Cross My Path

Severn House Publishers Limited

Something is amiss. I can feel it in my guard hairs. In my whiskers, flared to catch the slightest vibration. Something has gone wrong.

I wake with a start, blinking as I take in the scene before me. A rundown office, its only furnishings a torn sofa, a battered desk, and two bookshelves, nearly bare of books. A girl sits at the desk, scratching away with a pen. A young woman, really, curves beginning to soften her spare frame. No, there is nothing to be feared here. Nothing is out of place. Nothing has changed since I lay down to rest, only moments before. It was a dream that woke me. A recurring nightmare of three shadows – men – who loom, waiting, as I sink into oblivion. Into death. But they are not here. We are alone, the girl and I. My eyes begin to close once more.

Then – a silhouette. A visitor stands in the doorway. It is her arrival, her tentative knock on the door, that must have woken me, but she is no nightmare figure, nothing like the ghouls who haunt my sleep. She is female, frail. A skinny thing in rags who rushes forward, oblivious of me, seated here and watching.

'Thank you.' The woman is sobbing, she's so grateful. She grabs the girl's hand between her two bony ones, as if to press home her words. As if they were in a throne room instead of this spare chamber, two flights up. 'I can't begin to ...' She breaks off to breathe, her wide eyes more eloquent than her words. 'Thank you so much.'

'It's nothing,' the girl – Care – responds, as my own ears pitch forward at the echo. As if unconsciously aware, she catches herself and corrects, her voice mature for her years. 'You're welcome, I mean. It is what I do. I find things. Do the needful. Locate that which is lost. Right the wrongs, the ones I can.'

I hear her words and relax. This is her creed, inherited from her mentor, which she's reciting now. The words rote, but memorable, explaining her profession to the world in a way that will be understood and repeated. That will be shared with others. For it is her trade that has brought this woman here, and the recognition of a task completed.

'You did! You found him.' The woman's acknowledgment confirms my memory. She wipes her tears with one hand, still holding Care's with her other. 'I had thought that he was lost.'

Releasing the girl at last, she rummages through her garment, locating a pocket hidden in the oversize skirt's ragged folds.

'No, really.' The girl holds up her hands. 'It's not necessary.'

She means what she says, the demurral in her tone as well as gesture. Even my casual appraisal sees the truth. Care has, at this point, more than the poor woman who stands before her, and her concerns, for the moment, do not involve either sustenance or shelter. But her words are to no avail, and when the woman finally fishes out the coin, its edges chipped away, the girl accepts it, as she would a grand prize. The woman's dignity is at stake and is more to be valued than this one degraded coin. Although her senses are not acute as mine, even the girl can see how solemn the woman appears as she hands the penny over. How sincere.

'My boy would have been lost without you,' she says, her voice calmer now. Hushed. 'He would have been taken – shipped to the islands, or worse.'

Care nods. There is nothing left to say. She did rescue the boy, who had been taken, press-ganged into service, and so completed the job for which she was hired, as she has now several times since I have come to join her. But even as the woman turns to go, her departure marked by more tears and pronouncements of gratitude, the girl stays silent. Something weighs on her, I see. Some burden not alleviated by the retrieval of one small child.

I watch her, and I wait.

We cats excel at waiting. Our sense of time is fluid, and less regimented than that dictated by the ticking clock. It is a trait I would share with the girl, if it could be taught. For although she has learned much, the trick of patience still eludes her grasp.

That almost doomed us yesterday, when we were hunting for the boy. The girl had done her due diligence, chatting casually with the vendors in the market. Noting who had seen the child wander off, had witnessed him drawn to the sweet vendor's cart and disappear.

At that point, patience had no place. This is an evil world for those too young or weak for their own defense, and she had acted, cornering the vendor as he turned into an alley. But neither promises nor threats – her knife, though small, is sharp – had moved him from his story. He'd brushed the small child off, he'd said, his wares too dear for charity. More like, he saw the mother hovering, I'd thought, with a disdain I could not express beyond the lashing of my tail. Still, his evasion set us on our path. If the boy had craved a sweet, he'd likely sought a penny, if not some larger coin. And thus he'd been ensnared. Down closer to the docks, full-grown men fight for work, but a child's labor can be cheaply bought. And once obtained, the fee – much like consent itself – may be reclaimed.

Care had pieced his path together, then, between the penny and the place, a block from the high-walled pen just off the wharf. 'They've taken him,' she'd said, under her breath. I've found she likes to speak to me. I have no illusion that she can tell I understand. 'I'd heard they were beginning to gear up,' she said. 'People are talking about a ship.'

My ears pricked up at that, though I could not tell you why. It is possible that in the past, in another life, I traveled. I have not been a cat always, I have learned. In this form, I have no recollection of any ship, nor would I willingly venture forth on water.

Not that fire is my friend either. As much as I may value its warmth, I do not need its light, unlike the girl, whose eyes are woefully insufficient in the manner of her kind. I saw her squint and lean, as daylight faded. We'd staked out a perch across the way from the high-walled pen. Her impatience made her restless, and she rose often to surveil the street. It was on one of those sorties that she saw it – the fire in an adjacent alley. I had smelled it, of course. The smoke and ash disturbed me, but I am no kitten to panic at the first hint of some distant threat.

I had not counted on the girl's impatience, however. A failing aggravated by her discomfort in the night as summer winds to an end. Although she has earned enough to stay starvation, her raiment has grown thin and threadbare. More than need be, it must be said. Pennies that could have been put aside for winter went instead towards a noxious compound, a coloring agent of sorts. My lack of language has rarely stymied me as much as when I would have argued against this purchase. But so it goes. Her hair is pink again – ridiculous color – and though for a night it stank like a befouled nest, she appeared pleased rather than otherwise with the results, eschewing even the ragged wool cap she sometimes dons.

The change of seasons could be felt with the coming of the night. I, with my luxuriant coat so thick despite the scars that mark my hide, do not mind the chill. The damp that rises from the harbor, this close by. I was content to crouch, my limbs compacted beneath my body, and my guard hairs extended ever so slightly, to ward off the mist the dark had brought. Not so the girl. So when she left our vantage point to sidle along the nearest wall, I followed. I would have continued to wait, as I have said. But our interlude appeared to have served its purpose.

'You coming?' I started, I will confess. I had not known that she could see me, a black cat in the night, and found this oversight disconcerting, as if I were not the beast I believe myself to be. I looked up, into her green eyes, and saw her smile down at me, and that eased my dismay. She is not a random stranger, this girl. And I have encouraged her to be aware of me. Hoped, indeed, that she would learn to read what signs and signals I can give. I blinked back, slowly, as a sign of trust. Yes, I would have her know. Where you go, I will follow.

I would regret this thought – those words, unspoken but understood. For moments later, I saw where she was headed. Sensed it, unbelieving even before the glow gave it away. By choice and of her own free will, the girl was heading toward the fire. Walking toward it, by all appearances unafraid.

I froze and watched, unsure how to proceed. It was a small thing, in truth. A smoking wreck, more ash than flame, smoldering red around the pieces of a broken plank. Nails, not yet rusty, protruded like metal thorns from the fragments, and yet the girl grabbed one of these and, with it, shoved its fellows. Then she knelt beside the rough pile, blowing, and coaxed a yellow flame to life. I waited, knowing she should run. Should flee. Any healthy animal understands that such a flame cannot be contained. For although I have come to enjoy the comforts of her company – our office home, the sofa – I would no more approach an open fire than I would a rabid dog.

'It's OK, Blackie.' She saw me. Saw how I crouched, head down, preparing for attack. 'Come here. It's good by the fire. Warmer.'

She continued to feed the demon. Sat by it, the light playing on her face. She did appear happier then; the tight, pinched look was gone. But I, who know the face of danger, could only approach so close, and sat, alert, out of range as the fiend before her cracked and burned. We waited, then. She for an opening – an opportunity to free the child. Me, for the danger that I sensed loomed close, under the guise of a friend.

Indeed the fire almost betrayed us, with its bright and gaudy appeal. It drew that guard, as it had the girl, and had he been a shade more conscientious, we would have been discovered. As it was, I was able to alert the girl, my sharper senses notifying me of what she – night blind for all but the blaze – had missed. The man's approach from the gate had me drawing back, retreating into shadow, a move I made right by her side, so close she could not miss it.

'What is it?' She turned and blinked, as if she could clear her sight. I could not answer, nor would I make the attempt – even her hurried whisper had the guard looking up. But even as I backed up, away from that treacherous light, as I would have her do, the girl seized on another path. While I stared, aghast, she pulled a splintered piece of wood from the fire and tossed it, low and far, sending sparks into the air.

'What the —?' His words an echo of her own, the guard stepped forward, toward the brand, which bounced and rolled to a halt, smoking on the damp ground. She darted then, running low and fast. Circling the curious man, she ducked behind him, into the enclosure.

I confess, this move, as reckless as a kitten's, took me by surprise. Even the flame alarmed me, as it must the man, who had reached the charred timber by then. But luck – or other forces – held, and as he kicked at the charred wood, she emerged, pulling the child behind her. Still, her precipitate action could have rebounded on her, catching her up with the child. The guard, no fool, had turned by then. Had seen her start to run.

'Hey!' His voice cut through the night, summoning a second guard. But then her fickle friend proved true.

'Fire!' the second man shouted. His gaze drawn by the illumination of the original blaze. Untended – unleashed by the girl's rash action – it had begun to spread. 'Come on, you laggards! Bring the buckets.' Before they could extinguish it, I was away, behind the girl and the timid boy, scared into silence, even as they ran.

'You coming?' Her voice breaks upon my reverie once more, bringing with it the light of the new day. She smiles at me, her thin face brightening with unmitigated cheer. The job fulfilled, the payment unexpected but still welcome, she celebrates, that much is clear, and does not weigh the element of chance that swung her rash action toward success.

Her query springs more from fondness than any fancy, more than belief in my comprehension of her words. Still, I jump down and precede her to the door. We have a routine, this girl and I. And if she believes herself the leader of our team, I am content to follow, secure in the full certitude of my seniority in this particular game.

It is this certainty that nearly trips me up, once we are out on the street. I had assumed her route known to me, believing she would follow the prompts of hunger to the open place where food and other goods are exchanged. Indeed, trusting her path to be such, I had ventured off on my own, looking to sate my own appetite as she would soon hers. Even in the light of day, a change in the air presages autumn, making the smaller creatures frantic in their search for provisions and for warmth. This city is not kind to its human inhabitants, but in some ways it has become more hospitable to my kind. Water and air are still foul, poisoned by industries long gone, and there is more of waste and decay than I recall, in dim memories of the city at its peak. More of the shadows in which those such as I hunt may hide. I had thought to feast on such, my appetite whetted by a whiff of fresh droppings – a tight clutch of rodents gathered together for warmth.

It was not their cries of alarm that distracted me. The sun was near its zenith, and they slept soundly, unaware of how my claws had begun to dig. It was another sound – or the absence of one – that flipped my ears backward and caused me to pause in my repast. To sit up, and then to turn and run.

The cooler air tamps down many traces that a breathing soul may leave, but I am a hunter. It is the work of moments to correct my path and to find where the girl's route diverged from what I had expected. When I stop on the pavement, one paw raised in readiness, it is not uncertainty that holds me still. It is confusion, as I work to understand not only where she has gone but why. For as clearly as I make out the trails of bugs and beasts and one young, light-footed girl, I now see: she is heading back to the waterfront. To the pen by the wharves from which she had so recently freed the boy.

I move quickly, despite my age, through passages too narrow to allow even her slight frame, and reach the area before she does, an enclosure on a busy harbor street. Despite the silt the tides have brought, the makeshift pier that stretches out to where the deeper water lies, this meeting ground is bustling. Sea and river, city and shore converge here, spurring on what commerce still remains in this benighted land. Broad daylight brings the trucks and barges, too, and so I must be wary. The vehicles are loud. The street rumbles at their approach. The men who labor, loading and unloading, can be less obvious, when they choose, and may vent their rage on a smaller being such as myself.

Hugging the curb, I slink the last block to the enclosure, a large and high-walled structure within shouting distance of the wharf. Within smelling distance, too – I make out fish and rot, and those that feed on both and am intrigued – but there I wait. When the girl arrives, near as silent as I have been, she joins me in the alley opposite, our perch of the night before. The remnants of the fire stink of ash, but this remains a prime vantage point, across the street from the pen's front gate.

'Blackie!' Despite the note of surprise, her voice is muted. She is careful, this girl. Aware as I of the violence in the men around us. 'I thought you'd taken off. I never know what you're thinking.'

I would tell her, if I could. She crouches down beside me, not far from the sooty pile, and her hand is warm on my back. She is waiting, I can tell from the tension in her body, the careful intake of breath, although I do not know for what.

This place is not safe. The blackened lumps beside her are now cold and still, but other, more dangerous elements have begun to gather: the hook boys who work the ships – or used to, back when vessels regularly plied these waters. Known for the grappling hooks they carry, they hold themselves above the regular laborers, those who fetch and carry for a penny. Their tools have other uses, though, ugly ones. Memories emerge as if from shadow but far more sure, prompted by the sight of these rough men. I do not know if they are why she has come here, if she follows the rumors that they spread of a ship or trade.