CHAPTER 1: Of cats and hair and hats
Jinny Jana had a secret. In fact she had lots of secrets and they were mostly scary ones. She didn’t even want them to be secrets but whenever she told anyone about them bad things happened. When she tried to tell Mum, Mum said, “There there, never mind. It’s nothing to worry about.” When she tried to tell Dad he laughed and laughed and said, “Well, that’s the daftest dream I’ve ever heard, ha ha ha ha ha ha.” And slapped her hard on her shoulder and wandered off laughing. And when she tried to tell her horrid big brother Georgie, he said, “You just think you’re cleverer than me, don’t you. I’m not falling for that stupid stuff.” And so Jinny Jana didn’t try to tell anyone ever again.
Instead she went up to bed carrying Frumpy, the huge furry cat, to tell him all her troubles. Frumpy’s legs hung down as she clutched him round the middle and his long tabby fur stuck out in all directions. He didn’t seem to care that he looked like a heap of old rug with four furry feet hanging down. And he didn’t seem to care which way up she carried him.
“Don’t carry him like that!” shouted Dad from below. “How many times do I have to tell you, Jinny? You’ll make him sick. Carry him properly. Jinny? Did you hear me?!”
Clutching Frumpy tight with one arm, she slammed her bedroom door shut with her other hand and threw him onto the bed where he trampled round and round a few times before flopping over on his side. She could hear Dad still shouting. He was probably telling Mum that Jinny never did what she was told and then they’d go on shouting. She put her hands over her ears and snuffled her nose into Frumpy’s thick fur to hear him purring.
If she pressed her ears really hard and screwed up her eyes as tight as she could, she could hear a humming noise instead of the shouting and could see little coloured blobs drifting about. If she concentrated really hard on the blobs, she could forget everything else except the feel of Frumpy’s thick, soft fur. Sometimes the blobs turned into wavy streaks of light and dark crossing slowly across her vision. Other times they curled around and swirled into a dark tunnel that went slowly round and round until it began to suck her in, but then she always got scared and blinked and blinked until it went away. Sometimes she’d be scared that she was almost lifting up off the bed but then she’d kick her legs and wriggle her arms until the floaty feeling stopped.
“Jinny Jana!” came a shout from downstairs. “Can’t you hear me? I told you we’re going out now. Come on!”
Jinny extricated her fingers from her ears and her face from Frumpy’s fur. “Coming.” And she ran downstairs leaving him sprawled on the bed with one eye half open.
Jinny Jana hated her hair. It stuck out in all directions, just like Frumpy’s. Only she was a human, not a cat. The longer it grew the worse it stuck out, and however much she pleaded, Mum wouldn’t let her have it really short like a boy. Georgie said it grew that way because it came out of her cat’s brain. At school they called her “Jinny Cat Fur”.
So whenever they went out to the park or the shops Jinny wore her favourite yellow hat and pulled it right down over her hair. Hatty was soft and scrunchy with a green ribbon all the way round, and a bunch of tiny flowers pinned on one side: pink, red, yellow, orange, mauve, purple, blue, and white, all tied up with tiny green leaves. It was easy to squish her into a ball and stuff her into a pocket or bag. She could tell Hatty about her secret adventures even if Hatty couldn’t talk back. Sometimes she put Hatty on top of Frumpy’s head and told them both stories until Frumpy scratched Hatty off with his enormous paws and tossed her on the floor.
“That’s a sissy hat”, said Georgie for the tenth time. “You look like a baby in a bonnet, ha ha ha. You should be sitting in a pushchair sucking your little thumby, ha ha.”
“Stop that, Georgie!” said Mum as they walked quickly down to the shops one windy morning. The leaves were blowing all over the pavements and big black birds were flapping in the sky. They passed the corner shop and the chemist and the vet’s.
“That’s where Frumpy’ll have to go when you make him sick”, said Georgie.
“I’m not going to make him sick”, she said. “He loves me.”
Georgie howled with laughter. “Little girlie loves her hat. Little girlie loves her cat. Hat, cat, hat, cat, hat…”
“Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.”
“Stop it at once you two”, said Mum. “And Georgie’s right. You should throw away that silly hat. If you must wear a hat at all, then wear your proper school hat.”
“Why is Georgie always right?” shouted Jinny. “I hate my school hat. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.” But nobody heard her over the noise of the wind.
Just then the wind blew extra hard. A heap of leaves leapt up from the gutter and scurried round Jinny’s feet. She looked down to watch them, and whoops—off went Hatty, way up into the sky, way up with all the great black birds, and way up over the row of houses and into the nothing beyond.
Jinny Jana stood still and stared up at the sky. She couldn’t believe it. Hatty was gone. Forever gone. Now she’d have to wear horrid Hatey instead. And she’d never see Hatty again.
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