Her white front door was shut, and a man was walking towards it with long strides. I could see the back of his neck, and the tattered rucksack that hung from his wide shoulders.
‘Watch … just watch,’ my angel whispered, and we fixed our eyes on the young man’s straight back as he stood at the door. His hand hesitated as he lifted it to ring the doorbell, and I saw an arm covered in tattoos, and a bracelet of black and silver.
He rang the bell.
He waited, nervously, a piece of paper in his hand.
The door opened and TammyLee stood there, her eyes startled.
‘Excuse me calling on you like this,’ said the young man in a deep husky voice that sounded both confident and scared. ‘But … I … have reason to believe that you are my mother. My name is Rocky.’ He held out the piece of paper. ‘And this is the letter you wrote to me – you said you wanted me to know you – so here I am!’
TammyLee gasped and flung her hands over her mouth. She peered at Rocky and, in that moment, I watched the shadow leaving her eyes, the light flooding in until they sparkled with hope.
Rocky held out his hand to her.‘I’d so like to get to know you,’ he said quietly, ‘spend some time with you … if … if you’d like that. It would be cool.’
TammyLee could hardly speak. She gazed at her son’s face, her eyes burning with questions, with one big question, that was like a fire she had to step through.
‘It’s OK,’ Rocky said, sensing it. ‘I understand … about you abandoning me … and I’ve forgiven you, long ago.’
‘Oh, Rocky! Rocky … thank you!’ TammyLee opened her arms wide and they hugged. ‘Every day of my life I’ve thought of you,’ she said passionately. ‘I never, ever stopped loving you … I dreamed that one day you would find me.’
The hug went on for ages, and the angels wound ribbons of light round and round the two of them. At last, Rocky straightened his arms and stood with his hands on her shoulders, a wide grin on his young face. He hesitated, then added what seemed to be two magic words.
‘Hi, Mum!’
They laughed with joy, and I was so entranced that I found myself moving ever closer, until I was sitting on the garden path like an earth cat. TammyLee peeped over Rocky’s shoulder, and stared at me.
‘The CAT!’ she cried. ‘Did you bring her?’
‘What cat?’ Rocky turned to look, and for one eternal, exquisite moment, I kept perfectly still in my shining halo of light, my eyes glistening with love.
I suppose you could say that I‘vanished’ then … melted back into the light, like spirit visitors do. But not before I heard the whisper I’d so longed to hear again.
‘Tallulah … I SAW you! Magic puss cat.’
3. TIMBA COMES HOME
Chapter One
SOLOMON’S BEST KITTEN
‘I hope you’re not alone.’ The young woman spoke to me from the window of her red car. She must have seen my tiny black face peeping out of the grass at the side of the road. We stared at each other, and an overpowering feeling stirred in my sad heart. I was an abandoned kitten, and this young woman with the mane of bright hair was the person I wanted to be with. And she needed me. Her sweet, compassionate face was haunted with stress, as if she hadn’t got time to stop, even for a fluffy black kitten. ‘I’m sorry, kitty. I HAVE to get to work. You go back to your mum-cat.’
How could she know my mum-cat wasn’t there?
‘Please stop. Please pick me up. I’m in trouble.’ I sent her that thought, and my hungry meow sounded like a scream.
‘Angie will come back and check you out later, you little darling,’ she said. ‘And if you’re still here, I’ll take you home … Oh damn!’ she cried as something went wrong with the car. ‘Damn this car. Come ON. I’m late for work.’ She forgot about me as she struggled with the problem, revving the engine and filling the lane with black smoke that made my eyes sting.
Disappointed, I shrank back into the thick grass. My legs wobbled, and I lay down, too weak from hunger to move any more. I hoped Angie would come back for me. She had to. Didn’t she?
But the next minute a stone flew out of the air and landed close to me. I jumped, then trembled as running feet pounded down the lane. Breathing hard, a boy reached down and snatched the stone. He chucked it at some boys who were riding past on bikes. They were laughing at him and calling him names.
‘Leave me alone,’ he yelled back. ‘You bullies.’
‘Leroy’s a loser!’ they chanted.
I crouched there, too petrified to move as the bikes skidded to a halt, sending crumbs of mud flying over my fur. The biggest boy got off his bike and shoved Leroy into the prickly hedge, pushing him again and again into the brambles until he was crying bitterly. Laughing, they rode off and left him there, wiping the blood from his face with his sleeve, and tearing his clothes on the brambles.‘My mum’ll kill me,’ he howled, pulling a long thread from the front of his sweater. He sat there in the mud, sniffing and shaking, and kicking the ground. I offered him a tiny meow of comfort, and immediately wished I hadn’t.