by Ann Bryant
The moment the end-of-school bell went I flew back to Forest Ash, wondering whether the time had come to tell Mrs. Pridham about Silver. She was just coming out of her flat with Matron as I rushed in through the front door.
“My goodness, someone’s in a hurry!” she said.
And in the two seconds it took me to cross the hall I imagined her reaction if I did tell her. First she’d be worried about the rat poison, and would probably get Mr. Monk to go up there and take it away immediately, because she wouldn’t want to harm a cat. But then she’d probably ask him to shoo Silver off, muttering about cheeky stray cats. No, there was no way I could risk telling her the truth.
“Just think, Mrs. Pridham,” Matron was saying, a smile playing about her eyes, “if I rushed around like Bryony I wouldn’t have to bother with my diet!”
Mrs. Pridham laughed as Matron hurried over to me. “Let’s see if I can keep up with you on the stairs, Bryony!”
My heart sank. How could I go up to the attic with Matron on my heels? But I couldn’t be so rude as to race off without her so we walked upstairs together and I went into the dorm and flopped on my bed. I’d leave it a few minutes before I risked sneaking along to the cleaning room. While I was waiting I concentrated on straining my ears for any sounds at all, but it was completely silent. And it stayed that way, until Emily suddenly came crashing into the dorm followed by the others.
“Oh, Bry! Are you okay?” asked Sasha, the concern back on her face at the sight of me flat out on my bed.
Emily and I exchanged a look and I decided in that second that I must tell the others about Silver. They were standing very still, watching me carefully, not used to me looking sad, or acting dramatically. It was no wonder I’d shocked them all so much.
I sat up and sighed. “Truth talk, guys,” was all I said.
“Yes, of course,” said Antonia, who had invented the expression and actually the whole idea of truth talks, way back in the first term when her English hadn’t been so good. We’d kept the name Truth talk because it said exactly what it was. Basically, if anyone in the group felt the need to share something important with the others, we all piled onto their bed and listened while they talked, then tried to make them feel better.
It felt funny watching the others climb my ladder and squash themselves on the bed, because this was the first time I’d ever been the one to call a truth talk. Once they were all sitting silently, watching me with big eyes, I began in my usual straightforward way.
“That noise you heard in the night, Izzy, is a cat.”
“A cat!” said Izzy in a faint squeak, as though she didn’t want to interrupt me but couldn’t help her surprise slipping out.
“I went up to the loft to investigate and thought I’d seen a squirrel,” I carried on. “But Ems came with me the second time and that’s when we saw it was definitely a cat. The third time I took him some chicken and water, because he looks thin and hungry. He gets in and out through the window. I decided to keep him a secret in case you all wanted to see him, because I was worried that would frighten him away for ever. And…”
I stopped abruptly. What I was about to say was too private. How could I explain why Silver was so precious to me?
“She’s got attached to the cat,” Emily helped me out.
“I’ve…called it Silver,” I managed to say. “Only now I’m scared that…”
“Oh no! The poison!” said Nicole, clapping both hands to her mouth and looking horrified.
“What are you going to do?” asked Antonia quietly.
I shrugged. “I’m going to the attic. I just want to see Silver alive. I was waiting until Matron was out of the way.”
Nicole covered her eyes with her hands as though she couldn’t bear the thought of what I might find. Then she quickly took them away and asked if I wanted anyone with me for moral support.
I shook my head. “It’s okay.” My mouth was dry as I left the dorm. “Tell me afterwards if you could hear me moving about up there.”
I didn’t pass a soul on the landing. I shut the cleaning room door behind me without a sound and crept towards the stairs in the darkness. At the top, I hardly dared look around me. My heart pounded horribly as I stood completely still for a few seconds, wondering what to do.
“Silver,” I whispered in a breathy voice as I began to tiptoe across the floor.
So far he hadn’t been the kind of cat that miaowed, but still the answering silence made me tense up. And then suddenly I spotted something on the floor beside the water tank that hadn’t been there the day before. It was a plastic container about twenty centimetres long and maybe ten wide, with tiny holes in the side of it and something sticking up out of it, like a little ledge with some…chocolate on it. I peered at the container, and when it dawned on me what it was, I felt a bubble of laughter rising up inside me. This was a humane rat trap. There wasn’t any poison. Good old Mr. Monk. The very worst that could happen to Silver would be that he might get his paw stuck in it, and I somehow thought he was too clever for that.
Even though the loft felt totally deserted and Silver probably wasn’t there, I just had to make sure because I really wanted to see for myself that he was all right, so I tiptoed on towards the corner. As I’d thought, there was no sign of my precious cat. He was probably out hunting or trying to find water from somewhere, which wouldn’t be easy on such a hot day. What a shame I hadn’t brought any more water for him. I’ll come back after supper, I thought to myself, and bring plenty of titbits too. I couldn’t wait to tell the others about the trap, so they could stop worrying. Especially poor Nicole.
I was on the point of leaving the loft, though, when I got the shock of my life, because two things happened at the same time. Silver crept in through the window. And footsteps sounded on the stairs. Heavy footsteps.
I was frozen to the spot for a second, my brain working in a frenzy to make a decision. I was certain that this wasn’t one of my friends, because they would have called up to tell me not to panic. No, it had to be an adult. But the footsteps sounded too heavy even for Matron or Mrs. Pridham. So it had to be Mr. Monk.
Mr. Monk! There was no way I could let him catch me up here. I went right round the corner and pressed myself against the wall, praying that Silver would go quickly before he was seen. It was obvious from the way his wiry body had stiffened that the noise on the stairs had frightened him, and after only a second of seeming frozen like a cat statue, he leaped back up onto the window ledge and disappeared.
From my hiding place I could hear Mr. Monk take a few steps into the attic, then stop. I guessed he was checking the trap. A moment later he took a few more steps in my direction. I could hear him muttering to himself, but the only two words I could make out were “…fix that”. Then there was the sound of the window shutting and opening again, more muttering, and finally Mr. Monk’s footsteps heading back towards the stairs, followed by the shuffly thuds that his feet made on each step.
I realized I’d been holding my breath for ages, and let it out in a long slow sigh of relief as I crept out of my hiding place. And that’s when I noticed for the first time that the catch on the window was broken.
Chapter Six
Emily grabbed my wrist and practically yanked me into the dorm the moment I’d opened the door. “We only really heard you at the end, Bry. It was like you’d forgotten to creep or something. We hardly heard a thing before that.”
Then Nicole started to gabble. “But what happened? Was Silver there? Please tell me Silver was there.”
“It wasn’t me you heard. It was Mr. Monk…”
They all gasped. “Mr. Monk! Did you manage to avoid him?” asked Izzy.
Emily jumped in with another question before I could answer. “Did he see Silver?”
“I don’t think so. Silver came in through the window just as Mr. Monk was coming up the stairs, but the poor thing turned and bolted at the sound of his footsteps. And Mr. Monk didn’t notice me because I was round the corner out
of sight. He didn’t come in as far as that, thank goodness. But the good news is that there wasn’t any poison. He’s put one of those humane traps down with a bit of chocolate as bait.”
“So that’s what he was doing then,” said Emily. “Checking the trap. You’re supposed to check those humane ones every day.”
“But the bad thing,” I went on, “is that the catch on the window is broken. That’s how Silver’s been able to come and go. Up the trellis to the roof, then through the window. Only now Mr. Monk’s spotted it, because I heard him muttering about getting it fixed.” I sighed heavily. “And then what’ll happen to poor Silver?”
“Maybe you’ve just got to risk telling Mrs. P, Bry.” Sasha’s face looked so sympathetic. “She’ll find Silver a good home, I’m sure.”
I knew Sasha was right, but even though it was selfish of me, I was starting to dread the thought of Silver leaving Forest Ash.
“I want to see him!” said Antonia, suddenly hunching her shoulders excitedly like a little girl.
“Me too,” said Izzy.
“We’ll frighten him away for good if we all go trooping up there,” said Emily firmly. “Let Bry go on her own a couple more times until Silver’s used to her.”
“And what about when Mr. Monk’s fixed the window?” asked Nicole, her face in a heavy frown.
“Maybe we can find a secret, sheltered place somewhere outside, and keep him there,” said Izzy.
There was a dull silence and I guessed the others were trying to think, like I was, of where on earth we could possibly keep a cat in secret. And anyway, we’d all be going home for the summer holidays soon. What then?
After supper it’s prep and I thought this would be the perfect time to go up to the loft. Everyone would be occupied, and even if the Year Nines were working in their room, I knew now that they weren’t likely to hear me. It must have been when Silver jumped from the window ledge or ran across the loft that the sound could be heard from below. Also, at night-time it’s as though the silence grows a deeper layer. During the day there’s hardly ever any time when you’re completely silent in your dorm. There’s movement and chatter and music.
Prep is just like homework. The Year Sevens and Eights have to work for an hour in silence, supervised by Mrs. Pridham, Miss Stevenson or Matron, and it’s all very serious. We’re definitely not supposed to be late, especially when Miss Stevenson’s on duty, because, although she’s the youngest member of Forest Ash boarding staff, she’s also probably the strictest.
Emily and I rushed through supper and raced back to Forest Ash, each carrying bits of battered fish in our pockets, wrapped up in tissue. In the dorm we carefully peeled off the batter and left it in my drawer, because we didn’t dare chuck it in the bin. We’re not allowed any food in the dorms so I’d have to get rid of it the next day. I got my plastic tub and my water bottle, and sneaked along the corridor, round the corner and into the cleaning room as quickly as I could.
I tiptoed up the stairs and across the floor towards Silver’s corner, only giving the mousetrap the smallest of glances just to check it was empty. I was desperately hoping that Silver would be there, but in my heart I must have thought he wouldn’t be, because it gave me a shock when I found him sitting snugly on a pile of dust sheets, looking perfectly serene. I felt so happy that he trusted me and didn’t immediately bolt out of the window. I bent down and stroked him, scratching between his ears and talking in whispers as he pushed his head against my fingers and closed his eyes. I could tell he loved his little massage.
Somewhere in the back of my mind a memory was stirring. I’d stroked another cat like this, and the cat had purred and snuggled closer to me just like Silver was doing now. Fellini? No, I’d never scratched Fellini’s head. In fact I’d never even stroked Fellini. He wasn’t the kind of cat that looked as though he wanted to be stroked, the way he turned his back on people and plonked himself in the middle of a cushion, then stared around as if to say, Look at me! I’m the king!
So if it wasn’t Fellini, it must have been Lana. I hadn’t had any memory of stroking Lana until now and it filled me with a mixture of sadness and confusion. I looked at Silver’s soft head and for a moment it was just as though the years had gone rolling away and I was a little girl again stroking Lana. I swallowed, feeling my throat hurting at the memory. But then, as quickly as the memory had come, it dissolved and I was back in the present with Silver.
When I put the fish in front of him he attacked it straight away, only breaking off to lap the water that I poured into the tub.
“Good boy,” I kept murmuring, sitting down beside him and hugging my knees. I couldn’t wait for the others to see him now he was so much calmer and more trusting.
Then I looked at my watch and realized I had to go or I’d be late for prep, so I got up and said goodbye to my lovely new pet as I walked away from him. It was an awful wrench, almost like I was saying goodbye to Lana all over again, especially when he narrowed his eyes at me and purred.
“Sorry, Silver. I’ll be back as soon as poss. Promise.”
It was as I was munching my last bit of toast at breakfast the next day that I suddenly remembered I’d left Silver’s water tub up in the loft.
“But if you left it round the corner, there’s no chance of Mr. Monk seeing it,” Emily said, with a wave of her hand. “He probably only pops his head up at the top of the stairs, just enough to check whether a mouse has been caught in the trap, and that’s it.”
“And he might not even bother to do that,” said Nicole, “because Mrs. Pridham asked me this morning whether any of us had heard anything from the loft recently, and I said we hadn’t heard a single thing for ages.”
Those words really cheered me up. “Oh, well done, Nicole!” Except that straight afterwards I remembered that Mr. Monk had another reason to go up into the loft. He was going to fix the window, wasn’t he.
“I can’t wait to see Silver,” said Sasha, her eyes brightening. “When shall we go?”
“After school?” suggested Izzy.
I thought that was probably the best plan, but fear was gathering inside me again. When Mr. Monk had fixed the catch, he’d leave the window closed. I hated to think about poor little Silver not being able to get in. He’d wonder what had happened.
As the day went on I grew more and more anxious and finally, at the end of lessons, I rushed back to Forest Ash and practically bashed into Mr. Monk as I ran across the hall.
“Oh…sorry,” I stumbled, feeling embarrassed about seeing Mr. Monk now.
“Someone’s in a bit of a rush!” he laughed.
I just smiled and hurried on, but he called out to me as I leaped up the stairs two at a time. “You’re one of the girls in Emerald, aren’t you?”
I stopped.
“One of the ones who got disturbed by mysterious noises in the night?”
“I…yes…we heard a mouse or something…” I said, turning to face him.
He chuckled as though it was a great joke. “Well, let me tell you, that was no mouse. I went up there to check the trap I set, and there was this cat! Sniffing the chocolate I’d put out for bait. I couldn’t believe my eyes!”
I felt as though I should be saying something but I had to force the words out, I was so filled with alarm. “A cat?” was all I managed.
“Don’t look so worried. It won’t be coming back. I’ve shooed it away good and proper.”
“Oh…right…”
“Catch is broken on the window. That’s how it got in, cheeky thing. I’ll get round to mending it one of these days, but you don’t need to worry about that cat coming back. Oh no!”
“How do you know it won’t come back?” I asked carefully.
Mr. Monk shook his head. “I reckon I scared it enough not to come back when I clapped my hands and chased it off.”
“I’d better go,” I muttered, as I carried on walking up the stairs, feeling my spirits sinking with every step I took.
The next four days were
awful. Emily said I was torturing myself by wandering round the grounds in search of Silver and sneaking up to the loft so often. But I couldn’t help just checking that a miracle hadn’t happened and Silver had returned. I remember the first time I went up, just after Mr. Monk had told me about shooing him away, I’d stared at the pile of dust sheets and felt such pity rising up inside me I’d honestly thought it might choke me. I’d told myself it was stupid. It was only a cat. I never could have kept him. But the past wouldn’t stop creeping into the present and all the sadness I’d felt when Lana had died kept on welling up inside me.
The feeling still hadn’t left me four days later.
I suppose I should have counted myself lucky that Mr. Monk obviously didn’t spot the tub, and it looked like he’d forgotten about the catch too, because it still wasn’t fixed. Every time I went up I took a little plastic bag with some fresh food and left it tucked right round the corner so there was no way Mr. Monk would find it. The food was never touched, though. The first time I looked at the water I got excited because it definitely seemed as if some had gone. But Nicole said it would have evaporated because of the heat in the loft. I could tell she and the others were a bit sad not to have ever met Silver, but no one actually said anything directly about it. They probably didn’t want to add to my depression.
On Sunday we woke up to a very grey and overcast day. By lunchtime it was pouring down. We all felt good though, because we spent the morning catching up on the work we’d missed through lazing about in the sun so often over the last couple of weeks. Mrs. Pridham asked me whether we’d heard any more noises from above and I said no, nothing at all, but she frowned and said “Hmm, that’s a bit of a puzzle because the Year Nines say they’ve definitely heard something – not at night-time, but during the day.”
I felt guilty then, because although I wasn’t exactly lying to Mrs. Pridham, it still felt like a lie. And I was sorry for scaring the Year Nines too. I made a decision at that moment. I would just go up to the loft one more time to see if Silver was there and if he wasn’t, I would try and forget about him. When I told Emily she seemed relieved.