'Why,' asked P1.
'Why what?' asked Blackcat.
'Why do cats like fish so much when you are such wusses when it comes to water?'
'I’m not a wuss!'
'I’ve never seen a puss that is such a big wuss!'
'Puss not Wuss!' said Blackcat stomping a paw.
'Good,' said P2. 'Then you can come fishing with us.'
'But, but...,' stammered Blackcat, thinking of hammerheads, 'I’ll get my fur wet.'
'Wuss!'
'I can’t swim!'
'Wuss!'
P1 snuck up behind Blackcat and plonked his space helmet on his head, squishing it down until, 'Pop!' It was on, just a few bent whiskers sticking out the bottom.
'Let’s go,' said P2.
They grabbed the still startled Blackcat by those whiskers and off they flew.
Splash! Black cat found himself in deep water, surrounded by greenness and bubbles. And fish, there were anchovies everywhere. They glittered and shone and flashed rainbow colours.
Such clumsy creatures on land, P1 and P2 flew gracefully though the water, banking and diving as the carved through the mass of fish, leaving a trail of silver scales glittering in their wake.
Blackcat, who thought himself as an agile hunter, batted a paw at a passing fish but came up against nothing but the weight of the water. Faster and faster the penguins swam around, herding the fish into a tight ball around Blackcat. A thousand little eyes peered in at him though his visor as the fish pressed against him.
Blackcat, who had been holding his breath, exhaled a mass of bubbles scattering the anchovies.
Chaos erupted around him turning the water into a mass of noise, anchovies and scales. Gannets speared down through the water like arrows then chased after the startled fish. Large fish darted in all directions and dolphins and sharks zigzagged through the swirling mass which opened up to let them pass.
A large hammerhead swam towards Blackcat. If there was one thing he didn’t like it was hammerheads. It turned a little to the left then a little to the right and back to the left as it homed in on him. Bits of fish and feathers hung from its teeth and an old fishing line trailed menacingly from the corner of its mouth.
Blackcat’s mask fogged up. Sandpaper skin scrapped down his side and there was a crunching of bone. A sharp pain came from his tail and he was dragged backwards through the water. Hoping it was just a bad dream, Blackcat pinched himself, then his world turned black.
'Wake up, wake up!' shouted P1 and P2 and shook Blackcat. He opened his eyes just in time to see a bucket of icy water coming his way.
'Yowl!! What was that for?' he demanded grumpily.
'Thank goodness, you’re alive.' said P1. 'You’ve been out for days.'
A sharp pain in his tail reminded Blackcat of the hammerhead, 'What happened? Was I dreaming?'
'Not!' said P1 and P2,' You really must look out for those hammerheads. We rescued you.'
'Thanks!' said Blackcat.
Chapter 11 - Blackcat takes some lessons
'I want to go diving again!' said Blackcat, thinking of his latest misadventure. 'It was wonderful!'
'Apart from the hammerhead,' said P2.
'Yes, apart from the Hammerhead!' agreed Blackcat. 'Will you teach me to swim?'
'But you don’t like water,' said P1.
'Not at all, I hate it!' said Blackcat. 'But I want to swim, even if it means getting my feet wet.'
'Do you really, really want to swim?' asked P2.
'Yes!' said Blackcat.
'Puddles.' said P1 and P2.
'I do too!' said Blackcat.
'Puddles, puddles, puddles,' said the Penguins.
'Puddles?'
'Yes, puddles,' said P2.
The next day it didn’t just rain, it bucketed down. 'It’s raining cats and dogs,' said P1 looking out the window.
Blackcat liked rainy days. He would sit on the window sill, luxuriating in the warmth of the heater and fall asleep to the pitter patter of rain on the window.
Not today though. Blackcat was standing in a puddle in the middle of the drive. He had been there all morning and was looked dishevelled and cold.
'He looks like a drowned rat,' joked P2 from where he stood on the window sill.
The next day Blackcat went for a long walk in the rain, all the way to the beach. Arriving dripping at the shore he put a paw into the sea. He wasn’t worried about getting wet, he was already soaked. The water felt warm and inviting. He put in another paw, another and another, then walked a little deeper. Before he knew it he was swimming, P1 and P2 chasing happily around him, diving in and out of the water as they offered encouragement.
Chapter 12 - Flippers
Usually very formal and smart in their dark blue dinner jackets, the Penguins looked completely different today. In a break with tradition they sported colourful Hawaiian shirts with blue and red floral prints. What’s more they were carrying something, four little parcels, carefully wrapped up in blue paper decorated with silver sardines.
They stood in front of Blackcat, jiggling excitedly from foot to foot.
'We hereby and forever declare you an honorary penguin,' said P1 and P2 presenting Blackcat with the parcels.
'Flippers!' exclaimed Blackcat as he tore off the fishy paper with his sharp claws.
He put the flippers on and waddled about behind the Penguins. 'I’m almost as clumsy as you,' chortled Blackcat as he tripped over his feet and sent the Penguins sprawling.
Chapter 13 - Isla del Coco
The Penguins had been arguing, they did enjoy a good squabble.
They were arguing over where to take Blackcat diving now that he had flippers. P1 was keen on the North Pole, P2 on Antarctica.
Blackcat was a creature of comfort, he liked dry and warm. He didn’t like getting cold toes. If he was going to get wet, it had better be warm and wet. The tropics sounded just fine to him.
P1 and P2 weren’t listening.
'Arctic.'
'No, Antarctic.'
'North.'
'No, south.'
'Pilchards.'
'No, no, no, not pilchards, anchovies.'
'Whoa, whoa, stop!' ordered Mariana, then switching to her normal sing song voice said, 'Instead of arguing about how you are going to fill your fat little bellies why don’t you do something useful for a change. Think about your friend Blackcat who just might not want to get his whiskers frozen.'
She whispered something quietly into the Penguins’ ears. They immediately brightened up and with a wicked glint in their beady little eyes said, 'Allons-y. Let’s go!' and dived off the desk, zoomed around the room and were off out the window and away with Blackcat hot in pursuit.
They flew northeast all the way across the Pacific. Dawn saw them gliding slowly around a lush tropical island. Thick jungle overhung the edges of massive cliffs where waterfalls cascaded down into the heaving sea.
'This is Treasure Island, Isla del Coco,' shouted P1. 'The pirates used to hide their treasure here, now the real treasure is beneath the waves.'
'Is there any sharks?' asked Blackcat suspiciously as he watched a fin slicing through the water.
'Oh those..., they are,err...dolphins!' lied P1. 'Let’s go see.'
Splashing down near an offshore rock, Blackcat was enveloped in the green warmth of the tropical water. There was so much going on that he could hardly take it all in. There was life, colour and action all around him.
The Pacific swell heaved and shoved at Blackcat sending him somersaulting helplessly towards the reef. P1 and P2 stabilized him and guided him about until he found his feet and could paddle in more or less the direction he wanted to go.
The first fish he met was a shoe box covered in prickles, like a big square hedgehog. With its big soft eyes and little fins sticking out at odd angles it looked cute as, but when Blackcat was pushed into it by the surge, it puffed up like a prickly balloon and vanished off towards the surface.
The next creature that
paddled out of the murk was a turtle. It bumped its snout up against Blackcat’s mask and examined him closely with an inquisitive eye, blew a few bubbles them paddled off gracefully with its four legs and flippers. With a bit more practice I could do that, thought Blackcat as he clumsily flapped his flippers to turn around.
The seabed was a carpet of orange starfish with stingray stepping stones. Black cat couldn't resist putting his flipper on one of the rays. Well, he was just about to put his paw on one when P2 knocked him out the way. The ray whipped its tail at him and shot off in a cloud of sand. Ooops, thought Blackcat, what odd animals lived down here!
The Penguins guided Blackcat over the starry seabed to a large bounder encrusted with coral and orange sponges. Small purple and yellow fish sheltered in the sponges while the larger grey ones, no bigger than a mouse, fearlessly darted out and attacked Blackcat, nipping at his flippers. He was paddling clear to escape when the surge grabbed him and pushed him into a big cave under the rock. When his eyes had adjusted to the gloom he could make out the shape of sharks lurking underneath. Not big, ferocious ones but little white tipped-reef sharks all snuggled up together. Blackcat didn’t like sharks, even cute little ones.
Then the swell sucked out and Blackcat was back in the daylight surrounded by thousands of silver fish. They all looked exactly the same. Blackcat wondered if each one had a name or if they just called each other F1, F2 and so on....
'Hello F2098, how are you today?'
'Oh, just fine F54738 apart from clingons.'
'Clingons, clingons, there is nothing wrong with clingons, it’s slime you’ve got to watch...'
There were all sorts of fish on the reef: long skinny red and yellow ones like trumpets that hung vertically in the current; round fish, square fish, flat fish, fat fish, bat fish, fish with stripes, spots and blotches; orange and white stripy ones that hid in the anemones and a long silver fish with big teeth and a menacing look in its eye.
Blackcat had met a barracuda. It stood its ground like a Rottweiler guarding its patch, backing off just a little when Blackcat got too close then following him when he swam away. It was scary and definitely much too close. Blackcat pulled his tail in just in case. He didn’t like the look of all those sharp teeth sticking out at odd angles. A tap on his shoulder almost made Blackcat jump out of his flippers.
P1 and P2 beckoned for Blackcat to follow and swam off into the distance following a thick nylon line. Soon Blackcat was all alone, not a fish or penguin in sight, just greenness and the line, greenness with blue bits, little bits of iridescent blue that floated in the currents. Blackcat had no idea what they were, after all his adventures he thought nothing would surprise him but this underwater world was full of surprises.
After following the line for ages Blackcat came across some big hooks, each with a squid attached. It was a fishing line, a long, long fishing line. The penguins came zooming in out of nowhere and snip, snip, snip, cut off the hooks with their sharp beaks, sending then spiralling down into the depths. Blackcat wondered what a fisherman could hope to catch out here.
He didn’t have to wait long to find out – worryingly familiar shapes loomed out of the murk. Hammerheads! Not hammerheads! The big sharks twisted and turned and swam around helplessly on the ends of the traces. P1 and P2 fearlessly swam as close to each shark’s mouth as they could and snipped off the traces. With a powerful flick of the tail the shark would be gone and Blackcat and the Penguins moved on the next. There were tuna and beautiful marlin and sailfish too, all happy to be set free.
On the long swim back to the island, looking up and seeing a school of hammerheads swim overhead silhouetted by the sunlight, even Blackcat had to admit to himself that they were beautiful creatures.
It didn’t mean he liked them though. If there was one thing in the world that Blackcat did not like, it was hammerheads!
Chapter 14 - Mariana's Fish
Mariana sketched some of the wonderful fish that Blackcat had told her about.
When Lulu found the drawings on her desk the next morning she wrote a little about each fish
Chapter 15 - Blackcat meets a Sticky Ending
It was always a bit of a surprise for people to meet Blackcat. You see, Blackcat was pink, bright pink with yellow and blue flowers, and a tail that glowed yellow.
He used to like being pink but not anymore. It was now months since Lulu had sellotaped on black wings, ears and tail and called him Blackcat. The name had stuck much better than the black paper which was now long gone, having come unstuck on some adventure or other.
Black was tough, black was macho, black was cool. After being black, pink seemed a bit airy-fairy.
Blackcat had bigger worries than his colour. Cabo, the guide dog puppy had caught him napping and all that was left was a pile of gooey pink and yellow splinters under the bed.
'Cabo,' scolded Lulu, 'That was Blackcat, you naughty, naughty puppy!'
Mariana, who had been quietly watching from Lulu’s desk, collected up the splinters and carefully superglued them together. There were a few bits missing and after dismissing the thought of trying to retrieve them from Cabo’s poo, she settled on filling the holes with purple plastercine. Once she had finished she stood Blackcat on the table and looked him up and down.
'You look a mess,' she said, 'I know what I’ll do, I’ll paint you black.'
Blackcat looked good in gleaming black but Mariana didn’t think so, 'Too black,' she said and painted on some little white flowers then tied a sparkling gold bell around his neck.
So much for Macho!
Chapter 16 - Blackcat's Flowers
It was cool being black but Blackcat could really do without the flowers. He didn't like them, not one bit. He slinked off to a quiet corner of the garden and sat in the shade trying to lick them off. They were there to stay, not even his sandpaper tongue could move them.
That evening once Zoe and Lulu went to bed, the Penguins prised open the lid of Marianne's paint pot and painted the flowers out.
They were standing back to admire their handy work when all the paint dripped down making a big puddle around Blackcat's feet. They slapped on another coat and Blackcat was all black again, but only for a minute. The paint ran off leaving Blackcat all flowery.
The Penguins splashed their feet in the puddle and ran around in circles leaving little footprints all over the desk and Zoe's homework.
When Marianne woke up from her snooze and saw the footprints, she laughed. 'You'll never paint them out,' she said. 'They're magical flowers. If you're good they all disappear. If you're bad, you get more. You are such a good egg, I'm sure you'll be looking like a witch's cat in no time.'
'Can't we have it the other way around?' asked Blackcat.
'No way Jose,' said Marianne.
Girls can be so difficult!
Blackcat tried his best to be good but before long he was covered from his whiskers to the tip of his tail with flowers!
If you enjoyed reading ‘Blackcat’, please take a minute to rate it.
Also published by the same author at Smashwords
‘Harry’s Pocket Book of Clouds’
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/464755
‘Princess Rose’
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/404176
‘Blackcat’s Big Book of Cats’
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/451474
'Harry the Cloud'
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/286417
'Lucy'
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/287311
‘Cabo’
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/309911
‘Strange Happenings at No 4’
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/311520
‘Mr Farty Pants’
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/381268
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nikolajvigrim@gma
il.com
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