The Cat Who Liked Rain

One night, before going to sleep, he made up his mind that he would start a school of his own with Night. He would try to teach him the same things that he’d been learning at school.

Then he fell asleep; and a few days later they moved back to Rowan Tree Road. They left the caravan by the lake, because they would still be going back there every weekend.

But Axel’s holidays were over, there was nothing anybody could do about that. And in three weeks’ time, Lukas would be starting school.

Lukas thought they would be three very long weeks. Three more weeks to go before his very first day at school came around.

But nothing turned out as he had expected.

One morning, Night disappeared.

Four

Night disappeared on a perfectly normal day.

When Lukas woke up in the morning he knew that it was Thursday and that he would be having pancakes for dinner. He stretched out in his bed, and felt around on the covers to see if Night was lying there, asleep. Then he remembered that Night had woken him up long before dawn. Feeling tired, and perhaps also a bit angry at having been disturbed, Lukas had shuffled into the kitchen with the cat dancing around his feet, and placed a little herring in his food bowl. Night hardly ever drank milk now, he’d been eating proper food for some time. Lukas then closed the kitchen door, went back to bed and fell asleep immediately.

But when Lukas got up and went to the kitchen, Night wasn’t there. Lukas shouted for him, but there was no response. He put a chair in front of the work surface and clambered up so that he could see the tops of the kitchen cupboards. Night wasn’t lying there either. Lukas put the chair back, and thought that his dad must have forgotten to close the kitchen door when he’d finished breakfast. Night had no doubt hidden himself away somewhere else. Lukas still wasn’t worried. He’d begun to get used to the fact that Night was like himself: sometimes he just wanted to be left in peace.

As Night didn’t have a room of his own to which he could retire and close the door, he had to keep looking for new hiding places. Lukas had often thought that Night was much better than he was at discovering new hideaways that were difficult to find.

Lukas sat down at the kitchen table, drank some milk and ate a sandwich. He could hear his mother working in the laundry room. There was a whining noise a bit like an aeroplane’s engine when the washing machine was in operation. Lukas thought that Night had no doubt gone with Beatrice into the laundry room. He liked playing with the heap of dirty linen.

When he’d finished his breakfast Lukas went to the laundry room.

‘Is Night here?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know,’ said Beatrice. ‘I think I saw him not long ago. Yes, he must be around here somewhere.’

Lukas went to his room and got dressed. When he looked out of the window, it was obvious that today was going to be spent indoors. It was windy and raining, and drops were pattering away at the windowpanes. He pressed his nose against the glass and wondered what sort of load his dad would have in the lorry today. He hoped the windscreen wipers were working properly. Lukas was sometimes worried in case his dad had an accident with that big lorry of his.

He could hear that it was still quiet in Whirlwind’s room. Sometimes Whirlwind would sleep in until ten o’clock. Lukas often wished that Whirlwind would sleep all day, every day. Then he wouldn’t need to worry about Whirlwind being angry with him, or with Night.

Then he started looking properly for Night. First he checked all the usual hiding places he knew about. No sign of Night. Then he checked every room, one after the other. He crept around as quietly as possible, because he usually turned the search into a game. He didn’t want to frighten Night, he wanted to try to move so quietly that Night wouldn’t hear him and prick his ears or wake up.

But Night wasn’t there. There was no sign of him.

And suddenly, as if from nowhere, Lukas had that horrible feeling in his stomach. Night had disappeared. Lukas felt frightened, just as if he’d been lying asleep and been woken up by a nightmare.

‘I can’t find Night,’ he said to Beatrice, who was busy scraping the paint off an old chair.

‘He’ll turn up as soon as he feels hungry,’ she said.

It was at that very moment Lukas knew for certain that Night had disappeared. The feeling was so strong that he couldn’t brush it aside.

‘He’s run away,’ he said.

Beatrice smiled at him.

‘You always think that when he’s hidden himself away somewhere and you can’t find him at first,’ she said.

‘No, he’s gone,’ said Lukas again, and his voice was shaking.

Beatrice looked at him in surprise. She’d heard the unsteadiness in his voice, just like it sounded when he was about to start crying.