Christmas passed in a comfortable haze of fairy lights and plates of turkey. Angie made us a playhouse from a big cardboard box, and we were given a new catnip mouse each. We experienced the frosty garden and came in with our fur ruffed out and diamond drops on our whiskers. Angie laughed a lot and took funny photographs of Vati and me warming our bellies in the glow of the wood burner. Happy cats.
I loved the winking fairy lights, and I enjoyed watching Leroy tearing the paper off his presents. Inside one parcel was a sleek silver laptop, and that was the first time I ever heard Leroy say‘thank you’ with a look of pure wonder in his eyes. He seemed overwhelmed and sat on the floor staring at his presents, while Vati and I crunched the torn paper and skidded around. It was pure happiness.
The Spirit Lion tried to warn me that things could change.‘Christmas is a strange time for humans,’ he said. ‘It’s too much artificial happiness and it collapses into a black hole.’
Two days later, I found out what he meant.
Leroy had gone out for the day with his social worker to see his mum. Janine had been found living in a distant town, and she had agreed to see Leroy regularly, with his social worker. The visits disturbed Leroy, and he would come home moody and sad. As soon as Leroy had left, Graham handed Angie a letter. He looked guilty, like a dog who had dug a hole in the lawn.
‘What’s this?’ Angie sat down on the sofa and unfolded the white paper. Graham stood over her, fidgeting, and I sensed his heart thumping too fast in that huge chest.
A strange light came into Vati’s eyes, lemon bright and suspicious. Sensing trouble, he immediately climbed to the top of the bookshelves, and sat up there, hunched and attentive. I rolled on the rug and couldn’t be bothered to move.
An icy silence chilled our happy room. I turned to watch Angie. Her aura was sparking, and there was a sense that time had stopped in the air above a chasm. Her thoughts were spinning. She grasped the arm of the sofa and stuttered out some words.‘You can’t do this to me, Graham.’
Graham stood there like a teddy bear, his eyes fixed and glassy, his fingers and thumb pulling at his collar.
Angie’s skin flushed crimson.
‘It’s my house, Angie. We’re not married,’ said Graham quietly.
‘You BASTARD!’ Angie leapt to her feet and screamed in a way I would never forget. The scream of an angel is the most harrowing sound on Earth.
Shaken to the edges of my fur, I quickly jumped up to sit in the window, behind the velvet curtain. The glass was cold, and the winter wind whipped across the garden, blowing hard beads of snow.
‘All the LOVE I’ve put into this place.’ Angie’s words flew at Graham like wasps. ‘The WORK I’ve done. It was bleak when I came here. Graham, you’ve used me. You’ve betrayed me. And who is this bloody woman?’ Her voice shattered into another scream, her hands clenching at her hair.
‘Please don’t swear,’ said Graham coldly, ‘and her name is Lisa.’ He flicked his mobile phone. ‘There’s a photo of her here, look … it’s a nice one. She’s a sweet girl, you’d like her.’
‘Like her?’ Angie jumped to her feet and tore Graham’s letter into flakes that fell like snow onto the carpet.
The row raged on and on. I only caught fragments of it as I hid behind the curtain looking out at the snow. I glanced at Vati and he’d obviously seen it too. We made a telepathic agreement to inspect it later.
‘And what about Leroy?’ Angie said. She looked at Graham with fierce, hot eyes. ‘All that stuff I’ve been through with the social workers, fighting for him, fighting to get full-time foster care … and just when he’s settling down … you pull the rug out!’
‘Everything I have to say is in that letter,’ Graham said. ‘You’d better piece it together and read it. Or open your laptop. I took the precaution of putting it in an email too. I’m not going to stand here arguing. I’ve got a rehearsal.’
‘Oh go on … walk away!’ Angie screamed. ‘You heartless, devious BASTARD!’
Graham stalked out and shut the door. Moments later we heard his car pulling into the lane. I watched its red lights disappear into the whirling snow.
I ran to Angie who had crumpled onto the sofa. She seemed numb with shock.‘Oh Timba! Dear darling, lovely cat.’ She cried into my fur, and I felt the gratitude she was sending me through her pain. I leaned against her heart and spread myself right out, wanting to give her all my warmth, my loudest purr, my long soft paws reaching up to pat her burning face. I almost couldn’t bear her pain. It was hard for me to stay there, but I knew I had to. A frenzy of snowflakes hit the window. I wanted to play, and just be a cat.
Angie picked up the phone.‘Can you come round, Laura? … please … I’ve had a devastating shock.’
Minutes later, Laura was there, shaking the snow from her coat. She took her boots off and came to sit with Angie on the sofa.‘My God, you look terrible, Angie. What’s happened?’