‘We’ve just arrived,’ Kaye said. ‘D’you mind if we sit ourselves down next to you? Our house isn’t actually flooded, but the water’s rising and they’ve evacuated the whole street. I grabbed as much as I could. My husband’s gone to work. I’ve got some chocolate and crisps, if you want some. Is your house flooded?’
They chatted about floods while I played with Rocky, and I heard TammyLee telling Kaye how she’d waded, alone, through the icy water to get home. How Amber had found her and guided her away from the riverbank.
‘Sounds like she’s a brave dog,’ she said, fondling Amber, who was now leaning against her legs, looking up at her adoringly. ‘And you’re a bit of a heroine too. Did you say your mum is in hospital?’
‘Yes, but she’s OK,’ TammyLee said. ‘My mum is disabled, but she’s a really special person. I love her to bits. I’m her carer, you see, and have been since I was ten.’
Kaye looked at her with wide eyes.‘That’s AWESOME!’
TammyLee shrugged, but she looked pleased.‘So what about you, Kaye? What’s your little boy’s name?’
‘Rocky.’
A shock rippled through TammyLee, but she acted normal.
‘Go to her,’ said my angel, and I stepped gracefully out of Rocky’s arms and jumped on to TammyLee’s lap. Rocky stood close, looking at her now that she’d got me cuddled against her heart. It was beating very fast.
‘That’s a nice name,’ she said. ‘Did you choose it for a reason?’
Kaye hesitated.‘I didn’t choose it,’ she said, and her eyes looked candidly at TammyLee. ‘I started out as his foster mum but now we have legally adopted him, at last! His real mother …’ she lowered her voice, ‘… abandoned him under a tree by the river.’
The circle of angel light tightened around us. If I hadn’t been there, TammyLee might have panicked or run away. She kept stroking me. I was grounding her.
‘That’s awful,’ she muttered, not looking at Kaye’s bright open face. ‘So … how old is he?’
‘Eighteen months, and he’s great,’ said Kaye. ‘A bit of a handful, but a real boy, aren’t you, Rocky?’
Rocky was standing close to TammyLee, playing with her bangles, and stretching up to smooth my fur with his tiny hand.
‘Move up higher,’ said my angel, and I manoeuvred myself up to TammyLee’s shoulder, and draped myself around her neck, my tail hanging down one side and my face on the other. I had eye contact with Rocky and, after two purr-meows and a touch of sparkle, he looked solemnly at TammyLee, who couldn’t take her eyes off him.
‘Do you want to sit on my lap, Rocky?’ she asked. ‘Then you can stroke Tallulah. She loves you.’
‘Loolah,’ said Rocky, as if my name was a delicious chocolate. ‘Loolah.’
TammyLee helped him onto her lap.
‘He’ll probably go to sleep,’ said Kaye. ‘He usually does about mid-morning.’
‘I don’t mind,’ said TammyLee. She was acting cool, but hardly breathing as Rocky settled on her lap and lay back in the crook of her arm. They gazed and gazed into each other’s eyes.
‘This moment will last for ever,’ said my angel, and all the angels in the golden circle were humming a lullaby, and winding streamers of stars around the three of us. The mother love angel flickered behind TammyLee, bending over her with shining arms.
Rocky’s eyes began to close, the dark lashes falling over his rounded cheeks as he went to sleep instantly. TammyLee rocked him and rested her face against his silky head.
Kaye took out her mobile phone.‘I’ve got to have a photo of that,’ she said, ‘it’s so sweet, with the cat there.’
‘Will you do one on my mobile too?’ asked TammyLee. ‘It’s in my bag.’
‘OK.’
‘That’s very, very …’ TammyLee seemed stuck for words as Kaye showed us the photo she’d taken. ‘… Special,’ she said finally. ‘Look, Tallulah.’ Inside her mobile was a tiny image of Rocky’s sleeping face, and her face, and me like a fairy cat, and a bit of Amber’s facetoo.
Only I knew how precious that photo would be. I filled the silence with purring. A question was burning in TammyLee’s mind, and eventually, she managed to let it come out.
‘What … would happen, Kaye, if the real mother showed up?’
‘She’d have no chance,’ said Kaye. ‘Not now that he’s legally adopted. She wouldn’t be allowed any contact. BUT … she ought to own up really, for Rocky’s sake. He’ll know he’s adopted, and maybe, when he’s a man, he’ll want to trace his birth mother. So, if she is out there, and she cares, she should come clean about it, and get her details put in his birth file, so that he can find her, if he wants to. And she should write him a beautiful letter to have when he’s grown up. I hope she does, for Rocky’s sake. I mean, maybe she was just a scared teenager … they’re not going to send her to prison, are they?’
TammyLee nodded slowly, and the silence sparkled around her as she held her sleeping child.
‘She knows,’ said my angel. ‘She knows what she must do.’
I could feel the change in TammyLee. A calmness, a knowing, a sense of peace. A golden time of holding her secret child, sealed for ever by the angels.
‘It was me,’ said TammyLee, as four pairs of eyes stared intently at her.