Page 2 of The Night Before Christmas
‘Come in,’ she said, backing away to let this strange spectacle into the centre. She closed the door behind it, said a quick prayer of protection from murderous festive penguins, and turned around.
CHAPTER TWO
The penguin,as it turned out, was a very tall man in a costume. Which was something of a relief. Felicity held out her hands and he gratefully handed over the tiny bundle, which she drew in close to her chest. After a few anxious seconds, she could feel its little body moving under her fingers.
‘It’s alive,’ she said, swallowing the lump in her throat as she turned and headed towards the cat nursery in search of towels and blankets. The dogs were quietening down, thankfully, and she chatted to them soothingly as she went past the door to their room, reassuring them all was well.
Penguin Man followed her wetly, explaining as he went that he had been walking home from a fancy dress party when he heard a cry coming from a brambly ditch beside the road. When he peered into the darkness with his phone torch, he had found a small damp creature, eyes shut, mouth open, yelling its tiny head off. By instinct, he had scooped it up and climbed out of the ditch, losing one of his penguin flippers along the way. The other one had to be sacrificed as he clambered and then fell over the low gate outside the rescue centre, his ‘bloody costume’ proving rather a hindrance. And so here he was, barefoot andwet. Cradling a small ball of fluff. A ball of fluff that had gone worryingly quiet.
‘Never mind about your feet,’ said Felicity. ‘Pass me that heat lamp, can you?’ She indicated a high wooden shelf above the row of cat cages behind him.
‘It’s blowing a hooley out there,’ said Penguin Man, handing her the lamp and then wiping his soggy face on one equally soggy wing. ‘I thought I was going to end up in the ditch with it. Poor thing. Is it going to be okay?’
‘I don’t know. I hope so,’ she said, grabbing the softest blanket she could find and gently wrapping the tiny kitten up in it. As she did so she looked it over carefully, feeling for any cuts or breaks, but it seemed to be in one piece. Best guess in the circumstances, it was a female kitten but perilously young, perhaps not more than a couple of days old. She was very cold, and her filthy coat was matted and soaking wet. She smelled like damp leaves. Felicity gently placed her into a bed under the heat lamp and stroked the top of her tiny head with one finger.
‘Now, Penguin Man,’ she said, looking at him properly for the first time. He was even taller and broader up close, and he was looking at her anxiously with big grey-blue eyes, the intensity of the moment being slightly dampened by the large drops of water from his costume, which were making their steady way down his nose.
‘Now, Penguin Man,’ she said again. ‘This is important. When you were out there, did you see or hear any sign of another cat anywhere around?’
‘No, none,’ he said, slight panic crossing his face, ‘but I wasn’t really thinking straight, to be honest.’ His eyes widened as realisation dawned. ‘You think there could be more.’ It wasn’t a question.
Felicity nodded quickly. ‘The mum might still be about, and this kitten stands a much better chance if we can find her. There could be other babies too.’
Penguin Man’s eyes never moved from her face as this sank in. It was a little unnerving and she felt her face flush. He was surprisingly handsome. For a soggy penguin.
‘What do you need me to do?’ he said.
After making the little scrap of fur as comfortable as they could, they headed back out into the darkness, cat trap, towel, and torch in hand.
There wasn’t even time to discard the penguin costume although Felicity had managed to find some wellies to save his bare feet. Penguin Man’s suit was still soaking wet though, and he was shivering as they trudged across the road and headed towards the ditch. Freezing rain pattered steadily onto the pavement, and they made their way with some difficulty thanks to a rather strong headwind that made walking challenging and talking virtually impossible.
Nevertheless, they located the section of the ditch where he’d found the kitten within minutes. There was a large entanglement of brambles stretching several metres along the side of the road and reaching across to a cluster of trees on the other side of the deep trough, which had water at the bottom of it. Felicity gingerly lifted a large bramble bush that was hanging over the edge and waved her torch about into the depths below. Nothing.
She took a deep breath and started making a mewling sound the way Andrea had taught her. Kitten sounds in the first few days are surprisingly loud and she hoped it might encourage the baby’s mum to come forward. She glanced acrossto her neighbour as she did so and could swear Penguin Man’s eyebrows lifted for just a moment but, to his credit, he managed not to laugh.
And within a few moments there – miraculously – was a distant but clear answering cry. Somewhere deep in the ditch was at least one other cat.
‘Hold this,’ she told her new assistant, who was looking suitably impressed, and handed him the torch. Then she crept forward slowly, managing to put one foot in a large puddle right up to the ankle. Felicity pulled her now dripping-wet shoe from the murk, swore under her breath, then crept forward again, crying out and listening for the answering calls, which were still coming but seemed to be growing fainter. The sides of the ditch were very slippery in the icy rain, and the wind was whipping her face and threatening to knock her off balance but eventually, perhaps through sheer force of will, she managed to find a safe position to perch, and steadied herself.
‘Do you see anything?’ said Penguin Man, from somewhere above her.
‘Not yet…’ she said, eyes following the torch beam as he moved it round slowly. ‘Wait! There!’
Piercing the darkness, a little further along the bank, were two bright wary eyes staring back at her.
‘I bet that’s Mum,’ said Felicity under her breath. ‘Be really quiet. We mustn’t frighten her.’
She began to clamber along the side of the ditch towards the cat, only to find the cat reversing away from her at precisely the same speed so that, after a few minutes, neither of them had made any progress at all, except that Felicity’s other foot was now also covered in mud.
‘This isn’t working,’ muttered Felicity.
‘You think?’ said Penguin Man from somewhere overhead.
‘Now I’m getting sass from an overgrown penguin. That’s all I need.’
Despite the situation, there was a hint of a grin as she climbed out of the ditch, grabbing his hand to help her negotiate the steep last section. When she arrived in front of him there was a momentary and somewhat intense pause. She quickly let his hand drop.
‘Thanks for resisting the urge to push me in,’ said Felicity, turning away and wiping her soaking hair away from her face, suddenly aware of how close they were in the darkness.
