The Smallest Kitten

“She could be hiding in any of these gardens,” Dad said gently, catching up with her. “We need to call her and give her a chance to come to us.”

“What if she tried to cross the road?” Zara asked, her voice shaking.

Dad looked across at the other pavement, chewing his bottom lip. “The road’s not that busy…” he said at last, but Zara could see he was worried.

Mum and Amina were further up the street, talking to one of their new neighbours. Dad had mentioned that both sets had popped round to say a quick hello, but they’d hardly seen them since then and it wasn’t as if they knew them.

Mum smiled and waved at the elderly man and hurried to catch them up. “Ben says he hasn’t seen her. He’s been working in his front garden all afternoon, but he might not have spotted her if she’d run past quickly.”

“We have to keep looking,” Zara said, flinching as a car drove by – so fast.

“Mmm.” Mum glanced up at the sky and Zara realized that the streetlights must have come on in the last few minutes. It was getting dark. What were their chances of finding a mostly black kitten in the dark?

“Let’s go along the road one more time and call for her,” Dad suggested. “We’ll cross over and do that side. Stay with me, Zara, OK? I don’t want you running ahead now it’s getting dark.”

They called and called. Zara’s heart jumped inside her when there was a rustling from under a clump of bushes. She thought for a second that they’d found Pixie but instead a curious tabby cat came prowling over and jumped up on to the garden wall. It was so friendly and it wanted Dad and Zara to stroke it, but Zara just couldn’t bear to.

“If you see our Pixie, you tell her to come home,” Dad murmured to the cat. Zara thought he was trying to cheer her up, but it didn’t work.

There were only a couple more houses now – surely they couldn’t have gone all the way along the road already?

“Shall we go round the corner?” Zara suggested to Dad, but he looked at his watch and shook his head.

“I don’t think we’re going to find her, Zara. We’d better head back.”

“We can’t just leave her out here!” Zara cried. But Mum and Amina were crossing over to them now and Zara could tell from Mum’s face that she was going to say the same thing.

“That book we got from the library said that if your cat got lost you should put their litter tray outside,” Amina suggested sadly. “It helps them follow their own scent back home.”

Zara glared at her. Until now she’d been too worried about Pixie to think much about their fight. But it felt like this was all Amina’s fault! If she hadn’t been so horrible at the party… And then tried to grab Pixie… Right now Amina looked as though she really needed a hug – but Zara couldn’t bring herself to make her sister feel better.

Zara had liked hiding away in small, tight places ever since she’d been very little. Something about them made her feel safe and secure, especially when she was upset. She always slept with toys piled around her too. Mum said it was just one of those things that made her her. She also said it would be good if Zara could tell someone she was going to disappear off somewhere, or perhaps she could leave her foot sticking out, so she didn’t panic everyone.

Zara didn’t think about that when they got back to the house. Mum and Dad went into the kitchen to make some tea, and Amina disappeared upstairs, and Zara just couldn’t bear the thought of going to bed. She knew she’d only lie there worrying about Pixie – and being angry with Amina. She’d be waiting to feel the soft weight of a kitten snuggled against her foot or curled up behind her knees. She needed some time to be on her own.

They hadn’t been living in this house long enough for Zara to find all the best places, but she knew there was a big cupboard in Dad’s office, one that filled in the corner under the stairs. At the moment it had boxes in it – stuff that hadn’t been unpacked yet. Dad said he had a feeling they’d still have boxes by the time Amina and Zara left home. Zara was pretty sure that even with the boxes there was space for her to curl up in there. There were some toys in one of the boxes too, she thought – Amina’s massive cuddly unicorn and her llama. She could use one of them for a pillow.

Zara slipped into the office, noticing vaguely that Dad’s desk was covered in presents everyone had brought. The party seemed such a long time ago now. The cupboard didn’t quite shut properly because of the way the boxes were piled, but there was still room enough for Zara to huddle herself inside. She could hear the murmur of voices from the kitchen next door, Amina talking to Mum and Dad – and then the front door banging. Probably that was Amina going to put out Pixie’s litter tray in the garden. It was a good idea, Zara admitted to herself. She hadn’t remembered the book said that. She supposed Amina did care about Pixie, really. Zara leaned up against one of the boxes and sighed – a sigh that seemed to come all the way from her toes. She was so tired.

Her eyes were just closing when she heard faint footsteps padding across the office – and someone else climbed into the cupboard next to her.

“I thought you’d be here,” Amina whispered.

Zara gazed at her sleepily. “How did you know? I’ve never been in this cupboard before.”

Amina shrugged. “I just knew. Um… Are you talking to me? I mean – are you still upset?”

Zara sighed. Was she? She didn’t even know any more. Eventually she shook her head – and then realized that Amina could hardly see her. “Only a bit. Not like I was… I’m just worried about Pixie. I still don’t understand how you knew I was here.” She felt Amina shrug.

“I don’t know either. I just did. Dad went out to call for Pixie again and Mum’s looking for a local Facebook group to post about her being lost. I suddenly thought that I hadn’t seen you for a while. And then I remembered this cupboard. Can you shove up a bit? The corner of this box is sticking into me.”

Zara shuffled her bottom further in, and reached inside the box of toys to grab something for Amina to lean against. Then she blinked and moved her fingers again, very slowly.

There was soft fur under her hand – not toy fur, but real.

Kitten fur. Warm, silky, real kitten fur.

“Pixie,” Zara whispered, screwing up her eyes and trying to see in the dim light from the hallway. “Pixie, is that you?”

There was a faint, hesitant purr and Pixie butted her head against Zara’s hand.

“Pixie’s there?” Amina breathed, her voice shaking with relief.

“Yes! Oh, Pixie! You’re here! You never went outside at all. I bet you’ve been in this cupboard the whole time.” Zara half-laughed. There was a strange, wonderful feeling of lightness inside her as all the worry and panic lifted away. She reached out to grab Amina’s hand so she could touch Pixie too. “There – that’s not one of the toys, it’s her!”

Amina was now laughing with her. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you, Pixie.”

“I suppose we should go and tell Mum and Dad,” Zara said slowly. She didn’t want to, though. She wanted to stay here with a sleepy, purry kitten and just breathe for a while. Her and Pixie and Amina.

There was a little thud and Zara looked down as tiny paws padded on to her lap. Her eyes were starting to adjust to the dim light now and she could see Pixie slowly turning round and round. The kitten kneaded at Zara’s sparkly skirt with her paws, making herself a comfortable nest. Then she lay down with a thump as though to say she was going back to sleep and she wasn’t arguing with anyone about it. So now they had to stay where they were.

“I was so scared when we were out on the street looking for her,” Amina said quietly. “I really thought she might have been run over.”

“Me too.”

“Can I stroke her?” Amina asked.

“She’s your kitten too!”

“I know, but … I’m sorry, OK?” Amina rubbed Pixie’s ears gently. Then she added, “It’s just – I’m not used to you having different friends to me. And you’re not even sitting with me in class now! Everything feels weird.”

Zara looked at her sister in surprise. Amina was the confident one – she shouldn’t care that Zara had moved tables. “It’ll be OK,” she whispered.

“I suppose. And I suppose Billie’s all right. But I thought I was your best friend,” Amina added, her voice very small.

“You are! But I can still have Billie as a friend too,” Zara said.

“I know.” Amina was silent for a moment. “I was jealous,” she admitted. “But I’ll try not to be. And I’m sorry about Mia as well,” she added, her voice suddenly going high and surprised. “I knew she could be a bit catty – sorry, Pixie – but she was horrible! And – and I didn’t tell her to shut up when she said that stuff about you. I should have done.”

Zara was silent. That was what had hurt so much, that Amina hadn’t stuck up for her. “I really don’t like Mia,” she said, gently stroking Pixie’s paws.

“I don’t think I do either,” Amina said, her voice very small. “But I wanted everyone to like me. And they all seem to listen to her…”

“Yeah, because otherwise she’ll say mean things about them.”

Amina nodded her head sadly. “But Lucy’s nice and some of the others. I just won’t hang around with Mia so much.” Then she laughed, sounding surprised, and Zara saw that Pixie had poked Amina with her paws.

The kitten stretched one front paw, and then the other, and then both, and then she stuck her bottom up in the air and wriggled it. At last she yawned, a huge yawn that showed tiny teeth, glinting white in the dim light. Then she went into her padding round and round routine again – this time wobbling between Zara’s lap and Amina’s, the way she had done the first day they’d brought her home. She slumped down again across both their laps, stretched out as far as she could, as though she was trying to link them together.

Pixie could hear the change in Zara’s voice and even more in Amina’s. That sharp angry sound had gone. They were sitting close to each other too. She felt the fear that had been sitting deep down inside her ease away and she yawned. She liked this comfortable space with the boxes and the soft things to lie on, but it was even better when Zara and Amina were there too.

She stretched deliciously, feeling all her muscles tense and relax. Then she stood up, pacing over both girls’ laps and pounding her paws until everything was just right.

Pixie settled down comfortably, rolling on to her back and showing Zara and Amina the soft whiteness of her tummy. She purred wheezily – half a purr and half a snore – and went back to sleep.

Safe and warm and loved.

STRIPES PUBLISHING LIMITED

An imprint of the Little Tiger Group

1 Coda Studios, 189 Munster Road, London SW6 6AW

First published in Great Britain in 2022

Text copyright © Holly Webb, 2022

Illustrations copyright © Sophy Williams, 2022

Author photograph © Charlotte Knee Photography

e-ISBN: 978-1-78895-456-3

The right of Holly Webb and Sophy Williams to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work respectively has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

All rights reserved.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed upon the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.