‘All is well, Solomon. You must go back,’ she said. ‘Ellen wants to take you to live with Isaac, and this is good for her and for you. You will be quite safe in the cat basket. I will watch over you. Stay calm and this time nothing will hurt you.’
‘I can’t,’ I said. ‘I just can’t go inside that basket.’
‘You can, Solomon. Isaac has a lovely home where you will be free and happy. It’s time to move on.’
I clambered down from the tree, thinking about what she’d said. In my heart I wanted to be with Jessica again. I decided to go to the badger hole, one last time, and sit close to the tiny white tuft of Jessica’s fur. Then maybe I would try to go home.
Sensing a movement inside the hole as I approached, I sat down to watch. A bird was in there! A robin. I watched him hopping about and saw his head move to peck something. I heard the burr of his wings as he flew past. In his beak was Jessica’s tuft of white fur. He was going to line his nest with it.
My last link with Jessica was gone.
With my tail down I padded slowly homeward through the copse, just looking at the ground in front of me. I was tired of life, and deeply grieving, and afraid.
When I got to the caravan I was surprised to see Karenza sitting on the grass with Ellen. Normally I would have run to them with my tail up, but I couldn’t.
Ellen gave a cry,‘Oh HERE he is! Solomon …’
I didn’t go to her but crept right under the caravan into the dark and crouched there.
‘What’s wrong with him? He must be hurt, or sick,’ said Ellen, and she lay on her tummy and tried to coax me out. I felt too numb to move. ‘Please Solomon,’ she pleaded, ‘I love you so much. I won’t leave you ever again. Please come out.’
‘Let me try,’ said Karenza, and she crawled under the caravan and lay beside me. She looked into my eyes for a long time, and gently put her hands on me. I felt a warm glow from them, and I remembered that touch, how she had taken me into her bed and healed me through the night.
‘I need to spend some time with him, Ellen,’ she said. ‘Can you hang in there?’
‘OK, I’ll just sit here quietly.’
Karenza began to talk to me by telepathy, which made it so easy. The thoughts were rippling to and fro between us. Instead of lecturing me, Karenza asked me questions, deep questions that needed to be answered.
‘What is it you want to tell me, Solomon?’
‘I want to go with Ellen, but I can’t. I can’t go in that cat basket.’
‘What happened to make you so afraid?’
‘I was … kidnapped … by a family and they were going to take me to London, and call me Fred.’
‘So what did you do?’
‘I … I went crazy, and hurt myself. I made my paws bleed, and my nose. I was covered in blood. I had to make them let me out.’
Karenza paused and sent me a whoosh of love from her hands. It was better than the amber velvet cushion. I sensed her tuning in to my deepest secrets.
‘That must have been hard for you, Solomon. You don’t like fighting do you? You’re such a loving cat.’
What she said, and the way she said it, gave me such peace to know that a human understood. I wanted to purr, but instead, I sort of cried like a human in little squeaks and growls, and the sound travelled right through me, carrying the pain away. Karenza stayed with me, and I saw that Ellen had crawled under the caravan too and her beautiful eyes were looking at me like two big lamps. I reached out a paw to her to show I cared.
Then Karenza asked me about Jessica, by telepathy, and I was able to tell her everything. It was such a relief. I even told her about the robin flying off with the tuft of white fur.
Each time I told her something and she listened, I felt lighter, and better. The dark space under the caravan seemed full of the haze of stardust. I began to feel like a new cat.
I purred and stretched. I kissed Ellen on the nose. Then I walked out into the sunshine and the two women crawled after me, their hands and clothes grubby from the dust. I sat on Ellen’s lap and purred while Karenza told her everything.
‘He’s a very traumatised cat,’ she said, and then added something which made me feel a whole lot better. ‘And he must never be expected to go in a cat basket again, Ellen. He can’t, and he needs you to understand that.’
Ellen was silent.
‘It’s my fault,’ she said eventually. ‘I should never have left him that time.’
‘Solomon’s forgiven you. Haven’t you, Solomon?’ said Karenza, and I purred louder, put my paws around Ellen’s neck, and gave her a cat-hug.
‘Look at him. He’s giving me so much.’ Ellen rubbed her cheek against my head. ‘But how are we going to get him down to Isaac’s place? The caravan is all locked up now and I’ve given the keys to Nick. We’ve officially moved out.’
Karenza’s eyes gleamed and she rummaged in the bag she always carried over her shoulder. It had a fabric cat on it with eyes made of tiny beads. She took out something that looked like a sock, and let me sniff it. It smelled of one of her cats.