To Be A Cat

The Barge

… ON.

It was just enough.

He held on.

Rissa’s dad reached him, his hand grabbing Barney’s belly at the moment he was about to be pulled under.

‘You’re OK, little fellow,’ Mr Fairweather said, himself exhausted, but determined to keep the cat above water as he made a shattering one-arm swim back to the barge.

Once there he quickly got Barney inside. Then Rissa and her mother attended to him in their long, warm and very thin living room while Mr Fairweather had a bath.

Barney had met Rissa’s parents before, and liked them, but to be perfectly honest he had found them a little bit odd.

They lived on a barge, for a start. And they didn’t even own a TV, let alone watch one. And they could spend hours talking about star formations. They had a computer but he’d never seen it. They did have a phone too, but one that looked like it came from 1973. And Rissa’s dad had his big beard and wore long woolly jumpers with holes in them almost down to his knees, and made vegetarian meals full of strange ingredients like quinoa and buckwheat.

He was a carpenter, and Rissa’s mum an artist. She painted pictures of plants and had them all over the walls. She had really long hair and naturally rosy cheeks and wore dungarees. She seemed to be in a state of extreme happiness all the time.

Their names were Robert and Sarah, which were the only ordinary things about them.

But Barney was now totally convinced they were the very best people you could hope to meet.

While Rissa dried Barney with a warm towel, her mum fed him pieces of the most delicious cheese he’d ever tasted in his life.

‘This is Cornish Yarg,’ she told him in a voice as warm as the stove which heated the room. ‘The best cheese in the world. But I’m from Cornwall so I’m biased.’

She gave him another large yellow crumb.

‘You poor little thing,’ she was saying. ‘You’re so hungry.’

Rissa stroked behind his ear. ‘It’s that cat, you know, the one I told you about … The one that Miss Whipmire locked up. The one all those other cats were chasing after.’

Her mum looked puzzled. She loved her daughter, but what she’d told her and Robert that evening was rather a lot to take in. ‘Oh, that’s weird. Are you sure it’s the same cat?’

‘Yep. Same white patch. Same eyes.’

Rissa studied him.

Rissa, Barney miaowed.

‘There’s something strange about you,’ his friend said, tenderly stroking his ear in a way that made him feel embarrassed. ‘I really feel like I’ve known you for ages.’

You have! You have!

She stared at him a bit more, and then shook her head as if shaking away a silly and impossible thought.

‘What do you think happened to him?’ Rissa asked. ‘Do you think those cats chased him into the water? Or do you think it had something to do with Miss Whipmire?’

‘Well, don’t worry. We’ve told the animal helpline. I’m sure they’ll look into Miss Whipmire.’

Rissa thought about mentioning the trip to the cattery but didn’t. She knew her parents would say she should tell Barney’s mum, but Mrs Willow had enough on her plate right now.

She sighed bleakly. ‘What with the cats, and with Barney being so odd this morning and running away before school, it’s really been a weird day, Mum.’

I didn’t run away. That wasn’t me.

Barney saw that Rissa was looking sad, and he tried to comfort her by rubbing his head into her hand.

‘You really like Barney, don’t you?’ said her mum, her eyes twinkling like the stars outside the porthole.

‘Yes, I suppose I do.’ Rissa’s words caused Barney to feel embarrassed, and he was thankful for the furry face, which concealed his blush.

Rissa’s voice changed. ‘But Barns … I mean, Barney can be so annoying sometimes. Like today! Acting so weird this morning, and me thinking he’d run away for ever or something, and then just turning up at the end of the day … And not even bothering to phone here when he got home, after I hadn’t been in school all afternoon. Then having to find out from his mum! What was that all about?’

‘I don’t know, darling,’ her mum said as water lapped gently against the barge. ‘I’m sure there’s an explanation. He’s a good boy, I know it.’

Barney knew that all the bits of information were there in Rissa’s brain, like Lego. If only she could click them all together and make the truth.