Chapter 1

She rolled her eyes and her hands found that exact spot between waist and hips that every girl knows exactly how to find when she's frustrated with someone. A loud breath also escaped her lips.

"I can read your hands, Ann, not your mind," said her father, looking up from the pile of letters he was sorting through.

There's a letter from Haru, yes? she asked, her hands flying in sign language. Haru was Ann's twin sister, and it was wretched being away from her, but their parents had divorced for reasons they had no interest in sharing, and had taken a daughter each.

The chocolate-haired middle-aged man sighed and handed over the letter.

Ann took it gladly; a little surprised at how thick it was. Their letters were usually just recounts of their days, since their parents had forbidden them to spend so much money staring at the computer screen instant messaging all day. Even Haru had told off Ann sometimes. Ann had a stigmatism, and the glare of the computer screen didn't help.

The girl rushed up to her room, clutching the letter to her chest. Each and every one of her sister's letters was a treasure to Ann. The photo that she had of the two of them when they were seven – no difference between the two of them except for Ann's glasses and the box of fish crackers in Haru's hands – was applied to the lid of the box that she kept these letters in.

Ann fell onto her bed and tore open the envelope, her amber-brown eyes devouring her sister's words. Her mind, however, was barely able to digest what they were saying.

At first, she wanted to squeal for joy that Haru was telling her something she wouldn't tell anyone else – but she couldn't – she could gasp when her sister told her about saving a cat from a truck though, it didn't require her larynx to function.

Ann read the whole thing, and then she read it again. By the time she had finished reading Haru's letter for the third time, her father was calling her to dinner.

They shared the meal in silence. Ann had explained to her father at the time of the divorce that she wasn't interested in hearing about how his job, paper shuffling for an insurance company, had gone that day, or any day. Added to that, Ann was mute, so she could not eat and communicate at the same time.

"Did Haru have anything interesting to say?" asked Cain, her father, as he cleared the table.

Ann looked at him. It was the look of a young woman who has just been asked a very stupid question by someone who is older, and should, therefore, know better. He only ever asked once a week or so, and all he really wanted to know was whether Naoko had found someone new. Ann shook her head at him and saw him relax in a half-dozen different ways that her father probably wasn't aware of.

Of course, if Haru told her that their mother was seeing someone new, the sisters would have gotten together and, unless the guy was so much better for Naoko than Cain, sabotaged the relationship. At least they would have a few years ago. Now that they were almost of an age where they could move out of their parents' houses and get a place for themselves, it didn't matter quite so much that their parents were only friends now.

Now, Ann was planning something else. The next morning, immediately after her father left for work, she turned on the oven and got out the electric mixer. Biscuits, scones and a cake each took their turns in the appliance, then on the cooling wracks before she wrapped them up in cloths and put them in a basket. Ann collected Haru's letter and her palm-pilot, made sure that she had her glasses as well as the container for her contacts, then locked the front door behind her.

Ann was soon at the Crossroads, looking for Muta, the large white cat with a spot of brown around one ear. She saw him, he was just loafing off a café chair, but she also saw Haru, and was torn – go to her sister, whom she hadn't seen for a while, or follow her plan, and the cat, to thank the Cat Bureau for what they had done.

She followed Muta, and quickly. It was amazing how fast he could move for such a fat creature. Ann spared a breath to wonder how many people were staring at her, running through town with a large basket, chasing a cat.

Over rooftops and through back alleys, just as Haru had described in her letter, Ann followed Muta until the refuge was reached and she saw the Cat Bureau.