Charlie the Kitten Who Saved a Life

by Sheila Norton

  And it looked like nobody was going to, either. They were much too busy discussing the mystery (to them) of how I ended up back at Mudditon. Hello? I walked! It wasn’t very far, along the coast. Shouldn’t they have known that, if they were so clever? And then they were listening to Andy telling them how the film was going to be put together, with the café lady’s story, and Jean and Shirley’s story, as well as my family talking about me and their relief about having me back home.

  When they were all ready, Andy held up a thing called a microphone and started talking to Caroline and Grace, while his friend Sandeep was filming them on his huge camera. By then, I’d finally begun to understand how I got inside the television that first time, because Sandeep had spent a while showing the girls the camera, playing back a bit of film to them. Because I was sitting on Caroline’s lap at the time, I could see that it did the same thing as their phones did when they filmed each other. And Sandeep explained that these moving pictures would eventually appear on people’s television screens. I can’t say it makes sense to me, any more than lots of the weird things humans do. But now I see there is some kind of connection between cameras or phones, and televisions, so maybe it isn’t actually magic.

  It was nice being cuddled on Caroline’s lap while Andy talked to her about what happened in Mudditon. Because Julian had already warned him that the girls had been punished enough for running away, and he didn’t want it brought up again, Andy just referred to it as their little adventure that went wrong.

  ‘Charlie must have come with us, and followed us,’ Caroline said into the microphone. ‘We didn’t realise.’

  ‘But it seems it was a good thing he did,’ Andy said. ‘And when you and Grace got lost, he seems to have stood guard over you all night.’

  ‘Well, to be quite honest I fell asleep under a bench,’ I meowed. But Caroline stroked me and said yes, I must have been protecting them, which made me feel a bit guilty.

  ‘So can you tell us what happened the next morning?’ Andy asked, and Grace explained how the seagull swooped on their sandwiches and bit Caroline’s finger.

  ‘I tried to run off, and I must have tripped on the rocks,’ Caroline said. ‘I don’t really remember it very well.’

  ‘She hit her head, cut it open, and knocked herself out,’ Grace said.

  ‘That must have been very frightening,’ Andy said. ‘And it seems that’s when Charlie managed to get the attention of Stella at the café.’

  ‘Yes, that lady was very kind, and she said the boy had called an ambulance,’ Grace said.

  ‘And what a good job you were taken to hospital, Caroline,’ Julian said, sounding very serious.

  I looked around the room. Everyone was much more serious now. Caroline was looking down at the floor and Laura reached out to put a paw on her arm.

  ‘Perhaps your dad would like to explain what happened, Caroline,’ Andy said, and the camera turned towards Julian.

  ‘Well, we’d been frantic with worry, of course,’ he said, ‘so when we got a call to say the girls were at the hospital, we – and Grace’s parents – rushed straight there. And Caroline—’

  He broke off, swallowing hard. I looked up at him. Caroline what?

  ‘She looked dreadful,’ he said very quietly, ‘and there were doctors all round her. We … well, as you can probably imagine, we didn’t know what to think.’

  ‘We feared the worst,’ Laura said. ‘She’d been very ill, you see, and we were still waiting for results of a biopsy, to see whether there was a recurrence of her illness. So we were very, very worried at that point.’

  ‘They told us she’d had an accident, and at first all we could see was a wound on her finger,’ Julian said. ‘But she was so pale, and she kept complaining of a headache and feeling sick and dizzy.’

  ‘And she seemed quite confused,’ Laura added. ‘She wasn’t too sure where she was, or what had happened.’

  ‘And then, of course, the doctor showed us where she’d hit the back of her head when she fell, and that Grace had told them she’d been unconscious, so they were treating it as concussion,’ Julian said. ‘But when we told them about the leukaemia, and the fact that we’d been worried about her health recently, they obviously took that very seriously. And, well, to cut a long story short, if she hadn’t been taken straight to hospital, the concussion could have been missed, which could have had really serious consequences in itself. We might have thought her symptoms were linked to the … other health worries, you see.’ He shook his head. ‘It really doesn’t bear thinking about.’

  ‘So it seems your little cat actually saved the day!’ Andy said, beaming at me.

  ‘If it really was Charlie who alerted someone to call an ambulance, then I’d say …’ Julian was looking at me too now, with a strange expression on his face, ‘to be honest, he could have actually saved her life.’

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY TWO

  Finally, they believed me. I’d rescued the girls! And not only that, I’d saved Caroline’s life. This called for a celebration. With a little meow of happiness, I hopped up onto Andy’s lap, knocked the pen out of his paw (I do like a nice pen to play with), and jumped back down after it, batting it along the floor with my paws and leaping around, pretending it was a mouse. For a minute, everyone stayed quiet, watching me – and then they all burst out laughing at once, with the man called Andy going into a real frenzy of excitement.

  ‘Did you get that?’ he demanded of Sandeep, who’d now turned off the camera for a moment. ‘And the looks on all their faces? Great! This is fantastic. What a story! It’s even better than I thought it was going to be. It’s going to go national. The human interest factor – the kitten who saved a life! I mean, it’s like, wow!’ He waved his paws about, grinning all over his face. I stared at him. He was talking in that funny way Caroline did when she was with her friends!

  But then, all of a sudden, he stopped, went very quiet, and said:

  ‘Oh my God, I’m so sorry. How very inappropriate of me. I mean, in view of Caroline’s condition …’ He glanced at Caroline and lowered his voice even more. ‘The leukaemia?’

  ‘Exactly what I was thinking,’ I meowed. I mean – were they ever going to tell me whether she was all right?

  ‘Oh sorry,’ Laura said. ‘We didn’t finish explaining.’ She paused for a moment, as if she was thinking about what to say, then went on, ‘You see, when we told the doctor at the Mudditon hospital that we were still waiting for biopsy results from London, he got straight on the phone to them, and then came back saying it was negative. No abnormal cells found. It seems there’s no recurrence of the leukaemia.’

  ‘Phew,’ Andy said. ‘I’m very glad to hear that.’

  Me too! At last, I’d found out what I needed to know. Caroline wasn’t ill after all. Everything was all right with the world! I’d got back on her lap by now, bored with the pen, so I gave her face a good licking, making her giggle.

  But then I thought again about how tired and pale she looked, how worried Julian and Laura still looked when they kept asking her if she was OK. Something didn’t seem right. What were they still not telling me? Or were they just pretending to Andy that she was OK? I mewed to myself a bit, feeling anxious all over again.

  I looked at Julian and Laura now, and felt even more anxious when I saw they were frowning at each other, and Julian was shaking his head like he didn’t want her to say any more. As usual, humans, with their rubbish body language, made it impossible to understand what they were thinking. Surely, I told myself, Laura wouldn’t have said Caroline didn’t have the illness, if she did? Surely, if she did have it, she’d be going back to the hospital, instead of going to school? I just had to believe what Laura said, didn’t I?

  By now Andy and Sandeep had turned off the camera and the microphone things, and all the adults were just carrying on chatting, so it seemed I wasn’t needed anymore. Perhaps it would be best to try to take my mind off my worries. I jumped down from Caroline’s lap ag
ain and went over to have a sniff around some of their equipment.

  ‘We’ll pack up and get away now, then. Thanks for everything,’ Andy said after they’d chatted for a while longer. It was a bit embarrassing, because I’d somehow got myself tangled up in some leads for the camera. At first I thought it was good fun, playing with their stuff while they weren’t looking, but when they wanted to start packing things away I couldn’t get myself out of the mess I’d made, and they had to unravel me. Andy wasn’t cross though.

  ‘He’s such a cute little cat,’ he laughed. I couldn’t help thinking about how I used to get told off if I got tangled up in Laura’s washing. Although that was before I went missing. She didn’t seem to get so stern with me these days.

  ‘This is going to be such a great little story,’ Andy said again as they finally headed for the door.

  ‘Good. And if the publicity helps the campaign in Mudditon – getting people to alter their behaviour with regard to the seagulls – it’ll be worth it,’ Julian said.

  ‘Yes. Nothing wrong with seagulls in their place, is there, but their place isn’t being fed human food and attacking people to get it,’ Andy agreed. ‘Well, Charlie, you’re already a hero to the people in Mudditon, and now you’re a hero to your family as well,’ he said, giving me a stroke. ‘They must be so proud of you, little kitten.’

  ‘Not a little kitten!’ I meowed crossly at him. ‘For mewing out loud, look at me, I’m a grown-up cat now.’

  Although, to be fair, I suppose if I’d been so very grown up I might not have got tangled in the wires.

  Nicky stayed for a while longer after the television people left. Caroline and Grace went off to play in her bedroom.

  ‘It was good to see Caroline looking happy and excited,’ Laura said after the three of them had sat in silence for a while.

  ‘You’re still worried about her, aren’t you?’ Nicky said. ‘I must admit, she does still look pale.’

  ‘Oh, Nicky, we just don’t know what to think!’ Laura sounded like she was almost mewing, and Julian, who was holding her paw now, was staring at the carpet. I’d been washing myself in a corner of the room, but as you can imagine, I sat up and listened again. ‘We keep telling ourselves it’s just tiredness, you know, because of the new school,’ she went on.

  ‘Or even the after-effects of the concussion,’ Julian put in. ‘They did warn us at the hospital that she might still suffer from headaches, dizziness and difficulty in concentrating – for as long as three months after the accident.’

  ‘And are those the sort of symptoms she’s complaining about?’ Nicky asked quietly.

  ‘Well, she’s not really complaining much at all, bless her,’ Laura said. ‘Not since Charlie came home, anyway – she’s so thrilled to have him back. But she does admit she’s really tired all the time. And you’ve seen how she’s looking, Nicky. You can understand why we’re finding it so difficult not to be worried still.’

  ‘Perhaps it’s only natural that you’ll always worry about her? After what she went through before,’ Nicky said.

  ‘Maybe. But … well, I’m thinking we should take her back to our own doctor. Just to make sure,’ Julian said, glancing at Laura as he said it.

  ‘It can’t hurt, can it? Just for your own peace of mind?’ Nicky said.

  ‘Julian’s worried they might have got the biopsy result wrong,’ Laura said, in such a soft little voice I almost missed it. She had her paw over her mouth, as if she didn’t really want the words to come out. ‘I keep telling him how unlikely that is, but …’

  ‘But we need to be sure,’ Julian said in a much louder, firmer voice. ‘I can’t go on like this, Laura, on edge all the time, wondering. If there’s been a mistake, we need to know.’

  ‘I’m sure there hasn’t,’ Nicky said, a little wobble in her voice. ‘But I agree, if you’re that worried, you should get her checked out again.’ She got up and gave them both a hug. ‘Please let me know, won’t you? Dan and I are worried too – about all of you.’

  By now I was pacing the floor back and forth, mewing to myself, with all the excitement of the day forgotten. It was all very well being told I’d saved Caroline’s life – but if it still turned out that she was seriously ill, then perhaps I hadn’t done enough life-saving, after all.

  *

  I didn’t sleep very well that night, and when Oliver came to see me the next morning, to tell me that he’d actually managed to get some news about Caroline, at first I couldn’t quite take in what he was saying.

  ‘What do you mean?’ I asked, still thinking about what I’d heard the previous day. ‘You’re not a human doctor, all of a sudden, are you?’

  ‘Human doctor?’ He stared at me. ‘What are you talking about, and why are you being so tetchy? I promised you I’d listen in on Nicky and Daniel’s conversations, didn’t I?’

  ‘Oh. Yes, sorry. What have you heard?’

  ‘Well, please don’t get too upset. But I heard Nicky telling Daniel that your owners are going to take Caroline back to the doctors because they’re still worried she might be ill again.’

  ‘Oh, yes, I know that.’

  ‘You do?’

  ‘Yes, it came up yesterday when Nicky was here.’ I rubbed my face against his. ‘I’m sorry, Ollie, I’m so worried about Caroline myself now, I can’t think straight.’

  ‘I know. I was pretty worried when I heard the news. Is there anything I can do? Shall I stay and play with you for a while to cheer you up?’

  ‘If you don’t mind, I think I’d rather be on my own with the family.’

  ‘Of course.’ He looked so sad, it made me feel guilty, but it was no good – I just couldn’t get myself back out of the black mood that had come over me. It wasn’t until he’d gone that I realised I hadn’t even told him about the TV people, and about being called a hero and a life-saver. It just didn’t seem so important or clever anymore.

  Julian told Caroline that evening about going back to the doctor’s in the morning. I was lying on the rug next to baby Jessica, tickling her with my tail and my whiskers to make her giggle. Even the fact that Laura wasn’t telling me off anymore about the possibility of germs, was making me sad, because she looked so anxious and distracted, it felt like I could have sat right on Jessica’s head and she still wouldn’t have reacted. Not that I was going to do it, of course. I really loved little Jessica these days.

  ‘Oh,’ was all Caroline said about the doctor’s. We all waited for her to start protesting and complaining about it, but she didn’t, and in a way that was worse.

  ‘It’s just a precaution, Caroline,’ Laura said. ‘We’re sure there’s nothing to worry about, but you must admit, you’ve been so tired all the time.’

  ‘Yes,’ she said.

  ‘It’s probably the after-effects of the concussion,’ Julian said.

  ‘Or even just the new school,’ Laura joined in. I got the impression they were both trying to sound cheerful. ‘You know, the longer day, the extra work, carrying all those books …’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘So that’s probably what the doctor will say,’ Laura went on.

  ‘But we just thought we’d make sure,’ said Julian.

  There was a long silence, during which Caroline came and lay down on the floor next to me, and started playing with me and Jessica.

  ‘OK,’ she said eventually. ‘Can you make the appointment for after school? Otherwise I’ll have to have a note.’

  I worried all the next day. I almost couldn’t eat my lunch. When Laura finally came home after the doctor’s appointment I was so relieved that Caroline was with her, and hadn’t been taken straight to the hospital, I purred all round her legs for ages while she sat at the table having milk and biscuits. But it wasn’t until Julian came home from work that I found anything out.

  ‘Dr Pearson says the bone marrow biopsy looks conclusive,’ she said. ‘He’s sure there’s no mistake. I asked him whether he thought we ought to repeat it just in case.’ She g
lanced at Caroline. Again, I was expecting her to howl in protest, but she just sat there, listening, playing with the thing that turns the TV on and off.

  ‘And?’ Julian asked anxiously.

  ‘Well, he said he’d like to get a couple more ordinary blood tests done first, to check for other possible reasons, before we go down that road.’

  ‘What sort of other reasons? Did he agree that it might be because of the concussion?’

  ‘He did seem to consider it. But he said there could be any number of reasons – it was like he didn’t want to commit himself until we’ve got the results of the blood tests. So I’m taking Caroline to the health clinic in Great Broomford for those, first thing in the morning. Dr Pearson will have the results by Wednesday.’

  Those next two days seemed twice as long as normal. I almost couldn’t eat my breakfast, lunch or dinner. I tried to keep myself busy by amusing Jessica, by chasing birds in the garden and playing in the fallen leaves, but nothing seemed to work. When Oliver called round I was almost too anxious to meow with him at all, let alone start telling him the story of my time in Mudditon. When Caroline came home from school on Wednesday afternoon, Laura was waiting for her with Jessica already in her car seat, to take her straight back to the doctor’s. They went off without even saying goodbye to me. I meowed at them from the window as Laura drove away, but I knew it was because, like me, they couldn’t think of anything apart from the test results. They were gone for so long, Julian got home from work before they returned.

  ‘Why are they taking so long, eh, Charlie?’ he asked, bending down to stroke my head.

  ‘I wish I knew,’ I meowed.

  ‘I’ll try calling Laura’s phone,’ he said, and I sat up straight in my bed, watching him as he held the phone to his ear. Laura must have answered quickly, because the next thing he said was: ‘Where? The supermarket? Why the hell … Laura, I’m sitting here worrying myself sick, waiting for you to come home. At least tell me what the doctor said.’