‘Emotional Support Animal,’ Cleo explained. ‘Means she grips tight hold of me whenever a plane is taking off or landing, and talks to me constantly in between when I’m trying to nap.’

I’d never been on a plane, or any further away from home than I was right now. But I would tomorrow. I’d be flying high in the sky over to China, according to Mum. I wondered if they’d hold tight to me.

I looked over at Gobi again. Mum had one hand resting on her fur as she talked to Jennifer. And I knew, right then, that I wasn’t anyone’s ESA: Gobi was. She was the pet who had changed everything. The one who got to go on all the big adventures, because people wanted to see her wherever she went. I was just tagging along. This wasn’t my big trip at all, it was all Gobi’s.

‘And this is going to be her longest journey yet.’ Cleo was still talking, oblivious to my realization of my unimportance. ‘She’s going all the way to Australia. That’s practically a whole day on a plane, she says. And …’ Cleo’s voice dropped, lower and smaller, like she was ashamed of what she was going to say next. ‘… I’m terrified of flying. It was bad enough just jetting around Europe but a whole day on a plane? I can’t take it. All I want is to go back home, with the automatic kitty feeder they used to use when they went away for a weekend. Is that so much to ask?’

I made a vague sympathetic noise, but my brain was stuck on one word.

Australia.

I knew about Australia. Not much, but enough.

You see, that was where Dad was from, before he met Mum and me. He grew up there. He showed me on the map – and it was further away than China, even.

Dad talked about Australia sometimes. Not often, but every now and again. Because he’d not been back there in years – since long before he found Gobi in the desert.

Which meant that Gobi had never been to Australia.

That was an adventure that was too much even for Gobi.

But I was sure I could do it.

I studied Cleo carefully. Same fluffy white and dark brown fur. Same blue eyes. Same fluffy tail. We really did look very alike …

Suddenly, an idea floated into my mind. An adventurous, crazy idea. One that was more extreme than a ferry ride, or a book tour. It might even be more exciting than being lost in China, or running an ultramarathon.

The sort of idea that, if it worked, would mean that no one would be able to say that I was just an indoor, homebody cat ever again.

I’d be Lara, cat adventurer. I’d be the pet everyone wanted to talk about. Maybe they’d even write a book about me, too.

‘We should swap places,’ I said, without thinking it through any further. ‘I’ll go to Australia with Jennifer, and you can …’ Ah … For a cat who hated flying, I was pretty sure the flight to China wouldn’t be a lot of fun, either.

‘Hide out in the airport until Jennifer gives up and comes home again?’ Cleo finished for me. She sat up straighter, looking imperious and calculating. Somehow, I got the feeling that my adventure had just slipped from my paws into hers. ‘That could work.’

‘It could?’ I’ll be honest, I hadn’t thought through the specifics, I’d just acted on impulse. Like Gobi did.

To my surprise, it felt kind of good.

‘We’d need to be cunning about it.’ Cleo was watching Jennifer again, sounding thoughtful. ‘But yes, I think it could work.’

‘Great,’ I said. But inside I was wondering what on earth I’d got myself into now. It had sounded exciting in my head, but now the words were out in the world, it was sort of, kind of, terrifying.

Well, I’d wanted my own adventure. One that wasn’t about Gobi at all.

It looked like I’d got one.

Just as Dad returned to the cabin with hot chocolates, I asked Cleo, ‘Okay, so how would this work?’

We both stopped chatting to pay attention to our humans again for a moment.

‘Oh, Dion, Jennifer and Cleo are headed to the airport same as us tomorrow morning. We’ve got space to give them a lift, right?’ Mum said, taking her paper cup.

Dad shrugged. ‘Sure, happy to help.’

My dad is too nice sometimes – I reckon that’s how we ended up with Gobi. But on this occasion, it suited my plans perfectly.

‘That makes things a lot easier.’ Cleo stretched out her paws in front of her, arching her back as she thought. I could almost see the plan forming behind her calculating blue eyes. Finally, she settled back down again and said, ‘Here’s what we’ll do.’

I shuffled up closer to listen. I’d had the grand idea, but was definitely going to need help with the details.

‘The key is all in the timing,’ Cleo said. I got the feeling that she liked to pontificate – something Dad said I always did when he was watching the sport. Still, under the circumstances, I was willing to put up with a bit of fellow cat know-it-all-ness. ‘We can’t make the swap until after they check our pet passports and microchips.’

‘Of course,’ I murmured, even though I was actually thinking, I have a passport? I mean, I knew about the microchip thingy, buried under my fur, but I’d never needed a passport before. (I’d seen Dad’s, though. He looked hilarious in the photo, and Mum liked to show it around any friends who stopped by, whenever he was preparing for another trip.)

‘Once we’ve been checked, but before we go our separate ways, we need to switch places, without anyone noticing.’

‘Easy,’ I said, although actually, it sounded anything but. I tried to picture how it would work, but without ever having been to an airport before, or gone through the security things Gobi had talked about, I couldn’t imagine it. Would it be like getting on the ferry, with the man who scowled at paperwork? Or would it be totally different?

If our humans weren’t looking too closely, they might not notice if we swapped places. I hoped …

‘We’ll see,’ Cleo replied. I supposed she was right – I’d have to wait and see how it all worked.

But one thing I was certain of – it would work. It had to. This was my one chance to escape on a real adventure, not just tagging around after Gobi. I wasn’t going to miss it.

I raised my head, stretching out my neck as I sat, imperious. ‘It’ll work like clockwork, just wait and see. We’ll swap places, and I’ll go adventuring to Australia with Jennifer, and you can …’ The gap in my plan suddenly seemed obvious. ‘Wait, what are you really going to do once we’ve swapped?’ I didn’t think she’d want to fly to China with Mum and Dad, but what other choice would she have?

But Cleo just shrugged. ‘I’ll hang out with your people long enough for you to make your getaway, then I’ll lose them before we get on the plane.’

‘Lose them? How? You’ll be in my carrier.’ And I had tried opening that door from the inside before, usually when they were using it to take me to the vet. It didn’t work.

But Cleo looked unconcerned by the difficulties ahead. ‘Yowl loud enough and someone will open the door eventually. Then I just need to slip past them and make a run for it.’

‘What if you get caught? And, actually, what if you don’t? What will you do?’ It sounded to me like Cleo had her own adventure planned.

‘If I can stay free, I’ll just hide out around the airport as long as it’s fun and entertaining. Then, when I’m ready for humans again, I’ll let myself get caught by the airport staff. They’ll just check my microchip, then put me up in some pet hotel or another until Jennifer gets back in the country. Hopefully, losing me will put her off flying for a while.’

For someone planning an audacious escape, Cleo seemed remarkably calm and unruffled. Were her nerves jangling like mine were, inside? If she hated flying as much as she said, she must be a bit nervous, right? I wished she’d show it – it would make me feel better.

And there was something else Cleo hadn’t considered, either.

‘Unless Jennifer decides she likes me better, and wants to keep me.’ I was hoping to ruffle her, just a little bit. But Cleo just laughed, which was rather insulting.

I got the feeling that Cleo wasn’t really that nice a cat. But she was helping me, so I’d need to put up with her, for now at least.

Later, once Jennifer had whisked Cleo back into her carrier to take her next door, and Mum and Dad were ready for bed, Gobi settled down next to me and asked, ‘What were you and your lookalike whispering about earlier?’

I allowed myself a small, smug smile. ‘You’ll have to wait and see.’

‘I didn’t like her,’ Gobi said. ‘She seemed sly. Sneaky. Not like you.’

If only Gobi knew how sneaky I could be, when I needed to. But it was better that she didn’t. Mum and Dad and Gobi were all so convinced that I was a boring, homebody cat, they’d never even dream I could plan an adventure like this, so they’d never see it coming. I’d be halfway to Australia before they even realized what had happened.

It was the perfect plan.

I smiled to myself, and curled up, my paws under my chin and my tail wrapped over Gobi’s back to try to sleep. But without the distractions of Cleo and Jennifer, or making plans, I was very aware that I was on the giant ship in the middle of more water than I’d ever imagined could exist, even when Dad pointed out the oceans on his map.

Gobi was already snoring, so I hopped off the bed and over to the little table under the window, almost knocking over Mum’s bottle of water. Pressing my paws against the window, I looked outside again.

The waves rose and fell around us, making even the huge ferry sway from side to side. The moon glowed in the sky, and again in the water. I knew from Dad’s documentaries that it was the same moon that looked down on our house in Edinburgh, the same moon my family would see in China, and the same moon I’d be looking at in Australia.

The whole wide world to explore, but only one moon. That made me feel a little better about everything, somehow.

After a while, watching the waves started to make my stomach feel odd, so I settled down again next to Gobi, listening to her gentle snores, and Mum and Dad’s breathing as they slept. This might be the last night I heard those sounds for a while, so I drank them all in, storing the memory away for other nights, away from my family. After a while, they merged with the other sounds I could hear – creaks and clanks from the ferry, the voices of some of the other passengers passing our door, the waves outside lapping against the boat.

Eventually, I fell asleep to the sound of the waves rocking the boat, still picturing Gobi’s face when she realized I was having a much bigger adventure than she ever could.

Airports turned out to be a lot bigger than I expected. And noisier.

There were so many people, everywhere, that I could see instantly how easy it would be for Cleo to lose herself among them, after I was gone. Once she’d escaped from the carrier, anyway.

So far, everything had gone perfectly to plan.

The ferry had docked early in the morning, and we’d all had breakfast together in our little cabin before we headed out to find our car again. Dad helped Jennifer with her cases too, taking her with us down to the car. We sat in the giant car park on the boat, and I peered out from my carrier through a sliver of window I could see, waiting to see the new country we’d arrived in – France.

Jennifer and Cleo travelled with us on the drive to the airport, Cleo in her carrier beside mine. We’d exchanged knowing looks, but hadn’t risked discussing our plan with Gobi there to listen in. I wasn’t sure how she’d stop us, but I was pretty sure she’d try, if she knew what we were planning. I reckoned Gobi liked being the only pet to have the big adventures.

My whole body buzzed with anticipation throughout the long drive to the airport – and for once, I didn’t even fall asleep in the car! I was far too excited for that.

At the airport, Jennifer stuck with us, just as Cleo and I had hoped she would. I’d tried to imagine what we’d do if she decided to go her own way once we got there, but without being able to picture an airport, it was impossible.

Now I could see exactly what one looked like, it only seemed more so.

It helped that Cleo had talked me through what would happen – and that, actually, it wasn’t very much different to the systems we’d been through at the ferry port the day before. Now, though, I realized that the papers Dad handed over to the man in the uniform were probably mine and Gobi’s passports – for all they looked different to his and Mum’s.

Nobody seemed all that interested in us, except to scan our microchips and glance at our papers. Except, of course, for the overly chatty security man, who recognized Gobi from the telly.

‘I can’t believe she really ran all that way through the desert with you!’ he said, as he checked Gobi’s passport. Gobi preened at the attention, as usual.

‘She really did.’ Dad ruffled Gobi’s scruffy, sandy fur. As if mine wasn’t a hundred times softer and fluffier and overall much, much nicer to ruffle. ‘She’s a born adventurer, this one!’

I hunkered down in my soft carrier, waiting for someone to remember that I was there, more determined than ever to show my humans that I could have an adventure even better than Gobi’s. And I wouldn’t feel the need to brag about it on TV all the time, either. Although, if my public came calling, of course I wouldn’t want to disappoint them either. And a book deal would be nice …

Finally, we were through security, and Dad took Gobi out of her carrier and popped her lead on instead. Mum reached into the bag she had on her back and pulled out my harness – the one she uses when we go on long car journeys and I need to stretch my legs at the side of the road. My eyes widened with panic as I saw it in her hand.

We hadn’t planned for harnesses.

Just behind us, Cleo and Jennifer were exiting security, too, and I tried to catch Cleo’s eye through the door of her carrier. Once the harness was on, there was no way I could escape and still be mistaken for Cleo afterwards. My harness is, let’s say, distinctive. (It’s bright pink, with yellow and orange flowers on it. Dad chose it – for the record, he said it was a joke. Mum said it would definitely make it less likely that anyone would try to steal me, so she insists on using it every time we go anywhere in the car, now.)

Mum was still untangling the harness lead as Jennifer put Cleo’s carrier on the floor, just across from mine. Perfect! Catching her eye, I meowed my concerns across to her, but Cleo merely smiled.

‘Just wait for my signal,’ she said.

Her signal? How would I know what her signal was? We definitely hadn’t discussed signals when we were planning the night before. What if I screwed up my one chance at an adventure because I didn’t recognize the signal? Didn’t Cleo know I was new to all this?

But then, as I was quietly fretting, Mum knelt down to open my carrier. The moment the door clicked open, Cleo started making the most almighty racket, yowling and clawing at the material of her carrier.

Oh. That was probably the signal. It was kind of hard to miss.

I pushed my paw against the door to my carrier: Mum had left it open! And she was distracted – as was everyone in the immediate area – by Cleo’s crying and fussing. There was no one to spot what I was doing. I slipped out of the carrier easily, and crossed to where Jennifer was opening Cleo’s carrier to find out what the problem was. Nobody noticed me – as usual.

Cleo shot out the moment the door was opened, and raced across to me, blending our fur together as we wound around each other. From outside our cat spiral, it must have been nearly impossible to tell which fur belonged to which cat – we really were a perfect match. It made me think this whole adventure was meant to be.

‘Lara!’ Mum admonished, as she reached down to grab me. ‘You know better than to run away.’

Did I? I’d never even thought about running before this trip. But now adventure was calling. This was my last chance to change my mind. My heart pounding, I thought about not running – about staying, and being second-place pet to Gobi the adventurer for the rest of my life – and made my decision easily.

I threw myself out of the way at the last minute as Mum’s hands came down, and Cleo happily swung into my place. Mum wasn’t even really looking – she was listening to Jennifer, who was saying, ‘I’m so sorry! It’s all Cleo’s fault for upsetting her. I don’t know what she’s making such a fuss about!’

‘I don’t think we’ll risk Lara out of the carrier for now anyway,’ said Mum, holding Cleo tightly in both hands as she passed her to Dad. Then Mum tucked the harness away again in her bag, as Dad fastened the door on my carrier firmly – with Cleo inside.

I was right: I was so unimportant, they hadn’t even noticed they had the wrong cat.

Part of me, I realized suddenly, had been hoping this wouldn’t work. That Mum and Dad could never mistake another cat for their beloved Lara, however similar we looked.

But they had. And that made my adventure more important than ever.

‘Come on!’ I realized suddenly that Jennifer was trying to shoo me inside Cleo’s carrier, her hands pressing against the fur on my rump. With one last look at my family, I went docilely, and hoped my agreeable nature didn’t give me away too soon.

My little heart beat double time as the door closed. It was really happening, my adventure was here at last!

Outside, I could hear Gobi barking furiously. She was trying to warn them about the mistake they were making, I realized. Dad tried to calm her down, but nothing was working. She’d noticed our swap, even if none of the humans had. Our switch had gone flawlessly. And Gobi was probably just jealous that I was going on a bigger adventure than her.

Luckily, Gobi had never learned to communicate with humans properly either. They’d never figure out what she was saying in time to stop us.

And Gobi would get over it. She’d probably never even miss me when I was gone.

‘Well, thank you so much for the lift to the airport,’ Jennifer said, as she lifted me up. ‘I’m sorry for this little ruckus! I’d better get Cleo safely to our gate before she causes any more trouble. Have a lovely time in China.’

‘And enjoy Australia with your daughter,’ said Mum. Through the carrier door, I could see her leaning in to hug Jennifer. And then we were moving away, away from my family, and everything I’d ever known before.

I craned my neck back to watch them as best I could through the slits in the carrier, drinking in my last sight of Mum, Dad and Gobi.

Then I turned around to face my future.

The adventure was on!

My sister Lara is the best sister anyone could want. She lets me cuddle up to her at night if it’s cold, or I’m lonely. She even wraps her tail over me to keep me warm. She shares her prawns with me, every single day. (I let her have some of my biscuits in return, but they always make her sick.) Lara is lovely to nibble on, with all that fluffy fur, and I miss her when I go away. She’s always there waiting for me at the window when I get home again, though.

I never had anybody before I met Dion. He brought me home to meet Lucja and Lara and now I have more than three people.

I have a family. And that makes me the luckiest dog in the world.

Or it did.

I knew there was something wrong with Lara, something bothering her maybe, but I couldn’t understand what it could be. She seemed restless, unhappy even. But how could any animal be unhappy with a family as great as ours?

I was apprehensive when Dion said we were going back to China. Usually, I like going on book tours with him. I like the interviews and the meeting people and the seeing new places. But China wasn’t new, and the memories I had from my birthplace weren’t nice.

Apart from meeting Dion. That was one of the best memories I had.

But the others … My life in China hadn’t been kind. Even running the marathon with Dion, while I’d loved the company and the excitement, had been hard. And everything that came after … I tried very hard not to think about the time when Dion and I were separated, but sometimes I still got nightmares.

So, no. China would not have been my choice for our next adventure together.

But when I realized that Lucja and Lara would be coming along, too, that made things different. Going to China with my whole family, that was something else entirely.

A chance to let go of the past, perhaps. To chase away those nightmares and replace them with new dreams. Happier ones.

Besides, as long as we were all together, I knew nothing bad could happen to me.

Not this time. Not with my sister there to protect me.

Except now I was very afraid she wouldn’t be.

It was all the fault of that other cat, I knew it. Cleo, that was her name. She’d been whispering things in Lara’s ear all the previous evening, and while I didn’t know what they were talking about, I knew I didn’t like it. It had made Lara all secretive and aloof, the way she got sometimes when she was cross with me for something.

It made her act not like my sister.

Still, I didn’t understand how dangerous Cleo was until we were at the airport, and the two of them made such a scene, winding around each other until …

No. Oh no!

That was when I realized.

When Lucja picked up Cleo instead of my Lara and put her in the carrier.

Why couldn’t they see what was happening? That awful cat had stolen Lara’s place!

I didn’t want another cat, I wanted Lara. And I knew Dion and Lucja would too, when they realized what had happened.

If only they’d listen to me …

I watched Cleo carefully through the bars of Lara’s carrier. She looked very pleased with herself; she knew exactly what she’d done. Poor Lara, tricked by a fellow feline!

I kept trying to tell Dion what was going on, all the way to the gate. I’ve been through a lot of airports over the last year or two, and I know the drill. Normally, I sit quietly beside Dion, unless someone wants to make a fuss of me, when I stand up and let them pet me for a while.

Not today.

Today, I barked at Cleo, I ran circles around Dion’s legs, trying to get his attention by tangling him up in my lead. I even jumped up onto Lucja’s lap to try and get her to just look at the cat in the carrier, but she just thought I was after the snack she was eating, and ordered me back down.

Skulking around the carrier, I tried to figure out my next move.

‘I don’t know what’s the matter with her today!’ Dion said, reaching down to pat my head as I quivered with anger and fear at his feet.

Where was Lara? Would she ever come home again? What if she needed me?

‘Maybe she just wants to be with Lara,’ Lucja suggested, more spot on than she knew. ‘Come on, we can probably let her out on the harness again now Cleo isn’t here.’

She bent down and unfastened the door to Lara’s carrier, the cat harness already in her hands. But before she had a chance to even slip it over the cat’s head, Cleo shot past her, across the airport gate, weaving through the metal chair legs fixed to the ground.

I didn’t think, I just chased.

If Lara was gone, I couldn’t risk losing Cleo too. Not when she might be the only clue we had to help get Lara home, where she belonged.

I had to catch her.

I chased Cleo through the gate, back out into the main airport halls, weaving through people’s legs and dodging suitcases as I went. As long as I kept her in my sight, I still had hope – hope that she would lead me back to the real Lara again.

I closed in on her as she approached a large group of travellers with huge suitcases on wheels. Finally, I thought I had her trapped. I added a last burst of extra speed to catch her – only for her to dodge away to the right at the last moment, leaving me barrelling into the middle of the suitcases, people cursing at me as I flailed, trying to find my paws.

The ground felt like it was moving beneath me – and it took me a moment to realize that it really was! Cleo had tricked me onto the travelator – the one Dion never let me walk on normally when we went through airports. Some of these things went on for miles, I remembered. I’d have lost that cat for sure by the time I got to the other end!

Determined, I fought my way out of the suitcases, and back towards the way I’d come from, racing against the moving floor with every step, and finally collapsing onto the smooth tiles at the far end.

‘Did Gobi find her?’ I heard Lucja’s voice calling, and when I looked up, Dion was standing over me. At least they’d realized, then, what I was trying to do.

My heart sank as I realized the full implications of that.

They’d know that I’d failed.

That I had lost Lara. Even if it wasn’t really her to begin with.

I rested my head on my paws and whined.

How could Dion and Lucja forgive me?

And how would we ever get Lara back now? Who would keep me safe in China, without my sister there to protect me?

Poprzedni 123 Kolejny