Solomon's Kitten by Sheila Jeffries Read Free Book Online

the
window, hoping to open it and get some air. It was so hot I had to breathe with my mouth open like a dog.
    I longed for water but Gretel hadn’t left me any. Desperately, I licked a few drops of condensation from the window glass, then worked my way round each of the windows, licking what
moisture I could find, and all the time getting hotter and hotter.
    There was no way of cooling myself down. I tore at my thick fur, trying to get some air on my skin, but nothing worked. I dug and scrabbled at the floor of the car, trying to find a hole or a
crack I could make bigger with my teeth and claws. Soon my feet were burning, my claw sheaths sore, and my throat so dry. I was being dried up, cooked alive in that oven of a car.
    Where was my angel? Where was she?
    I listened. I kept still and called her name in my heart. The Angel of Secrets. Angel of Secrets. Angel . . . I was giddy now, and her voice came to me from far away. My body was collapsing and
I just lay there panting. All I could hear was the alarming echo of my heartbeat, the rasp of my breath, and the distant whisper of her voice, repeating over and over again, ‘Don’t give
up. Don’t give up. Meow and someone will come. Meow. You must meow.’
    I fought to stay awake, but I was losing consciousness, sinking into a boiling black darkness. I did meow, and it was loud, and painful. Yet my body seemed to take over and meow by itself,
draining my last dregs of energy, calling, calling for help.
    As I finally lost consciousness, I saw a face looking through the glass at me, and it wasn’t Gretel.
    I drifted through the dark, and reached the shoreline of the spirit world. A high fence of the brightest gold sent out beams of light spangled with pinpoints of intense colour. I sat before it
and gazed through into the world I had loved so much, the spirit world where I was the Queen of Cats. Telepathically, I begged for the golden fence to open and let me through, let me go home, let
me leave this body of pain lying in the hot car.
    The voices I heard were muddled.
    ‘Come back, Queen of Cats. You still have work to do.’ That was my angel, and from beyond the golden fence I could hear purring. Loud, vibrational purring from the shining cats who
had purred with me in the spirit world. They weren’t welcoming me, but sending me back, floating on a carpet of purring.
    I drifted back to the sound of human voices around the car. Someone saying, ‘That poor cat in there!’ and ‘We have to get it out. NOW!’
    My world exploded with a bang. A storm of broken glass scattered over me, into my fur and all over the car. Dazed, I saw the emerald green of the broken pieces. The air rushed in, and a pair of
long arms reached through the hole in the window. I felt my limp body being lifted out.
    ‘I’ve got him.’
    ‘He’s dead, isn’t he?’
    ‘Not quite. And it’s a she cat. She’s beautiful.’
    Someone ran with me to the shade of a big plane tree and laid me on a bench. I felt the slats of wood under me, and the deliciously cool canopy of the great tree. But I couldn’t move. My
breathing was laboured, my eyes wouldn’t shut, and I was salivating.
    ‘There’s no time to get her to a vet.’
    ‘Water. Get some water from the shopping bag.’
    I heard running feet again, then the rustle of plastic and the soft pop of a bottle being opened. I hate water, but they were pouring it over me! It trickled round my neck, into my fur, along my
back, over my parched face. I licked the drops and felt the healing cool of it soaking my hot body.
    ‘Frozen peas,’ said the voice. ‘Bottom of the bag.’
    More rustling, and something achingly cold and knobbly was put close to my back. My breathing eased a bit. I was coming alive again, coming back from my trip to the shorelines of the spirit
world, reclaiming my beautiful silver tabby and white body.
    ‘She’s still breathing.’
    ‘Come on, darling – it’s all right.’
    Didn’t I know that voice? I