The horses lost interest and wandered away, their heads down, munching grass.
It was Angie’s horse Poppy who knew what to do. She stared at Leroy and the blaze of light floating towards her. It was coral gold, with streamers of white, and wings that fizzed with energy. Leroy’s angel! She looped around the pony and somehow coaxed her to move. Poppy walked carefully towards Leroy, her neck arched and ears pricked as she followed the angel.
She lowered her head and gave Leroy a gentle push with her nose.
‘Don’t you two kitties want your tea?’ Angie called from the kitchen, but Vati and I sat like statues, like the Egyptian cats we had once been, our necks long, our whiskers stiff, our tails neatly curled around ourselves. We were mesmerised by a horse, an angel and a motionless boy.
Poppy lifted her head and turned to face the house. She pawed the ground and whinnied, loud and shrill, an alarm call that soon brought Angie to the window. Poppy saw her and again lowered her head to nudge Leroy with her nose. Then she swung round and once more whinnied at Angie.
‘Oh my God! Someone’s lying there … it looks like a child!’ Angie gasped, and at the same moment Graham started to ‘sing’, ‘Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, AH.’
Incensed, Angie tore the music-room door open.‘WILL you stop that bloody singing, Graham, and come and help me. We’ve got a crisis!’
The sight of Leroy’s small body lying on the sofa had a surprising effect on me. I did what the Spirit Lion had told me to do: I went to him with my tail up.
‘Here’s Timba!’ said Angie in a comforting way. She sat at the table nearby, the phone in her hand. ‘I don’t think it’s an emergency,’ she said into the phone, ‘but we do need a paramedic or a doctor to check him out.’
‘Timba!’ Leroy smiled for the first time, and his eyes shone. I jumped up and kissed his cold face. He was shivering, and clutching a soft blanket which Graham had put over him. Now Graham was sitting on a stool, close to Leroy, his eyes attentive with concern.
I knew exactly how to stretch myself over Leroy’s bony chest and flex my little paws rhythmically. I wanted him to feel the warmth and strength from every part of me … my soft furry tummy, my paws, my tail … and, most important, the power of my purring. Once I got it started, it rolled through me like a song from the angels.
‘He loves me,’ Leroy said in a scratchy whisper, and his eyes filled with tears. ‘Did you miss me, Timba?’
‘It’s OK to cry,’ said Graham kindly, and I remembered how loudly Leroy had cried through those long, painful hours in his home. Now his tears ran silently over trembling cheeks. Graham extracted the folded white hanky from his top pocket and gave it to Leroy. He pushed it away. ‘I’ll make a mess of it,’ he said.
‘That’s what hankies are for,’ Graham said, and I noticed his aura was bright, and that Vati had crept up to lie on his shoulder and soak up the healing atmosphere.
‘You’ve got two kittens,’ said Leroy.
‘This is Vati.’
‘Vati! Timba’s brother. Timba and Vati.’ Leroy smiled again. I went on purring, sensing Vati’s approval, giving my whole self to the stream of healing light. Where it came from was no mystery to me. It was woven into the webs of life all over the Planet Earth. I had only to choose a strand from a gold-and-silver thread and let it flow through me. Easy.
‘The paramedics are on their way,’ said Angie. She sat on the floor by the sofa. ‘Aww, look at Timba! He’s giving you healing.’
Leroy turned his frightened eyes and looked at Angie.‘I only wanted to see Timba,’ he said. ‘But he ran indoors, so I went to see the horses.’
‘So what happened?’
‘I got on that grey to have a ride. I been on a horse before, on a roundabout, but this grey one went mad and chucked me off.’
‘She’s a young pony. She’s never been ridden,’ Angie explained. ‘She must have been very frightened.’
‘I didn’t know that, Miss … I didn’t think horses could be frightened.’
‘Why not?’
‘Cos they’re big.’
‘I’m big,’ said Graham, ‘and I get scared.’
‘What are you scared of?’ Leroy asked.
‘Owls and spooky stuff.’
‘I ain’t scared of anything,’ said Leroy proudly. ‘Except my mum.’
‘So where is your mum?’ Angie asked. ‘She’s not answering the phone. Do you know her mobile number?’
‘She hasn’t got a mobile now … she got into debt with it.’
‘Where is she then, Leroy?’
Leroy shrugged.‘Dunno.’
Angie and Graham looked at each other, and I sensed the telepathy passing between them. Graham frowned. He shook his head ever so slightly, and the bright light drained from his aura. He was going down into a dark confining space, and trying to drag Angie with him. Angie wasn’t having it. Nothing fired her passion like negativity and resistance.
‘Here are the paramedics.’ She pursed her lips, squared her shoulders and went to open the door. Two men in orange came in and Graham picked up Vati and me, one in each hand, and airlifted us into the kitchen.
When the paramedics had gone, we were allowed back in, and Leroy was sitting up looking more like himself.