Chapter 12
“Come here, you wretched animal,” said Cory in exasperation, as Tabitha turned, and with a surprising speed for her age, ran off into what appeared to be somebody’s front garden. Cory crashed after her, pulling aside branches of small shrubs and trying not to stand on the neat flowerbeds. After ten minutes of fruitless chasing he sank to the grass.
“This isn’t working,” he said to himself. “I’m only frightening her and chasing her farther away. Perhaps if I call her quietly she might come.”
He started calling “Kitty, kitty, here Tabitha.”
After a few minutes of this a hesitant paw poked out, then Tabitha strolled calmly through the flowerbed and jumped onto Cory’s lap. Cory gave a sigh of relief and picked her up. She lay contentedly in his arms for a few minutes, but as he tried to walk off she started struggling. Cory hastily put her down before she could scratch him.
“You don’t want to be carried, I can see that. What on earth do I do with you now?”
After a few minutes thought he exclaimed, “My sweatshirt!”
He tied the sleeves together to make a big bag. “That will make it easy to carry you,” he said in satisfaction.
He bundled up Tabitha in the sweatshirt and hung her like a sling around his neck.
“Ow, you’re really heavy,” he said, “and I don’t think you are happy.”
An ominous growling came from the sweatshirt.
“Calm down pussy,” sighed Cory. “This isn’t my idea of a good time either. But I can’t lose you or Meredith would be unhappy. Come on, we’ll go and find the boat.”
He followed the path beside the canal. It was very pretty with brightly painted and decorated houses set beside, and in some cases almost overhanging, the water. The sun was warm and a couple of mothers with babies in prams walked past in the other direction. They smiled at Cory, who felt very self conscious carrying a cat in a shirt. The canal curved around a corner and Cory cried out in dismay. The narrow boat was still on the canal ahead of him, but even as he spotted it there was a loud clanging. The barge entered some sort of gate arrangement, and as the Cory watched open mouthed it sank from sight.
“Bother, it’s gone into a lock,” he thought. It must be going down to a different part of the river on another level. There must be a path or some steps somewhere around. Man, you are one heavy cat. Meredith obviously feeds you far too much.”
Tabitha growled and made noises like a badly overheated car engine.
“Okay, there are some steps over there through this gate, “panted Cory. He thought that anyone seeing him would think he was mad talking to a cat, but it helped him to keep calm. He was fighting a rising panic that Meredith might have gone without him.
“Of course she hasn’t,” he scolded himself. “She’s far too nice to do a thing like that. Anyway, you were the one wanting to run away a few days ago.”
He started down the steps, keeping an anxious eye on the barge and the little towed supply boat.
“Ouch,” said Cory, as Tabitha’s paw shot out a gap in the sweatshirt and clawed at his chest. He tried to hurry as he saw the narrow boat head off down the river.
He jumped down the last few steps. The path curved away from the canal and a large wooden fence blocked his view of the river.
Cory considered trying to climb the fence but realised the difficulty of this with a cat to hamper him.
“And anyway, the path is sure to turn back to the canal,” he said reasonably. “I’d better not waste any more time.”
He kept up a steady pace as he followed the pathway, which twisted through a small park and over a curved wooden bridge above a small stream. The path then wound around under a group of shady trees before curving back to the river.
“Oh thank goodness,” said Cory in relief. “I was right.”
“There’s the boat too,” he sighed as he thankfully slowed his steps. The narrow boat was moored to yet another small jetty with steps leading down the water level. There was no sign of the old man or woman. The only sign of life at all was a small boy fishing on the other side of the river and a few ducks quacking as they paddled upstream. Cory managed to lift Tabitha onto the boat with only a few scratches to show for it. He lifted the canopy, but to his astonished dismay all he saw was neatly stacked rows of boxes and barrels.
“She’s gone. She went without me.” Cory was so surprised and hurt that he didn’t know what to do. Tabitha was mewing pitifully so after a quick look around, he let her out of the sweatshirt into the little boat, and pulled the cover over so she couldn’t get away. There she gave a few yowls before curling to sleep on a pile of sacks.
Cory was sunk in gloom. Here was what he had always wanted. A new life and a fresh start where no-one knew him and he could leave his problems behind. There wasn’t even a girl in sight. Cory realised that he felt miserable. “I want to go back to the Millers,” he muttered to himself. “Meredith’s not too bad, for a girl anyway, and I’m starving.” He lay on the boat feeling sorry for himself. The warm sun beat down on him and the steady lap of the water against the boat made a soothing rhythm. Within a few minutes Cory was asleep.
He woke with a start when he heard his name being called.
“Cory, come on.”
It was Meredith. She was crawling out from under the cover with a sleepy Tabitha cradled in her arms.
“Come on,” she called again.
“Where did you go?” said Cory stupidly, staring at her with his mouth open.
“Oh, I went home. Wasn’t that stupid? I was in such a panic I didn’t know what to do. I felt so awful when I realised you’d be stuck. So I jumped back in the boat and pushed the buttons and here I am.”
Cory gave her a relieved grin. Then he thought about what Meredith had said. “I thought the boat only worked once a day,” he said with a frown.
“It does. It’s tomorrow now. Didn’t you realise you’d been here that long?”
“I’ve lost a day? It only seemed like a couple of hours here.” Cory was amazed. “What did Maggie say when I wasn’t there?”
Meredith looked ashamed.
“She’s really frantic. She thinks you’ve run away. I told her we’d had an argument. Well, I had to tell her something,” she said defensively as she saw Cory’s grim expression. “I got up really early in the morning to come and get you.”
They climbed back under the cover and Cory pulled the canopy over them firmly.
“I’m exhausted,” he groaned. “My legs ache from those steps and that cat is definitely going on a diet I have anything to do with it. I don’t know what I’m going to say to Maggie.”
Meredith was sympathetic.
“But at least it wasn’t as bad as the pirate ship,” she consoled him.
They arrived back in the shed and Cory walked back to the kitchen to find Maggie sitting at the table surrounded by the breakfast dishes and crying. He felt acutely embarrassed.
“Um, I’m back,” he said awkwardly. Maggie shrieked and ran over to him and threw her arms around him.
“Where have you been?” she sobbed. “No, don’t tell me if you don’t want to. I’m so happy you’ve come back. I was so sure you had run away and we’d never see you again. I was going to ring the Police if you didn’t come back soon but Meredith told me to wait. She was sure you would come back first thing in the morning.” Maggie hugged Cory who felt a lump come into his throat.
“I had to sort things out in my mind,” he said huskily. “I’m sorry if I worried you. I’ve been quite safe.” He tried to think of something that wasn’t an outright lie. “I was under some trees, and I fell asleep then Meredith found me and I came home again.”
“Was it something I said?” asked Maggie. “I’ve tried so hard to make you feel wanted.”
“No,” said Cory. “You’ve been fantastic. You still are. I just had to think things through. I’m really hungry though,” he finished hopefully.
Maggie smiled at him rather tearfully.
/> “I can soon fix that,” she said as she bustled into the kitchen to prepare a feast fit for a king.
Cory and Meredith spent the rest of the day trying to teach Tabitha to retrieve sticks, which did not meet with her approval. Then Cory showed Meredith how to kick a soccer ball before they gave Maggie a hand to make pizzas for dinner. After eating half an enormous pizza each, onto which they had piled everything edible they could find, the children decided to try another boat trip the next day.
“But we’ll check for Tabitha first,” warned Cory. “I’m not carrying her anywhere again in a hurry.”
They headed down to the shed while Maggie was vacuuming the hallway.
Cory pushed the button and waited for the jolt before pulling back the canopy. The children fell back in shock as a loud voice cried,
“Ahoy there, me hearties. What are you doing on my ship?”
Time For a Change Page 12