He’d never had a pet himself, and had no particular fondness for cats.

But for Satoru, that cat was something he and his parents had all loved, the one remaining family member from that happy time they shared before his parents died. It all made perfect sense.

Okay, then.

So it’s just a cat, but it is, after all, a cat . For his friend, the one and only cat in the world.

‘Let’s do it.’