Oliver the Cat Who Saved Christmas

by Sheila Norton

  ‘Well done, girls,’ she said eventually. ‘You’ve all completed your “Pet” projects now and they’re very good. I’ll pass these on to Brown Owl, and you can get started on the other sections of the badge.’

  The children clamoured around her as she read out some options from a book.

  ‘The zoo!’ Grace shouted. ‘Yes! Let’s go to the zoo!’

  ‘Yes, the zoo!’ they all chorused.

  Sarah laughed. ‘All right, I’ll talk to Brown Owl about it, and perhaps we can take you together. We could go on the train, during the Christmas holiday.’

  ‘Bye, Ollie,’ the girls called out as they trooped off to their homes.

  I slunk back out to the kitchen and lay down in my basket, curling up with my tail over my head. Even the Foxes didn’t need me anymore. Pretty soon the family were going to replace me with another cat, and then there’d be nobody left who cared about me. Oh, if only that fire had never happened. If only I were still in the pub with George. I mewed myself quietly back to sleep.

  * * *

  I didn’t really cheer up until the following evening, when Sarah was rushing around the house excitedly, moving extra chairs into the lounge and tidying up, because it was her turn to have the WI ladies there.

  ‘Nicky next door is going to come tonight,’ she told Martin, who had put on his old coat and was going out to the shed, with a mug of beer in his hand, to make himself scarce. ‘I’m really glad I’ve persuaded her. It will do her good to meet some of the other women.’

  I was glad too, and I felt sorry then for thinking I’d have nobody else in the world if Sarah and Martin didn’t want me. Although their cottage was cold, Nicky and Daniel were lovely humans and I know they liked me too. If it hadn’t been for Daniel, I might still be up that tree in the wood, or in the fox’s tummy, I reminded myself sternly with a little shudder.

  When all the females started arriving, I sat in my hammock on the radiator so that I could listen to them chat. To my surprise, they started off by standing up in a row and singing a song about some place called Jerusalem. Some of them had loud screechy voices and I thought I’d better join in, to try to keep them in tune. I lifted my head and yowled as loudly as I could. They all started smiling and as soon as the song was finished there was a loud burst of laughter from everyone and they turned to me and clapped their paws. Believe me, Charlie, you’ll find female humans can be even stranger than the males at times.

  After that, they all sat down, apart from one, who stood at the front reading things out to them about money they needed to pay and trips they might be going on.

  ‘And as we all know, ladies,’ she went on, ‘the Christmas party is cancelled this year but Sarah has kindly offered to have us all back here on the Saturday after Christmas, for a buffet lunch. Some of you have offered to bring cakes or sandwiches – you know who you are – and please all bring your own drinks, or all you’ll get is a glass of water.’

  They all laughed again. They seemed a cheerful bunch. Nicky was sitting next to Sarah, smiling and appearing to enjoy herself.

  ‘Finally, I have a plea for help from Louise.’ The female in charge nodded at her. ‘If anyone knows of a qualified child minder who could work part-time, please let her know. She’s absolutely desperate for someone to look after Freya and Henry after Kay finishes. She’s had no luck with adverts in the paper…’

  ‘There’s a notice about swapping kids on different days, on the board,’ someone at the back of the room called out.

  ‘I know.’ Louise turned to face her. ‘But it’s no good for me. I work five mornings a week. I’m on the waiting lists of two nurseries in Great Broomford, but it could take ages to get a place.’

  There was a murmur of sympathy around the room.

  ‘I could help you out for the odd morning, love,’ one of the older women said. ‘Not that I’m qualified or anything, but I’ve brought up my own kids and helped with the grandkids.’

  ‘Well, me too,’ said Sarah. ‘I only work part-time from home, so I could help out sometimes.’

  A couple of others joined in, offering help on odd mornings here and there.

  ‘That’s really kind of you all,’ Louise said, ‘but I really need definite, reliable cover for the whole week. My mum might come and stay for a few weeks, but I can’t expect…’ She tailed off, shaking her head. ‘I’m going to lose my job if I can’t sort something out.’

  I saw Sarah glance at Nicky, who was looking at the floor. Later, after one of the other women had stood up and talked to them all for a long time about her trip to Peru and shown them her photos, and they were all milling around chatting to each other, I followed Nicky out to the kitchen where she’d gone to help Sarah make tea and coffee.

  ‘You should talk to Louise, you know,’ Sarah said.

  ‘What’s the point? Daniel told me he saw her advert on the notice board. She only wants someone for twenty hours a week, and she won’t be able to pay me what I need.’

  ‘But Nicky, you won’t want to work more than twenty hours, once your own baby’s arrived. Trust me, you’ll probably even struggle with that. I know – I know you need the money, but perhaps, if things are that bad and Daniel isn’t earning enough, you’ll need to think about claiming some benefits. I’m sorry to be so personal,’ she added more quietly, ‘it’s only because I’m concerned about you.’

  ‘If my parents thought we were on benefits,’ Nicky said in a tight voice like she was being strangled, ‘they’d go mad. They’d say we were letting them down, and they’d blame Daniel.’

  ‘Or perhaps they’d help you out a bit,’ Sarah retorted.

  No. They’d rather I left him and went back home to them.’

  They poured tea in silence for a minute, then Nicky started carrying cups into the lounge.

  ‘You’ve upset her now,’ I meowed at Sarah.

  ‘Oh, Ollie.’ She looked down at me, shaking her head. ‘I shouldn’t have said anything, should I? But I just want to help her. What shall I do?’

  ‘Don’t ask me,’ I said, rubbing against her leg in sympathy, ‘I make a mess of everything.’

  ‘It’s no good.’ She picked up the last two cups, ready to go back to the lounge. ‘I’m going to have a quiet word with Louise myself. Call me interfering, but if I don’t say anything I might always regret it.’

  Perhaps she was a bit like me – trying her best to help people, but not always succeeding.

  * * *

  I don’t think Nicky noticed Sarah and Louise chatting quietly in the corner, or Louise glancing in Nicky’s direction with interest – because by then she was talking to someone else herself. I was eavesdropping as usual, of course, and I’d gathered from the conversation that this was the wife of Tony, who’d had the sick car, and her name was Cath.

  ‘I’m so glad I’ve met you, dear,’ she said, beaming at Nicky. ‘You have no idea how grateful Tony and I were to your husband for charging the battery up for us. We are both so useless with car problems.’

  ‘He was just glad to help, honestly, Cath, and to be fair it was an easy thing for him to sort out. And I should be thanking you, for the wine, and the Christmas pudding.’

  ‘Oh, nonsense, you’re welcome. But listen, I was telling Sarah earlier about how Daniel helped us, and, well, I didn’t realise he’s actually looking for work in that field. He didn’t mention that to Tony.’

  ‘Oh!’ Nicky gave a little laugh. ‘No, that’s not quite true, he isn’t, not really. I don’t know what Sarah said to you, but you see, he wanted to be a car mechanic – he’s very good, his dad taught him – but, well, he has a full-time job in London now.’

  ‘Oh.’ Cath bit her lip. ‘Oh dear, I hope haven’t put my foot in it, then. I’ve sent Tony a message on my mobile, asking him to ring our son-in-law and tell him we know someone who might be able to help him. He’s a farmer over the other side of Great Broomford, and he’s looking for someone to sort out his old truck. I thought your Daniel might be able to help.
’

  ‘Well, he could probably have a look at it, at least,’ Nicky said. ‘But it’s really just a hobby for him, you see. He might be able to give your son-in-law some advice, as a favour, though.’

  ‘No, no – if he can fix it, my son-in-law will pay him properly. But of course, he’s probably too busy, working all week.’

  ‘Well, perhaps he might have time over the weekend,’ Nicky said, looking a little brighter. ‘I’ll talk to him about it.’

  ‘All right, dear. Let me know, will you?’

  ‘Of course I will.’ Nicky smiled, and I felt like smiling too. It sounded like good news. I hoped I was right for once.

  * * *

  I popped in next door to see them first thing in the morning, while they were getting ready for work.

  ‘Well, are you up for it or not?’ Nicky was saying as she ate a slice of toast, standing up, leaning against the kitchen worktop. ‘We need to let Cath and Tony know.’

  ‘I don’t know, babe. It depends how much work it entails, doesn’t it.’

  I meowed with surprise. I was expecting Daniel to be really excited at the prospect of this working-on-a-truck thing. Especially being paid for it.

  ‘For God’s sake!’ Nicky had obviously expected more excitement from him too. ‘Just say you’ll go and look at it and assess how much work it is – then you can decide whether you’ve got time or not. What’s the matter? I thought you were really keen to get stuck into some motor work again?’

  ‘I am!’ He spread his hands, looking awkward. ‘It’s not about the time, Nick. If it’s a lot of work, I could work all weekend, spread it over two weekends if necessary, or even take a couple of days’ leave from the shop. I want to do it, and obviously I want the money…’

  ‘So what’s the problem?’

  ‘I’ve hardly got any tools now. A lot of them were my dad’s old stuff, but I’d got some things myself too. I left nearly all of them behind when I moved out. I couldn’t exactly bring them all to your parents’ place and expect them to store them somewhere. And of course, the next thing we heard was that Mum was selling up and moving to Spain with Whatsisname.’

  ‘She surely didn’t get rid of everything? Without even telling you? Oh, Dan! You never told me that,’ Nicky said, looking appalled.

  ‘By the time I’d phoned her and begged her to hang onto all the tools so that I could come and get what I wanted, it was too late. I was more upset because of them being Dad’s, really. At that time I never thought I’d be working as a mechanic so I just had to put it behind me.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘Exactly: Oh. So is there really any point me even going all the way over there to look at the truck in the first place?’

  ‘No. I suppose not.’ She reached out and touched his hand. ‘I’m so sorry, Dan.’

  ‘Not your fault. I’ll go and see them tonight and explain.’

  ‘OK.’

  They finished their cups of tea and slices of toast in silence and I left the house with them when they got into their little car to drive to the station at Great Broomford. Neither of them had spoken a word to me. I didn’t blame them. I felt as disappointed as they were. Nothing seemed to be going the way I wanted, for some of my favourite humans. It didn’t seem like I was going to be the Cat Who Saved Christmas for them at all.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  I spent most of that day with Tabby again. He was feeling fed up because the pretty little Burmese he had his eye on wasn’t interested in him.

  ‘Why these pedigree females seem to think they’re too good for the likes of us, I can never understand,’ he complained. ‘They should realise they’d have healthier kittens if they mated with good strong moggies like us, instead of going in for all that inbreeding.’

  ‘I don’t think you’re going to be able to change the way of world just to suit your sex life, Tabs.’

  ‘More’s the pity. Anyway, how are things with you? Got over that business at the Big House now?’

  ‘Yes. I’m just disappointed all our efforts didn’t work.’

  ‘All your efforts, you mean. I didn’t even have a clue what you were up to, playing with bits of paper when we should have been legging it out of there.’

  ‘It just seems such a shame. She likes him, and he seems to like her, too. Why can’t they just get together and be happy?’

  ‘Perhaps one of them is a pedigree and the other one isn’t,’ he said morosely. ‘As you said, you can’t change the world.’

  No, I couldn’t, and I was beginning to realise that.

  We played together in Tabby’s garden for a while, but we were both getting cold, and then suddenly it started to pour with that icy stuff they call sleet. It’s the worst stuff of all, when it comes down hard, little Charlie. Drenches your fur and freezes it at the same time.

  ‘Quick, into the garage,’ he meowed at me. It was a lot closer than his cat flap. ‘There’s a gap under the door.’

  I’d never been in there before. The gap where the door didn’t close properly was only just big enough – I was surprised Tabby could squeeze through – but once inside, it was nice and dry, even if not very warm. We both sat and washed ourselves and rubbed our faces with our paws to get the icy drips off.

  ‘Why have they got a garage,’ I asked Tabby, looking around, ‘if they haven’t got a car?’

  ‘They used to have one – a big old thing, it was. Very bad-tempered. It used to growl and cough a lot, and sometimes it refused to move at all. They got rid of it in the end. Said they were getting too old to drive anyway, and now they just go on the bus or walk. My man, Eddie, used to look after it really well, too. See all those tools, in those boxes at the back there? He was forever opening the car’s mouth and looking at its teeth or whatever was wrong with it. But he said he was getting too old to do that any more, too.’

  ‘Oh.’ A little idea was blooming in my head, as I’m sure you can guess. ‘So why has your man still got all those tools?’

  ‘Don’t ask me. My woman said ages ago he should get rid of them, but you know what male humans are like, Ollie – never get around to anything. She did say the other day she was going to write an advert out to sell them, if he wouldn’t do it.’

  ‘And did she? Did she write the advert?’

  ‘I don’t know, Ollie. There’s a bit of paper in the front window, but don’t ask me what it is. I might be clever but I’m not Wonder-Cat, I can’t read. Why are you so interested, anyway?’

  ‘Oh, just being curious,’ I said.

  ‘Careful. You know what they say.’

  ‘Yes, I do. And it hasn’t killed me yet!’

  * * *

  I saw the piece of paper when we walked round the front of his house later. It was just ordinary white paper with big black letters on. For all I knew, it could be a page out of a newspaper. But was it worth a try? Or would I just be wasting my time – again?

  * * *

  After school that afternoon, Rose went to play with one of the children in her class. Grace went up to their bedroom, and when she came back down she was holding the pink purse, the one she’d tipped the money out of before.

  ‘Mummy,’ she said, ‘can I ask you something? It’s got to be a secret from Rose.’

  I couldn’t help letting out a little mew of anxiety. Was this it? Was this the point when they’d go and buy the new cat?

  ‘What is it, love?’ Sarah said, sounding amused. ‘Have you decided what to get her for Christmas?’

  ‘Well, yes, it could be her Christmas present. That would be good. But do you think I’ve got enough money yet?’ She unzipped the purse and tipped out the coins and the note again. ‘If Daddy gives me this week’s pocket money tonight…’

  ‘What is it you want to buy her? It doesn’t have to be something expensive, Grace. It’s the thought that counts.’

  ‘A new cat. I want to buy her a new cat that she can call Sooty again.’

  Sarah’s eyes went wide with surprise. ‘Oh, Grace, darling, t
hat really isn’t a good idea,’ she said. ‘I mean, it’s sweet of you to think of it, but…’

  ‘Why not?’ Grace demanded crossly. ‘I want to, Mum. I want to make up for being a horrible sister.’

  Sarah put both paws round Grace and pulled her close. ‘You’re not a horrible sister, not at all. Why on earth would you think that?’

  ‘I said that nasty thing to her, didn’t I, that day when we got the Christmas tree? About her being stupid for running into the road to save Sooty. I don’t know why I said it, Mummy. I was just feeling cross and impatient about decorating the tree.’

  ‘Sweetheart, we all knew you didn’t mean it. Even Rose knew you didn’t. It’s all forgotten now.’

  ‘I haven’t forgotten it,’ Grace retorted. ‘It still makes me feel horrible, knowing I said it.’

  ‘Well, that just shows you’re really a very nice sister, who wouldn’t normally dream of hurting Rose’s feelings. We all say nasty things sometimes, and feel sorry afterwards. But once you’ve said sorry, and been forgiven, Grace, you have to move on and forget about it.’

  ‘OK.’ Grace shrugged. ‘But I still want to buy her a new cat.’

  ‘We have Oliver now, don’t we?’

  Phew. I started to breathe again.

  Grace frowned. ‘But Oliver isn’t really ours, not to keep, is he. I know Rose loves him – so do I – but when he gets taken back by his real owner, she’s going to be even more upset.’

  Sarah looked at her for a minute as if she was considering it.

  ‘Well, you have got a point there…’

  Oh no, I thought. Here we go.

  ‘… and Daddy and I have already agreed we’ll get another cat of our own after Oliver leaves. But perhaps you’re right. Perhaps it should be before rather than after.’

  She paused and glanced over at me, and I meowed loudly in distress.

  ‘But I don’t think it would be fair on Ollie,’ she went on, ‘to bring another cat into the house while he’s staying with us.’

  I wanted to rush over and jump on her lap and lick her to death, but I was almost too weak with relief to move.