Solomon's Tale

by Sheila Jeffries

  It made me hungry, but as much as I was enjoying all the new sights and sounds, I didn’t want to be there. I wanted to be at home, in Ellen’s arms, and the moment of missing her was so painful that I lost my awareness of what Jessica intended to do. My angel tried to warn me to stop her, but it was too late.

  One minute Jessica was there with me as we crouched on the edge of the wall looking down at a gently rocking boat. She turned and gave me that cheeky ‘I dare you’ look. Her golden eyes danced teasingly into mine. The next minute she did a breathtaking jump. I saw her fly downwards with her white-tipped paws wide apart, her tail snaking. She landed on the deck of the boat and found herself a perch on top of a coil of blue rope. Her bright face looked up at me expectantly.

  I was distraught. I couldn’t possibly jump down there. Or could I? While I was weaving to and fro and thinking about it, something dreadful happened. The boat’s engine throbbed into life and it started to pull away from the wall. I wailed in panic. I was losing Jessica! Shocked, I watched the boat turn in a curve of white water and head out of the harbour. I could see the man in the glass cabin, driving it, not knowing he had a cat on board. I watched Jessica getting smaller and smaller until she was no bigger than an ant – she was only a black speck and I couldn’t see her buttercup eyes or hear her meows any more.

  How had I let this happen? I had lost Jessica. She might never come back. She had found herself another life as a ship’s cat, and I was again abandoned, left alone on a harbour wall with a pain in my tummy from hunger, and a new pain in my fast beating heart. I was like an empty cat. Not a purring happy cat. A shell of a cat with nothing to eat, nowhere to go, no one to love.

  I glanced at the people walking along the quay. They had warm coats. I longed to be in someone’s arms, purring into one of those squashy coats, finding a heartbeat. Attaching myself to a new human would be easy for me. But I couldn’t leave Jessica. I had to stay there and watch the distant boat tossing on the waves. It was so far away now, I wasn’t sure if I was looking at the right boat, there were so many out there. So I sat steadfastly on the edge of the quay. The stones were warm from the sun but a chilly breeze was blowing. It was late afternoon and we should have been heading back to our cave in the beech wood.

  I’d been with Jessica for three years now. We’d shared so much. We still played together and slept blissfully curled into each other. Forever friends. Or so I’d thought.

  The afternoon sun was low and the water blazed pink. Then I heard a sound that gave me a jolt. A little boy’s voice.

  ‘Look, Mummy. A cat!’

  He sounded so like John that I turned and automatically put my tail up, only to see it wasn’t John and it wasn’t Ellen. But it was a family, and they obviously liked cats.

  ‘Don’t go with them,’ said my angel.

  But I purred and kinked my back and rubbed against their legs. It was second nature to me. Four of them were stroking me – a mum, dad and two young boys who were kind and loving.

  ‘He looks like a stray,’ the mum said. ‘He’s so thin, and his fur feels rough.’ She looked into my eyes. ‘Are you all right, pussy cat?’

  No, I wasn’t all right. I was alone and broken hearted. But I still knew how to purr.

  ‘Would you like to come home with us?’ she asked.

  ‘Oh please Mummy, let’s take him.’

  ‘Please. He’s lovely. He’ll get cold out here.’

  ‘You can’t do that,’ said the dad. ‘He might be someone’s cat. Tell you what – we’ll come back tomorrow and if he’s still hanging around, he must be a stray and we’ll take him home.’

  ‘Don’t go with them,’ said my angel again.

  I had a decision to make.

  ‘But I’ve lost everything,’ I said to my angel.

  ‘No you haven’t, Solomon. You’ve got me,’ she said.

  ‘But you haven’t got fur,’ I said. Sadness filled me as I walked away from the family and slumped down beside a pile of smelly lobster pots. The woman came after me and picked me up. I leaned on her red fleece jacket and listened to her heartbeat for a few precious minutes, and it seemed to recharge me for what I had to do.

  She put me down.

  ‘He’s got fleas.’ She brushed at her coat, and I flicked my tail, embarrassed. I’d never had fleas before. Ellen had seen to that. Now they were all over me, driving me crazy sometimes so that I tore and scratched at my fur. I’d been proud of my glossy coat. Sadly, I turned my back on that nice family and sat watching the sea.

  ‘I expect he’s a fisherman’s cat,’ I heard her say.

  I was too upset to watch them walking away. I imagined their home with a cosy fire burning. As evening settled over the sea, I got colder and colder. I huddled against a pile of wet rope and netting, trying to shelter from the wind. Tonight I wouldn’t have Jessica to keep me warm. Would she miss me too? I focused on a bright star that was shining in the evening sky, and pretended it was Jessica.

  The night dragged on and on. My loneliness deepened with the darkness, and so did the hunger. To keep warm I tucked my paws under my body and eventually fell asleep. No one came. No one walked by and noticed me. The seagulls were the only living creatures in that cold, cold place and I awoke to see them sitting motionless along the wall, their yellow eyes glinting in the dawn.

  The sea and the sky flushed crimson, and one by one the boats returned to the harbour. I watched for Jessica, but she didn’t come. I considered making the long trek back to our cave in the beech wood, if I could find the way. I thought about living there alone. Or trying to find Ellen.

  Or just surviving.

  Or willing myself to die.

  Miserably I stared at the last boat coming in, and as it turned towards the harbour the rising sun flashed on the windows of the cabin. And there, silhouetted against the brightness, was the bulk of a fisherman and a tiny cat, a black cat who was in the cabin with him, her paws up on the window, her face gazing towards the harbour. The boat came in closer and the cat’s face was black and white with a little pink nose, and eyes that shone as yellow as the sun. My Jessica!

  I puffed my chest out and arched my whiskers. I knew Jessica could see me there waiting. And I knew she loved me. She was staring at me, and my heart was full of joy.

  I followed along the quay as the boat chugged towards a flight of dark green stone steps. The fisherman carried Jessica out of the cabin and put her on the steps. She looked back at him and meowed, and stood there with her tail up. What was she waiting for? Hadn’t she seen me?

  The fisherman lifted the lid of a huge black basket, and instantly the seagulls screamed and twirled around the boat in a flurry of white wings. He took out a fish and gave it to Jessica. She started up the steps with it in her mouth, and the seagulls were dive bombing her. But Jessica hung on to her fish, glaring and growling at the fierce birds. I was afraid for her. More and more gulls were coming from far and wide, squabbling and screeching.

  ‘Get off!’ The fisherman came to her rescue by chucking some more fish into the water, diverting the birds away from Jessica. She kept coming up the steps with the heavy fish, and I was so proud of her I thought I would burst with gratitude.

  She’d come back, and she’d brought us a meal fit for a king.

  Amidst my joy, what happened next was unthinkable.

  I had no reason to be afraid of a human. No human had ever hurt me. So I didn’t turn around when heavy footsteps came up behind me. Two big hands picked me up and I was so surprised I didn’t resist at all.

  ‘I’ve got him,’ the man said and took me over to where a woman in a red fleece jacket was standing next to a plastic cage. I looked back at Jessica who was nearly at the top of the steps, the fish still in her mouth, and she hesitated when she saw me being carried away.

  ‘In you go.’ The man pushed me into the cat cage and shut the hatch. I turned around, meowing desperately at Jessica.

  ‘Lucky he was still here,’ said the woman. ‘He’s definitely a s
tray.’

  She put her face up to the cage and looked in at me. ‘Don’t you worry pussy cat. We’ll give you a nice home, and get rid of those fleas for you. You shall have a warm bed and plenty to eat.’

  I meowed very loudly, my voice echoing all over the harbour as the man put the cat cage in the back of a van. I could see Jessica sitting under a bench with her fish, out of reach of the seagulls. She was watching me, with anxious eyes. I should have been there, kissing her, welcoming her back after our time apart. That sweet moment of reunion had been snatched away.

  I knew now that I didn’t want a new home. I wanted to stay with Jessica and survive in the wild until Ellen came back for us.

  How had I got it so wrong?

  My last glimpse was of Jessica’s disappointed face, and then the doors of the van clicked shut. The couple got in and started the engine, talking happily.

  ‘Well, fancy us finding a lovely cat when we’re on holiday. The boys are gonna love him. I wonder what his name is.’

  ‘How about Blackie? Or Socks? Or Fred? That’s it. Fred. We’ll call him Fred.’

  Fred! I was to be called Fred. It sounded so final. It felt like the end of everything for me. I was a failure. Not only had I let Jessica down when she’d been so brave, but I’d disobeyed my angel. I’d been too trusting.

  Another terrible thought surfaced. What if these well-meaning people took me far away to another place? What if I never saw Jessica again? Fight, I thought. Come on Solomon – fight!

  I’d always been a quiet, peaceful cat. But now, as the van drove away, I did something I’d never done before. I panicked.

  My claws came out. My lips curled back. My tail lashed and banged the sides of the cage. I ripped and tore at the plastic, I pinged the metal grille that was keeping me prisoner. I shredded the cushion and savaged the white stuffing inside. Fight, I kept thinking, fight. Once I’d started I couldn’t stop.

  ‘He’s going berserk,’ said the woman. ‘Stop the car, Bill. He’s going crazy.’

  ‘Nah, he’ll be all right. He’ll have to settle down if we’re going all the way to London, won’t he?’

  I yowled and screamed. I gnawed at the plastic round the edge of the metal grille I was in such a frenzy that my fur was coming out, and then, to my shame, I peed into the cushion and the cage stank of it. My teeth and my nose started to bleed and sting, the pads of my paws burned, and my heart was going at white-hot speed.

  ‘Bill, you MUST STOP. We can’t let him get in such a state, he’ll hurt himself.’ The woman reached over and slid the cage round to look at me. ‘He’s killing himself. He’s covered in blood. Will you stop, PLEASE? Let me see if I can calm him down.’

  ‘I can’t stop on this busy road.’

  ‘Turn off into one of the side streets.’

  ‘OK, OK.’

  I was getting hotter and hotter and my pulse was roaring in my ears. The van stopped, and they both got out and opened the back doors. The fresh salty air came blowing in. It calmed me just a little. The woman was talking to me but I didn’t listen. I went on yowling and scrabbling.

  ‘Look at the state of him. I’ve got to get him out. I’ll wrap him in my coat and have him on my lap.’

  ‘You can’t do that. He’ll run wild in the car and cause an accident.’

  I searched the woman’s eyes, willing her to understand, and she did.

  ‘It’s obvious he doesn’t want to come with us. I don’t care what you think, I’m letting him out.’

  ‘Don’t let him go. We should take him back to the harbour. Have some sense. You can’t let him go in the street.’

  The woman was determined. She had seen my desperation. She undid the catch and lifted the grille. She reached in to pick me up but I sprang out like a tiger and belted down the strange road, my tail kinked, my paws on fire. Instinctively I ran into the wind towards the shining sea. I dashed across roads, and cars squealed their brakes as they tried to avoid me. I ran down a cobbled street, past shops and in and out of people. I stopped on a beautiful square of grass where there was a stone obelisk with wreaths of red poppies stacked around it. No one was there so I sat on the stone steps and tried to stop trembling. I was free now. I could hear the seagulls and see the water sparkling in the distance. But I was totally lost. I licked the blood from my white-tipped paws, and lapped cool water from a puddle at the foot of the steps.

  I hurt all over, but finding Jessica was my priority.

  Getting into a frenzy had been traumatic for a cat like me, and I needed time to recover. The amber velvet cushion was what I longed for, and Ellen’s loving hands stroking me. The stillness and peace of that patch of grass was all I had to calm myself down while I figured out how to get back to the harbour.

  I was in a town, high on a hill, and between the houses were views of the shining sea. My eyes were drawn to the sheet of sunlight on water, and a memory floated into my mind. ‘My light is so bright that I become almost invisible on earth, but if you look at sparkles you will see me, especially in the sunlight glinting on water.’ The Angel of the Silver Stars had whispered those words into my soul before I was born. I sat still and focused on the shining water, and I felt a change. It drifted around me like snowflakes, each one full of clustered stars. My angel was covering me in healing sparks. She wasn’t telling me off for ignoring her. She was loving me.

  ‘Take time to rest in this special place, Solomon,’ she said. ‘Rest and sleep, and when the sun goes down, the bright star will guide you back to Jessica.’

  I curled up on the soft grass at the edge of the steps. It was springy, like a cushion, and the warm smell of the earth helped me to relax. People and cars were passing by but no one took any notice of a black cat curled up asleep. My sleep was deep and healing, and when I woke up and stretched, the sun had gone down, the sky was orange and duck-egg green, and in the green part was Jessica’s bright star, just rising.

  My paws were sore. But now I was free and full of hope. I headed downhill towards the sea, and the cobbled streets were cool under my pads. Down and down I trotted, following the bright star, until the view of the harbour opened up before me. The evening sea was pink and silver. Seagulls sat motionless along the railings. Where was Jessica?

  I listened.

  I heard the waves, and the wind, and the seagulls. I heard music and voices in the town behind me.

  ‘Keep listening,’ said my angel.

  And then I heard Jessica. Her particular high-pitched meow, again and again. She was calling me. I meowed back and she came running. We kissed and purred and rubbed against each other. Feeling her silky warm coat was a coming home for me.

  I’d expected Jessica to tell me off, or even give me a swipe for being so stupid, but she was kind and welcoming. I felt very lucky. She licked my face for me and sniffed at my sore paws. They were bruised and swollen from my panic and the long run through the streets, and now I could hardly walk on them.

  Jessica led me to the nest she had made in a pile of netting and rope. We snuggled together, looking out at the darkening sea.

  ‘That’s your star,’ I said. ‘When you’d gone on the boat I stared at it and imagined it was you. Then my angel told me to follow it, and it led me back here from miles up the hill.’

  Jessica looked pensive.

  ‘I wish I had an angel like you’ve got,’ she said.

  I was horrified.

  ‘Of course you have one,’ I said. ‘Every cat has.’

  ‘But I’ve never seen mine,’ she said.

  ‘I’ll teach you how to. When the sun rises again.’

  ‘Won’t the moon do? Look!’

  We peered out and saw a white moon and a path of silver glistening on the water.

  ‘Let’s never be apart again,’ I said as we sat pressed close together in the moonlight.

  ‘No,’ she agreed. ‘Let’s vow never to leave each other.’

  ‘Together forever,’ I said, and we touched noses.

  Later I was to look bac
k with gratitude and realise that this trip to the sea was Jessica’s last amazing gift to me.

  THE DIARY OF A DESPERATE CAT

  We stayed at the harbour for a few wonderful days, allowing my paws to heal. The rest and the meals of fresh fish did us good. Every morning Jessica ran down the steps with her tail up to meet the fisherman she had made friends with, and he gave her a fish that was like the biggest sardine in the world. Its skin shone with green and purple, and it tasted delicious to us. Jessica managed to share it with me without growling, so I felt very special and loved.

  We even talked of setting up home in this sunny harbour. Until one morning there was no light on the water, and the stone quay was trembling with the pounding of waves. The seagulls stood hunched with their beaks to the wind, and when they were flying, the gale was blowing them backwards. Jessica and I were curled together, keeping each other warm, and we didn’t want to put our heads out into the storm. But the waves got louder and more powerful as the tide surged in. Hard white beads of spray splattered across the quay, and cold salty water came sweeping right under our nest.

  ‘Move … quickly!’ said Jessica ‘Or we’ll be washed into the sea.’

  Horrified, we looked outside and saw clouds of spray exploding high into the air, hissing across the quay like hail. A swerving mass of white moved between us and the safety of the land.

  ‘RUN!’

  My paws were still tender, but I dashed after Jessica, following her flying figure along the quay with the wind whisking us through the spray, perilously close to the edge.

  ‘Don’t let us die in that wild sea,’ I prayed as I ran, my paws skidding on bits of seaweed, and my fur drenched by the flying spray. I don’t know how we got to the cliff path but we did, and there we were sheltered from the wind by banks of heather and thrift. The path was like a low tunnel with the wind whistling overhead.

  We both knew our holiday was over. There would be no more fish and no more gazing at a sunlit sea. Winter storms were chasing us inland, back to the safety of our cave under the beech tree. We didn’t stop to talk. After the first mad dash we slowed to a steady trot and all I had to do was follow Jessica. Over the fields and into the woods where the wind in the high branches roared like the wild sea.