Full Steam Ahead, Felix

31. Training Time

‘Right, mate,’ said Jacqui to Bolt. ‘Let’s do it.’

Bolt blinked up at her with his khaki-green eyes. He was wearing a pale-blue harness studded with white polka dots that he’d happily let Jacqui slide over his ebony shoulders. He’d sniffed at it thoroughly as she strapped him in, his effervescent curiosity bubbling to the surface. This was a cat who feared nothing, a cat who would abseil using the lanyard of a photo ID if given half the chance. As Jacqui picked him up, he merrily enjoyed the journey, relaxed and calm.

But, as Bolt was about to discover, Jacqui was not carrying him along the corridor to save his long legs the effort. She was taking him outside. He had not been outside since his arrival at the station on 1 September.

She had specifically chosen a night shift for his first training session. Not only that but she’d picked a slot when no trains, not even freight services, were scheduled to run. The noise they made as they rushed through the station could be alarming; Jacqui wanted nothing to spook him this first time.

Earlier that evening, the big brass pole that secured the doors at the front of the station had been drawn across, so that no one but Jacqui, Dale, Felix and Bolt now roamed around inside it. Felix was already outside, off exploring somewhere. The crucial thing for Jacqui was that there were no other people about. Whatever happened next, Bolt could at least begin his training in privacy.

Taking a deep breath, Jacqui opened the door and stepped out with Bolt on to platform one. He shivered a little as the cool October air hit him, but he seemed happy enough in her hands, secure with his mother. However, the moment she put him down on the platform, the little kitten changed his mind.

‘Shall we go for a walk, baby?’ Jacqui asked him, making kissing noises to encourage him and tugging gently on the cat lead.

Well, Bolt did get to his feet – but only to walk straight back towards the door!

It must have been very scary for him. Even in the still of night, Huddersfield station is not silent. There is a constant thrum of electricity from the lights and the rails. Occasionally, from the ring road round the town, the roar of a boy racer on his motorbike will fire, while in the small hours the chronologically confused birds beyond platform eight often chirp and tweet. To Bolt’s huge ears, used for weeks now only to listen to the muffled sounds inside, it all sounded strange. He padded a little on the cold concrete, disliking the sensation. Where was his warm lino that he so loved to slide along? He couldn’t slide on this …

‘Is it cold on your tootsies, mate?’ Jacqui asked him, understanding. This was October in Yorkshire, after all; it was going to be cold. But it was always going to be cold – so Bolt had to get used to it. And the only way he could learn to do that was to experience it just as he was doing right now.

He didn’t like it, though. That much was clear from the way he hugged the door which led back inside. Bless him, it must have been terrifying – what with all the strange sounds and smells, and that odd, discomfiting sensation of cool air all around him. Where were the radiators and oil heaters that he was used to in the office? Where was his air-conditioning? His wiry body trembled and he sat down, resisting Jacqui’s attempts to persuade him to walk.

‘Come on, baby,’ she purred at him. ‘Come on, baby boy.’

Bolt took a deep breath. Although he was still scared, he bravely got to his feet – and managed to take a few small steps, moving parallel to the door that he so longed to return through. He sniffed along its seam hopefully. Then, abruptly, as if inspired by the smells seeping through it, he promptly turned round, twisting himself up in his lead, and walked back the few short steps he had managed, clearly desperate to return inside. The brave, bolshie kitten who had so quickly made the back offices his own was scared stiff.

But Jacqui couldn’t let him back inside just yet. He had been outside for less than a minute. She knew that outside was a world that Bolt could learn to love – he just had to give it a chance.

She watched him worriedly. If only someone could explain to the kitten that it would be OK, she thought. If only someone could show him that this world wasn’t all bad – and that, actually, he might just like it. If only he could have a mentor, who could show him the way …

And then, so perfectly timed it was as if it was scripted, a fluffy black-and-white cat padded slowly up the platform.

‘See,’ Jacqui said to Bolt. ‘Felix is here now.’

She had come to see how her apprentice was getting along.

Felix the railway cat stalked along the platform with all the confidence that her seven years at the station had given her. She too had experienced training sessions like Bolt’s when she had first arrived, as the team had helped her learn about the rhythms of the station and the world that would be her kingdom. Perhaps she remembered what it was like. At any rate, having spent the past few weeks avoiding Bolt as much as she could, she now chose to come closer to him, walking to within three feet of where the kitten still cowered against the door.

She seemed absolutely transfixed by him. And, oddly, she didn’t seem cross to find that his domain was now expanding to include outside. She was curious. As Jacqui continued to encourage him – and Bolt continued to back against the door – Felix stood sentry, watching proceedings closely.

Then, a peculiar thing happened. Her steady, solid presence seemed to inspire Bolt. Suddenly, he gave himself a little shake and took a step towards her – and then another. He was not his usual, confident self, but from somewhere he found courage.

Bolt lowered his nose to the cold ground and sniffed. That was interesting … He did it again. As though finally intrigued – as though finally able to replace his fear with a small thirst for adventure – he tottered forward once more. He left the sanctuary of the door behind him and bravely ventured further afield, out on to the platform. Felix’s emerald-green eyes watched him closely, missing absolutely nothing, as though she would be writing up a management report later and needed to note down every detail.

‘Good boy!’ Jacqui called, as the little kitten continued to prowl about.

Just then, the door opened and Dale stepped out.

‘Look,’ Jacqui told him in delight. ‘Felix has come to escort him.’

And she had. As Bolt moved onwards, now heading towards Felix’s favourite bike racks on platform one, she moved forward to see what he was up to. It could have been a territorial move, given Bolt had gravitated towards one of her favourite spots, but her observation did not have that quality. It was more that she was curious and wanted to keep a watchful eye on him. She mirrored Bolt as he stepped in and out of the racks, shadowing him, as though he was learning the steps for the first time and she was making sure he was getting them right. (He wasn’t, necessarily; he hopped and skipped a little, pouncing on the shifting shadows, whereas Felix flowed through the metal bars like water, her body silken and smooth.)

As the two cats jointly picked their way through the forest of bike racks, it was inevitable that their paths would eventually cross. Indeed, so closely was Felix following Bolt’s movements that, in the end, she wound up face to face with him. The two station cats stood together nose to nose, just like those pictures that Jacqui had sent to Angie way back when of her own cats welcoming Bolt.

And, after all this time, it did seem to be a welcome. Felix hadn’t felt able to do that, nowhere near, when Bolt had first arrived, but out here on the platforms that October evening, during the camaraderie-rich night shift, it seemed she had finally turned a corner.

‘Welcome to our world,’ said her close attention. ‘Watch how you go now, young ’un – you’ve got an awful lot to learn.’

Under the glow of the station lights, the two cats faced each other, noses sniffing hard. Their paws padded safely over the twisted shapes of the metal padlocks and chains that were usually used to secure bikes to the racks. It was here that they paused, a meeting of minds and moggies. And in those chains resting between them was a beautiful symbolism, as though this first training session was finally linking the two cats together – two pest controllers bonding through their shared experience.

Over the past seven years, Felix had loved her team and performed her duties to the best of her ability, but she had never had another cat with whom she could share all the adventures. Now, however, she stood nose to nose with Bolt under the arch of her favourite silver rack.

It curved above them like the future.