‘They’re coming here?’ Caroline squealed. ‘Really?’
‘Yes! They’re on their way. They’ve asked if they can talk to us, and take some footage of Charlie at home.’
‘We’d better lock the cat flap again!’ Laura said, jumping up. ‘In case he runs outside and isn’t here when they come!’
‘Good thinking,’ Julian said, although needless to say I didn’t agree. Wasn’t it bad enough that I’d been locked inside all that time I was wearing the collar? And did they really think I wouldn’t come back indoors as soon as these people came – whoever they were – to see me? If I was supposed to be the centre of attention, I was going to want to be here, after all!
‘Wow, this is so cool!’ Caroline said. ‘We’re going to be on TV. Can Grace come round?’
‘Yes.’ Laura smiled at her. ‘Of course.’
Caroline rushed off to talk to Grace on her new phone.
‘So what do you think the new development is?’ Laura asked Julian.
‘I really can’t imagine.’
‘But you’re sure this is a good idea – the TV thing? For Caroline?’
‘I don’t think it’ll hurt, do you? They’ll want to talk to her, but I’ve warned the guy on the phone that I don’t want her upset. We’re not going into the fact that the girls were trying to run away.’
‘Good. And I suppose it might be quite educational for her and Grace to see how the filming’s done. And a bit of excitement for them too.’
So, you see, Oliver, that was why my cat flap was locked again when you came round to see me. We meowed to each other from either side of the flap, but when Laura saw you, she said, ‘Oh dear, sorry, Oliver, I don’t think we’d better have you in here today, not with the television people coming round, with their cameras and everything. An extra cat will just add to the confusion.’
And eventually, of course, you gave up and went off, probably wondering if they were keeping me indoors because I was ill again. I wasn’t. I was excited, although I wasn’t quite sure what I was excited about yet. Grace turned up, and she and Caroline sat in the kitchen with me, talking and giggling together and looking at their watches all the time and wondering how much longer it would be before they got here.
‘Who?’ I meowed. ‘Who are these people who need me to be shut in the house till they get here?’
The doorbell rang, and everyone seemed to jump. Julian marched to the front door with Caroline and Grace running behind him, and Laura took off her apron and picked Jessica up from the carpet. I scampered after everyone and Julian called to Caroline to hold me and stop me running out when he opened the door.
‘Oh, hello!’ He held the door open and Nicky walked in as we all stared at her as if she was a stranger. ‘It’s just Nicky,’ he called back to Laura.
‘Who were you expecting, then?’ she said, laughing. ‘The queen?’
‘Not quite!’ he said. ‘Come in. Laura’s in the lounge.’
‘We’re waiting for the TV people,’ Caroline told her. ‘They’ve come to make a film about Charlie.’
‘It’ll just be a little piece for the News, Caroline,’ Julian warned her. ‘Don’t get too carried away.’
‘Really? How exciting!’ Nicky said. She smiled at Laura and Jessica as we all walked through to the lounge. ‘It’s actually Charlie I’ve come to tell you about,’ she added as Caroline put me down on the sofa. ‘You’ll never guess what happened last night.’
‘What?’ Laura looked alarmed. ‘He didn’t get into a fight or anything, did he? He’s only just been allowed out again. I didn’t think he’d start going out at night so soon.’
‘Nothing like that. He was out visiting Oliver at the pub, apparently – Dan saw them in there. And … well, this is going to sound really weird, but he says they made him come home.’
‘Made him …?’ Julian glanced at Laura, who glanced at me, frowned, and looked back at Nicky.
‘How do you mean?’ she said.
‘I don’t know. I think it must be Oliver. Daniel always did say he thought that cat had some special power to make him do things. But the thing is …’ She sat down next to Laura, went a bit pink, and went on quietly, ‘Well, the thing is, my next door neighbour had come in for a chat.’
‘Not Kevin the Creep?’ Laura said, laughing.
‘Yes. Only it wasn’t quite so funny anymore.’ Nicky looked at Caroline and Grace now, then looked back at Laura, raising her eyebrows like it was some kind of code. ‘He was being a bit too friendly. If you get my meaning.’ The eyebrows again. It must have been human body language.
‘What, was he coming on to you, Nicky?’ Caroline said, nudging Grace, and they both started giggling.
Nicky went even pinker, and looked down at her lap.
‘Oh my God,’ Laura said. ‘And Daniel came home just in the nick of time?’
‘Yes, with the two cats! And as you can probably imagine, he was pretty upset.’
‘Not with you, though, Nicky?’ Julian said.
‘No. He told me afterwards he’d overheard me telling Kevin to back off, that I wasn’t interested. But Kevin started to argue the toss, and … well, Dan got hold of him and nearly hit him.’
‘Oh my God!’ Laura said again, putting her hand to her mouth. Even Caroline and Grace had their mouths open wide with surprise, while Julian was trying to look serious.
‘But he didn’t, I hope?’ he said.
‘No.’ Nicky glanced down at me again. ‘But only because this little chap stopped him. It was unbelievable, honestly, you should have seen him. He threw himself at Dan and clung to his jacket by his claws, yowling at him. It brought Dan up short, and by the time he’d lifted Charlie off himself, he’d calmed down.’
‘Oh my …’ Laura just stopped herself from calling the God person yet again. She shook her head, and everyone in the room stared at me. I felt a bit self-conscious.
‘Sorry!’ I meowed. ‘It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Ollie was proud of me.’
But it seemed like Ollie wasn’t the only one.
‘That’s amazing,’ Laura said, reaching for me and giving me a hug.
‘Clever little Charlie,’ Caroline said, coming over to stroke me. ‘I said he was a hero, Daddy, didn’t I?’
‘Oh, come on! It was probably just a coincidence,’ Julian said, shaking his head. ‘He might have simply jumped up at Daniel to get a cuddle from him, and clung on with his claws to stop himself from falling.’
‘You weren’t there, Julian, with all due respect,’ Nicky said quietly. ‘You didn’t see him.’
‘And we should all know by now, cats do look after humans and try to help them,’ Laura said. ‘After all the things Oliver did last year to help our village. And particularly our family, Julian.’
They all went quiet for a minute, looking at each other. I knew what they were thinking about, of course, because I’d heard all about it from Oliver himself – how he’d visited Caroline, before I was born, when she was poorly and lonely because she had no friends. And also how he made Christmas better for everyone in the village.
‘Yes. OK, Oliver did … somehow … seem to turn things around for us, didn’t he,’ he admitted. ‘Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps there’s more goes on in a cat’s mind than we can ever understand. But look at Charlie. He’s only a little kitten, who ran away and got lost! I just can’t quite believe …’
‘I am not a little kitten anymore,’ I said crossly. ‘Even Ollie admits that now.’
‘Well, as far as I’m concerned,’ Nicky said, ‘Charlie and Oliver have saved my marriage. Daniel needed a sharp shock like that, to make him realise he was neglecting me and Benjamin. He got up early this morning to make Benny’s breakfast, and as soon as he got back from doing a bit of work this morning, he’s taken him out to the park in his buggy. He says he’s going to advertise for another mechanic to work for him, and in the meantime he’ll let the apprentice help a bit more where he can, so he’s not so exhausted. He�
��s been so focused on making the business a success, taking on all the work he could, and getting so tired, he admits he couldn’t face coming home and helping with his own son. He just fell into the pub every night and then couldn’t summon up the energy to come home. He knows he needs to make some changes and try to get some balance.’
‘Good for him,’ Laura said gently. ‘I’m so glad you’re going to work it out together.’
‘Thanks to Charlie and Oliver,’ Nicky insisted.
And before there could be any further discussion on the matter, at that moment the doorbell rang again – and this time, yes, it was the television people. And so we come to another chapter in my story!
CHAPTER
TWENTY ONE
It’s getting a bit late. Is anyone too tired to hear the rest of my story now? No? Good, because we’re almost up to date. We’re nearly at the point where I found out all the answers. Not all the answers to everything in the world, of course, as I suppose that even for someone who isn’t a little kitten anymore, there will always be things in the world that I don’t understand. But after the television people came, I understood some things, at least. And later on, I understood a lot more.
I was shut in the lounge while they came into the house, in case I was daft enough to try to run off before I’d even been allowed to star in my own story. I listened from behind the closed door as the voices greeted each other, and finally the door was flung open and someone gasped:
‘And is this our little hero?’
‘If you say so!’ I meowed, trotting up to the strangers to have a good sniff around their legs and see if they smelt friendly. A couple of them bent down to stroke me, and Caroline was being very jumpy with excitement, answering questions like was she pleased to have me back home, and how much did she miss me while I was gone? Then Julian took over, suggesting everyone sat down so they could talk properly, and Laura went to make tea and coffee.
‘Charlie’s story has really caught people’s imaginations,’ said a man called Andy who seemed to be in charge. ‘They loved the fact that a little cat like Charlie was brave enough to chase away a seagull and save an elderly lady from possible harm.’
‘So everyone agrees it was definitely Charlie in that video?’ Julian said.
‘I think we can assume it,’ Andy said. ‘There were lots of witnesses, don’t forget. And the two ladies … um …’ He glanced at a piece of paper in a folder that was open on his lap, ‘Jean Francis and Shirley Benson, who found him, have said they’re quite sure it was him. The cat in the video Shirley’s niece made had the same bad eye and the same sore place on his leg and everything. Well, as you might know, there’s been considerable nuisance in the Mudditon area recently from some particularly aggressive seagulls, and since Charlie’s story broke, there’s been a lot more discussion in the local press there, and on social media, about how to combat the problem to prevent their tourist industry suffering. It seems it’s made local people, and holidaymakers, more aware of the need to dispose of food rubbish properly and not to feed the gulls with food meant for humans.’
‘Let’s hope it works, then,’ Julian said. ‘We were all very sorry to hear about tourism suffering in Mudditon.’
‘Well, that’ll be mentioned in this little follow-up film,’ Andy said. ‘It’s been pointed out, too, that the local feral cats help the situation by keeping down the food waste themselves. And some of the witnesses to Charlie’s little episode say there were feral cats hanging around behind him at the time.’
‘Probably waiting to attack him, poor Charlie!’ said Laura, who’d come back in now with the tray of coffee.
‘No, we were working as a team!’ I meowed, but as usual nobody was listening to me, even though I was supposed to be the hero.
‘I don’t know about that, of course,’ Andy said. ‘But according to our interviews with local people, gangs of feral cats had been seen chasing seagulls on several occasions around that time. It’s quite unusual behaviour! But it seems there’s been a change of attitude towards the cats in the town. They’re being tolerated more, on the whole, and a couple of local fishermen even went on record saying they’d taken to throwing them the occasional fish.’
I was delighted to hear this. I purred happily to myself at the thought of Big and the others getting free fish at the harbour and not being shooed away so often by the humans.
‘So what we’d like to do today,’ Andy went on, ‘is have a little chat with you all about Charlie – the background of how he went missing and how he was found. And of course we’ll film some footage of him being happy back at home here with the family, so that everyone – all his fans! – can see how much better he’s looking and how well he’s settled back down with you. We’ll add our own commentary with a recap of the seagull incident, reminding everyone about how he came to be so famous in the Mudditon area. And we’ll include the interview with the woman and boy from the beach café, of course.’
There was a silence.
‘What woman and boy?’ Julian said.
‘Which beach café?’ Laura asked at the same time.
‘Um …’ Andy rummaged through his papers again. ‘Stella Parkin, who runs the Seashells beach café at Salty Cove, just outside Mudditon – and her nephew Robbie who helps her … did we not tell you about this?’
‘No.’ Julian shook his head. ‘Was this the new development you mentioned on the phone? You said you’d fill us in today about it.’
‘Sorry, yes, so I did.’ He smiled around at us all, pausing as he looked at Grace, who I’d noticed had gone a bit pink in the face and was nudging Caroline and whispering to her.
‘Is she the lady who helped us when Caroline got hurt?’ Grace asked quietly. And when Andy nodded, she said, turning back to Caroline, ‘You remember, Caro. She got the boy to call an ambulance, and persuaded us that you needed to go to hospital. She was really kind.’
‘I don’t really remember that,’ Caroline said. ‘It’s all a bit of a blur.’
‘Of course it is,’ Laura soothed her. ‘So what have these people got to do with Charlie’s story, Andy?’
‘She’s convinced it was Charlie who alerted her to the accident,’ he said.
‘What?’ Julian said, looking surprised. ‘I can’t see how. Charlie was found in the harbour area at Mudditon, not at Salty Cove. Sorry, but it could’ve been any little tabby cat, couldn’t it?’
‘But, Daddy, I told you I thought I saw him, didn’t I?’ Caroline yelled, so loudly that baby Jessica, sitting in her little bouncy seat next to the sofa, jumped and started to cry. ‘I knew it was him. It’s the only clear memory I’ve got, of that day, until I got to the hospital.’
‘Yes, darling, but honestly, it isn’t very likely, is it?’
As you can imagine, by now I was meowing for all I was worth, trying to tell them it was true, it was me, I’d been there, I’d tried to help!
‘Actually, Mr Smythe, there are photos,’ Andy said. ‘Would you like to see them?’
‘Well, yes, of course, but how …?’ Julian was saying, looking confused, as Andy rummaged through his folder again.
‘Robbie from the café took some pictures of the cat on his phone. His aunt apparently took the cat in to give him some food and milk, after the girls were taken to hospital,’ Andy explained. He chuckled. ‘Stella said in our interview that he’s never off the phone, using Twitter and WhatsApp and so on while he’s supposed to be working. Well, he shared these photos on his social media accounts as usual. Apparently he told Stella he was doing it to try to find the cat’s owner. But instead he made a joke of it, saying his aunt thought this cat had told her about an accident on the beach. He thought it was funny, said he thought she was barmy. But a couple of weeks later, when the networks started buzzing with pictures of the incident in Mudditon with the seagull, he looked at them and thought it could actually be the same cat. He showed his aunt, and she was convinced it was. After we ran our first news story, she contacted us to tell us about her e
xperience.’ He held out a couple of pictures to Julian. ‘Printouts of the nephew’s shots,’ he said. ‘What do you think?’
Well, everyone in the room now nearly fell over each other to get to the pictures. I tried to get a look myself, but they were all in my way.
‘I remember the boy holding his phone up at me,’ I meowed. I knew this made pictures appear. Were these the pictures? Were they pictures of me?
‘Let me see!’ Caroline was squealing.
‘Is it him?’ Laura said, looking excited.
‘Oh my God, Caro,’ Grace said. ‘Maybe it really was Charlie!’
Julian was the only one staying quiet. He held the pictures, staring at them, one after the other, with Caroline leaning on the back of the sofa, looking over his shoulder.
‘It’s him, Daddy, I know it is,’ she said. She sounded like she was about to start mewing. ‘Charlie came to my rescue! He saw me getting hurt, and went to get the lady from the café.’
‘It could be him,’ Julian said, sounding a bit less doubtful now. ‘What do you think, Laura?’ He passed her the pictures, and she looked at them with Nicky.
‘I think it is him,’ Laura said. ‘It’s how he looked before, Julian – before he got into the fight, or got attacked, or whatever, and got the injuries. Before he lost weight and everything.’
‘But why would he have been at Salty Cove?’ Nicky said.
‘He must have followed us,’ Grace said.
‘Yes, he must have done,’ Caroline agreed. ‘If he ran out of the house when we opened the door, then he must have trailed us all the way we walked that night, Grace, without us seeing him.’
‘Yes, and … oh my God, he must’ve seen us go in the beach hut, and … waited around outside all night,’ Grace said. ‘And then he saw what happened on the beach in the morning.’
‘Yes!’ I meowed. I jumped off Caroline’s lap and scampered around the room, doing a few little jumps of excitement so that they all laughed at me. ‘That’s what happened. But what I don’t know is what happened after you went off in the ambulance. Nobody’s told me.’
Charlie the Kitten Who Saved a Life Page 18