The Call of the Cat Basket by James Barrie

Author:James Barrie [Barrie, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severus House
Published: 2019-11-28T22:00:00+00:00

Theodore had lost Miles in the crowded street. He took refuge in the doorway of an empty shop. He stared out at the passing people, trying to locate the man with the rucksack.

Then he heard a whisper above the noise of the crowd. ‘That way,’ it murmured. ‘He went that way.’

Theodore looked across the street. On the second floor windowsill of the building facing him there was a sculpture of a black cat.

The cat had been installed on the windowsill by York architect Tom Adams in 1979. In the same way that Leonardo da Vinci signed his sketches with a mouse, Tom Adams bestowed a cat upon the buildings he worked on. These days there are many Tom Adams cats adorning the city’s buildings and more erected after his death in 2006 by others wanting to carry on the tradition.

‘He went that way,’ the cat sculpture murmured to Theodore, flicking its tail further down Coney Street.

Theodore blinked his eyes in disbelief; there is a lot I do not understand about this world, he thought.

He emerged from the dark doorway and carried on down the street in the direction that the stone cat had flicked its tail.

Up ahead he spotted Emily pushing Joseph in his pram. Her face was creased with worry. Her eyes darted from left to right but she failed to see him. He stopped in his tracks. He watched as she passed by. He turned round and watched as she disappeared among the crowd. He had to carry on the pursuit. He turned and made his way into St Helen’s Square.

Another busking band was playing and a large crowd had formed, many of whom were wearing Guy Fawkes masks, others were wearing cow or badger masks.

He tried to navigate a way through the hundreds of feet. A cigarette end landed in front of him and he darted to the side, narrowly avoiding the smouldering butt. A toddler in red wellies spotted him and made towards him stamping his little feet. Fortunately the child was reined in before he could stomp on Theodore.

Theodore closed his eyes a moment. He wished for an empty bedroom. A windowsill in the sunshine. A laundry basket of newly-dried and folded clothes, preferably woollens. He wished for his cat basket by the radiator in the kitchen of his home. He wished he was far from this madding crowd.

I told you so, the voice of the cat basket said. You should never have left the safety of home. What did you hope to achieve? The humans will always wreak havoc upon the outside world. They cannot be stopped.

The humans will eventually destroy themselves by their selfish and destructive nature. But until that day comes, you must wait. You must wait patiently until you hear the call.

Theodore opened his eyes, only to see a large burgundy Dr Marten’s boot about to come down on his head. He dashed to the right but the boot landed on his tail. He cried out in pain: Bastet!

He took refuge in the doorway of the Edinburgh Woollen Mill, beneath a rack of woolly jumpers.

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