“It’s OK.” Harper looked up at Mum hopefully. “Is Sammy back? Did you check his blanket?” Gran had suggested last night that they put Sammy’s favourite blanket out on to the doorstep, so he had something familiar to smell if he was trying to make his way back to the house. Harper had gone to sleep thinking about waking the next morning and seeing Sammy curled up there, waiting for them to find him.
Mum sighed.“No. I’m sorry, sweetheart. Not yet. I did look.”
[Êàðòèíêà: img_30]
Harper wriggled out of bed, trying not to wake Ava.“Shall we make posters?”
Mum nodded.“OK. You start making some. I’ll get breakfast ready.”
“Emma? Harper?”
That was Gran calling from her room. Harper glanced up at Mum in surprise. Both of them went to look round Gran’s door. “Are you OK, Gran? Did you want something?”
Gran was sitting up in bed, with a book in her hand.“I’m fine, don’t worry. But I had a thought. Before you put up posters, you should go and check the flat. Maybe Sammy went there? I’ve heard stories about cats being able to find their way back miles and miles, and it’s only ten minutes away, isn’t it?”
Harper’s eyes widened. “Yes!” she yelped, and then remembered Ava sleeping and put her hand over her mouth, whispering through her fingers. “Oh, yes! Gran, that’s got to be right! Can we go now, Mum?”
Mum shook her head.“Not yet. It’s too early, especially as it’s Saturday. We’ll have to give it a while. But that’s a great idea, Mum.”
Harper nodded, though the thought of waiting was horrible.“I’ll make the posters, just in case. But I bet he’ll be there and we won’t need them after all! When we come back with him I can tear them up into tiny little pieces.” She could see herself doing it – or screwing them up into a fat papery ball for Sammy to chase.
Harper had made six posters by the time Mum said they could go, with beautiful cats drawn on them, and a description of Sammy, and Mum’s phone number at the bottom. She kept looking between the kitchen clock and the front door, desperate to head back to the flat. At last Mum nodded at her and Harper flew to grab her jacket and her trainers. Ava was still asleep upstairs, but Gran said she’d listen out for her.
[Êàðòèíêà: img_31]
Harper wanted to run all the way back to the flat– she kept darting ahead and having to circle back to Mum. Every time she wanted to say,He will be there, won’t he?
Mum had brought the cat carrier with her, so she must think they were going to find him. But it was hard to imagine Sammy working his way back through the streets, especially crossing the main road. Harper wouldn’t want to cross it on her own, so how could Sammy do it? There were parked cars all the way along and it was so hard to see. They had to edge out between two cars, and look, and then hurry across.
Harper slowed down again after that, now they were really close and they were about to know. Suddenly she was scared.
“Come on,” Mum murmured, squeezing her hand. “It’s going to be OK, Harper. Even if they haven’t seen Sammy, we’ll go back and put your posters up. We’ll find him.”
Harper nodded, but she was holding her breath as Mum rang their old doorbell. It seemed ages before anyone came to the door and then a tall man stood there, smiling at them politely.
“Hi!” Mum said, her voice rather high and worried. “I wondered if you’d seen our kitten? We moved out last week – this was our flat – and he’s disappeared. We thought maybe he’d come back…”
[Êàðòèíêà: img_32]
“Oh, no, sorry.” The man shook his head and Harper felt tears suddenly burn at the backs of her eyes. “What’s he like? We’ll keep an eye out for him. You want to give me your number?”
Harper stood pressed tight against Mum’s side, watching a beautiful black cat stalk out of the kitchen towards them. She was huge and her fur was all fluffed up. Perhaps she didn’t like strangers, Harper thought. Or she didn’t like the flat, like Sammy didn’t like Gran’s house.
Harper looked back as they walked away and saw that the black cat was on the back of the sofa, watching them from the window, just like Sammy used to.
It made her want to howl and she had to hold her hand over her mouth. The black cat was in Sammy’s place and her little spotted kitten was out there somewhere all on his own.
[Êàðòèíêà: img_6]
Sammy peered out at the pavement and the feet passing by. What was he going to do now? He had been desperate to find home and now home wasn’t there. He’d expected that everything would be the same, the way it should be. Now he knew that it wasn’t. The flat belonged to another cat instead. He shivered at the thought of her angry hiss. Did that mean he didn’t have a home any more?
Sammy huddled himself smaller and tighter. Was he really all on his own? Or perhaps– had he been looking for the wrong thing?
It was Harper and Mum who put the food in his bowl. Ava who climbed up on the sofa to look out of the window with him. Harper who curled herself round him in the middle of the night and made him feel safe and loved.
He had to find them. His home was where they were; it wasn’t a place at all.
But how? He hadn’t got to know the new house. Did he even know how to get back?
Sammy wriggled slowly out from under the bin and set off along the pavement, trying to remember the way he’d come. He’d followed this wall just before he came to the flat, he was sure. But then – his ears flattened. At the end of the wall was that big road again and a car speeding by, the tyres screeching loudly on the tarmac.
Sammy stepped slowly out between two parked cars and stood there, listening. Was it safe to run? The road seemed quiet. He scurried out and then froze in panic for a moment as he saw a car bearing down on him. Sammy flung himself forwards, darting to safety just in time. The car sped on– had they even noticed what had almost happened?
[Êàðòèíêà: img_33]
He scrambled up on to a wall, shivering at the memory of the car’s hot breath ruffling his fur. He licked a paw and swiped it round his ears and whiskers, over and over again, trying to wash away the panic, until at last he felt a little calmer. Then he jumped down and set off again, slowly retracing his steps as well as he could.
It was as he turned a corner that he noticed a faint, familiar scent in the air. Something that smelled of home… Harper. He hurried on eagerly, hoping to see her any moment, but the street stretched on ahead of him, empty and strange.
Had he gone wrong? But… there was still that scent.
He was so busy trying to catch it again that he didn’t notice the dog until they were practically nose to nose – and the dog seemed just as surprised as he was. It jumped back, eyes wide and ears pricked, and whined. Then it crouched down, stretching out its front paws, and barked sharply at him. Sammy retreated, terrified. He’d never been so close to a dog and he didn’t know what to do.
[Êàðòèíêà: img_34]
The elderly woman holding the lead pulled the dog back.“What’s that, Petey? No, leave it alone!”
Sammy hissed faintly and turned tail, racing away through a clump of bushes nearby. He wasn’t going to give that huge dog the chance to get any closer.
At last he looked out on to an open stretch of grass, dotted with people. Away over on the other side of the grass, swings were moving through the air and children were calling. Sammy was sure he’d never seen it before. He retreated back under the bushes, feeling so tired. He had no idea where to go next.
[Êàðòèíêà: img_6]
“But where is he?” Ava demanded, staring at Mum and Harper over her bowl of cereal. She’d woken up while Harper and Mum were back at the flat and Gran had told her where they’d gone. Now she just couldn’t seem to understand why they didn’t have Sammy in the carrier.
“We don’t know at the moment,” Mum tried to explain. “We’ll keep on looking, though. Harper’s made posters. We’ll go and put them on all the lamp posts soon. If anyone sees Sammy they’ll know to call us.”