‘You didn’t just talk, did you?’ he grinned, reaching out to stroke his warm fur.

‘Sure, I did. Is there something wrong with your ears, all of a sudden?’

Gasping, Arthur sat bolt upright, almost tumbling out of bed in the process. ‘Oh my god! Cat! You’re talking!’

‘What do you mean I’m talking? Of course I’m talking. What’s wrong with you?’

‘No, you don’t understand—you can really talk!’

‘And there you have it folks, the kid’s a born genius.’

‘What? No, look—I mean, listen. You’re talking, and I can understand everything that you’re saying. Go on, say something, I’ll prove it.’

‘Liquorice sticks,’ said the cat.

‘Liquorice sticks!?’

‘Yeah, I don’t know, it was the first thing that came to mind.’

‘Weird, but OK. Now do you see!?’ he exclaimed excitedly, struggling to keep his voice down. ‘But, Cat, how’s it even possible?’

‘Search me. Maybe you hit your head on something? Did you hit your head on something?’

‘No. I don’t think so. Did you?’

‘Not that I can remember. But then I reckon that if I had, it might explain why I can’t remember doing it.’ The cat made a slight choking sound, which Arthur could have sworn was him laughing.

‘Woah! You don’t think it’s got something to do with that light, do you? You did see it, right?’

‘Of course I saw it. It made all my fur stand on end.’

‘And everything was normal before that?’

‘Well, if by normal, you mean that you couldn’t understand me, then yes.’

‘But what about everyone else? Do you know if they can understand you too?’

‘No, I don’t think so. That aunt of yours completely ignored me when I suggested that she might want to share some of her chicken with me. And that was even after I complimented her on her hair, so… And your stepfather, well let’s just say I had a few choice words for him when he stood on my tail—which still hurts, by the way.’

‘OK, so only me, then?’

‘I guess.’

‘What do you mean you guess? You don’t seem particularly excited about it. Can’t you see that this is major? You’ve suddenly started talking like a person.’

‘Perhaps,’ replied the cat, yawning. ‘Only, without wishing to put a hole in your boat or anything, as you’re the only one who appears to be able to understand me, maybe it’s actually you who can suddenly talk like a cat?’

Arthur stared at him, gobsmacked. ‘Oh! Do you really think so?’

‘I really do,’ he purred. ‘And now, not wanting to be a killjoy about the whole discovery thing and all, but having just spent the last two hours deep cleaning my fur after that rain, I’m totally knackered. Soooooooo, super excited and everything, but as the saying goes, “Too much doing and not enough sleeping turns cats in to rats.”’

And without another word, the cat curled up into a ball and fell asleep.

Arthur wasn’t the first to wake that morning. His stepfather, who worked shifts for the emergency services, had already left to go to work. In the summer, when they were all at the cottage, that always meant a very early start in order to stay ahead of the traffic.

Not wanting to get up, but finding that he’d forgotten to charge his phone, he lay watching his baby sister taking little side steps along the edge of her cot. She hadn’t started to walk yet but seeing that she was barely having to hold on to the edges at all, he understood that it wouldn’t be long now.

All of a sudden, the words ‘liquorice sticks’ filtered through his mind, and with them, the weirdest feeling that he and the cat might really have been talking to each other the previous night. Deciding that he was going to have to go and find out once and for all, he got up quietly and crept out into the garden. The cat was stretched out on his favourite patch of sunny grass near the rose climbers.