Solomon's Kitten

by Sheila Jeffries

  SOLOMON’S

  KITTEN

  Also by Sheila Jeffries

  Solomon’s Tale

  First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2014

  A CBS COMPANY

  Copyright © Sheila Jeffries, 2014

  This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.

  No reproduction without permission.

  ® and © 1997 Simon & Schuster Inc.

  All rights reserved.

  The right of Sheila Jeffries to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  Simon & Schuster UK Ltd

  1st Floor

  222 Gray’s Inn Road

  London WC1X 8HB

  www.simonandschuster.co.uk

  Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney

  Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  HB ISBN: 978-1-47113-759-4

  EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-47113-761-7

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Typeset by M Rules

  Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

  To my amazing husband, Ted, my soulmate and friend

  It was a girl kitten, fluffy and very beautiful, with tinges of silver and gold in her fur.

  ‘This is a special kitten,’ said my angel. ‘She’s come here to heal, like you, Solomon.’ So, in those moments before Jessica came back for her, I gave the tabby kitten lots of love and purring. One day she opened her baby-blue eyes and looked at me as if she wanted to fix me in her memory for ever.

  It was the last happy day I remember. The house felt sunlit and peaceful. Ellen and Joe were friends, and John was playing happily in the garden.

  And that was the day the bailiff came.

  Extract from Solomon’s Tale

  Contents

  Chapter One: ‘FOLLOW THAT GIRL’

  Chapter Two: A BAD CAT

  Chapter Three: A BABY CALLED ROCKY

  Chapter Four: A HOT CAR

  Chapter Five: AN ANIMAL HEALER

  Chapter Six: BEING TALLULAH

  Chapter Seven: SOLOMON

  Chapter Eight: ROCKY

  Chapter Nine: DROPPED

  Chapter Ten: NEVER, NEVER, EVER

  Chapter Eleven: DYLAN

  Chapter Twelve: A DARK AFTERNOON

  Chapter Thirteen: THE LION IN WINTER

  Chapter Fourteen: CATS IN CAGES

  Chapter Fifteen: FROM A DISTANCE

  Chapter Sixteen: I HEARD THE ANGEL CALL MY NAME

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter One

  ‘FOLLOW THAT GIRL’

  ‘Follow that girl,’ said my angel.

  The girl was crying as she hurried past me. She was staring at the ground in front of her, and clutching a white plastic bag with something heavy inside. Whatever it was, I could smell it, and it was alive. Every time she met someone, she tightened her grip on the bag and twisted past them. She seemed afraid of being stopped.

  I was sitting on the garden wall under an orange street light, a good place for a cat to watch the life of the street, and catch the moths that flitted around the honeysuckle. I was a young cat, a bit nervous as I’d had a bad start to my life, and I rarely ventured outside our square of garden.

  My angel’s voice buzzed through my whiskers and made my silver and white fur bush out with courage. I jumped down from the wall and ran after the crying girl. Instinct told me to do it furtively, so I crept on quiet paws through front gardens, under gates and hedges, over fences and under parked cars. I stalked the girl by listening to the tip-tap of her shoes, the sniff-sniff of her crying, and the strange animal smell that came from the big bag. It was the subtle smell of fear that told me this was important.

  My silver tabby fur made perfect camouflage in the summer twilight. Only my white bits and socks gave me away. The traffic frightened me, but I kept following the girl through a maze of streets. Would I ever find my way home?

  She turned into an alleyway, and paused under a lamp. She lit a fag and I could see her hands shaking as the smoke curled upwards in the orange light. She had put the bag down. I peeped round the gatepost where I was hiding. I stared at the bag on the floor.

  And then it moved.

  Something inside kicked and wriggled, rustling the plastic. That really spooked me. With my soft fur brushing the ground, I crept nearer. Grizzly little cries of distress were coming from inside the bag. Some kind of creature in there was lonely and desperate.

  The girl responded by snatching up the bag and marching on with it.

  ‘Shut up,’ she hissed. ‘Just SHUT UP, will you?’

  Even in the dark, her aura looked like cracked glass.

  I dashed after her down a long footpath to where the streetlights ended and a white moon shone over the common, glinting on hummocks of rough grass and bramble leaves. I could smell the dogs who were walked there, and it sharpened my awareness. Scared now, I hid in the long grass and watched the girl’s shadow. There was danger. A tang of water, a sound that rushed and babbled through the night, a sense of mysterious river creatures who lived there and emerged when it was dark. I could see the glimmer of water, and the arch of a high bridge. Horrified, I watched the girl walk over it, and stop right in the middle. She opened the plastic bag.

  I knew what she was going to do, and I remembered how it felt to a living creature to be tipped out like rubbish. I ran closer, and sat majestically on the path, staring at her, using my cat power and meowing.

  The girl turned and saw me. Then her crying started again in loud sobs.

  ‘I can’t do this,’ she howled, and came down from the bridge, hunched over with the crying, the bag clutched against her body. Nearby was an elder tree growing out of a wall, and she disappeared under the shadow of its branches.

  Minutes later, she emerged without the bag, her arms wrapped around herself as if every bone in her body was hurting.

  ‘Fluff your fur,’ said my angel, ‘put your tail up and run to meet her.’

  So I did. It wasn’t difficult. I knew how appealing I would look, a silver and white cat with long fur and golden eyes that shone in the moonlight. Like a spirit cat.

  We met on the path and I gazed up at her and meowed in a friendly way. She froze. Then she reached down and stroked me. I patted the gold and silver bangles that jangled round her wrist. I sniffed her finger, and it had that smell on it, the salty tang of something newly born.

  ‘Hello,’ she whispered. ‘Magic puss cat.’

  I liked that name. Better than ‘Fuzzball’, which is what my human had called me. I mean – Fuzzball? – for me, the Queen of Cats! And I liked the way the girl looked so deeply into my eyes. I looked into hers, and what I saw was pure beauty ensnared in suffering, like a lacewing caught in a spider’s web.

  ‘Remember her,’ said my angel softly. ‘One day, you will need to find her again.’

  So I kept staring, fixing the essence of her soul into mine. No matter how much she changed her hair and clothes, I would still know her by the blend of pain and magic in her eyes.

  ‘Don’t follow me,’ she said, moving on restlessly, her heartbeat loud, her tears glinting in the moonlight. I jumped onto the wall and ran along beside her with my tail up. I meowed until she stopped again and turned her face up to me. We touched noses. I had bonded with her.

  ‘Don’t follow me, magic puss cat,’ she said again. ‘If you knew what I’d done, you wouldn’
t want to know me. Don’t follow me, I’m BAD NEWS. Evil. That’s what I am.’

  I purred and purred, pouring my love into her and my purring was a stream of healing stars. Weaving to and fro, I rubbed my whole body against her crying face until she smiled just a little and told me her name.

  ‘TammyLee.’

  Fascinated, I listened to the rhythm of the name. I patted the gold bead in the side of her nose, and played with a wisp of her hair. TammyLee. I didn’t care what evil she had done. In that moment, my job was to love.

  We ran on together through the night, me on the wall and she on the path, and we were wishing I could be her cat. But when we reached the orange streetlights again, a change came over TammyLee. She stopped crying, lifted her head, and began marching along with her shoes clonking. Her aura hardened to a shell and I noticed a man walking rapidly towards her.

  ‘Where the hell have you been, TammyLee?’ he asked.

  She shrugged.

  ‘Nowhere, Dad. Don’t FUSS.’

  ‘We’ve been worried sick. You’ve got school in the morning, my girl.’

  ‘Who cares?’

  ‘We do. You rushed out of the house complaining of stomach pains, then you disappear for FOUR hours. Why was your mobile switched off? Your mum is getting herself in such a state worrying about you, and it doesn’t help her illness, does it? And I don’t need to be out here combing the streets all hours of the night, TammyLee. You’re only fourteen, for goodness’ sake.’

  ‘I’m fourteen and I need a LIFE,’ TammyLee shouted.

  ‘Don’t you get bolshy with me, my girl.’

  ‘I’m not being bolshy, Dad. I’m upset.’

  ‘What about?’

  ‘STUFF.’

  ‘What stuff?’

  ‘Stuff you don’t understand.’ TammyLee turned and marched off, her face set like a doll. ‘OK, OK, I’m going home.’

  I hesitated. I wanted to follow, but instead I watched the man walk after her, muttering something about teenagers. He looked bewildered and he didn’t give me a passing glance.

  I sat on the wall, thinking, as I watched them go down the street. I was a lucky cat. I had a decent home with an old lady, even if she did call me Fuzzball. She fed me and fussed over me, I was safe there, and I was free. Right now, I loved being out in the moonlight, so, yes, I was going to see what was in that bag. I could feel it drawing me, calling to me.

  Wild creatures lived on the common; foxes, rats, stoats and weasels. And crows. Something in that bag was alive, and I had to get to it before they did. With my tail looped and my ears flat, I bolted back across the common, and when I came close to the elder tree growing out of the wall, I was spooked and flattened myself against the ground.

  The bag gleamed white against the tree trunk. It was wide open. I stalked it on quiet paws, my whiskers twitching, my fur stiff with nervousness. I peeped in, and drew back, shocked.

  A baby. A human baby was in there. Very tiny, red-faced, with its little fists waving. It was cold, and hungry. What could I do?

  I eased myself into the bag and covered the baby’s body with my warm fur and my purring. I would keep him warm, show him that someone cared. I would stay there until morning, until someone came.

  I settled down to wait until dawn, my warm body spread out like a rug over the tiny baby, and I could feel his warmth under me, the rapid pulsing of his heart. Carefully leaving a space for him to breathe, I shut my eyes and purred, glad to be helping this new little being.

  For I knew only too well how it felt to be abandoned.

  Before I came to this planet, I lived in the spirit world, and I was a shining cat.

  Shining cats are the souls of real cats, living in the spirit world between lifetimes. Some call the spirit world heaven, and in a way it is. It’s peaceful and warm, full of colours and music, and we don’t have to worry about physical bodies. There’s no illness or hunger, no fleas or trips to the vet, and no arguments. We communicate by telepathy, which is easy and quick. And we get to work with the angels and that gives us a real buzz.

  In the spirit world I still looked like a cat, but I was very light, like thistledown, and my face was surrounded by a halo of gold and silver, like fur, but made of light. I was a very important cat. I sat majestically on a violet cushion, and all the shining cats in the spirit world would gather around me for communal purring sessions that sent ripples across the universe.

  I was the Queen of Cats.

  I only agreed to be born again on earth because no other cat would go. The task was to experience abandonment, and then to help reunite an abandoned child with its mother. It sounded impossible, which is why I thought I could do it. No problem. And I had an angel, a new one who introduced herself as the Angel of Secrets.

  She was clear as glass and her robe rustled with stars of turquoise, emerald and lime. Camouflage, she said, to blend with the colours of earth’s oceans and forests.

  ‘When you are on earth, I will always be with you,’ she said in a voice that tinkled like bells. ‘But my colours and my transparency will help me to hide, and you must remember that and work hard to see me. My voice will blend with the sound of rain, and the wind in the leaves, so you must listen for me, and not get distracted by the cacophony of noise that humans manage to create.’

  When it was time for me to be born as an earth kitten, I was nervous about whizzing through the star gates, having to let go and burst through the golden web. I didn’t feel I could do it. So my angel led me through a beautiful land where shining cats and dogs were playing and resting, and eventually, we arrived at the foot of the rainbow bridge, which was awesome.

  ‘Choose a colour,’ she said, ‘and you can just walk over with your tail up.’

  I hesitated, staring up at the arched bridge of glowing colours. I sat and watched it for a while, reassured to see other cats, and dogs, trotting over confidently, some going, some arriving. All of them were quiet and peaceful.

  ‘Once you start, you can’t go back,’ my angel explained, ‘so take your time, and all will be well. Trust me, I’m an angel.’

  Still I hesitated, and she said, ‘Why not choose pink? It’s the colour of love. You can’t go wrong with that.’

  I put one shining paw into the pink light, and before I knew it, I was walking, tail up, higher and higher over the rainbow bridge. Easy! Over the top, and there in the distance, far below me was Planet Earth. I wanted to cry because she looked utterly delicate and complex, her colours magical. Electric blues, rich greens, lemon and lots of white.

  But as I reached the summit, my angel swirled past me with a whoosh of her wings. Shocked, I watched her disappear, her colours shimmering as she dissolved and became one with the landscapes of Planet Earth. I couldn’t stop now. I was racing, sliding down the other side of the rainbow bridge; it took my breath away; even though I knew how it would happen, I was still terrified.

  I didn’t want my fabulous spirit to be put inside a tiny wriggling earth kitten. I wanted to go back and be the Queen of Cats for ever. But it was too late. Being born was such a let-down. I should have been loved – and I wasn’t!

  I was born under someone’s bed, right next to a smelly pair of slippers. And my mother didn’t like me. The minute I was born, she gave me a draconian swipe with her paw, knocking my small wet head sideways. I was blind, but I sensed her anger as I struggled to breathe. She was blaming me for getting stuck and causing her pain. Weak and shocked, I lay there on my own, getting colder and colder.

  A man’s voice made me jump.

  ‘Ellen!’ he was shouting. ‘Guess what THAT CAT’S DONE NOW!’

  ‘What?’

  ‘She’s had a bunch of kittens under the bed.’

  ‘Oh, Jessica!’

  Ellen’s voice was lovely. I heard her come and look under the bed. ‘Oh, the little darlings,’ she whispered. ‘Don’t be cross with her, Joe. We can take them downstairs in a basket. Aw, look at them feeding. Aren’t you a clever girl, Jessica?’

&nbs
p; I was cold and starving so I squeaked and squeaked until Ellen noticed me, and I felt her hand round me.

  ‘What about this one, Jessica?’ She put me down close to my two purring guzzling brothers, and gently pushed my face into my mother’s fur. ‘No, don’t growl at her, Jessica. She’s beautiful. Silver tabby with long fur and she’s got pink paws like you. Come on, you’ve got to feed her.’

  I found a nipple and sucked like mad until the warm sweet milk filled my mouth and mother finally relaxed and let me have it while Ellen stayed close, encouraging her. I got the feeling that Jessica was rebellious but she would do anything for Ellen. So I was fed. But Jessica never liked me. She always left me until last, lavishing attention on my two brothers, and she would bop me when Ellen wasn’t there. Twice we were put in a nice basket and carried downstairs, and both times Jessica carried us back, one by one, holding us by the scruff. When it was my turn, she wasn’t careful. She banged me all up the stairs.

  On that day, before our eyes were open, there was a lot of shouting and crying in the house, and we all lay there shivering, cuddling close and wondering what was going to happen. What kind of home had we come into so trustingly?

  At the end of the day, I heard this amazing loud purring, and sensed a huge male cat very close, looking at us, sniffing us. He was loving and kind, I knew that, but my mother still growled at him until he backed off. Once our eyes were open, I saw him. He was black with a white chest and paws, long white whiskers and concerned peagreen eyes. His aura was massive and shining. My dad! Solomon.

  I settled down, thinking I had decent parents and a warm safe home, even if there was a lot of shouting. The three of us grew up under the bed, learning to crawl, to put our tails up and to play. We got used to Ellen and her little boy, John, picking us up. In fact, we loved it. They were so warm and kind and stroked our fur and talked to us.

  Until one terrible day that I will never forget.

  We were four weeks old and just learning to lap Kitty Milk from a dish. Jessica was a strict mother. She bopped us if we put our feet in it, and she diligently kept us immaculate, always leaving me until last. Sometimes our dad Solomon would come and wash me, and purr with me and tell me stuff by telepathy.