Authors: Sheila Jeffries
But TammyLee trusted me, and she knew how much I needed time outside.
‘She’s my cat, and she’s not a prisoner,’ she said. ‘She’s coming, if she wants to.’
‘Don’t blame me if she gets lost,’ said Max.
‘Tallulah can sit on my lap if she gets tired,’ said Diana, her eyes luminous in her pale face. ‘Come on, darling.’ She patted the rug over her thin knees, and I jumped
up and travelled the first bit in Diana’s arms. ‘We’ll all look after you, Tallulah – we love you to bits.’
‘It’s the other way round,’ I thought. ‘I’m looking after you.’
I was a happy cat now. I loved my family, I had my own dog, and I adored TammyLee. Life was just perfect now. I felt exuberant as I jumped down and chased after Amber, who had been let off the
lead. We belted towards the river and I could hear laughter behind us.
‘I LOVE the way that dog’s tail goes round and round when she’s running,’ said Diana.
‘She uses it as a brake,’ said TammyLee. She’d got her long hair tied in a loose ponytail at the back of her neck, and she wore a black vest with a green dragon on it. Her
bangles flashed in the sun, and she had long jeans with frayed edges that brushed the floor, and a slit in each knee, which I loved to play with when she was sitting still. I’d get my paw in
there, pull out a thread and play with it. Instead of her clonky shoes, she had soft sandals and she’d painted her toenails a witchy green to match the dragon. For once, she looked free and
happy, snatching at seed heads of grass as we walked along.
Until a shadow fell over our day.
I’d never heard Amber growl before, but she was growling now, her soft muzzle curling to reveal the gleam of her impressive set of teeth. Her hackles were up along her spine.
‘Amber!’ TammyLee grabbed the dog’s collar as three young men came slouching round the corner. Amber barked, and TammyLee’s aura turned to cracked glass. I figured Amber
was barking at the tallest of the three lads, who was in the middle. His hair was standing up in a stiff ridge, and he had rings in his lips and eyebrows.
Alarmed by Amber’s behaviour, I climbed a post and sat on top. I wanted to look at the eyes of this muscular young man who Amber didn’t like. But he wasn’t looking at me. He
was looking at TammyLee, his eyes moving over her whole body, up and down. He and his two mates stood across the path in front of us.
Max stopped pushing the wheelchair and anger flooded his aura with a brick-red colour. He opened his mouth to speak, and Diana put a restraining hand on his arm.
‘Hi, Dylan,’ said TammyLee, and Amber went on growling with the sunlight glistening through her hackles.
‘What’s up with your dog?’ Dylan asked, mockingly. ‘Nasty, ain’t she?’
‘She doesn’t like you,’ said TammyLee.
‘Shame about that.’ Dylan still straddled the path, towering over Max, who was tutting and glaring at him.
‘I thought you had a Saturday job,’ said TammyLee. ‘What happened?’
Dylan shrugged. ‘I quit, didn’t I! Dead boring.’ He put his face close to TammyLee. ‘So, what happened to you then? False alarm was it?’
TammyLee looked at him steadily, her mouth twitching.
‘It’s none of your business,’ she fired at him. ‘And I don’t want nothing to do with you, Dylan, so stay away from me.’
‘You heard her,’ said Max. ‘Let us pass, please. Can’t you see my wife is in a wheelchair?’
‘Calm down, Pop.’ Dylan grinned round at his two mates. ‘I’m not planning on raping your precious daughter. Not today.’ He winked at TammyLee and she glared
back.
It was Diana who intervened. With a radiant smile and her eyes piercingly bright, she said, ‘Good afternoon, boys, lovely to meet you. Are you enjoying this beautiful sunshine?’ She
held out a thin white hand. ‘I’m Diana. And you are?’
Dylan got smaller and smaller as he looked at Diana’s radiance. None of the boys shook the hand Diana was offering. They looked embarrassed and shuffled awkwardly from one foot to the
other. Sheepishly, they moved to one side.
‘Thank you. That’s so kind of you.’ Diana looked tenderly at each of them. ‘I hope you have a lovely day. Bye-bye, now.’
Max pushed the wheelchair onwards, and Dylan turned and saw me sitting on the post. ‘Ello, puss,’ he said, and we had eye contact for a long moment. His eyes were turquoise and
sparkly, but the sparkle was not astonishment, it was wariness, and a sense of being lost. I knew who he was instantly, by those compelling eyes. Dylan was Rocky’s father.
If only I could talk.
Max pushed the wheelchair, until the wide path ended at a shallow place where the river bubbled over stones. Amber charged into the water with everything flapping, and I
followed TammyLee onto the bank. She picked me up.
‘You stay with mum, please,’ she said. ‘Dad and I are going swimming, just up there.’ She pointed upstream to the old stone bridge where Solomon had appeared. Below it
was a shining pool. The river fascinated me. I wanted to follow it into the hills and watch the waterfalls and hear its music. There were streams cascading like threads of silver down from the
iron-blue ridges of the hill. I wanted to explore them, and find a tiny pool where I could sit on a stone and catch sardines. There were sheep up there too, and baby lambs who might play with
me.
I was too excited to do much cuddling and purring. TammyLee put me down on Diana’s lap.
‘Isn’t this WONDERFUL?’ Diana’s eyes shone. ‘Oh, it’s such a treat for me to see
my
river. I love it so much. Thank you for bringing me.’ She
reached up and pulled Max’s arm until he stooped and kissed her.
‘Will you be OK sitting here?’ he asked. ‘You can see us swimming, and when we come back and dry off, we’ll have the picnic.
‘I’ll be ecstatic!’ said Diana, while I dough-punched with my paws in the soft blanket she had over her knees. ‘And I’ve got Tallulah.’
TammyLee and Max stripped off their clothes down to their swimming gear, TammyLee in a bright green bikini, and Max in black swimming trunks. I sat up to watch what would happen.
‘You don’t have to stay with me, Tallulah,’ whispered Diana. ‘You go and be free and enjoy this lovely place. But come back, won’t you, darling? We love you so
much.’
I kissed Diana on the nose, grateful for her understanding. With my tail flying, I ran after them, along the river, keeping out of Amber’s way as she was already dripping wet from nose to
tail. The stone bridge was warm from the sun and I quickly found a perch out of reach of the splashes. Amber was swimming silently round and round the pool, with only her nose and eyes above the
water and her tail streaming behind. Max was swimming like a frog, his chin out of the water. But TammyLee seemed transformed from the girl who marched around in clonky shoes. She was like a fish.
Diving and twisting and rolling. She swam right under the water and the sunlight made webs of gold dance over her body, her hair swirled and, when she popped up for air, her face was dark pink and
radiant. She looked more alive than she ever looked on land. Max soon tired and found a rock in the sun, where he sat, proudly watching his daughter. Amber clambered out and shook spirals of drops
into the air, and, finally, TammyLee got out, and I stayed by myself, watching her walking back. Now was my chance to do some private hunting.
A flash of glass and a laugh caught my attention, and high up on the ridge of the hill, the three boys were sitting. One had binoculars and they were taking turns to watch TammyLee. Even though
they were far away, my sensitive ears picked up a feeling of menace in their laughter, dark intention that rolled down the hillside like a rain cloud.
I looked back at the patch of sunlight where Diana sat in her wheelchair, her face lifted to the sky. My angel told me to go back to her, but first, I wanted to go up the river and explore.
So I pretended not to notice her. Only later did I get the message, for it was to be another terrible lesson. Never ignore your angel.
Under the dappled shade of trees, I followed the flowing water to a stream that joined the river. I trotted beside it, until I found a shallow fishing pool, where I sat, completely absorbed,
waiting to see if any fish would come swimming into that clear water. I’d hook one out with my paw, and play with it as it jumped and flipped on the grass, and then I’d eat it, and
catch another one.
My attention was so focused on the water that I ignored the footsteps and the loud voices coming down from the hillside.
‘Hey, guys, that’s TammyLee’s cat.’ It was the gruff voice of a young lad. ‘Puddy Puddy Puddy,’ he called, but I ignored him and wished they’d go away
and leave me in peace. The tip of my tail was twitching with annoyance. If I’d been a human, I might have sworn at them.
‘I’m gonna get it,’ said one – Dylan.
‘Nah . . . leave it.’
‘Who are you telling what to do? It’s ’er cat, ain’t it?’
‘Whose?’
‘The girl in the pool, stupid. TammyLee. Spoiled bitch.’
The voices got louder and louder as they argued, but I continued staring into the water, waiting for a sardine to appear.
When the footsteps came right up behind me, I swung round and put my tail up, thinking Dylan was going to stroke me. Instead, he grabbed me by the scruff and held me up in the air.
‘Got ’im!’ he shouted. ‘D’you dare me to drop him in the river?’
‘Yeah. Drop ’er cat in the river. That’ll wind ’er up.’
The three of them were laughing loudly and egging each other on. They ran with me, and the boy had one hand clenching my scruff and the other gripping my back so hard his fingers were digging
into my kidneys. I struggled and twisted, and flailed my claws, trying to scratch his cruel hands and make him let go of me. My nightmares came back in that moment. Joe chucking us in the hedge,
Gretel throwing me out into the frosty night. ‘That’s what happens to bad cats,’ she’d shrieked.
‘Drop ’im from the bridge,’ shouted one of the boys, as their shoes thudded and scuffed as they ran down to the bridge where I’d sat so happily in the sun. I was
terrified. I couldn’t believe they were being so cruel to me. ‘Why? Why me?’ My only hope was that TammyLee might rescue me.
Now Dylan was holding me up in the air above the pool.
I looked at his crazy eyes and sent him a message: ‘I saved your baby’s life. Don’t do this to me.’ But his aura had wine-red thorns like a rose in winter. He thought
that dropping a cat in the river was going to cover his pain in glory. I glanced down, looking for TammyLee, but she’d gone and so had Max and Amber. My kidneys were hurting like fire, and
all I wanted, as he held me over the water, was for him to let go of me – even if I was going to drown, I wanted the agony to stop. It hurt so much that I screamed and he let me go.
I fell down, down into the pool, hearing cheers and laughter and hands clapping. I hit the freezing water and went under, and the shock of it made my heart lurch painfully.
Icy water filled my mouth and rushed up my nose and into my ears. It was the worst experience of my life, even worse than the hot car. I forced my nose up and out of the water and kicked my paws
the way I’d seen Amber doing. I didn’t know whether cats could swim, but I tried, even though my fur was full of water and my tail felt heavy as if it would drag me under.
I hated the noise those boys were making. They were laughing at me and chanting: ‘The cat’s in the water! The cat’s in the water!’ And in the distance, TammyLee was
screaming.
I swam in crazy circles, fighting the current, which was dragging me towards the weir. The pool looked vast; the banks with sun-warmed stones and grasses seemed far away. My paws got tired, I
ached with the cold, my breathing was difficult as I coughed and spluttered.
I don’t know where Amber came from but she hurled herself into the water; the splash threw me all over the place, my neck straining to keep my head up. Then she was swimming vigorously
towards me, her eyes bright with concern. She eased her warmth alongside me, and started to push me with her nose, nearer and nearer to the bank, until I crawled out and lay there, limp and
shocked, my wet tail thin and shiny like a worm.
Amber crouched down beside me, licking and whining. I heard the boys escaping, the thud-thudding of their feet and the echo of their laughter.
Then, TammyLee came running. She was crying out loud and yelling swear words at the fleeing boys.
‘Poor, poor Tallulah!’ She scooped me up and held me against her warm body, against the vest with the green dragon on it, and my soaking fur was dripping down her jeans. She
couldn’t stop crying, and Amber sat beside her, with water streaming from her coat, whining and offering her paw.
‘Thank you, Amber. Thank you. You are a brilliant dog,’ sobbed TammyLee, and she carried me quickly back to Max and Diana, and wrapped me in a warm towel.
‘Those bastard pig boys dropped her from the bridge,’ she wept. ‘How COULD they? How could they hurt Tallulah? She didn’t do anything wrong.’ TammyLee ranted, while
I lay, shocked, wrapped in the towel on Diana’s lap. Her voice rose to a scream. ‘What is WRONG with the world? I don’t want to stay in it. Why has some pig of a boy got to ruin
the nicest day we’ve had for ages? They won’t get away with it. I’ll find the evil little jerks and chuck them in the river. In fact, I’ll bloody drown them. I’ll . .
.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, girl!’ snapped Max. ‘And stop being a drama queen.’
TammyLee turned on him: ‘Don’t you dare start on me. Don’t you criticise me for caring. You can’t tell me what to do. I’m old enough to quit school and get a job.
Then who’s gonna look after Mum?
Max went white. ‘I do know that,’ he said, tight-lipped. ‘This is not an appropriate time to raise major issues.’
I lay there, wishing they would be quiet. TammyLee was more upset than me. Diana put a kindly hand on her daughter’s back as she raged and sobbed.
‘Please try to calm yourself, sweetheart. Tallulah needs us to be quiet and help her recover. She needs healing, not revenge.’
TammyLee calmed down instantly, and Max walked away, tapping at his mobile phone. ‘I’m ringing the police,’ he said. ‘Not that they’ll be interested,’