by Ann Bryant
I don’t know why but I felt a stab of disappointment that Emily was taking it so casually. To me it was a shock. I’d never expected a cat. A cat was completely different from a squirrel. My mind was spinning. “Don’t you wonder what it’s doing up here? I mean, why does it keep coming back?”
Emily shrugged. “Cats get into the weirdest places.”
“I suppose they do,” I answered thoughtfully, remembering the first time we’d found Fellini sitting in a spare washing-up bowl we kept on top of the freezer. He looked so funny. But he obviously liked it there because he kept coming back.
I wanted to get back to talking about the cat we’d just found though. “It looked really thin, didn’t it?”
“It’s probably a stray,” Emily said, turning to go. “Come on, Bry. Remember we’re not supposed to be up here.”
I bent down and touched the hollowed-out place where the cat had been sitting. It still felt warm and I was really sorry that I’d frightened it away twice now. “It must have been cosy on this pile of dust sheets, mustn’t it?”
But Emily was heading for the stairs. “We’d better report it to Mrs. Pridham, Bry. Come on.”
“No, let’s not,” I said, hurrying after her. “Mrs. P wouldn’t want a stray cat at Forest Ash. She’d only get rid of it. Let’s see it one more time, properly, before we tell her. Maybe we can help it.”
A part of me felt completely detached from the rest of me. It was like I was listening to myself saying these things and wondering why. But the part that was actually saying them thought it was completely natural. Maybe my dream about Lana had affected me more than I’d thought it had. Something certainly had, because for some reason I really cared about the cat. I couldn’t just dismiss it out of hand. It seemed important that we made sure it could manage all right, especially if it was a stray with no one to feed it, and nowhere to snuggle down at night.
“Where does it get its food, do you think, Ems?”
“Hunting mice and birds… And it probably goes further afield than Silver Spires. I guess it looks for scraps that people have thrown out with their rubbish…” Emily suddenly turned round to face me, a finger on her lips, to tell me we should stop talking now. Then just as I’d done before, she looked right and left before risking coming out of the cleaning room onto the landing.
I waited till we were in our dorm and Emily was getting changed out of her riding gear before I mentioned the cat again. “But don’t you feel sorry for it, Ems?”
She shrugged but didn’t answer my question and I guessed that any cats she might have come across on the farm were probably really independent, so she wouldn’t have felt any attachment to them.
“Ems,” I said carefully, “let’s not tell the others just yet, otherwise they’ll all want to go up and see it, and I don’t want to frighten it away for good. Let’s not tell…Mrs. Pridham either for now.”
Emily put her arm round me. “You’re so sweet, Bry,” she said. “Don’t worry, I won’t mention it to anyone.” Then she looked suddenly serious. “But even if it doesn’t get frightened away for good, it’ll only run away every time you go up there. I mean, you won’t be able to have it as a pet or anything. It’s wild, Bry.”
I sighed as I realized that although I hadn’t admitted it, even to myself, I really did wish I could look after it…and, yes, maybe even keep it.
“Come on, let’s go and see what’s happening in the garden, yeah?”
I followed her downstairs and out of Silver Spires, and as she chatted away about the hack she’d just been on through the woods, I couldn’t help my mind drifting back to the cat. In a way it reminded me of Lana, only it was more silvery and miles thinner. It was nothing like Fellini. Fellini is black and white and stalks about grandly as though he owns the world. This cat seemed quite the opposite. Frightened and fleeting. I wished I could calm it down so it wouldn’t run away all the time, poor thing.
I wanted to give it a name, but I couldn’t think of anything original, so I decided to be totally unoriginal and name it after its colour. Silver. Yes, that would be fine, just until I came up with something better. And I made another decision too. Despite what Emily had said, I decided I would try and smuggle some food out from supper, and take it up to Silver as soon as possible. That might tempt him to stay, and make him a bit less wild and afraid too. But maybe I’d wait till the next day, because I wasn’t sure if I could risk going up there twice in one day. Who knew what would happen if I got caught?
Waking up the next morning, Silver was the first thing to come into my mind. The previous evening, at supper, I’d managed to slip a piece of chicken into a tissue and put it in my pocket without anyone noticing. And while I’d been lying in bed I’d had the good idea of emptying a plastic tub that I usually keep my shower stuff in and filling it with water. Silver was probably really thirsty in this boiling weather. I couldn’t wait to give him his little meal.
Walking back from a lovely big Sunday breakfast, it was obvious that today was going to be another hot day. Good, that meant a high chance of all the Forest Ash girls being outside soaking up the sun.
“I wish I didn’t have to work when it’s so beautiful,” said Antonia, slowing down as though the very thought of studying made her feel tired.
“Let’s get it over with right now,” Nicole said decisively, “then we can do whatever we want for the rest of the day. What’s everyone else doing?” she asked, looking directly at me for some reason.
“Er…not a lot…”
“Weeding,” Emily announced with a firm nod of her head. “In fact I’m going to get my old trainers and cut-offs on right now.” She broke into a jog, then called back over her shoulder, “Feel free to help me!”
“Sorry. Iz and I are going sculling again!” Sasha called back.
I couldn’t help feeling pleased that at least two of them would be out of the way. I just hoped that Nicole and Antonia weren’t planning on working in the dorm, because that would mean I wouldn’t be able to go up and see Silver, as they’d hear my footsteps above them and get the shock of their lives.
“It’s great that we can work outside now it’s so hot,” I said casually.
“Yes, but I can’t concentrate outside,” said Antonia with a sigh. “I get…distracted.”
My heart sank when the two of them settled down at their desks in the dorm to work on their laptops, and I wondered whether to risk going up into the loft anyway. If I was totally quiet surely they wouldn’t hear me below. But how could I be quieter than a cat? We’d heard Silver easily enough. Anyway there were loads of other girls still around in the boarding house, so I knew I’d have to be patient for a bit longer. It was tempting just to tell Nicole and Antonia about Silver, but something was stopping me. I was so worried that Mrs. Pridham would get to hear about him and shoo him away for ever. No, it seemed better to keep him a secret for now. And then… And then what?
I couldn’t keep him a secret for ever. I’d have to tell Mrs. Pridham sometime. But not yet. For now, I just wanted to see Silver again.
In the end I went swimming. As it was still quite early for a Sunday there was hardly anyone in the pool and I did twenty lengths without stopping, then got out. The lifeguard grinned at me as I headed for the changing room. “That was quick!”
I turned and smiled back but didn’t say anything. Then I dried myself and got dressed quickly, getting more and more excited that I’d soon be seeing Silver. It didn’t take me a minute to dry my hair, because it’s so short. I just rubbed it hard, then walked back to Forest Ash in the sun, which was better than any hairdryer.
In the dorm, Antonia and Nicole were shutting down their laptops and packing up, so my twenty lengths had filled the time perfectly.
“Oh, you’ve been swimming!” said Nicole. “Are there many in the pool?”
I shook my head. “Only one Year Eight when I got out.”
“Shall we?” said Antonia, turning to Nicole.
Nicole broke into a grin. �
�Good idea of yours, Bry. See you then!”
They both grabbed their swimming things and a few seconds later they were out of the dorm. I didn’t know whether the Year Nines were in their room and neither did I know whether Matron or Miss Stevenson, our assistant housemistress, or worse, Mrs. Pridham were around, but I couldn’t wait any longer to see Silver.
I took the tissue with the piece of chicken out of the back of my bottom drawer and eyed it sadly. It was dry and starting to go hard and curl at the edges. As I stuffed it in my pocket and grabbed the plastic tub, I told myself that a stray cat wouldn’t be fussy about what it ate. It’d be grateful for anything. I’d got my plastic water bottle so I’d be able to fill the tub once I was up there. But the most important thing was to move really carefully. If Silver was there, I didn’t want him to fly off the moment I appeared.
I must have been walking much faster than usual along the landing, because I almost bumped into Matron, who was coming out of her room, her mobile to her ear.
“All right, Bryony?” She flashed her usual bright smile, and I gulped and nodded. “Stupid thing!” she said under her breath as she hurried past me. “Never any signal here!”
I held my breath and rushed round the corner, then ducked into the cleaning room, closing the door behind me and feeling like a criminal. Inside it was even too dark to see where the light switch was, so I groped my way towards the staircase that led up to the loft, and once I was on the bottom stair I felt a lovely excitement come rushing in.
Please let Silver be here, I repeated over and over in my mind as I started making those kissy sounds that people do to encourage cats to come to them. Then when I came to the top stair I changed it. “Silver,” I called in the quietest sing-song voice. I wasn’t going to risk frightening him away by walking across the loft, so I stayed close to the top of the stairs, and began to pour water into the plastic tub from my bottle.
I felt as though I was walking a tightrope that had worn down to a single thread; I mustn’t let myself break it and neither must I fall off. And yet as I tore the chicken into little pieces and put it beside the tub, I somehow sensed that Silver was there, around the corner, listening and maybe wondering.
My voice was as thin and lilting as I could make it. “Silver! Come on!” Then I sat down cross-legged and waited in patient silence, my eyes fixed on the far wall. Please let him be here.
After a couple of minutes my patience was rewarded, because a thin silver-grey face appeared. Anna told me that cats don’t like to see wide eyes because in the cat world it’s narrowing the eyes that’s a sign of friendship, and I could definitely remember Lana doing that. So I blinked a few times in slow motion while I kept murmuring Silver’s name. Then, very gently, I picked up a piece of the chicken and did the kissy noises again. It was tempting to throw the chicken towards him, but I thought even that might scare him away. Instead, I played my waiting game again, and, after at least a minute (which is a long time when you’re just waiting), I had an even bigger reward, because Silver began to pad over to me.
“Good, Silver. Good boy,” I whispered over and over. And I tried to stay completely still. “Good boy… There you are…” I was holding my breath now, because he was so close to me I could have reached out and touched him, but I knew I mustn’t, however tempting it was. He was staring at the water in the little tub. And then he dipped his head and seemed to smell it. A moment later his tongue came out and he lapped away at it until there was not a drop left. His big eyes gazed back at me and it felt as though he was asking for more. I thought I might scare him away if I unscrewed the water bottle, though, so I made some more kissy noises instead, and still he kept his eyes fixed on me. I know cats have no expressions on their faces, but it truly felt as though he was imploring me.
“Good boy,” I murmured again, then slowly, slowly, I stretched out my hand towards his face and felt his breath on my fingers as he sniffed.
It was such a lovely surprise when he pushed his cheek against my hand and began to purr. It made me bolder and I stroked him properly, which he seemed to love, because he twisted and turned his head like mad, as though he couldn’t get enough.
“Silver, look, chicken!” I gently picked up a piece and he sniffed it, then drew back, so I put it on the floor and in an instant he’d grabbed it and begun to gnaw at it. He didn’t want to take it from my hand, of course. I should have realized that. He’s not a dog, after all. As he tucked into the other little pieces of chicken, I poured more water into the tub, and in no time at all he’d lapped up the entire contents of my water bottle. It was true it was only a small one, but all the same he must have been really thirsty.
“Sorry, I don’t have any more, Silver. But I’ll bring you some next time I come. And more chicken too. Or whatever I can manage to steal from supper.”
And as I talked and rubbed his head, he came closer, and then surprised me by stepping cautiously onto my lap. So I bent my head and he rubbed his face into my neck, which felt lovely and made me wish that he really could be my pet. My own special, secret pet.
Chapter Five
We were hanging around outside waiting for the bell for the start of afternoon school. It was French first.
“Did any of you manage to do the French prep?” Sasha asked.
“No,” said Emily flatly. “But then…what’s new?” She turned her palms up and tipped her head to one side with an innocent look on her face that was so funny we all burst out laughing.
Personally I couldn’t raise any enthusiasm for French or ICT that followed. All I could think about was seeing Silver after school. I still hadn’t told the others about him – I hadn’t even told Emily I’d been back – because I knew they’d all want to see him and it would frighten him off if loads of people suddenly appeared. No, it was best he got used to me first.
“I’ve only just understood the thing about making adjectives agree with nouns,” Emily went on, “but now I’ve got to make verbs agree as well! Passé composé? What’s that about?”
Antonia was still laughing as she tried to explain. “Well it’s only certain verbs that have to agree.”
Emily made herself go cross-eyed and we all laughed again.
“Right, listen,” said Antonia, determined to get Emily to understand. “Suppose you want to say…er…‘Nadia went to see Mrs. Pridham’…”
“Which she did, by the way,” added Nicole, “but that’s got nothing to do with it.”
“Shh! I’m confused!” said Emily.
“Sorry,” said Nicole.
“Okay, ‘Nadia went…’ is Nadia est allée and you have to put the extra e on allée because Nadia is a girl.”
Half of me was listening to what Antonia was saying, but the other half of my mind couldn’t stop thinking about what Nicole had just said. Nadia was one of the Year Nines from the other room with the attic directly above them. I was probably being stupid. There were loads of reasons why Nadia might have gone to see Mrs. Pridham, but I just had to be sure.
“So Nadia…went to see Mrs. Pridham, did she?” I asked, doing my best to grin at Nicole as though I was joking about the number of times Antonia and Emily were repeating that sentence.
“Yes, the Year Nines heard that…noise again yesterday morning and it freaked them out a bit, but Mr. Monk’s going to investigate and if it’s a mouse or a rat he’ll probably put poison down or something. That’s what Nadia said anyway.”
“What!” I couldn’t help the massive exclamation that came out of me. It made everyone turn to me with shock in their eyes – everyone except Emily, that is, who was looking at me in horror.
My throat felt tight. Silver was starving. I’d only just got him to trust a human being and to take food from one. He’d think Mr. Monk was offering more and he wouldn’t be able to resist eating it. And then he’d die. And it would be my fault for encouraging him to trust humans in the first place. If only I could rush back to Forest Ash, race up to the loft and get rid of the poison right now. Except it m
ight be too late already.
The bell went as I was having that terrible thought, but it didn’t make me abandon the idea. So what if I was late for French? Madame Poulain was the least strict teacher at Silver Spires. I could make some excuse.
“We’d better go,” said Sasha, setting off in the direction of the language labs with Izzy. Nicole and Antonia followed behind, but I hung back with Emily, and began whispering to her urgently as soon as the others were out of earshot.
“I’ve got to try and save Silver,” I said.
She looked at me sharply, then her face softened. “Ah, you’ve named the cat. Bry, you mustn’t get attached. There’s no way he’s going to be able to stay in the boarding house.”
I ignored that. “It might not be too late. Mr. Monk might not have got round to going up to the loft yet. Or Silver might not have gone in there.”
“But what will you do?”
“I just want to check he’s okay. I’m going to go right now. Can you tell the others I left my ICT stuff behind by mistake.”
“You can’t just—”
“Hello, girls!” came a voice from just behind us. “Aren’t we lucky with this beautiful English sunshine!”
Emily and I turned to see Madame Poulain and Mrs. Lawson, the ICT teacher walking along together.
I thought I ought to speak straight away. “I’ve just realized I’ve left my ICT answer sheet behind, Mrs. Lawson. Is it okay if I rush back and get it, Madame Poulain? We’ve got ICT after French, you see.”
“No, don’t worry,” said Mrs. Lawson. “It’s not vital. We’ll work together on the answers in the lesson.”
I could have kicked myself. I shouldn’t have said anything. Now I’d lost my chance to go back to Forest Ash before the end of school. Emily bit her lip and gave me a fleeting, pitying glance. And we walked on in silence.
All afternoon I felt terrible. Like a murderer. What would I do if I found Silver lying dead up in the attic? I knew I’d cry and cry, because he felt like my very own secret treasure, and I’d blame myself entirely for his death.
