The woman opened the door to the back bedroom and watched as her white, black and ginger cat stepped over the threshold and sat down.
She was surprised to see the wild looking ginger, black and white lightning-striped cat she'd just adopted walk straight up to the other and start washing his face. It was as if they had known each other for years.
~
To be honest, Plato had been shocked to see that his father, Macavity, had been adopted at all, let alone by his own human.
Macavity was highly embarrassed by the whole affair. Not only had he been careless enough to be captured, or "rescued" as the humans called it, but they didn't even know who he was. On second thought that was probably a good thing. And he certainly didn't like being called,
"Ginger, Jonathan, come on boys, dinner!"
Plato bounded down the stairs and into the kitchen while Macavity followed at a slower pace, deep in thought. He was glad he no longer had to steal to survive, but it was against his principles to accept anything from humans. Since being mistreated by the human family who had adopted him as a kitten, and then running away from them at the grand old age of six months, he had made a point of disrupting the human world as much as possible, earning himself quite a reputation along the way.
Since his arrival Macavity had been shut in the back bedroom, an idea the woman had read of in a book about cat care, but now he was free to come and go as he pleased. The downstairs looked good so far and he could see many valuable ornaments, but he decided that this house and its contents should be left intact. He didn't want to jeopardise his situation and anyway, the whole idea was to keep away from the scene of the crime and have the dirty work done for him.
He sat down in the middle of the living room and took a look around. He saw a log fire blazing under the mantelpiece and, realising that this would make a good base for his operations as well as being quite comfortable, he decided he might as well relax and see what happened. Happy with this decision, he joined Plato for dinner and then curled up with him in the cat-bed, something he hadn't done with any cat since Plato had been taken to an animal rescue shelter at the age of eight weeks and adopted by the woman. Macavity was on the verge of falling asleep when he noticed Plato laughing.
"What's so funny?" he demanded.
"I was just thinking, I never thought I'd see the day Macavity became a house cat."
Macavity growled and smacked Plato across the face with a paw. "Don't be so cheeky. You should have some respect for your father."
Plato licked an invisible spot on his chest and said, "Sorry, but you have to admit, it's a bit weird for a cat who hates humans as much as you do."
"I know," he said, then remembered what he had decided about the woman and her home. He lay down on his stomach, resting his head on his front paws.
"I do hate humans," he went on, "in general, that is. This one's all right." He jerked his head up and looked at Plato, "And if you dare tell Munkustrap or any of the other soppy cats in that tribe about this I'll disown you, understand?"
"Yes, Dad," said Plato, feeling like a kitten again, "but you're a member of the tribe too, aren't you? What happened?"
"You don't know? No, I suppose you wouldn't."
"Then why don't you tell me? Why did you stop coming to the junkyard?"
Macavity turned away. It was something he thought about every day, but never spoke of. Now that Plato was grown up, however, he had a right to know. He took a deep breath.
"I left because I was sick of them and their rules. They don't appreciate me and they never did. When Old Deuteronomy announced that Munkustrap would lead the tribe after he was gone I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to get out. He was always so good and I was just the rebel. They never thought about giving me a chance."
He gasped inaudibly as he felt a weight lift from his shoulders. He hoped Plato would understand. The last thing he needed was to be rejected by his own son.
"But you had some friends, didn't you?"
Macavity let out a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding and said, "Yes, I did. Bombalurina was my best friend since we were kittens. We even went out for a while, but it was Demeter I really loved." Resting his head on his paws again he shut his eyes.
"What happened to her? Why's she so scared of you?"
Macavity sighed. "It's a long story."
Plato shifted his position and made himself more comfortable. "I've got time."
"All right then, wait a moment." Macavity thought back to what had happened. There were so many emotions tangled up with his memories and he didn't want to lose control of them. He took a minute to collect himself, then continued,
"As I said, I never really got on with the rest of the tribe so I didn't go to the junkyard much, but at my first ball I danced with Demeter, like you did with Victoria, and we were going fine for a while, but..." Macavity trailed off.
"But what? What happened?"
"Your mother. Griddlebone happened."
"What did she do?"
Macavity sighed. "She came back from another trip up the Thames and said she was tired of working for me and having me take all the credit. She wanted more. She'd been on a boat full of drunken pirates and said she'd spent the whole time thinking about me. Of course I told her I was with Demeter, but that didn't stop her. She's just like her grandmother and Heaviside knows a whole army of Siamese with toasting forks and carving knives couldn't stop her, so she persisted. I tried to fight her off, but Demeter got worried. She thought I was with Griddlebone whenever I was away from her and in the end she said she didn't want to see me any more."
"She broke up with you?!"
"Yes," Macavity snapped, "Is that so hard to believe?"
"No, no," said Plato quickly, looking down at his paws.
Macavity sighed again and went on, "But I wouldn't let her go. I followed her around for days, even went to the junkyard so she couldn't get away from me. I was just trying to get her to listen to me, but she wouldn't even do that. And then I got angry. I must've really frightened her because," he closed his eyes and let out a pitiful mew, "she still won't come anywhere near me." Plato licked Macavity's head and asked in a whisper, "and then what happened?"
The red cat opened his eyes. "I went back to my lair in the alley by the junkyard and there was Griddlebone, waiting for me."
"She was waiting for you?"
Macavity growled, "Yes, she was, will you stop interrupting and repeating everything I say? Are you a cat or a parrot?"
"Sorry."
"As I was saying, she was waiting for me and I was so upset at what had happened with Demeter, and she was so sympathetic, I just couldn't help myself. And that's how you came along."
"Is that it?"
"What do you mean, is that it?!" Macavity stared at his son in disbelief. "Isn't that enough? How much more heartbreak d'you want?"
He sighed yet again and said, "Anyway, that isn't it, so let me finish. You said I'm still a member of the tribe, didn't you? Well maybe I am, but when I went to the ball last year they told me I wasn't welcome anymore."
"Why not?"
"Don't they tell you anything?"
"No, I was just a kitten before the ball this year."
"Oh, yes. I think it had to do with Demeter being so afraid of me. They thought I'd gone too far, I suppose, that I'd be dangerous around the kittens."
"So that's why I was left on my own. I can't remember my first ball very well."
"Exactly. I thought that was more dangerous, anything could have happened to you, but I've never agreed with Old Deuteronomy. Last year it was all so sudden I didn't have time to think of a way of getting my own back, but Heaviside knows I made my presence known this year."
"You mean you planned all those crashes and evil laughter?!"
"Yes," Macavity chuckled in spite of himself, "and I told Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer to do their song after the first crash. What did you think?"
"Yeah, wonderful, but why'd you try to kidnap Demeter? Why'd you take Old Deuteronomy?"
Macavity stared at the floor, unsure how to explain his actions. "I suppose I needed to talk to them. That wasn't the best way to get their attention, but I couldn't see any other way of doing it."
"And it didn't work. You just scared them off even more."
"All right," Macavity snapped, "there's no need to go on about it."
"And now Demeter's with Munkustrap and Bombalurina's with Tugger, well, most of the time anyway."
"Enough! I know about all that. You're not making it any easier."
"Sorry."
"It's bad enough Bombalurina's belittled herself by flirting with that Rum Tum "look at me everybody" Tugger, but now Demeter, my Demeter, has gone off with Munkustrap of all cats. That goody-goody brother-of-mine gets everything. And he's so damn smug, I can't stand him!"
Plato didn't know what to say. He felt torn between showing sympathy to his father, and loyalty to the future leader of the tribe.
Meanwhile, Macavity continued to work himself up, "And then there's Alonzo, coming along and "rescuing" Demeter. And I can't believe Mungojerrie hissed at me. And where were you while all that was going on?!"
"Calm down! You've made your point; you feel betrayed by the tribe. I'm sorry, but I don't know what I can do about it."
Macavity took a deep breath to calm himself. In a quiet voice he said, "I have an idea."
"You've got an idea?"
"Yes, you parrot, I do. You can help me."
Plato cocked his head to one side, "How?"
"If you could just talk to them for me. Tell them my side of the story. They'll listen to you."
"D'you think so?"
"I wouldn't say so if I didn't. Of course they will, what have you ever done to upset anyone? Considering who your parents are you turned out very well, except for when you and Tumblebrutus had Pouncival scratch Grizabella. That was mean."
Plato looked down at his paws. "I'm sorry."
Macavity sighed yet again. "It's all right, she was accepted in the end."
"And thanks, I guess."
"Don't thank me, thank those soppy cats. Jennyanydots and Skimbleshanks practically brought you up."
Plato's head snapped up. "No they didn't. If you hadn't been there I wouldn't have had a bad influence to rebel against."
Macavity smiled.
"What?"
"I just realised how fitting your name is. That was very profound."
Plato felt his face grow hot with embarrassment. He looked down at his paws again, kneading the blanket for want of anything else to do.
"Yeah, Victoria says I think too much."
"Maybe. There's nothing wrong with thinking, but sometimes you get more done if you just do something."
"And sometimes acting without thinking things through properly gets you into even more trouble." Now it was Macavity's turn to blush.
"You got me," he admitted. "How is Victoria, by the way? I saw you dancing with her at the ball."
"You did?"
"Of course I did, I saw everything. I almost cried."
"Really?"
"Yes, but I'm not that soft. I saw Grizabella as well. I know how she felt."
"All right, I'll talk to them for you, but you've got to help yourself as well. You'll have to try to patch things up with them or it won't work."
"Yes, Dad."
Plato frowned, then noticed the mischievous glint in Macavity's eyes and smiled.
Suddenly the clock struck twelve.
"I've got to go," said Plato, standing up.
"Where?"
"I promised Victoria I'd meet her in the junkyard. I said I'd leave home at midnight."
"You'd better go then."
"Yeah." Plato stretched, then turned to Macavity, nuzzling him.
"Have a good time," said Macavity, "and thanks for listening."
"That's okay. I'll see what I can do. I'll talk to Victoria and see what she thinks. She and Jemima were the ones who accepted Grizabella in the first place. See you later."
"Go on then, Romeo," Macavity called to Plato as he walked across the kitchen, "and don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"That'd be almost nothing," Plato thought as he hopped through the cat-flap.
Macavity stretched, yawned and curled up into a ball. It was a heat-preserving way of sleeping he'd learned when living rough and it reminded him of his carefree days as a young kitten, before all this trouble started and he and Munkustrap were the best of friends.
"It's funny," he thought, "Victoria looks so much like Griddlebone. Maybe we should've called him Freud."