Vati started to tremble again, and wriggled out of her arms. He came and sat with me, pressing himself into my fur as close as he could get.
He really needs me, I thought, and looked at the afternoon sunshine gilding the window. If we were going to escape, it had to be very soon.
‘That’s appalling,’ Angie said. ‘How could she? How did you allow it, Graham?’
Graham faced her angry eyes calmly.‘Lisa just did it, without telling me. She was paranoid about him scratching Heidi.’
‘Poor, poor little Vati. I can’t bear it!’ Angie ranted on and on.
Graham listened kindly, and even dared to put his arm around her shoulders. She shook him off.‘Don’t touch me,’ she flared. ‘I’m so angry. You could have stopped her, surely. She must have said something.’ Angie seemed to be boiling over with rage she had bottled up for years. ‘You and THAT BLOODY LISA,’ she stormed. ‘She ruined my life, now she’s ruined Vati’s life. How would she like to be de-clawed and have her precious fingernails pulled out?’
Leroy sat cross-legged on the hearth rug, his hands stroking both of us, his eyes watching Angie.‘I got the answer,’ he said firmly and both heads turned to look at him. ‘Vati’s going to be OK if he stays with Timba. Can’t we take Vati with us?’
There was an uneasy silence. Angie looked at Graham.‘Well?’
Graham drummed his fingers faster on the chair arm.‘I love that little cat,’ he admitted, ‘but Leroy’s right. Timba and Vati need to be together … Vati’s already more alive since Timba came … so, yes … I’ll let him go.’
Problem solved!
Vati and I were to travel together, in the luxurious basket … we were going home to live with Leroy and Angie. Over the blue hills, across the shining river, and through the dark forest.
I only wished that Graham was coming too. There was a loneliness that hung around him now, a desolation of the soul. Like the rest of us, he needed Angie. He’d made a terrible mistake and his life was in its shadow.
Graham and I had been buddies. And he’d stuck up for me against Lisa and her broom. I decided to go and say thank you to him nicely. Humans don’t like their men to cry, but as I lay on his chest, gazing and purring, I could feel that his huge body was tight with tears. I tried, but he held on to them.
I expected Vati to go under the sofa when Leroy brought the travelling basket in, but his face brightened and he went straight over and inspected it. Then he walked across elegantly with his tail up and said a beautiful, courteous goodbye to Graham.
‘I’ll miss you, little cat,’ Graham murmured, ‘and … please forgive me.’
Vati touched noses with him, and ran back to the basket. We sat in there, together, facing outwards.
Two black cats against the world.
Chapter Eighteen
CHANGING THE WORLD
Vati and I are ten years old, Angie says, and we’ve just had our birthday. My fur is glossy and well brushed, and I’m still the best cat in the street. Vati has learned to play again, and we have mad half-hours in our happy home. On moonlit nights, the forest calls to me, but I won’t go there. I’m a support cat, and my job is to care for Vati, Angie and Leroy.
Leroy is a young man now, and he’s very rich, he tells me. He sold lots of his wonderful lion pictures and saved all his money. But early this morning he was packing a big rucksack, and he picked me up and said goodbye! And he said, ‘Thank you! Thank you, Timba. You been my BEST, BEST friend.’
I sat in the window and watched a minibus pick him up at the door, and Angie was crying and crying.
Now it’s nearly noon. The sun is high, and Angie is standing in the garden with Vati and me in her arms. I wonder why she’s watching the sky so intently.
Suddenly she stiffens.
‘That’s it!’ she says, and points to a shining plane that is climbing up and up into the blue sky.
Angie is still full of tears. I lick one from her cheek.‘Don’t worry, Timba,’ she says. ‘These are happy tears. Tears of joy. I’m so happy for Leroy, and so proud of him. But we’ll miss him, won’t we, guys?’
We watch the shining plane until it becomes a bright bead, trailing a white arrow of smoke.
And finally, Angie tells us what is going on.
‘That’s Leroy’s plane,’ she says. ‘It’s taking him all the way through the blue sky to Africa … to Timbavati to work with the White Lions.’
Angie was unusually quiet after Leroy had left. Her bright flame seemed to have gone out. She only came alive when we were looking at her laptop, Vati and I sitting on the table beside her, our heads weaving from side to side as we saw pictures of Leroy onscreen. Running down the steps from a big aeroplane and climbing into a truck with some other young people.‘He’s making friends … at last!’ Angie said. ‘He’s found kindred spirits.’ But Leroy’s eyes were homesick as he talked to Angie. ‘I miss you, Angie, and Timba and Vati.’