Читать книгу Lara The Runaway Cat - Dion Leonard - Страница 9

Cleo hadn’t been exaggerating when she said that Jennifer was a terrible flyer. No wonder she hadn’t wanted to fly all the way to Australia with her.

Not having been on a plane before, I didn’t have too many expectations of what flying would be like. And, to be honest, I’d been too busy focussing on how Cleo and I would effect our switch to concentrate on what would happen next. Even the flight to China with Mum and Dad and Gobi had been too far away to think about, when there were ferries and other adventures to experience first.

But now it was time to fly. And suddenly I realized that maybe I should have given a little more thought to this part of the plan earlier in the proceedings.

After sitting for ages in a row of chairs around many other rows of chairs somewhere that was called a ‘gate’ (but didn’t have any metal doors, unlike the gate to our garden back home), there was some sort of tinny announcement that rang out around the area. I couldn’t see who was talking, and it was hard to even make out the words that they were saying, but Jennifer leapt to her feet, the handle of my carrier in her hand. I lurched upwards too as she moved.

She joined a queue of other people, and I tried to look around me and take in my surroundings. There were plenty of windows here at the gate, too. Glass seemed to make up an entire wall of the building, at least on this level, and I could see out over a field of concrete – with large, white crafts with wings dotted around it.

Planes. Airplanes. That I’d be flying on. Very soon.

Birds flew, I knew that much. I’d seen them in the sky back home, and even chased one or two when I was exploring the garden – although I always had to give up when they escaped over the garden wall.

But now it was my turn. I wondered if there’d be any birds up there to catch …

Flying was an adventure, I was sure of that. But it was one Gobi had done lots of times before, so somehow it didn’t really seem to count, yet. I kept remembering all the things she had told me about planes and flying, none of it particularly useful right now.

I couldn’t wait to have an adventure Gobi had never experienced at all. To be the one who knew something about the wide world outside the window that Gobi didn’t.

‘Us next, Cleo.’ Jennifer hoisted me up again, as the queue moved forwards. ‘I hope Jeremy appreciates all I’m doing for him,’ she muttered.

I wondered who Jeremy was, and why he wanted Jennifer to travel the world when she hated flying. Then I remembered what Cleo had said about Jennifer’s dead husband, and finding a place for him to spend eternity. His name was Jeremy.

I hoped for Cleo’s sake that Jennifer found the perfect place for his ashes on this trip. Otherwise Cleo would have more flights in her future, I was sure.

‘Animals are required to remain in their carriers during the flight, Madam,’ the flight attendant standing by the tall desk told us, as Jennifer showed her boarding card.

‘Of course,’ Jennifer replied, pleasantly. But the moment we were out of earshot she murmured, ‘Don’t listen to her, Cleo. You’ll be on my lap, like always. You know I can’t fly without you! Goodness, I think my hands might be shaking already.’

There was no ‘might’ about it. My carrier was jiggling around like blossom blowing past our window in Edinburgh as we walked down a long corridor towards another door.

I almost didn’t notice when we boarded the plane. It was just like going through another door – like the one between the hallway and the bedroom at home, even. Except suddenly the windows were much, much smaller, and the chairs were all fixed in place, in narrow rows. I wondered if I got my own seat – there wasn’t going to be much room for me otherwise, in my carrier.

One thing I could tell for certain, as we made our way down the path in the middle of the plane, behind the seats – there were plenty of small places for a fluffy cat like me to hide, if I wanted to. I probably couldn’t get off the plane once it was in the air, I supposed, but if Jennifer proved too annoyingly clingy, at least I could escape and hide somewhere else for a while, supposing she let me go long enough for me to run.

Our seat was almost halfway down the plane, next to a window. I liked that. I understood windows, and I liked to look out. Hopefully, once I was out of my carrier, like Jennifer had promised, I’d be able to take a good look around.

Really, it wasn’t all that much different to home yet.

Jennifer settled into her seat comfortably, pulling out a magazine, a small pillow that tucked around her neck and a small bag of treats that I hoped were for me. Clearly, she knew just what a journey like this required – as Cleo had told me, she’d been doing this for a while.

I supposed Jennifer herself was another clue as to why people went on adventures. She was searching for something, the perfect place to scatter Jeremy’s ashes. A bit like how Dad had adventured to China to find Gobi again, when she went missing.

I wondered what I was looking for, besides an actual adventure. Whatever it was, I hoped I would figure it out before I found it.

Another woman sat down beside Jennifer. A tall, thin woman with kind eyes, she smiled down at me, where I sat in my carrier, on the floor at Jennifer’s feet.

Jennifer obviously noticed, because she said, ‘Hello! This is Cleo, she’s my Emotional Support Animal.’

I didn’t correct her, obviously.

‘She’s beautiful,’ the woman said, peering through the slits in my carrier. I preened, just a little bit. Ragdoll cats really are the most beautiful animals. ‘Hello Cleo, I’m Caitlin.’

‘And I’m Jennifer.’ Jennifer leant in closer to Caitlin, and whispered, ‘As soon as those stewardesses are sat down, I’ll get her out to sit on my lap. Then you can get a proper look at her. She’s a purebred Ragdoll, you know. A very special cat.’

‘I’m sure she is.’ The other woman didn’t sound completely convinced that I was anything more special than a pretty cat, but then she hadn’t met me properly yet. She’d understand in time.

Over the next few minutes, more and more people sat down in their seats, as the plane filled up. There were women and men in suits, with small, hard cases on wheels that they crammed into the boxes above the seats. There were families, with rucksacks and bags full of toys. There was at least one screaming baby that I hoped would go to sleep soon. And there were couples, holding hands and smiling as they found their seats.

And with every person who boarded the plane, Jennifer grew more and more agitated. I wasn’t sure why, nothing had even happened yet. What was there to be afraid of?

Gobi had told me, before we left Edinburgh, that take-off and landing were the scariest parts of flying. But we hadn’t taken off anywhere yet.

Jennifer was obviously panicking in anticipation, though. First, she pulled my carrier up fully onto her lap, instead of letting it sit at her feet. Then she started hugging it – her arms wrapped around and squashing the soft material. I could smell her sweat through her clothes.

Not a new favourite scent.

‘Are you okay?’ Caitlin asked, leaning forward with concern. ‘Do you need me to call someone?’

‘I’ll be fine,’ said Jennifer, unconvincingly. ‘I’ve got Cleo, she makes it all bearable.’

‘You don’t like flying,’ the woman realized. ‘That’s why you have your cat with you.’

‘Of course! Why else?’

I caught a glimpse of the woman’s face through the slits of my carrier. She looked vaguely uncomfortable, and I guessed she wasn’t going to answer that question. I wondered what she’d assumed was wrong with Jennifer that she needed Cleo to go everywhere with her.

‘Are you sure I can’t get anything for you?’ she persisted. ‘Some water? A mint to suck on take-off?’

Clearly feeling guilty for whatever assumptions she’d jumped to.

‘No, thank you,’ Jennifer replied. ‘I’ll be fine once we get going. It’s just this waiting, I do hate the waiting.’

But just then, the pilot’s voice came over the intercom – just like Gobi had told me it would, when she’d been lecturing me about everything that would happen on our trip, since she’d done it all before. She’d just been lording it over me, of course. Making it clear that anything I did, she’d already experienced.

But not this: this was my adventure with Jennifer.

‘We are cleared for take-off,’ the pilot said, and the plane started to move.

Jennifer gave a sharp squeak, like one of Gobi’s toys when she’s played with it too roughly, and before I knew what was happening, I was out of my carrier and wrapped up directly in Jennifer’s arms. Just like the flight attendant had told her I shouldn’t be.

Jennifer had a seat belt on. Outside of my carrier there was nothing at all to stop me hurtling through the plane on take-off. Well, nothing except Jennifer’s very strong embrace.

Gobi hadn’t mentioned Dad doing anything like this when they were flying.

Beside us, Caitlin made a soothing noise and patted Jennifer’s arm. I don’t know why she was bothering to try and soothe her when I was clearly the one in distress. I was the one with no security straps or cases, and who might actually be squeezed to death before we reached Australia anyway.

Jennifer started talking, murmuring nonsense in my ears, all about Jeremy and being without him and how he’d want her to go visit her daughter and stuff. I tuned her out – nothing to do with me, after all – and instead focussed on the view out of the window, as a distraction from the squeezing of my middle.

This window wasn’t like any of the others I’d stared out of before. It was smaller, for a start, and rounded. But the newest part was the view.

As the plane tilted and rose, the ground sped away from us, the concrete river of the runway disappearing as we flew. Soon, I saw the green of trees and the roofs of houses below us, the blue of rushing water, and what I assumed had to be cars moving along roads – although they looked smaller than mice.

And then there was nothing but sky and clouds, for miles and miles.

Somehow, this wasn’t as terrifying as the never-ending ocean we’d crossed on the ferry. This wasn’t water, but air.

I was up where the birds flew – where they escaped from me to, when I chased them in our garden. I was conquering their world as well as mine. I was up, so far over the garden wall, I could go anywhere.

Now, this, this was adventure! This had to be why people went on them, to feel this way. Like they’d escaped their normal life, their normal world, even. To have no idea what happened next, but to be desperate to find out.

This window wasn’t like any of the others, after all. Because this window was taking me somewhere new. Somewhere my days wouldn’t just be measured in meals and naps and the same view from the same window. Somewhere I could discover who I was, outside of the house. Where I could be Lara the outdoor cat, the adventurous cat.

I was having the biggest adventure ever, and I was unstoppable.

It was enough to even make me forget Jennifer, and her vice-like grip on my stomach. For a moment, anyway.

Eventually the plane levelled out, and Jennifer’s grip started to loosen. Freed, I shifted closer to the window, placing my paws against it as I looked out at the sky. The world looked incredibly big from here, like it might never end at all.

‘Well, that doesn’t get any better with practice,’ Jennifer joked. Her forehead was beaded with sweat, her hands felt clammy.

‘Are you okay?’ Caitlin asked again, somewhat redundantly I felt, since Jennifer was clearly anything but okay. In truth, she was totally batty. Who wouldn’t love flying?

Why on earth would Cleo give up the chance to experience all this? She said that she’d had enough adventures, but how could anyone ever get enough of feeling this way? I understood now why Gobi and Dad were always flying off somewhere new. There were so many places to go, too! I remembered the list Dad had given of places he’d been with Gobi, and all those pins in the map on the wall. Maybe, after Australia, I could fly to all of those places too!

Now I’d started, I never wanted to stop adventuring.

Jennifer was still breathing heavily, but she waved away Caitlin’s question with a flap of her hand. ‘Oh, I’ll be fine,’ she insisted, between pants. ‘I usually am once we get going. At least, until the landing. But I have Cleo here to help me with that – don’t I, Cleo?’

She nuzzled down into my fur, holding me tight against her again. I sighed, resigned to this sort of treatment for the rest of the journey.

But then Jennifer stopped, and held me out at arm’s length – well, as much as the cramped airplane seating would allow.

‘Cleo?’

I risked a look at her: she was frowning.

Oh. Drat!

I had a horrible feeling that the jig might be up. Cleo and I looked almost identical, but apparently, it was that almost that was about to get us caught.

Jennifer knew her own cat better, it seemed, than my humans knew me.

‘What’s the matter?’ Caitlin asked. ‘Is she ill? Or has she, you know, had an accident?’ She pulled a face, and I gave her an indignant look.

Jennifer shook her head. ‘Nothing like that. It’s just …’ she ruffled the fur at my neck to look for my collar: my bright pink with neon flowers on collar, to match my harness. The one normally completely hidden under my fluffy fur. But if a person knew to look for it …

I froze in her grasp. There was nowhere to run inside a plane. I could hide in any one of the small places I’d identified when I got on, but it didn’t make any difference – they had a long, long flight to find me, after all. And then what? All the doors had been locked once we were all on board, and none of the windows even opened. I was trapped with Jennifer until we landed, at least.

Maybe she wouldn’t find the collar. Or maybe it had fallen off somewhere, or something.

Or …

Hot, pudgy fingers gripped my collar, and pulled it a little way out from my neck, through my fur. I braced myself.

‘This isn’t my cat!’ Jennifer declared, sounding outraged.

Oops. Busted!