‘Chorley’ she said, ‘Today is a very important day. Today is the day that you are allowed to go outside’. Chorley knew what that meant and he could barely contain his excitement. He’d been waiting for this moment for ages.
He was desperate to go and say ‘Harrow’ to all the interesting people he’d seen walking past the window. The ‘orange family’, the man with the round face who was always carrying eggs and the man his grown-ups called ‘Disco Dave’. These were just a few of the characters he’d seen while sitting on the windowsill. And then there was the beautiful lady with the dark hair. He thought he’d really like to say ‘Harrow’ to her. She had a nice smile.
A few weeks earlier Chorley had been very brave. His grown-ups had taken him to someone called ‘The Vet’. They’d put him back in the basket with the wire door and carried him through the streets. He pressed his nose right up to the wire, to see what he could see. Although he knew he lived in a city, what he saw looked more like a village with lots of shops and other interesting looking things. He made a special note to explore them all properly when he was allowed out by himself.
The Vet was very kind. She told Alison and Tristan that Chorley was growing into a fine looking cat. She gave him a big cuddle and before he could say ‘pilchards and prunes’ he felt a little prick. ‘Hmmm’ he thought ‘that wasn’t too bad at all’. The injection was to stop him from picking up germs – which is very important when you’ve got a lot of exploring ahead of you.
A few weeks later, Alison gave Chorley a bright red velvet collar with a little bell on it. Chorley thought he looked exceedingly handsome – with his shiny black fur and little white chin, he was very much the kitten about town. With that Alison opened up the back door and said ‘Off you go Chorley’. Chorley didn’t need telling twice and jumped right across the doormat.
But when Chorley stopped and looked around him - this wasn’t what he’d expected!
Although he was indeed outside, he was still trapped. He was in a yard with high walls and a back gate that was shut. He sat down to think. He could see glimpses of a bigger world. There were trees and there was blue sky, but to a little kitten the walls seemed huge. Surely they were too high to climb. Chorley’s didn’t want to stay in the yard, he wanted to explore as far as he could see and even further again. His heart felt like a stone. What was he going to do now?
‘Chorley Bucket!’ Chorley was startle! It was his mother – where had she come from? As he shook his ears trying to make sense of it all, the bell on his new collar made a tinkling sound. ‘Ahh’ he thought, she’s in my memory. So he closed his eyes and there she was. ‘Chorley Bucket – is your bucket half full or half empty?’ she asked. He knew she was right, things weren’t so bad really. He put his head on one side and thought about all useful skills he’d learned. Like climbing up the drawer handles in the kitchen to lick the roast chicken while his grown-ups weren’t looking.
Chorley shook his ears again and with his little bell tinkling, got up and looked for his escape route.
He explored every bit of the yard and finally discovered that he could squeeze himself into a little gap between the wooden shed in the corner of the yard and the wall. He wedged his back against the bricks and stuck his claws into the wood and hauled himself up, little by little, just like climbing a ladder.
It was very hard work, but Chorley was a very determined nearly grown up kitten. He wasn’t going to give up. He wanted to see what the rest of the world looked like.
Before long Chorley hadn’t just climbed up to the top of the wall, he was sitting on the roof of the shed looking around, to see what he could see. He didn’t think about how he was going to get down, he would worry about that later!
This wasn’t what he’d expected either. When he looked to the left he could see three other yards, all joined together. When he looked to the right he could see one, two, three ......err......lots of other yards all in a row. But when he looked straight ahead, he could see the alley way that ran along the back of all the yards, then a big wall that looked about a hundred years old. Beyond that there were two leafy trees with silver bark.
Beyond the trees was a square of the most perfect green he had ever seen with people rolling balls across it. Other people were crowding around the edges watching what was going on. Chorley thought he recognised the ‘orange family’, the man with the round face who carried the eggs and ‘Disco Dave’, all standing in the crowd watching the men rolling the balls. He looked for the beautiful lady with the dark hair, but she wasn’t there.
Chorley jumped as they let out a big cheer. ‘I wonder what that’s all about?’ Chorley said out loud to himself. He was very puzzled.
‘Coooooo, Cooooooo – it’s called a bowling match’ said a voice. Chorley jumped again. It sounded like the tree was speaking to him. Chorley looked harder and in between the leaves he could just make out a fat pigeon.
‘What did you say pigeon?’ asked Chorley.
‘Actually, I’m a wood pigeon. There’s a big difference’. The wood pigeon sounded cross. ‘My name’s Boris and this is my friend Alan. We live in this tree and we watch the human’s rolling their balls all the time’. Another fat wood pigeon edged his way out from behind the leaves. ‘Coooo, coooooo, hello’ he nodded. ‘Alan’ he nodded again introducing himself. ‘We don’t understand why they do it either’ Boris continued. They all roll their balls and the one that gets the closest seems to win. They drink lots of brown water which makes them tell jokes and fall over – and then they come back the next day and do it all over again’. ‘And sometimes they sing too’ added Alan nervously.
Chorley decided to introduce himself. ‘My name is Chorley and I’m a nearly grown up kitten’.
‘Well Chorley, it’s very nice to meet you, why don’t you jump over and join us. You’ll be able to see the ball rolling game much better. Jump over meant jumping over the alley way from the top of the shed to the top of the hundred year old wall and into the trees with the silver bark beyond. It was a massive leap, even for a nearly grown up kitten. But Chorley wasn’t scared of anything. He’d been born in a bucket! So he looked straight ahead and focused on the top of the wall where he wanted to land.
Chorley launched himself from the top the shed across the alley way. But although he was nearly grown up, he was still a kitten and the alley way was very wide. He stuck out his claws, closed his eyes and hoped for the best. If it wasn’t for his strong claws, Chorley would certainly have missed the wall and landed in a heap on the floor. But he dug them into the wall and pulled himself up until his nose poked over the top.
‘Nearly there’ cooo-ed Boris encouragingly and with one final heave, Chorley was up on the wall. From there it was just a small jump into the tree. Chorley settled himself down to watch the ball rolling on the big piece of green, with his two new friends.
Suddenly, the air was full of screeching as five black and white birds with pointy beaks and a big black crow came flying towards the tree. ‘It’s the magpies! We’re off’ shouted Boris as he and Alan made a hasty exit. Chorley was left all alone to face the angry birds who, landed in the branches and quickly surrounded him.
‘What are you doing in our tree?’ screamed the big black crow who was clearly the leader of the gang. ‘Harrow’ Chorley started to say ‘my name is Chorley Bucket and .....’ ‘I don’t care what your name is’ said the crow, ‘you’re in our tree!’
Chorley tried to start again. He opened his mouth to say ‘Harrow’ but nothing came out. The magpies jumped around him on the branches, screaming at him ‘You’re in our tree, you’re in our tree’. Chorley panicked. He was sitting a long way up in a tree and he didn’t know how to get down.
Chorley tried to say ‘Sorry’, and ‘Leave me alone’, but again the words just wouldn’t come out.
Alison was upstairs in the house when she heard the commotion. ‘What on earth is that?’ she thought to herself. She went over to the window and was amazed to see Chorley sitting up in the tree being mobbed by magpies and a mean looking crow. She grabbed an old broom and rushed down into the yard. ‘Shooo, Shoooooo!’ she shouted and waved her broom at the birds who took to the skies screeching.
Alison called for Tristan who got a ladder and climbed up into the tree to rescue Chorley.
Chorley thought he’d had enough excitement for one day, so he didn’t complain when his grown-ups took him back inside. He knew that it wouldn’t be forever and so he settled down on Alison’s lap for a sleep – he needed all his energy for tomorrow and his next big adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment