‘Daddy kicked the caravan.’ John wailed. ‘It’s not safe in there, Mummy. Daddy was going to knock it over.’
‘No he wasn’t. Just go to your room, John.’
‘NO!’
John ran round behind the caravan and lay on the ground sobbing.
‘Do as you’re told,’ roared Joe, and in a few angry strides he had grabbed John, pushed him inside the caravan and shut the door. Joe leaned against it, breathing hard and looking at Ellen with pain in his eyes. ‘Don’t go running after him. Let him cry for once. It’s ME you should startcaring about.’
‘I do care about you, Joe,’ said Ellen. ‘But you’re getting worse and worse. I can’t cope with you being so angry.’
Joe picked up the hammer from where he had dropped it.‘This is what damaged your precious car. I bloody smashed it. And why? ’Cause YOU refused to give me the keys. So I smashed the window. How else was I supposed to get in?’
‘You’re upsetting John,’ said Ellen. ‘And me. And the cats. If you don’t stop it we’ll get thrown off this campsite, Joe.’
‘See this?’ Joe held up the hammer, and Ellen went pale. ‘This is what you’ll get if you don’t SHUT UP nagging me every five minutes.Stop drinking Joe.Get a job Joe. That’s all you ever say to me now. I’m sick, sick, SICK of it, woman!’
He began to pace to and fro, brandishing the hammer. It glinted in the sun and so did his eyes. Ellen pressed her back against the caravan, her aura flaming with fear and anger. She tried to say something and Joe immediately went into a new frenzy.
‘You say two words and I’ll put this hammer straight through that windscreen.’
Sitting under the hedge, Jessica and I peered out through the bracken fronds.‘Don’t let him hurt my Ellen,’ I was praying. I hoped Ellen would keep quiet and let Joe calm down, and she did. ‘Please send an angel. Please,’ I prayed, and at that moment the door of Pam’s caravan opened, and Pam came bustling over.
‘Nosy old crow,’ muttered Joe, and he flung the hammer under the caravan.
Goodness knows what might have happened if Pam hadn’t come. She had her shoulders square and her chin in the air, and she was smiling!
‘Hello Joe. Doing some DIY are you?’ she quipped. ‘Eee – how did that car window get smashed? What a shame. Have to mend it now won’t you? Expensive aren’t they, cars? I’m glad I’ve only got me bike. Now, how would you like to come and have a coffee, Ellen? Bring John. I’ve just made some gingerbread. Do you want to come, Joe?’
Joe glared at Pam.‘No thanks.’ He turned and walked off, his hands in his pockets, and we watched him turn out of the gate and head up the road. Pam had done a better job than any angel, I thought.
Nothing was easy and fun like it had been in our lovely house. I longed to go back there, and often I sat gazing at the distant road curving around the hill. That was the road home. But every time I did this, my angel told me I had to stay here.
She arrived in a blaze of stars a couple of days later as I crouched on the wide mossy branch of a tree.
‘Wait, Solomon,’ she said. ‘Don’t go into the caravan just yet.’
So I sat patiently in the tree, listening to the first gusts of autumn wind scattering the dry leaves. My angel’s voice was easy to hear, like the twang of a bell in my head, but when I tried to see her in detail she was screened by a shining mist. Mostly I sensed her energy ruffling my fur, and her voice clearing my mind. I appreciated this, as it needed clearing out. My mind was full of homesickness andanxiety. Even anger was in there sometimes, and my angel would sweep it all out as if she had a brush made of stardust. I always felt better once it had been swept away.
Someone in a billowing raincoat was walking towards the caravan in the twilight, a small torchlight bobbing in her hand. It was Pam. But looking closer, I sat up in amazement. Floating beside her was a lady in a glistening, shimmering robe, a lady with a radiant smile and loving eyes. Ellen’s mum. Now I knew why the angel had told me to wait.
Overjoyed to see the visitor from the spirit world, I meowed, leapt down from the tree and dashed across the grass. For the first time that day, my tail was up straight as I ran to her. Ellen’s mum was guiding Pam-next-door towards the caravan, but she paused to whisper some loving words to me.
‘Hello Solomon. You are a darling cat. You’re doing a wonderful, wonderful job. Thank you.’
She brushed her warm hands over my fur and suddenly I felt better. Her praise encouraged me and I flexed my back and purred, rubbing against Pam’s legs. She bent down and picked me up.
‘Eee, you’re a lovely cat you are.’
Cuddling me with one arm, Pam knocked on the caravan window. I realised that Pam couldn’t see Ellen’s mum, who quickly disappeared when Ellen opened the door.
Settling on Ellen’s lap, I could still feel the love of her mum’s smile, and my purring was deep and soothing. Ellen stroked me with one hand and John’s hair with the other as he leaned against her on the long caravan seat, his face still dirty from crying.