In that moment of parting, I felt so close to Ellen. We had shared so much. Joe saw Ellen as a tired woman with haunted eyes endlessly shrieking at him, often frowning as she tried to cope. Only I knew the bright, creative soul of Ellen, the child with honey gold hair and passion in her eyes, who cared about tiny birds and animals, who only wanted to play beautiful music and dance in the wind. In that earlier lifetime she’d given me so much love and fun. It tore me apart to watch her being driven away to a place where I couldn’t reach her.
Jessica crept out of her cupboard and we both sat on the windowsill, watching Pam cleaning up the caravan. She worked energetically, gathering Joe’s empty beer cans into a bag, stacking his motoring magazines, washing up and folding clothes. She tutted and grumbled, and talked non-stop.
‘He’s a lazy so and so, that Joe. He doesn’t deserve a lovely wife like Ellen, and two beautiful cats like you. Now you cats have got to be good.’ Pam turned and wagged her finger at us. ‘You’ve got to be good quiet cats and keep out of his way. I’ll have John in with me, but I can’t have you two in my caravan because of me dog. Have you got that, Jessica?’
Jessica’s buttercup eyes sparkled at Pam as if they shared a private joke.
‘And don’t you shred his precious magazines.’ Pam pointed her finger at Jessica who was enjoying the attention. ‘And don’t bring mice in. He hates that. You just be good quiet cats and I’ll keep an eye on you till Ellen gets back, poor girl. She’s gone to hospital, and that’s like you going to the vet. Not fun, but they’ll make her better, you’ll see.’
Pam sounded confident and reassuring. I was glad to have her there. She seemed like an earth angel to me. When she’d gone to fetch John, Jessica and I settled down for a long sleep with the afternoon sun streaming through the window onto our fur.
At dusk I sat on the caravan steps, waiting for Ellen to return. Paisley was ambling along the hedge on his own. He paused and looked at me, one paw in the air. I didn’t move. I knew that Jessica would come out, puffed up like a porcupine, if Paisley dared to approach. I still didn’t fancy tackling him on my own though.
I could hear the badgers coming out of their hole, and the magpies chattering as they went home to roost. I listened to every car that came down the lane, and finally I heard the familiar rattle of Joe’s car and the squeal of tyres as he braked and turned into the campsite. Paisley’s eyes shone red in the headlight.
‘Daddy, Daddy.’ John came running. ‘I had tea with Pam. And she’s given me a cake for Mummy.’
He flung himself at the car window, the cake in his hand. It looked nice. A fruit bun with a cherry on top.
But the passenger seat was empty.
Ellen wasn’t there.
Joe heaved himself out of the car and locked it. He squatted down to talk to John.
‘Mummy’s very sick,’ he said. ‘She’s got to stay in hospital for a long time.’
John stared at him, his face crumpling. Then he squashed the cake in his hand, hurled it under the caravan, and ran away into the darkness.
‘Get back here NOW,’ shouted Joe, but John ignored him.
I understood what Joe had said about Ellen. It shocked me. How would we all live without Ellen? How could I be her cat if she wasn’t there? I made up my mind to go and find her.
Jessica dived under the caravan and seized the cake. She reversed into the dark with it, growling, and sat there picking off the crinkly paper.
‘Thieving, opportunist moggy.’ Joe slammed into the caravan and I heard him opening the fridge and taking out beer cans.
I ran after John. Like me, he had refuges where he could hide if he needed to, and I knew where most of them were. I found him sitting on a pile of pallets round the back of Nick’s place, and to my surprise Paisley was leaning against John’s legs, his big chin on the boy’s knee. He was being very loving, offering John his huge paw, and John was talking to him. It changed my attitude to dogs. Obviously John had made friends with Paisley when I wasn’t around. There were even a few healing stars drifting around the two of them, and Paisley was so intent on comforting John that he didn’t even glance in my direction. I was glad that John had a friend, it left me free to go and find Ellen.
‘You can’t do that,’ Jessica said, when I told her my plans.
‘Why not?’
‘You could get lost, or run over by a car,’ she said. ‘And I don’t fancy living here alone with Joe.’
‘You can have my badger hole,’ I offered, but Jessica pooh-poohed that idea.
‘I’m a carpet cat. I don’tdo badger holes,’ she said, washing her pink paws vigorously. ‘I dream of living with a little old lady who will pamper me when my work is done.’
‘Not if you shred magazines.’
‘I shan’t do it. I shall be a model cat,’ said Jessica haughtily.
‘I’ll miss you,’ I said, and Jessica came and made a fuss of me, licking my ears and my back, purring her funny little purr.
‘So what is your work?’ I asked.