The Cat Who Liked Rain

Instead of ranting and raving, Axel burst out laughing.

‘That cat has bewitched us,’ he said. ‘I think it’s sitting back somewhere and laughing its head off at us.’

‘But it’s not sitting under the currant bush, that’s for sure,’ said Whirlwind.

‘Night can make himself invisible when he wants to,’ said Lukas.

Axel stood up.

‘Let’s go out and take a closer look at that currant bush,’ he said. ‘Maybe you can build your skateboard track without needing to dig up the currant bush?’

‘That’s not possible,’ said Whirlwind.

‘Of course it is,’ said Lukas.

‘How?’ wondered Whirlwind, far from pleased.

Lukas couldn’t answer that. He was afraid that his dad wouldn’t be able to solve the problem.

But he could. They went out and took a closer look at the currant bush. Whirlwind started by explaining what their plans were. His dad thought for a moment, then said:

‘But why don’t you build your track over the top of the currant bush? You could make it a sort of roof.’

Whirlwind was about to protest when Axel went on:

That would mean that the currant bush was untouched, but you’d still have your track. And Lukas can help you to build it. That’s only fair.’

‘He’d only get in the way,’ said Whirlwind angrily.

‘But surely he could hold the planks and keep them steady while you do the sawing,’ said Axel.

‘I want a dog,’ said Whirlwind out of the blue. ‘A big dog. That barks whenever anybody says “Lukas”.’

‘You can’t have a dog and a cat in the same house,’ said Lukas.

‘I think you can,’ said Axel. ‘But we’d better hold back for a while before getting any more pets. What we must do first is wait and see if Night comes back.’

‘He will come back,’ said Lukas firmly.

‘Yes, yes,’ said Axel. ‘Perhaps he will. But now it’s time to go and eat. And I don’t want any more arguing.’

Then Whirlwind and his friends built their skateboard track, and Lukas was with them although he wasn’t really allowed to help. It took almost a whole week, and most probably the track would never have been finished if Axel hadn’t lent a hand in the evenings.

But there it was in the end, and the currant bush had got its roof. Lukas could crawl underneath the track and hear the swishing of the skateboards passing over his head. He’d even be able to sit there and wait for Night when it was raining.

But Night didn’t come back. And the day when Lukas would start school was coming closer and closer. Every afternoon, he would nag away at his mum until she helped him to write another letter to Night. Then he would place it under the currant bush, and the following morning it would have vanished. Deep down he knew that there wasn’t a postman collecting his letters. You couldn’t be so childish as to believe that when you’d soon be starting school. Perhaps the letters simply blew away during the night. Perhaps there was some strange animal that came out at night and enjoyed eating paper.

Lukas tried harder and harder to think the unpleasant thought that in fact, Night would never come back. He was missing, and would always be missing. And Lukas would never find out why he’d run away. Night had become a riddle that would never be solved.

One day, just before Lukas was due to start school, he made his first attempt to get help in finding Night. He’d gone to town with his mum when she went shopping. He’d taken with him all the thirty-two kronor he’d saved, but he didn’t say what he was intending to do with it.

Next to the big shopping mall where Beatrice would spend at least an hour was a park with a children’s playground. He’d been allowed to go there on his own before, while his mum did the shopping. He promised not to run away, and hurried to the big park.

But he wasn’t actually going to the playground.

He knew that there was a fountain in the park, known as the wishing well. People who wanted a wish to come true would throw money into the water. His dad had often said that it was sheer madness, throwing money into the well. But Lukas had decided that he had nothing to lose. He believed that somehow or other, Night would discover that Lukas had thrown all his money into the water. And then he would have to come back.

He was out of breath by the time he reached the fountain. It was in the form of a big fish squirting lots of water straight up into the air.

As he had some paper notes as well as coins, Lukas had taken his secret piggy bank with him. So that the notes wouldn’t blow away, or just float on the surface of the water, he’d decided to throw in the whole lot: then he could be sure it would sink to the bottom.

He was the only one by the fountain. He knew that when you threw in your money, all you should be thinking about was the wish you wanted to come true. Otherwise nothing would happen.

But as he was thinking so hard that he closed his eyes, he couldn’t keep his balance when he threw the piggy bank into the well. He fell into the water and got soaking wet through.