The Cat Who Liked Rain

Nine

The next day, when Lukas woke up, it seemed to him as if everything that had happened the previous evening was a dream.

Had he really walked all that way to town? And the man at the hotel — did he really exist, or was he also somebody who vanished the moment Lukas woke up?

But when he went to the kitchen and looked straight into Beatrice’s serious eyes, he knew that what had happened last night hadn’t been a dream. He recognised that look of hers, and he knew that something serious had happened. It had all taken place in the real world.

But how had he got home? He didn’t know. He tried to work out what must have happened. If he really had walked into town, he couldn’t simply have dreamed himself back into his own bed?

Or had he been asleep all the way back?

No, he couldn’t understand what had happened. Beatrice sighed, but said nothing. And Lukas didn’t feel like asking. He was afraid of what she might say.

Lukas ate his breakfast without saying a single word. Then he went back to his room. He didn’t know what he would find to do. Nor could he bring himself to think about Night just now. He messed about with his toys and thought about the fact that he’d be starting school soon. How would that go? What if he turned out to be the type who could never learn anything? He felt the need to find out more about that right away. He sat down on the floor with his alarm clock in his hand, and decided that he would learn to tell the time before he started school. If he could teach himself how to do that, he would have proved that he was the type who could learn things.

But he didn’t get that far. This was a very odd morning, and to make it even odder he suddenly noticed Axel standing in the doorway, looking at him. Why wasn’t he out on the roads with his lorry? Had something happened? Lukas was worried. But Axel merely smiled and sat down on the floor beside him.

‘What are you doing, Lukas?’ he asked.

‘Nothing,’ said Lukas. ‘I thought I’d try to teach myself how to tell the time.’

‘Can’t you do that already?’ asked Axel in surprise.

‘Not properly,’ said Lukas. ‘I’ve a bit more to learn yet. The little hand is hardest.’

‘I’m with you there,’ said Axel. The little hand is really hard — it moves so slowly.’

‘Why aren’t you out in your lorry today?’ Lukas eventually got round to asking.

‘I’ve taken the day off,’ said Axel. ‘I thought you and I could do something together.’

Lukas’s heart immediately started racing. This had hardly ever happened before — his dad taking time off work in order to be with Lukas. The only time he’d ever taken a day off before was when Whirlwind had fallen out of a tree and hit his head. But Lukas wasn’t ill.

Even so, Dad had taken the day off. Why?

‘What shall we do?’ Lukas asked.

‘I thought we could drive out to the camp site,’ said his dad. ‘If we put our walking boots on, we can go for a stroll in the forest. We might get to see an elk.’

Axel had hardly finished the sentence before Lukas raced out into the hall and started lacing up his walking boots.

They were soon on their way. They drove through town, past the school that Lukas would soon be attending. It was standing empty at the moment, but the summer holidays would be over before long.

Lukas suddenly realised that his father was watching him through the rear-view mirror. When his eyes met Lukas’s, he started to smile. Lukas felt almost embarrassed. He wasn’t used to his dad looking at him for no apparent reason.

They turned off from the main road, and the car bumped its way along the rough track towards the lake. Dad wound down the window, and Lukas could smell the scents of the forest.

The camp site was deserted. Caravans were empty and abandoned. Some of them had already been towed away, taken home to stand in the garden or in the garage over the long winter.

Axel walked down to the shore and gazed out over the lake. Lukas stood beside him, aping him, his legs wide apart and his hands by his sides. Dark clouds were closing in from the edge of the forest on the other side of the lake.

‘We live in a rainy-weather land,’ said Axel.

‘Yes,’ said Lukas, who didn’t really know how to respond to that. ‘It certainly does rain sometimes.’

Lukas could hear that his response sounded odd, as if he were pretending to be grown up. It was a bit like somebody singing out of tune. Grownups should sound like grown-ups, and children like children — otherwise, there was something wrong.

‘Let’s go,’ said his dad. ‘We’ll take that path over there.’

They were soon deep in the forest. They could no longer see the lake, and it was as dark as late afternoon in there among the trees. There was an occasional sound of flapping wings among the tall tree trunks.

‘The birds can see us, but we can’t see them,’ said Axel.

They came to a clearing. It was a bit lighter there. Dad took off his cap and placed it on a tree stump before sitting down on it. Lukas did the same. That’s why we have parents, he thought. So that we know when to take our cap off and put it on a tree stump before sitting down.

‘A rainy-weather land,’ said Axel again.

Lukas had the impression that Axel wanted to tell him something, but didn’t know how to begin.

‘I understand how sad you must be because your cat has run away,’ said his dad after a while. ‘You want him to come back home, of course. But you can’t tame cats. They might live with people, but they’re still wild. It’s a bit hard to explain. Do you understand what I mean?’

‘Yes,’ said Lukas. Although he hadn’t a clue what his dad was saying. How could a cat be wild and tame at the same time? Could people be like that as well? Was it the wild Lukas who had run away the previous evening? And the tame Lukas who was now sitting on a tree stump in the depths of the forest?

‘You have to understand that Night is just as happy when he’s living out in the wilds,’ his dad went on. ‘Maybe he was a cat that couldn’t be tamed. If we’d forced him to stay at home, it would have been like locking him up in a cage.’

Axel scratched away at the back of his neck before continuing solemnly.

‘I thought it would be best if we had a little chat about this, just you and me,’ he said. ‘Your mum and I are a bit worried about you thinking about Night all the time.’

‘I want him to come back,’ said Lukas, and could feel the lump in his throat.

‘Maybe it’s better for him to be living wild in a rainy-weather land,’ said Dad.

‘Cats don’t like rain,’ said Lukas.

‘But Night ran away when it was pouring down,’ said his dad. ‘Perhaps Night is an unusual cat who likes bad weather.’

Lukas needed to think about that. Maybe his dad was right? Maybe Night was the only cat in the world who liked rain? But in that case, where is this special rainy-weather land?

He asked his dad.

‘Nobody really knows where it is,’ said Axel. ‘But what I do know is that all the cats who live there put umbrellas up when it’s sunny and they sit outside in their gardens, and they are happiest when it’s raining. The raindrops are warm, and they give you a tan. Sometimes the rain is so warm that they have to find a place where the sun is shining so that they can find some shade and feel cool.’

‘That’s a very strange country,’ said Lukas. ‘Is it on the map?’

‘No,’ said his dad. ‘Only the very best and most remarkable cats ever find their way there. They don’t need maps. They follow the rain clouds, and they eventually get there.’

‘Is there food for them in that country?’ Lukas wondered.

‘There’s everything a cat could possibly want there,’ said Axel. ‘Cats couldn’t possibly find anywhere better to live than the rainy-weather land.’

Lukas didn’t really know what to believe. Obviously, what his dad was saying was a fairy tale — but it was a lovely fairy tale. It was easier to think about Night after having heard Dad talking about this strange country far, far away, where it rained all the time.

‘That’s why I took the day off,’ said Axel. ‘So that we could come out here into the forest and talk about Night.’

‘Will Night ever come back?’ Lukas asked.

‘Possibly not,’ said his dad. ‘But I’m quite sure that he’s thinking about you just as much as you’re thinking about him.’

‘Can’t we go and visit him?’ Lukas asked.

‘Where?’

‘In the rainy-weather land.’

‘There’s no way we could go there, neither walking or by car,’ said his dad.

‘How did Night get there, then?’

There was a long pause before Axel answered. Lukas had the feeling that his dad didn’t really know.

‘Cats have remarkable eyes,’ he said in the end. They can see much better than we can when it’s dark. Sometimes, when it rains at night, really big drops fall to the ground — as big as beach balls. Cats who want to go to the rainy-weather land creep inside those enormous drops. Then they start spinning round at tremendous speed and woosh! — They vanish; and when they’ve vanished they are there.’

Lukas didn’t know what to think. What his dad had told him sounded exciting — but could it really be true? Did raindrops as big as that really fall during the night?

‘I want Night to come back even so,’ said Lukas. ‘Even if he can only come to say hello now and again. Maybe it’s possible to write letters to that strange land?’

‘We’ll have to see if we can find out the address,’ said Axel, standing up. ‘Maybe all we need to do is to leave a letter under that wild currant bush where he used to lie and sleep? Maybe the cats have a secret postman who collects such letters?’

Lukas decided that he would write a letter to Night as soon as he’d learnt how to write and spell at school. Now he wanted to start school immediately.

‘I’ll write letters to him,’ said Lukas. ‘I’ll write every single day.’

They walked back through the forest. Lukas held his dad’s hand. When they got back to the lake shore, Lukas remembered something.

‘We didn’t see an elk,’ he said.

‘But perhaps there was an elk who saw us,’ said his dad.

Then they drove home.

That evening Lukas placed an envelope containing a photograph of himself under the currant bush. He thought it would be best for Night to have a picture so that he wouldn’t forget what Lukas looked like.

His mum had helped him to address the envelope.

The next morning it was still there under the bush.

But Lukas wasn’t going to give up. Sooner or later the cats’ secret postman would come and collect his letter. He was absolutely certain of that.