Magic Kitten: Moonlight Mischief (3 page)

Eve felt tears of frustration pricking her eyes. She tried desperately to think of something to change her mum’s mind. ‘What about if we got Flame checked out by a vet? If he’s given a clean bill of health, can I keep him?’

Mrs Dawson shook her head. ‘I don’t know…’

‘Oh, please, Mum. You know I’ve
wanted a cat of my own for ages. If you let me keep Flame, I’ll never pester you for anything ever again! He can sleep in my room and everything. You’ll hardly even know he’s here!’

Her dad came into the sitting room with a newspaper under his arm. ‘What’s all this? And where did that gorgeous little kitten come from? I haven’t noticed him before.’

‘I just found him…’ Eve began.

Mary Dawson put a hand on her daughter’s arm. She explained the situation, while her husband listened patiently. There was a pause when she’d finished speaking. Eve thought she might burst with the tension of waiting for her dad to speak.

‘I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to get the
little chap checked out, would it?’ Jim Dawson said thoughtfully, at last.

‘Yes!’ Eve put Flame down on the sofa. She flew across the room and hugged her dad, silently promising herself to laugh at all his dreadful jokes for the next ten years. ‘Mu-um?’ Eve said in her best pleading voice, hoping desperately her mum would follow her dad.

Mary Dawson nodded. ‘All right. We’ll take Flame to the vet first thing tomorrow. But that doesn’t mean you can keep him. We’ll have another think about that later on.’

‘OΚ, Mum,’ Eve said meekly, picking Flame up again. She bent her head and whispered in his ear. ‘Don’t worry, she’ll let you stay. I just know it.’ Turning back to her parents, she said in a louder voice,
‘I’m going to get some food for Flame and make him a bed in my room.’

Eve woke the following morning to the sound of loud purring in her ear.

She turned over and gave Flame a cuddle. His beautiful long sandy fur was the softest thing she had ever touched. ‘Did you sleep well?’ she asked him.

Flame’s emerald eyes glowed with contentment. ‘Very well, thank you. I feel safe here with you,’ he mewed.

Eve tried not to think about the vet. What if he found that Flame had something wrong with him? Or even realized that Flame wasn’t from this world? She felt her heart turn over at the thought of not being allowed to look after the gorgeous kitten.

Eve got up to feed Flame. She felt too anxious to eat much breakfast herself, but managed half a slice of toast.

‘Shut Flame in your bedroom for now,’ her mum said afterwards. ‘I don’t want him near any of the cats until he’s been to the vet.’

Eve didn’t argue. She didn’t want to
do anything to make her mum change her mind. ‘Sorry, Flame. It’s only for a little while,’ she said, stroking his little soft ears as she put him on the duvet.

Flame nodded. ‘Very well. I will stay here.’ He twitched his silky tail and settled down for a nap.

Eve helped her dad with the morning chores, while her mum dealt with a couple of new bookings. Jo, Alison and Darren arrived just as Eve was washing her hands at the sink in the storeroom. Alison came up to her.

‘Hi, Eve,’ Alison said brightly, coming straight over. ‘Sorry I was in a bad mood yesterday I…’ she broke off as Eve looked past her.

Eve had spotted her dad coming
towards her with a pet carrier in one hand and his car keys in the other. ‘All set, then? Go and fetch Flame, love.’

Alison frowned. ‘Who’s Flame?’

‘My kitten!’ Eve called as she dashed up to her bedroom.

Alison stood looking after Eve with a scowl on her face. ‘You just can’t apologize to some people,’ she grumbled.

When Eve came back down with Flame to put him inside the carrier, Alison was nowhere in sight. ‘Sorry, but you have to travel inside this,’ she whispered to the tiny kitten as she made him comfortable.

It was only a short journey to the surgery, but Eve’s stomach clenched with nerves. When her name was
called, she took Flame into the treatment room and carefully lifted him on to the table.

‘Hello there, little fellow,’ the vet said in a friendly voice. ‘What seems to be the trouble?’ he asked Eve.

‘I think he’s fine. But Mum says Flame has to have a full health check,’ Eve explained.

The vet smiled. ‘Flame does look like a perfectly healthy kitten, but it’s always best to make sure.’ He checked Flame’s fur for flea dirt, and then looked at his teeth, nose, eyes and under his tail. ‘He’s got a nice fat tummy, just like a kitten should have.’

Flame squirmed and miaowed indignantly at the vet’s words.

Eve bit back a grin. She was sure that
Flame was dying to protest at being told he had a fat tummy and she wondered what the vet would say if he knew he was examining a royal magic kitten!

‘Well, Flame’s a picture of health,’ the vet said finally.

On the way out, Flame licked his paw and washed his face. ‘I could have told him that!’ he purred to Eve, still looking quite put out.

Eve gave him a big cuddle.

Flame purred contentedly in the car on the way back as Eve stroked him through the mesh of the pet carrier.

‘You’re really taken with that kitten, aren’t you?’ her dad said.

‘Yes, I am. I love him to bits, Dad,’ Eve said. ‘It already feels like Flame’s lived with me for ever.’

‘Oh, well. Now he’s got a clean bill of health I think we might let him stay.’

Convincing her dad to let her keep Flame was only half the battle. Eve bit her lip. ‘But… what about Mum?’

‘You leave her to me,’ her dad said with a wink.

Chapter
* THREE *

The following afternoon, Eve was curled up with Flame on the sofa. A big log fire burned in the grate. Leaves, whipped up by the breeze, were blowing past outside the window.

‘I suppose I’d better go and give Mum and Dad a hand,’ she said, reluctantly pushing herself to her feet. ‘I’d much rather stay here with you,
Flame. But I’m on my best behaviour for the next couple of days. Just to be on the safe side with Mum.’

Flame stretched then yawned, showing his sharp little teeth. ‘I will come with you.’

Eve heard Jo’s angry voice floating out of the kitchen. She looked inside to see if her mum or dad were in there.

‘What have I told you about keeping an eye on Darren, Alison? It’s a good thing he only ate a few cat treats. Just imagine if he’d opened a tin of cat food!’ Jo fumed.

Eve saw Alison leaning against the sink with folded arms, a sulky look on her face. ‘That’s it, blame me! Everything that goes wrong round here’s always my fault!’ she grumbled.

Darren sat at the kitchen table drinking a glass of orange juice. He shot Eve a cheeky grin, looking none the worse for apparently having eaten food meant for the cats.

Eve gave Alison a sympathetic smile, before going off to find her parents.

Mr Dawson was in the storeroom. He smiled when he saw Flame trotting
along behind Eve. ‘I have to admit, Flame will be an unusually cute addition to the family. Just don’t let him get under anyone’s feet when we’re busy, young lady.’

‘I won’t,’ Eve promised, still feeling grateful to her dad. Whatever he had said to change her mum’s mind about keeping Flame, it had worked like a dream. Flame was now an official member of the family!

Mr Dawson was loading a wheelbarrow with litter trays and clean cat litter. He wore a bright-red plastic apron, pink rubber gloves and blue wellies.

‘What
do
you look like?’ Eve said, holding both hands over her mouth to stop laughing.

‘What?’ Her dad looked down at himself. ‘It’s all the fashion on the Paris catwalks this year. Get it – catwalks?’ he said, trying to keep a straight face.

Eve shook her head slowly as she got herself an apron and gloves. ‘That’s a terrible joke!’

She and Flame headed outside to the pens, while her dad trundled along behind them with the wheelbarrow. Even the boring task of changing litter trays was bearable with Flame for company.

Eve made friends with all kinds of cats. There were Siamese with slanting blue eyes, Persians with fluffy coats and flat faces, and all sizes and colours of ordinary household pets.

Flame nudged Eve’s leg and looked
up at her with troubled eyes. ‘What have these cats done wrong, to be punished by being kept in these cages?’ he mewed sadly.

Eve smiled gently as she bent down to stroke him. ‘They aren’t being punished. We’re looking after them for their owners while they’re away. The cats only stay here for a couple of weeks and then they go back home.’

Flame looked very relieved. His tiny face brightened when Eve stopped by a pen with a big ginger and white cat inside. The cat’s name, Oscar, was on a card attached to the mesh.

Eve bent down and pushed a finger through the mesh. ‘Hello, Oscar. You’re handsome, aren’t you?’ she said in a gentle friendly voice.

Oscar laid back his ears, bared his teeth and hissed loudly. He swung his thick tail back and forth.

‘OΚ! I get the message!’ Eve backed off with a smile. ‘We’ll come back and see him when he’s in a better mood,’ she said to Flame.

Flame gave a friendly little miaow and poked his nose through Oscar’s
mesh. ‘Is something wrong? May I help you?’ he purred.

Eve waited expectantly, to see if Oscar would respond. It would be so brilliant if Flame’s magic would make
him
able to speak too. But the big ginger cat just glared and then turned away.

Flame sighed with disappointment. ‘It seems my kind do not have the power to speak to cats in this world.’ He glanced once more at Oscar, before following Eve to the next pen.

Eve had finished helping her dad and was washing her hands in the storeroom when her mum popped her head round the door. ‘Eve!’ she called. ‘Would you mind nipping out for a jar
of coffee? We’ve just run out.’

‘No problem!’ Eve jumped at the chance of exploring the village and shops. She grabbed her coat and bag and was ready in two minutes flat.

‘Come on, Flame. Let’s go,’ she said, slinging her bag over her shoulder and holding the side gate open for him.

Flame scampered ahead of Eve. His sandy fur blew about in the wind as he chased the leaves tumbling along the path.

As they reached the supermarket, Eve had a sudden thought. ‘They don’t allow animals inside. You’d better get in my bag.’ She bent down so Flame could jump in.