Charlie the Kitten Who Saved a Life

by Sheila Norton

  But Laura was ignoring her, tutting to herself about the washing. Caroline sat down on the kitchen floor next to my bed and whispered in my ear about how fed up she was. I agreed. Holidays weren’t much fun for anybody, as far as I could see.

  *

  Julian phoned Laura that evening to say he’d got safely home, and then he phoned her every evening after he’d been to work. I heard Laura talking to him, complaining that the weather was awful and Caroline was bored.

  ‘Did you phone for Caroline’s blood test results?’ she asked the second time he called.

  I gathered from her end of the conversation that he had, but that the results still weren’t through.

  ‘Oh dear. I expect you’re right, it’s this uncertainty about her health that’s making her so edgy,’ she said.

  It was true Caroline wasn’t being very nice. Every evening she pulled a face when she saw what Laura had cooked her for dinner.

  ‘You never used to be so fussy!’ Laura snapped one day. ‘I give up! Nothing I cook seems to be good enough for you anymore.’

  ‘I’m not being fussy. I keep telling you, but you won’t listen: I just don’t want to eat meat anymore.’

  ‘Well, I’m not cooking special vegetarian dinners for you, just because you’re being difficult.’

  Caroline looked like she was going to cry.

  ‘I haven’t asked you to cook for me, have I? I’ll just eat salads.’

  Laura gave her a suspicious glance. ‘You’re not trying to diet, are you? Caroline, you don’t need to—’

  ‘No, I’m not! I just want to be listened to, and treated like a person!’ she said, and as usual, ran off to her bedroom.

  I didn’t really understand. If she wasn’t being treated like a person, what did she think – that she was being treated like a cat? It wasn’t as if she was being given my cat food, on a dish on the floor, or being shut in the kitchen every time she put a paw wrong. But I loved Caroline best in all the world, so I always ran after her and snuggled up to her when she was upset, anyway.

  As well as the phone calls from Julian, I knew Laura had been talking to Nicky. I’d heard her laughing, the way human females only seem to do when they’re talking to other females. Towards the end of that first week without Julian, I was lying on the sofa while she was having one of these conversations, and I heard her saying:

  ‘Oh, Nicky, that would be so nice. Yes, please come! It would make it all so much more fun. We can have nice long chats and you can tell me more about what’s going on with Daniel. You’re right, it might do him good to be left to fend for himself for a week. You will? That’s wonderful! Yes, of course Julian will bring you down. And take you back the following weekend. I’m looking forward so much to seeing you!’

  Laura was in a much better mood for the rest of the day, and the following evening when Julian arrived back, he had Nicky and baby Benjamin in the car with him. It was nice to see Nicky. She made a fuss of me, and Caroline. Everyone seemed quite cheerful for a change. Laura bustled around turning the sofa in the lounge into a bed, and helping Nicky to put up another of those funny travel cots, for Benjamin.

  ‘You’ll have to keep an eye on Charlie,’ she warned Nicky. ‘He jumped into Jessica’s cot last week. We found him curled up in her blanket, would you believe?’

  Nicky laughed. ‘Ah, how cute!’

  ‘Cute?’ Laura repeated, looking startled. Then she sighed. ‘Well, OK, perhaps I did overreact a little.’

  Yes, you did! I meowed in agreement. At least it didn’t seem like Nicky would be shutting me in the kitchen every time I glanced in Benjamin’s direction. She was more indulgent to Caroline, too, letting her play games on her phone and shrugging off Laura’s complaints about her fussy eating with the advice, ‘It’s probably just a phase. Try not to stress about it.’

  But the happy atmosphere disappeared somewhat during the night-time. One mewing human kitten is bad enough in such a small house. Two is just unbearable. One was waking up the other one, and both of them were waking up everyone else, including me. I burrowed right underneath my furry blanket and put my head under my tail but it still didn’t drown out the crying. In the end, I joined in. It seemed like the only option left to me. But that just resulted in Julian coming into the kitchen in his pyjamas to tell me off.

  ‘It’s bad enough, without you making matters worse!’ he snapped.

  I gave up and sat on the windowsill for the rest of the night, staring out at the dark little garden and wishing I could go out hunting.

  After they’d all had breakfast, the bad night seemed to be forgotten. The weather had turned sunny again and Julian and Caroline went to the beach on their own, so Laura and Nicky could sit and chat. This seemed to please everyone. I sat on Nicky’s lap and purred happily while listening to their conversation.

  ‘Obviously I’m pleased his business has taken off so well,’ Nicky told Laura, and I quickly realised she was talking about her own male, Daniel. I knew, from hearing them talk so often before, that Daniel had given up his old job in London to start a car repair business. ‘And of course I understand that he has to work hard now that he’s his own boss. But …’

  ‘But it’s not the hours he’s working that you’re objecting to, is it,’ Laura said quietly.

  ‘No. For God’s sake, Laura, I’m not being unreasonable, am I? I mean, fair enough if he wants a quick drink sometimes after working so hard all day – I don’t blame him for that – but it doesn’t stop there. He’s in the pub most of the evening, more often than not. It makes me feel like he doesn’t even want to come home to me.’

  ‘I can imagine.’ Laura reached out and took hold of Nicky’s paw. ‘And he must hardly see Benjamin at all.’

  ‘Some weeks he doesn’t see him at all. Benny’s asleep long before Dan staggers home. And of course, he’s often working weekends too. Oh, I don’t want to sound like a nagging wife. I know some couples manage without seeing much of each other because of their jobs. But one of the reasons we both changed to working in the village was so that we didn’t have to spend all those long hours commuting, and never being at home.’

  ‘And now you must wonder whether you’re really any better off.’ Laura sighed. ‘Well, at least you’re happy with what you’re doing, Nick. The childminding work fits in so well with looking after Benjamin. I’m hoping to find something similar myself, when Jessica’s a bit older.’

  ‘You’ll have no trouble, with your nursing qualifications. And you’re right, I know we women need to find satisfaction with our own lives instead of relying on our men to make us happy. But …’

  ‘You and Dan were so happy. And it’s not as if you’ve been married long! He has to be made to see sense.’ Laura grinned suddenly and nudged Nicky. ‘If he’s not careful you’ll take off with Kevin the Creep. Then he’ll be sorry!’

  ‘Oh, please!’ Nicky burst out laughing. ‘Don’t remind me about Kevin!’

  And both of them doubled up with laughter. Nicky was shaking so much I had to jump off her lap. I had no idea who Kevin the Creep was. Where did he creep, and why? Perhaps he had poorly legs. Or perhaps he was a snake, for all I knew. But at least he was responsible for cheering up my two human friends – for now!

  Once Julian had gone off back to work again, the atmosphere in the cottage changed. Laura and Nicky were still being happy and chatty together, but Caroline’s mood was even worse.

  ‘Now I’m the only one with nobody to talk to,’ she complained. ‘Even Jessica has got Benjamin to keep her company! Why can’t I have a friend to stay?’

  ‘Oh, Caroline, be reasonable,’ Laura said. ‘There isn’t room. It’s squashed enough here, as it is.’

  ‘Well, after Nicky goes home, then? Please, Laura? If Grace came down we could go out together and I wouldn’t be in your way anymore.’

  Laura looked shocked. ‘You’re not in my way, Caroline. I’ve never said that.’

  ‘You don’t have to say it,’ Caroline grumbled in response.
‘It’s obvious.’

  ‘That’s not true.’

  ‘Isn’t it? Nobody cares that I’m totally bored here in this crappy place.’

  ‘Caroline!’

  ‘Well, you think that too, really, don’t you? You’ve only cheered up because Nicky’s here. It’s totally unfair. I feel more lonely now than I did when I was ill!’

  There was a horrible silence. Laura was blinking at Caroline, her paw over her mouth. Nicky, who had left the room while the argument was going on, came back in and put her arm round Laura as Caroline stomped off up the stairs.

  ‘She didn’t mean it,’ Nicky said quietly.

  ‘Yes I did!’ Caroline flung back from the top of the stairs. ‘You don’t understand!’

  ‘We’re trying to, Caroline,’ Nicky called back. Then, to Laura, she added, ‘Why not ask Julian what he thinks of the idea?’

  ‘Seriously? You think I should have two moody girls down here while he’s at work in London?’

  ‘Actually I suspect Caroline’s right about one thing – she’d be a lot happier and less trouble if she had company.’

  Laura sighed. ‘I suppose so. Perhaps we have been unfair to her. It shook me to the core just now to hear her saying she was lonely. The poor child spent all that time in hospital, and lying at home on her own when she was ill. Have I lost my compassion, Nicky?’

  ‘Of course you haven’t. You’ve got used to her feeling well, now, and she’s been trying your patience lately. Plus you’ve got your hands full with Jessica.’

  ‘I sometimes think Caroline might be jealous of her, you know.’

  ‘She wouldn’t be human if she wasn’t, a little bit. Especially where Julian’s concerned.’

  ‘Yes. After all, it was just him and Caroline, for such a long time. And he was very overprotective about her when she was ill. Understandably.’

  ‘Understandable, yes, but it meant she didn’t get to see other children. And now she has made friends, she needs to spend time with them. It’s only natural.’

  ‘I know. You’re right. Well, I’ll see what Julian says when we talk tonight.’

  I trotted upstairs to jump on Caroline’s bed with her. I expected to find her lying flat on her tummy with her face on the pillow, as she normally did after an argument. But to my surprise her bedroom door was closed, and through the door I could hear her talking. I pushed on the door with my head but it wouldn’t open, so I sat up and scratched at it with my front paws. The talking stopped. Then she said, more quietly, ‘Wait a minute, I can hear someone outside’, and came to open the door. She looked down at me and smiled, picking me up and carrying me into the room, closing the door behind her again.

  ‘It’s only Charlie,’ she said, and I saw that she was talking into a phone. Laura’s phone! I meowed with surprise. ‘Ssh, Charlie, lie down quietly. It’s OK, Grace, I’ve shut the door again. They can’t hear me. So will you come? It’ll be so cool. We can go swimming and stuff, and we can sleep in my bed together, it’ll be such a laugh! I’m dying down here on my own.’

  I couldn’t hear the other end of the conversation, but Caroline was saying, ‘Right,’ and ‘Yeah, I know,’ while she listened, and then she said, ‘Yeah, Laura’s the same, she just doesn’t understand. And everything’s about Jessica all the time. It’s like I don’t matter since she arrived. OK then, ask your mum. And I’ll try to talk to my dad tonight.’

  After she turned off the phone, she sat on her bed for a while, hugging her knees and humming to herself. She picked me up and rubbed her face against my fur.

  ‘Oh, Charlie,’ she whispered in my ear, making it twitch and tremble with her warm breath, ‘I so hope Grace is allowed to come. We’ll have an amazing time together and all the other girls will be well jealous. Surely I deserve this, before they make me say goodbye to all my friends forever and go to that stupid private school.’

  And all I could do was purr back at her in agreement. I just wanted her to be happy, you see. How was I to know it was all going to go horribly wrong? Or that I’d end up being responsible for putting everything right again?

  CHAPTER

  SIX

  As it happened, there was another development that evening, which changed everything. I was in the lounge with Laura and Nicky when Julian made his usual phone call. Within minutes of listening to him on her phone, Laura’s expression changed and she looked like she was going to burst out mewing.

  ‘Oh, no,’ she said, very quietly. ‘Oh dear, I was desperately hoping it wouldn’t be necessary. Yes, of course you’re worried, darling – so am I. Well, the sooner it’s done the better. It may still be a false alarm, they just have to check, if there’s any doubt, don’t they? Right, so you’ll take her back with you on Sunday?’

  There was a silence as she listened to Julian’s response, and then Laura gave a huge sigh and went on: ‘She won’t want to come back again afterwards, you know. I feel awful now about getting impatient with her. What if her moods and rudeness are because she’s sick again? She told me today she feels more lonely down here than she did when she was ill. It really brought me up sharply. Yes, she was being stroppy, but even so …’ There was another pause, and then: ‘Well, she’d started demanding that we let her friend Grace come down to stay for a week – because I’ve got Nicky here, you know, so I suppose she feels left out.’

  It didn’t take much guesswork to realise they were talking about Caroline and that there had been some bad news. They went on talking for a while, with Laura saying ‘Yes’ and ‘I agree’, and then finally she said: ‘OK then, I think that’s a good plan. Shall I call her down so you can talk to her now?’

  Caroline came bounding down the stairs as soon as Laura yelled that her dad was on the phone. She looked excited.

  ‘I’m going to ask him if he can bring Grace back with him this weekend,’ she said. ‘I bet he’ll agree.’

  ‘Caroline, Daddy’s got something to tell you …’ Laura warned her, but the phone had already been taken out of her paw and Caroline was babbling excitedly to Julian about her idea for Grace to visit.

  Laura and Nicky exchanged a look, and Nicky grasped Laura’s paw. Like me, she must have guessed what the conversation had meant.

  ‘What?’ Caroline suddenly demanded. ‘I’ve got to go back to the hospital? Why?’ Then she fell silent, the corners of her mouth turning down. ‘Oh,’ she said quietly. And then: ‘Yes. All right. I suppose so. OK. Bye, Dad.’

  She handed the phone back to Laura, silently, scowling to herself.

  ‘It’s probably nothing to worry about, sweetheart,’ Laura began.

  ‘Not for you, maybe,’ Caroline shot back. ‘It’s me who’s got to go and have the horrible bone marrow thing done again. Why? They said I was better now. It’s not fair!’

  ‘No. You’re right, it isn’t. It’s very unfair. But we have to trust the doctors. There was apparently something slightly borderline in your blood test, which is why it’s taken longer than usual to hear back about it. They need to investigate it further. It might be nothing whatever to do with the leukaemia, but the biopsy is just to rule that out. Did Daddy tell you what he’s going to do?’

  ‘Yes, he’ll take me back with him on Sunday. That’s the only good thing about it. I can get away from this boring dump.’

  ‘You’ll have your biopsy done on Monday, and he’ll bring you back again.’ Laura paused, looking at Caroline’s face. ‘And if it’s OK with her parents, he’ll bring Grace back with you.’

  ‘Oh!’ She brightened up immediately. ‘Really? He didn’t say!’

  ‘No, well, he’s going to phone her mum and dad now, so he probably didn’t want to get your hopes up yet. But, well, I thought it would cheer you up to know that’s the plan. We’ll keep our fingers crossed, shall we?’

  ‘Yes. Oh, thanks, Laura! It’ll be so cool …’, and she was off again on a surge of excitement about having Grace to stay. Borrowing Laura’s phone, this time with her permission, she ran back upstairs to call her fri
end again.

  Laura glanced at Nicky and shook her head. ‘It’s as if she’s forgotten about the possibility of the leukaemia recurring already! I hope I did the right thing, telling her about Grace.’

  ‘I think so. It’ll take her mind off it. I’m sure Sarah and Martin will agree to let her come – especially in the circumstances.’

  ‘Oh, Nicky!’ Laura said, wiping her eyes. ‘I’m so frightened for her. Please don’t let this be bad news. I can’t bear to think she’d have to go through all that again.’

  ‘Try to think positive,’ Nicky said, putting her arm round Laura. ‘At least you won’t have too long to wait. Come on, you need to be brave for Caroline now.’

  ‘And more patient with her.’

  ‘No. Then she’ll really worry that you believe she’s ill again!’ Nicky said, smiling. ‘I think it’s important for now that everything stays normal, don’t you? She waited a long time to be treated like a normal girl. Don’t change that now, unless you have to.’

  They hugged each other then, and Laura wiped her eyes again and got up to make a cup of tea. I jumped up on Nicky’s lap. I wanted to be hugged too. I was just as worried about Caroline as they were, but I had nobody to talk to about it.

  Julian took Nicky and Benjamin home that Sunday when he left with Caroline, who was looking pale and subdued now she knew the hospital appointment was the next day. Laura reminded her, as she kissed her goodbye, that she had Grace’s visit to look forward to, and she nodded and gave a little smile. For the next two days until Julian brought her back again with Grace, it was very quiet in the holiday cottage with just me, Laura and Jessica, apart from the times when Jessica was mewing at the top of her lungs, of course. Laura looked sad and worried, and seemed to keep forgetting I was there. I was very pleased to see Julian’s car arriving outside again when they came back.

  ‘How did it go?’ Laura said, the minute they walked in. I’d been shut in the kitchen, as usual, while the doors were opened and closed but I was listening from behind the kitchen door.