4
Joe trotted fast up the wooded hills, up between scattered houses through their lush, overgrown gardens, and up across fields of tall, wild grass. He didn't think he was followed. But he didn't pause, either, until he stood high on a ridge among a forest of Scotch broom and rhododendron bushes. There, slipping in among their thin, tangled trunks, he thought he was safe, that no one would find him.
From the shadowed bushes he could see far down the slopes. Down beyond the tops of massed trees and roofs gleamed the sea, its bright surf spewing up white foam.
He had come up on a long green shoulder of land which rose abruptly above a broad valley to the south of the village. He was headed toward the wild upper slopes, toward scattered, newer houses and a few rich estates. Up beyond those, beyond the last houses, rose the wild, dry mountains of the California coastal range. High above him, the deep blue sky was alive with wheeling clouds; their shadows raced past him across the dropping hills.
He moved on again, upward, streaking up a grassy hill through running shadows.
But fear ran with him, too. He had to pause repeatedly and look behind him down the hills, afraid that he was followed, searching for that thin, hunched figure.
And, already he missed his home.
Gripped by an uncharacteristic attack of homesickness, he crawled deep into a stand of tall grass and lay with chin on paws, caught in a heavy depression quite unlike himself.
He was bitterly lonely, he felt totally cut off from the world.
He had been forced to abandon his warm, comfortable home, his neighborhood territory, his entourage of warm and adoring females. Forced to abandon everything that gave his life meaning. He'd forsaken Clyde's comforting care, Clyde's rude, good-natured teasing, as well as the small circle of household animal friends, the dull-minded but faithful dogs, the other cats, who, terrified of his new talents, had been remarkably obedient to his wishes. The cats now backed away groveling when he took the best morsels from their food plates. They were perfectly willing to sleep in a little cluster, allowing him to stretch out full length on their bed for an occasional nap. He was more than top cat, he was exotic and inexplicable. It seemed a shame to abandon all that fun.
But he was no longer one of the group, either.
He was separated from his own species by an abysmal void. He was not only torn away from his home and his family, he was, as well, a veritable alien in the cat world.
He couldn't even share his misery with another like himself.
There was no other.
Congealed by gloom, he crouched among the grasses, still and rigid, his white paws pressing into the earth, his eyes closed, a small bundle of cold despair.
Not since he was a half-grown kitten had he found himself totally alone.
And as a kitten he hadn't given a damn. What had he cared for loneliness? He'd stormed out of the cheap apartment where his tail got broken and to hell with human companionship. To hell with any companionship. He'd wanted only to be out of there. He had stalked away to challenge the world, unwise and untried, but brave as hell.
Now he was a totally different cat. That courageous youngster was gone. He was no longer a brash and nervy challenger; he was frightened and shaky, half-crazed with uncertainty. Totally unlike himself.
But soon a small voice nudged him. A deep disgust at his own cowardice.
He sat up, his ears back, his eyes blazing. What kind of idiocy is this? What's the matter with me? Beaten? Uncertain? What the hell!
The only thing wrong with him, he was hungry. He needed food. He hadn't eaten a thing since that mouse last night. His cowardly terrors would vanish the minute he took in some fuel.
A good feed, plus the satisfying ritual of the hunt, that was all he needed.
He reared up, scanning the tangled hillside.
All up and down the hill there was movement in the grass, where little invisible creatures were hopping and pecking and fluttering. Fixing on a half-seen sparrow that dabbled unaware, he crouched and began a measured stalk, his lips drawn back, his teeth chattering softly, his ears flat to his head.
Within seconds he had caught the unwary bird and torn it apart. He consumed it with satisfying greed, spitting out beak and feathers and feet. By the time he had caught and eaten a blackbird, he began to feel better.
When at last he was filled with the rich, lean meat, he was himself again, the blood leaping through his veins hot and predatory. His cathood restored, he drank from a puddle, looked around at the bright world, pricked his ears, lifted his short stub tail, and trotted on up the hill.
At the crest stood a broad oak hanging over a weathered cottage. Joe studied the branches for another cat. When he saw none, he took possession. Leaping up the trunk, he dug in, and climbed on up to the first good limb. It was level, broad, and perfect.
He seldom napped on the open ground. It wasn't smart, in the wild hills, to nap where a dog could surprise him.
In the yard below, a broken tricycle lay rusting among a patch of ragged daisies. He could hear a child laughing inside the house.
From high in the oak he could see down the receding hills of Molena Point, the grid of half-hidden streets, the courthouse tower, the shops half-obscured by the oaks and eucalyptus. Beyond the village, the sea rolled against the cliffs in a long line of breakers, crashing up and sucking back in a rhythm as measured as his own purr.
Up here, he was king of all he could see. He could live up here, looking down like a god on the village, gorging royally on birds and squirrels, on endless meals of chipmunks and fat mice. If he was destined to life alone, this was the place to live it. Here he could be as strange and different as he pleased, and there was no one to care. He was his own cat, in a rich and fecund Eden.
The main street of the village, running inland from the beach, was clearly visible, with its green, parklike divider and broad, golden-leafed eucalyptus trees marching up its center. To the left of the median, the cottage rooftops snuggled close together. He couldn't quite see his own roof, but he could see his street. All was homey and familiar.
Perched up here, he was poised between two worlds. The village and hills were a cat's paradise. But behind him to the east, where the mountains of the coastal range lifted against the sky, that was not his world. Those forbidding, rocky cliffs presented a realm far more bloody and cruel. He really didn't care to become an hors d'oeuvre for the coyotes and pumas that hunted those mountains.
At least he had the sense to know the difference. Yawning, he stretched out along the branch, full and content. And he slept.
The crackling of dry grass woke him. He thought immediately of a prowling puma. Something heavy moved below him at the base of the oak tree, and he shook away the sleep, staring down between the leaves.
Dogs. Only dogs. Ugly and predatory, but just dogs. The five stupid canines circled his tree, ranging through the tall grass, nosing and huffing as they picked out his scent. Two were huge, brown shaggy beasts. One was a misshapen boxer, one a weasel-faced black bitch. The smallest, a spotted terrier, looked up and saw him and began to yap.
The boxer stared up, and let out a bellow that bent Joe's eardrums.
In an instant all five were barking and clawing at the trunk. He eyed them with disgust and considered dropping down on their tender noses.
But not even he was fool enough to take on five dogs at once, four of them the size of small ponies. He thought for a minute, glancing toward the cottage.