Hiro Arikawa - The Travelling Cat Chronicles

Satoru didn’t seem to get it. How important he was to me.

Every day, I stared out of the window.

Hey, Satoru, how are things where you are?

There was an awful snowstorm today. A total white-out outside the window. I couldn’t even see the lights of the city. Was it the same where you are?

Now it’s sunny. Not a cloud in the sky. But the clear, blue sky looks really cold.

Today, the puffed-up sparrows on the power lines set a new record for rotundity. There are some thin clouds and it isn’t snowing, but I’ll bet it’s freezing outside.

I saw a bright-red car driving down the road. The colour of the berries on the mountain ash, the colour you taught me. But I get the feeling the mountain-ash berry is a deeper colour, the kind that takes your breath away. Humans are good at making colours, but they can’t seem to reproduce the power of natural ones.

One day, Noriko walked into Satoru’s room.

‘Nana, let’s go and visit Satoru.’

Come again?

‘Satoru seems really lonely without you, so I went ahead and asked if I could bring you. The doctor said you can’t come inside, but when Satoru is going for his walk in the garden we can see him.’

Bravo, Noriko!

Noriko held out the basket and I scurried inside. We drove there in the silver van. Noriko had been using it the whole time Satoru had been in hospital, apparently, and this was the first time I’d been in it since the last journey Satoru and I had taken together.

By car, it took all of twenty minutes.

Satoru was this close by.

If it were just me and Satoru in the van, I would have opened the basket instantly and slipped out, but since it was Noriko I stayed quietly inside. Unused to thinking about things from a cat’s perspective, she put the basket on the floor in the back, so my only view was the van’s dark interior.

‘You stay here like a good boy, and I’ll fetch Satoru.’

As instructed, I waited like a good boy.

Of course I did. I’m a wise cat. I know what to do in any and all situations.

Finally, Noriko returned and lifted the basket out of the van.

The hospital was a tranquil place in a quiet neighbourhood. Beyond the parking lot was a soft, snowy field. The trees and benches were decorated with a thick layer of snow. I imagined the grass and flowerbeds asleep underneath.

There were chairs and tables on a roofed-in terrace projecting out from the building, and this place seemed to be used as a rest area on days when the weather wasn’t good. And then—

On the terrace, in a wheelchair, was Satoru.

I was impatient to leap out of the basket, but because Noriko was holding on to it, I refrained from unlocking the door myself.

‘Nana!’

Satoru had a down jacket on and was all puffy, but he was even thinner and paler than the last time I’d seen him.

But then, a bit of colour came to those ghostly cheeks. I don’t think I’m being conceited if I say that I was the one who brought that warm red glow to his face, but what do you all think?

‘I’m so glad you came!’

Satoru half rose from his wheelchair. Like me, he couldn’t stand the distance still separating us. I wanted to open up the basket and leap straight out. But Noriko still didn’t know I could unlock it myself.

I sprang into Satoru’s lap as soon as I could.

He pressed me close in his thin arms, unable to speak. I purred till my throat hurt, rubbing the top of my head over and over against his body.

The two of us were so very, very well matched, so don’t you think it was strange we were kept apart from each other?

I wanted to lie in his arms for ever, but pretty soon the piercing cold became too much for Satoru, in his condition.

‘Satoru,’ Noriko said hesitantly. Satoru knew what she meant, but found it hard to let me go.

‘I keep the photo of the two of us next to my bed.’

Um. Noriko told me.

‘So I’m not lonely.’

That’s not true. In fact, it’s such an obvious lie that Enma, the Lord of Hell, who pulls out the tongues of liars, would be laughing too hard to do any tongue-pulling.

‘You stay well, Nana.’

One more firm squeeze around my middle that nearly brought the stuffing out of me, and Satoru finally let me go. At Noriko’s urging, I stepped straight back into my basket, ever the good boy.

‘Just a second. I’ll put Nana in the car.’

Noriko left me on the back seat of the van before hurrying back to Satoru.

That was my moment. With my right paw, I flipped the basket door open. I sat down low in the driver’s seat and waited for Noriko to return.

It was almost an hour later when she did. There was a light dusting of snow swirling in the air, and Noriko was hunching up her shoulders against the cold as she walked.

The door on the driver’s side snapped open.

‘Nana!?’

She chased after me, but when it comes to playing tag, humans are no match for four-legged animals. I avoided her easily and raced out into the parking lot.

‘Come back here!’

Noriko’s voice was nearly a scream. Sorry, but I’m not going to listen to you.

Because I’m a wise cat, who knows what to do in any and all situations.

When I had reached a safe distance, I stopped and turned to look, focusing my vision hard on her flailing, distant figure.

Then I put up my tail cheerily.

See you! Bye!

I scampered off into the snowy landscape and never looked back.

NOW THEN. NO matter how proud a stray cat I might be, winter in Hokkaido is pretty formidable.

The snow in Tokyo should never be called by the same name as the snow that falls here, so heavy sometimes you can’t see your nose in front of your face.

Here’s where all those walks I’d taken with Satoru came in useful.

The town cats I ran across were great at slipping into sheltered spaces to avoid the cold. And, of course, there were some heroic cats in the neighbourhood around the hospital as well.

That being the case, since I was always prepared to go back to being a stray, why wouldn’t I survive?

Using the hospital as my base, I located several spots where I could keep out of the cold. As might be expected with large buildings, there were many cracks and gaps – in garage and warehouse walls, for instance – that a cat could slip through. The areas below the flooring in people’s houses and underneath their boilers were both comfortable places. Sometimes, another cat had beaten me to it, but perhaps the severe winter cold helped foster a spirit of cooperation, and more often than not we would end up sharing the spot rather than disputing it.

I’d heard that the citizens of Hokkaido were particularly kind. Noriko had told Satoru that it was quite common for people to pick up drunks and travellers and let them stay in their home. Sure enough, I experienced how that principle operated in the cat world, too.

The local cats showed me where to scavenge for food, for example. Houses and shops where they’d give you tasty leftovers, and a park where a cat lover might feed you. There was a small supermarket near the hospital as well, and I often charmed my way into cadging treats there.

And, of course, there was always hunting. The cold made the puffed-up birds and mice move nice and slowly, so they were easy prey.

The cats around me thought I was a little odd for having intentionally given up the easy life for one as a stray. Why do that? they often asked. It’s such a waste. They concluded I must be a little mad.

But, for me, there was something more important at stake.

The snow began to let up, and night was yet to fall. I crept around to the side of the warehouse from which the hospital was visible and – yes! Just as I thought.