Devastated, I slunk out of the house, feeling I couldn’t bear to stay in there. Angie had promised me a ‘forever home’, and Vati. What was going to happen? The conversation hung over me, and the words swerved and twisted in my mind. ‘Angie will have to go … and her chickens, and THAT BOY … and the cats.’
It was unthinkable.
I headed for my magic place, the circle of stones on the back lawn. Thick grey clouds were piling in from the west, and the wind ruffled my fur. I couldn’t get comfortable. Driven by the need for total stillness and shelter, I trotted across the lawn and found the barrel Vati had used. A node point, he’d said, a place of enchantment where the golden roads crossed. Right now I needed something like that.
I heard the sounds of Graham taking THAT LISA home in his car. I wondered where Vati was. I needed him.
But I stayed in the barrel, and felt nothing except anxiety and the chill of autumn.
Then I heard Angie and Leroy arriving, Leroy’s feet thundering around the place as he looked for me. ‘Timba. Timba, where are you?’
I stayed hidden.
Cats shouldn’t have to worry about humans, I thought, as I waited for the Spirit Lion. He came wrapped in white light, his eyes peaceful and amused. He coaxed me out of the barrel, and the sky had cleared. Pale and warm, the afternoon sun seemed to arrive with the Lion, even though it was autumn.
‘You’re a fine cat, Timba,’ he said as I settled down between his pillow-soft paws.
‘But what’s going to happen to me?’ I asked, and the whole problem suddenly magnified in my mind. Where would Angie take us? How far away? I loved our home at Graham’s. Vati and I knew every corner, every wall and every tree. We knew where the sun rose and where to shelter from the wind. We had friends here, good friends like Poppy and Laura, and the heron who came to the pond. I couldn’t imagine living somewhere else. This was home.
‘You will be strong enough for everything you need to do, Timba,’ he said reassuringly. ‘Angie will take care of you and Vati. Don’t worry about places … wherever you are on this special Planet, you have lines of communication, and when you go on a journey, you can follow the golden roads.’
‘How can I find a golden road?’ I asked.
‘I’ll teach you how to find one.’ The Lion closed his eyes. ‘Be very still, and close your eyes with me. Then you’ll be able to see so much more. Do this, always, when you are lost. And don’t tuck your paws up like that. Your pads are very sensitive. Use them,’ he continued as I quickly rearranged myself. ‘When your pads are touching the earth they will pick up information … and when you feel the buzz and see the gold in your mind, then you are on a golden road. Keep your eyes closed … for when they are open your finer senses are weakened.’
I thought about my paws, and the way they felt on the damp earth. My pads began to detect a buzzy sensation, as if I was touching a bumblebee. It was coming from deep under the earth, and it wasn’t confined to one spot, it was travelling in a limitless flowing stream. It wasn’t water. It wasn’t fire.
‘What is it?’ I asked the Spirit Lion.
‘Pure celestial energy,’ he said, ‘such as you had in the spirit world, Timba. Don’t you remember?’
‘No,’ I said.
‘The memory is there … in your mind … somewhere,’ said the Spirit Lion, and his voice deepened. ‘Before you were born into this life, you crossed the river of forgetfulness, and for you that was a powerful block. You were intended to be a brave and loving cat, a leader, a real Earthcat … a support cat.’
‘A support cat?’ I queried.
‘A cat who is so important that a human cannot live without you. And I think you know who that human is, Timba.’
‘Leroy.’ I couldn’t hide my disappointment. ‘But I wish it was Angie.’
‘Angie is your earth-angel. She loves you, but she’s not dependent on you. Leroy is. You are the first soul on Earth to offer him unconditional love.’
‘I am?’
The thought was so awesome that we both sank into silence, a nurturing, creative silence that drifted into purring. I felt the Spirit Lion melting away like a cloud of steam vanishing into the landscape … still there, but gone!
I focused on what he had told me, closing my eyes and keeping my pads on the earth to feel the‘pure celestial energy’. Vati knows about that, I realised, and the instant I thought about him, my beautiful, poetic brother came gliding through the long grass to find me.
‘You need to lighten up, Timba,’ he said. His eyes sparkled with mischief. He dived into the barrel and went mad in there with sticks and straw, making explosive rustlings. Then he pounced on me, leapt in the air and challenged me to a wrestling match. We lashed our tails and made faces at each other, then rolled on the floor in a tangle of pedalling paws. The excitement sent us flying around the garden with me chasing Vati, both of us on fire with joy.
What would I do without my amazing brother?
Chapter Eleven
THE SCREAM OF AN ANGEL