Charlie the Kitten Who Saved a Life

The baby, the baby. It was all I heard about, these days! I mean, she was cute, I supposed, when she wasn’t yelling, but what about me? I wasn’t getting my share of cuddles anymore, and there had even been times when they’d forgotten all about my dinner. I’d had to walk round and round my empty dish so many times, calling for attention, I ended up getting dizzy.

Still ignoring me, Julian carried the baby out of the little pink room where she slept and past the door of Caroline’s bedroom. Caroline, our big human kitten, had had what her father called a growth spurt recently. If she’d been a cat, I’d have said she was more or less fully grown, but humans seem to stay kittens for much longer than we do. She spent a lot of time in her bedroom, especially since the baby had arrived. I sneaked in there with her as often as I could. She was the only one who still seemed to have time to cuddle me.

‘Hello, Caroline!’ Julian called out, pausing outside her door and tapping on it gently. ‘Come downstairs, I’ve got something exciting to tell you.’

I waited for her outside her door, and after a bit she came out and trudged down the stairs alongside me.

‘What is it?’ she asked. She didn’t look like someone who was about to be told something exciting. In fact Julian was the only one looking remotely excited. As usual, nobody was telling me what was going on so I just had to listen carefully to their Human chat and try to pick up some clues.

‘I’ve booked us a holiday,’ Julian said again. He smiled, obviously pleased with himself. He’d been standing jiggling the squawking baby in his arms, and now he placed her on Laura’s lap so that she could feed her.

‘Oh, cool!’ Caroline said, brightening up. ‘Where are we going? Is it Florida? One of the girls at school went there last year.’

‘Florida?’ Julian echoed, staring at her. ‘No, of course not. We can’t go somewhere like that with a three-month-old baby.’

‘Oh.’ Caroline’s mouth turned down again. ‘Typical. Everything’s about her now.’

‘Caroline!’ Julian said, giving her a warning look. ‘That’s not true, at all—’

‘So, where are we going?’ she interrupted.

‘Mudditon-on-Sea.’

There was silence. Even baby Jessica was quiet now she was being fed. Caroline just stared back at her father, while Laura shook her head as if she couldn’t quite believe it.

‘But it’ll be lovely!’ Julian said, looking from one of them to the other. ‘I’ve booked us a beautiful holiday cottage for the whole of August.’

‘The whole of August?’ Caroline gasped.

‘Yes! Look,’ he said, turning to Laura, ‘I know how hard it’s been for you. The pregnancy wasn’t easy, the Caesarean left you exhausted, and the baby’s been hard work—’

‘How can you possibly take a whole month off?’ Laura said.

‘Oh.’ Julian sat down next to her, his smile fading. ‘Well, I’m not, exactly. I’ll just spend the first week with you all, then of course I’ll have to come back.’

‘And go back to work.’

‘Yes, but I’ll come down for weekends. You can enjoy the sea air, darling, and get lots of rest.’

‘Rest? In a self-catering cottage?’ she said quietly. ‘I’ll still have to do everything, Julian, the baby won’t stop being demanding just because we’re at the seaside, and you won’t even be there to help.’

‘And I’m not coming!’ Caroline said, her face all red and cross. ‘I don’t want to spend the whole school holiday at boring Mudditon-on-Sea. My friends are all planning stuff. Going into town on the bus and going to the cinema and things, and I’ll be the only one not around!’

With which she stomped back upstairs and slammed her bedroom door.

Julian got to his feet, looking upset.

‘Leave her,’ Laura said. ‘She’ll come round.’

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, spreading his paws out helplessly. ‘I’ve got it all wrong, haven’t I? I’d better cancel it.’

‘No, don’t.’ She looked up at him now, smiling. ‘Sorry I wasn’t more excited, love. I’m just so tired, I can’t think straight.’

‘I thought it’d be a nice surprise. We all need a break. Things have been so tense recently. I’m worried about Caroline, she’s looking pale and sad all the time, and she keeps shutting herself away upstairs. I thought the sea air would do everyone some good.’

‘I know. It is a nice idea. I’m sure we’ll have fun.’

Her smile looked a bit strange, like she didn’t really mean it. Julian went upstairs again to get changed, and I jumped up on the sofa next to her. She looked at me over the top of the baby’s head.

‘Not really my idea of fun, Charlie,’ she whispered. ‘On my own with a crying baby and a sulky girl who doesn’t want to come. But what can I do? I don’t want to hurt his feelings.’