A Lost Cat

Chapter two

Several days passed and the girl walked back through the forest; seeing the school in the distance from the field she walked into last time. She took deep breaths and slowly began to walk towards it. She entered through the front doorway and went down the left hallway again; moving towards the double doors the man had entered last time. She took a deep breath and pushed against the cold metal pushbars on the door, opening up into a large gymnasium.

Inside the gym was warmer than the rest of the school, and it held a large amount of greenery, mostly from overgrowth; however the floor was cleaned of dirt and roots and there were flowers in pots underneath spots the sun shined on through the windows. Next to a pair of wooden benches against the wall was a small greenhouse; made of clear plastic sheets and glass panes carefully held together with metal scraps. She walked past the garden setup and froze when she noticed the greenhouse door opened as the man walked out, watering can in hand and wearing the same clothes as last time they met.

He turned his head towards the girl and she locked eyes with the mascot head, before he simply waved hello to her with his open hand and shuffled away to water the rest of the plants. She was mildly shocked seeing him again after what happened last time and just watched as he ignored her to continue to water his plants. She took a deep breath and thought of something to say before blurting out.

"Thank you for not hurting me." She said before covering her mouth. The man turned back and tilted his head quizzically, confused as to why she would say something like that out of nowhere. She continued "I mean...uh... I was scared you would when I first came, but you... Seemed nice so I wanted to say sorry for that." He kept his silence and shrugged before going back to watering.

The girl began to look confused and took a step towards him. "My name is Analisea; or just Ana. Could you tell me yours?" She began to ask before he responded by putting up his finger as a way to ask her to hold on as he watered a flower. He then set down the watering can and turned towards her. Ana quickly stepped aside as the man walked past her out of the gym.

She saw him walk down the hall to the main lobby and waved for her to follow. She hesitated for a moment before slowly following him down the hall to the other pair of double doors as he opened them. The sunlight from the hall lit enough of the room to see despite there being no light inside. It was a large auditorium with long rows of bare metal where chairs had been torn off, and open aisles led down to a stage where a model house used for plays stood. Analisa looked around in bewilderment as to how much work the man must have put in making it a home.

The man walked up the steps onto the stage and opened the door of the model house. He entered and noises of moving equipment could be heard as Ana found a seat that was left and noticed the surprising lack of dust on anything, as if it was cleaned daily. He walked back out of the model house, a notepad in his hand. He stood over Ana and handed the notepad, turning it to the first page. The page had an aged sticker reading out "Hi! My name is", followed by a crude, almost child-like drawing of a cat on the blank part of the sticker.

Ana giggled at the sight of the sticker and asked "Your name is Cat?" To which the man nodded his head and turned the page for her. Cat's handwriting looked completely different from the crude drawing for his name, as if it had been writen years apart and read "I am almost twenty eight years old now. I cannot speak as when I was born, my vocal cords did not develop correctly."

Ana grew a concerned look as she looked up at Cat. "I'm sorry to hear, I didnt realize you were so quiet because of that." She took a glance around the room and was about to ask where they were before Cat turned the page for her to keep reading. It was a torn out segment from a newspaper talking about the school's grand opening in 1939, and articles surrounded it talking about WW2. The page after was a note stating that he lived here with his mother after the blitz left them homeless and that one day when he was ten, she had left and never came back.

Ana sighed sadly upon finishing the pages and handing the notepad back to Cat before she plopped down into the chair. "I'm sorry to hear that happened to you. But at least I know more about you." Cat began to walk up the aisle towards the door as she got up to follow him.

"I guess I should tell you about me then. I'm 15, and I was born back in London with my parents. But after my dad died years ago and my mum couldn't handle taking care of me and I was taken here and just.... left in an orphanage." Her voice trailed off as Cat stopped briefly and turned to face her, when she asked, "Well enough of that, mind me asking why you wear that mascot head?"

Ana reached up to try and touch the head before Cat flinched and quickly backed up, holding it in his hands nervously. "Sorry! Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you like that!" She folded her arms and looked down at the floor, as she muttered "Its alright if you don't wanna talk about it." To which he paused for a second before regaining composure and continuing to silently walk down the halls with her, giving her a tour of sorts of his home.