Meteors: Chapter Four - The Bigger Cat

Worm's eye veiw of trees during night time, or, Trees against a purple sky - Credit to Ryan Hutton on UnSplash

Read Chapter Three here.

Read Chapter Five here.

               The doorbell ringing was a surprise for all of the family, except for Owain. Who didn’t hear it. It was his Dad who answered the ringing speaker, watching the screen as it showed the girl ringing the apartment number, tan with dark hair, a fringe, and grey eyes, dressed like she’d been hired to play a vagrant in a musical, though maybe that was just the flatcap, a colourful metal band around her right arm. Mr. McCrawley knew she looked somewhat familiar, but not enough to be ringing the doorbell without something to sell.

               “Who is this?”

               “Ruth Ash, sir. I’m hear to see an Owain McCrawley? He said this was his address?” At this she looked down at her phone, double checking her information.

               “That’s my son,” He said, “Why are you here?”

               “Goodness, dad, you enjoying your interrogation?” Owain asked, walking up behind him. He was just pulling on his turtleneck, worn and a fading green, that looked suspiciously lumpy.

               “I don’t know her,”

               “I do. She’s the one who got Ivona to calm down enough to have her injection last week. We’re gonna work on our CV’s. You remind me enough I need a job, that’s why she’s here,” Owain didn’t wait for a response, reaching past his dad and buzzing her in, “Just knock on the second door on the third floor. I’ll open it for you,”

               The screen turned to black, and Mr. McCrawley wheeled around to face his son, eyebrow raised and mouth twisted in confusion.

               “She’s a stranger, Owain. I’m glad your being so kind, but – we don’t know this girl?”

               “Her names Ruth, Dad, she’s Robert Harrand’s granddaughter. You were literally telling me about her last week,”

               Mr. McCrawley hummed, unconvinced.

               “Her name’s Ruth?” A third voice joined the conversation. Mrs. McCrawley stuck her head out of the living room, reading glasses hanging around her neck, white hair pulled into a thick frizzy plait. Owain was the spit of her, though he had a slightly lighter complexion thanks to his Dad, “Her?” Owain didn’t like the sparkle in her eye.

               “No,”

               “But-“

               “Just, no, mum,” The fact that his mum was right had no bearing on his willingness to admit anything. He’d only recently had a normal conversation with Ruth when he’d bumped into her at the park when he was on a run. She’d been reading The Greenleaves of Ahlden, a book series that he knew his mum liked, though he’d never read it himself. It was obviously a subject that she very much enjoyed, if her excitement at explaining the plot was anything to go by. She’d almost thrown the book in her hands in a particularly energetic gesture while explaining the historic use of quarterstaffs in Ahlden’s history. He could say confidently that they were friends now, and in finding that they were both looking for jobs he had offered for her to come to his and they could search for jobs together, see if they could help each other improve their CV’s. Also, he wanted to introduce her to his latest friend.

               “Let her know she can stay for dinner if she’d like,”

               “Mum,”

               “Right, got the message,” She grinned at her son, then disappeared back into the living room. Mr. McCrawley shook his head with a resigned sigh and wheeled himself through to the living room too. Owain frowned after him. He hated these days, his dad was always moodier, more irritable when his legs were playing up, and would refuse to leave the house if he was having to rely on the wheelchair. He was disturbed from his thought by a knock on the door. Right, Ruth. He opened the blue door.

               Ruth was raising her hand to knock again, stood stock straight, her other arm hugging her stomach. She looked uncomfortable. He could fix that. He grinned, swinging the door wider open.

               “Ruth, come in, come in, you’re,” He checked his watch, “Bang on time, my goodness, are you always this timely?” Ruth nodded curtly. Her hair was tied back under the flatcap, affording a clearer look at her face below the fringe obscuring her forehead.

               “Owain-,”

               “Yes?”

               “You’re in the way.”

               And so he was. There was no way for anyone to get inside unless they were Ivona’s size. Owain laughed sheepishly, stepping to the side, and closing the door after her.

               “This way.” Owain led her down the short hall, Ruth gave him an odd look, or more specifically, his jumper. Noticing this, Owain smiled at her conspiratorially, holding on to his jumper like he was worried something would fall out. He walked quickly past the living room, seeing his mum, and her friend she was having a cup of tea with, out of the corner of his eye. They were both leaning back to watch him and Ruth, their own smiles were conspiratorial, but Owain didn’t like it. His dad at least was acting semi-normal. Ruth hesitantly waved at her behind him, like she wasn’t sure whether she was supposed to say hi or not. Ivona, thank goodness was playing with her friend, the daughter of her mum’s friend, in her room. Otherwise, she would definitely turn up and not let Ruth go. The girl was obsessed with her. He turned right into the kitchen, waving his arms in the direction of the table.

               “Step into my office,” he said, clearing some extra space on the round table that served as their dining table. Cereal boxes moved to the countertop, bowls were moved hastily to the sink, and a bag of toys that his mum had collected for that weeks Sunday School was moved onto a spare chair. The chairs weren’t much better, he had to shift a couple of coats for Ruth to have a chair without anything on it. She was staring around the room, looking as if she was calculating it.

               “Sorry for the mess, it’s been one of those weeks.” It hadn’t. He’d just forgotten to clean up earlier. “Oh, and this is my friend.” With that, he lifted his jumper up, and cradled in his other hand was a kitten, it’s fur a midnight black, and it’s eyes half closed, like it had been falling asleep. Ruth froze. That wasn’t the right reaction, “Ruth?” Her eyes didn’t leave the kitten.

               “It’s a cat,” She said.

               “Sssh, not too loudly. I’ve not told dad about her yet,” Ruth nodded, “Are you okay?” Owain looked between his kitten and Ruth. The kitten looked between Owain and Ruth and meowed.

               “I… I’m not great with animals,”

“She’s just a kitten, wouldn’t hurt a fly,”

               “-wouldn’t hurt a fly, I know” Ruth finished at the same time as him. He looked up in surprise, “Everyone says that,” She said, somewhat apologetically, “I’m sorry, they just freak me out a bit, it’s irrational, there’s no reason. I’m better than I used to be, I promise,” She smiled briefly, but Owain noticed she hadn’t once looked away from the kitten. He stroked the kitten a little, thinking. Then, he pulled out a chair for Ruth, and sat down in his own chair, he’d been working on his laptop before this, and had a little area set up already. He held on to the kitten.

               “Do you have a nervous condition?” Owain asked, wincing at his own bluntness. Ruth’s brows furrowed, her face scrunched in confusion. For the first time since he’d revealed his newest friend, she actually looked at him. Not his eyes, never his eyes. He guessed she was focusing on his nose. That was alright, he thought he had quite a nice nose, to be honest.

               “What?” Well, there went their friendship.

               “I just… look, the last few times I’ve hung out with you you’ve freaked out about something”

               “You mean the time we got bombed? Or the time a pharmacist was refusing to give me my medication?”

               “Well, when you put it like that,”

               “It’s not easy moving countries, you know. It’s not the first time I’ve done that, but it’s still not easy. You try leaving everything you know behind because you’re told to, and sure, things freak me out. Everyone has things that freak them out. This place doesn’t know what freaks me out, so it happens more often than usual. And I said, I’m better than I was,”

               Owain blinked. That was almost the most he’d heard her speak in one sitting. Her jaw was clearly gritted, and she was now looking back at the kitten in his hands.  It had started climbing up his arm, or trying to, pawing at his jumper sleeve.

               “I’m sorry.” Ruth took a few breaths, and looked back at him, or his nose, again.

               “It’s… It’s okay,” She said, “I shouldn’t have-,”

               “You should’ve ranted earlier. I can’t help if I don’t know these things,”

               “Help?”

               “You’re my friend, of course I want to help.” Ruth looked surprised, “Now, I’ll put her in my room, ask mum to keep an eye on her, and we can get all this done sans kittens and overly blunt questions, though I can’t promise on the last one,” Owain was already standing up, returning the kitten to her hiding place under his jumper, “I’ll be right back, you get yourself set up. There are hot drinks by the kettle if you want to make yourself something,”

               He was back in no time. Ruth clearly hadn’t moved. Definitely some sort of nervous condition, he thought, but had the sense not to say it out loud. He went to make himself some tea, and flicked the kettle on. “Hot drink?”

               Ruth clearly hadn’t noticed him, she jumped a little at the sound of the kettle, but recovered quickly. If he didn’t know better, he’d think she’d been daydreaming. “Coffee please, black,” she paused, “And, uh, some honey, if that’s alright?”

               “Honey? In coffee?” He set out two mugs. One green, his favourite, and one red one with daisies spotted on it.

               “It’s a favourite of Alcor’s in the Greenleaf Chronicles, so logically, I started drinking it when I was about thirteen,” The kettle finished, and he started stirring the drinks, squeezing his teabag against his mug with a teaspoon, and then stirring the coffee until it was a soldi dark colour. He turned around, bringing the mugs to the table.

               “Alcor, she’s the main character, right?” He placed the red mug in front of Ruth, and the green one next to his laptop.

               “Yeah. I wanted to be like her as a kid,” Owain could hear the unsaid ‘still do’ by just looking at her face, “Drinking her favourite drink was just a step closer,”

               “Well, here’s your honey,” He passed her the squeeze bottle. She looked hesitant for a few seconds, before shrugging, and squeezing a surprising amount of the honey into her mug. Somewhat more than the teaspoon amount he’d been expecting, “You’ll cause a riot if you ask for that at Sarah’s though,” He said with a little laugh, opening his laptop, and bringing up ForReal. Ruth watched curiously, an expression that reminded him of the kittens.

               “Sarah’s?”

               “It’s the café in town, it’s been there for who knows how long,”

               “Let me guess, it’s run by Café Ed?”

               “Close, Café Lauré. Apparently Laura was too common a name for her parents,” The history of the Ed’s of the town was long and complicated, and honestly, Owain didn’t think anyone actually knew the origin of why they called so many people Ed. Some people even called Lauré Café Ed, though she was known to hate it. 

               It turned out Ruth hadn’t heard of ForReal before, so Owain introduced her to the job search engine and it’s ins and outs. They had a look over each other’s CV’s and soon fell into a comfortable quiet with random conversations popping up intermittently, mostly Ruth asking him questions about Sobetween, trying to understand the town she’d found herself in. Mr. McCrawley rolled in at one point to let them know he was going to The Royal Greenleaf to watch the football with his friends. Owain waved and hoped he had fun. Football had never interested him, though he had tried for his dad’s sake. Sometime later, their spotty conversation turned to the kitten.

               “I found her behind Sarah’s yesterday morning,” he was saying, “Poor thing was shivering despite the sun, and I don’t know if you saw before, but she looked like she’d been caught in a scrap or two. What else was I supposed to do?”

               “I don’t know many people who would so readily adopt a cat,”

               “Kitten. You obviously don’t know the right kind of people. I couldn’t just leave her! Problem is, Dad doesn’t like cats. He’s not scared, not allergic, nothing, he just doesn’t like them. So, I’ve sworn mum to secrecy, and we can’t tell Ivona, she can’t keep a secret for the life of her,” Ruth nodded in agreement.

               “Y’know,” She said hesitantly, after submitting another job application, “I wouldn’t mind trying to meet her properly,”

               “Really?” Owain looked over, eyes widening hopefully. Ruth had the start of a smile on her face, like something had amused her.

               “I trust you, just, keep a hold of her, if that’s alright?” Owain stood up from his chair, somewhat hastily.

               “Of course, of course!” By the time Owain was back in the kitchen, Ruth had submitted five new applications, eaten a sausage roll his mum came in and offered her for lunch, had gotten an interview and had a conversation with an ice cream company. It turned out that not every company in Sobetween was led by an Ed, though it sure felt like it to Ruth. She turned around to say so to Owain and furrowed her brows in surprise. He was stood, eyes wide, jaw clenched, and very clearly kitten-less.

               “Owain?”

               “She’s gone, I can’t find her anywhere,”

               “What?”

               “Mum’s not seen her anywhere, neither has Ivona, and she’s telling the truth, I know her face, Dad would’ve made a fuss. Ruth, she’s gone!”

               Ruth closed her laptop lid slowly, eyes full of what Owain could only assume was

worry. She stood up and brushed any remaining flakes of sausage roll pastry off of her shirt.

               “I guess we’ve got to look for her then. She can’t have gone far,”

               It was night by the time they admitted to themselves that a kitten with a will appeared able to indeed ‘go far’. They’d searched the entire house and eventually gone out to the rest of the apartment floors, knocking on doors to see if people had seen a black kitten that looked a little worse for wear.

               Ruth met a lot of people in that time. Ruby Thomas opened the door in a nightgown and slippers, cradling a steaming hot chocolate. Willow Price had a brightly coloured blanket over her shoulders, hugging a book. Henry Pearce opened the door with a ball of wool trailing behind him, knitting needles hidden quickly, and badly, behind his back. Skye Morris was wielding a poker like she was expecting a robber to ring the doorbell. Lottie Jones was untangling birthday bunting, and Harvey Clark’s open door revealed a world of rich and flavourful scents, he liked baking apparently. Larry was drinking coffee and feigned throwing it on Owain because ‘it was too late for his nonsense’ but he ended up joining them on their search, refusing to change out of his skeleton onesie with labelled bones. Sebastien Cooper was drinking tea and had a well-worn argument with Larry about hot drink superiority. Emily Parker’s house smelt of chocolate, she couldn’t help, but she gave them chocolate cupcakes that were absolutely delicious at that time of night. Elsie Brown barely opened the door, to keep her three toddlers from escaping in their riotous game of chase, the bags under her eyes prompted Ruth to give her her own chocolate cupcake, Elsie accepted gratefully. Before she closed the door, a child managed to throw a hoop through the small crack. Owain caught it and handed it back. Esme Price appeared to not have anything in her hallway that wasn’t knitted. Sienna Davies tried selling them some hand-woven scarves, and Joshua Cooper passed a crocheted teddy bear to Owain. It was for Ivona, Mrs. McCrawley had asked him to make it for her. Violet Hall’s daughter wished them well on their search and tried giving Owain her bracelet, because it helped her remember her dad, maybe it would help him remember his cat. Amber Thompson was wearing ice skates. No one had seen a kitten, black, battered, or otherwise.

               They turned to the streets, somehow, that kitten must have escaped the building. Larry went to search the park. Ruth missed it, but he threw a wink at Owain and ran off with another conspiratorial grin. Owain decided he didn’t like conspiracies. Or grins. He turned around to see Ruth staring at the sky. He looked up. It was a clear night, they could see the stars.

               “That’s Enmowos, above us,” she said. It was the first time she’d spoken since she’d give Elsie her cupcake, she pointed up, connecting the stars ini a pattern Owain could just about follow us, “It’s old language, it means ‘Bigger Cat, if you follow the tail star, you can find the tail of the Smaller cat, Ilmowos. And there,” She pointed at a particular star, “is the eye, and it’s hiding a second star behind it, some people can differentiate them, the second star is called Alcor,” Now she’d pointed them out, they went back to looking for the kitten, scanning the grey night for any movements or a little puff of black fur. Ruth apparently wanted to talk tonight. Owain liked that, it was like a personal podcast.

               “She’s supposedly my ancestor, y’know. Alcor. It’s why I like the Greenleaves of Ahlden so much. Why I want, wanted to be like her,” The streets were empty. People rarely went out after sundown anymore, not since that bombing, that was why neither of them were using their torches, “Not the film, obviously, that’s utter rubbish. Hunt’s stories though, I believe they’re actual accounts. I hope they are,” They separated for a few minutes, taking two different roads, meeting at the other end where the roads joined into one.

               “She was a stranger in Ahlden too,” Owain was confused for a minute, because her voice sounded like it was coming from above. “though she had Coen to help her out, he was a Sobetweener,”

               "Like me then? I can be your Coen, right?" He turned to look at Ruth and found himself face to face with her shoe, She was climbing the nearest tree, her face turned away from him, she'd frozen, and then reached for the next branch. “What are you doing?”

               “Getting a look from up here,”

               “You’re up a tree,”

               “Don’t tell me you’ve never climbed a tree,” Their eyes were adjusted to the dark, and the look of disgust she was throwing him was clearly visible.

               “Well….”

               “What on earth did you do for fun as a kid?” Owain was hesitant to admit that he spent most of his free time on his x-box, before they’d sold it, “Tell me you can at least do a cartwheel?”

               “What does that have to do with climbing trees?”

               “Nothing, they were just the markers of being a cool kid with the Nitlome,”

               “Nitlome?” Owain stumbled over the pronunciation.

               “Nitlome Ruda, the group I lived with in Ohlendia,” Swinging so she was perched on a branch, she pointed at her metal armband, Yellow and Blue, with a green symbol uniting the colours, “Their colours,” she looked out over the streets, searching for any sign of the little black kitten, “My colours,”