‘… I’m terrified of flying. It was bad enough just jetting around Europe but a whole day on a plane? I can’t take it. All I want is to go back home, with the automatic kitty feeder they used to use when they went away for a weekend. Is that so much to ask?’
I made a vague sympathetic noise, but my brain was stuck on one word.
Australia.
I knew about Australia. Not much, but enough.
You see, that was where Dad was from, before he met Mum and me. He grew up there. He showed me on the map – and it was further away than China, even.
Dad talked about Australia sometimes. Not often, but every now and again. Because he’d not been back there in years – since long before he found Gobi in the desert.
Which meant that Gobi had never been to Australia.
That was an adventure that was too much even for Gobi.
But I was sure I could do it.
I studied Cleo carefully. Same fluffy white and dark brown fur. Same blue eyes. Same fluffy tail. We really did look very alike …
Suddenly, an idea floated into my mind. An adventurous, crazy idea. One that was more extreme than a ferry ride, or a book tour. It might even be more exciting than being lost in China, or running an ultramarathon.
The sort of idea that, if it worked, would mean that no one would be able to say that I was just an indoor, homebody cat ever again.
I’d be Lara, cat adventurer. I’d be the pet everyone wanted to talk about. Maybe they’d even write a book about me, too.
‘We should swap places,’ I said, without thinking it through any further. ‘I’ll go to Australia with Jennifer, and you can …’ Ah … For a cat who hated flying, I was pretty sure the flight to China wouldn’t be a lot of fun, either.
‘Hide out in the airport until Jennifer gives up and comes home again?’ Cleo finished for me. She sat up straighter, looking imperious and calculating. Somehow, I got the feeling that my adventure had just slipped from my paws into hers. ‘That could work.’
‘It could?’ I’ll be honest, I hadn’t thought through the specifics, I’d just acted on impulse. Like Gobi did.
To my surprise, it felt kind of good.
‘We’d need to be cunning about it.’ Cleo was watching Jennifer again, sounding thoughtful. ‘But yes, I think it could work.’
‘Great,’ I said. But inside I was wondering what on earth I’d got myself into now. It had sounded exciting in my head, but now the words were out in the world, it was sort of, kind of, terrifying.
Well, I’d wanted my own adventure. One that wasn’t about Gobi at all.
It looked like I’d got one.
Just as Dad returned to the cabin with hot chocolates, I asked Cleo, ‘Okay, so how would this work?’
We both stopped chatting to pay attention to our humans again for a moment.
‘Oh, Dion, Jennifer and Cleo are headed to the airport same as us tomorrow morning. We’ve got space to give them a lift, right?’ Mum said, taking her paper cup.
Dad shrugged. ‘Sure, happy to help.’
My dad is too nice sometimes – I reckon that’s how we ended up with Gobi. But on this occasion, it suited my plans perfectly.
‘That makes things a lot easier.’ Cleo stretched out her paws in front of her, arching her back as she thought. I could almost see the plan forming behind her calculating blue eyes. Finally, she settled back down again and said, ‘Here’s what we’ll do.’
I shuffled up closer to listen. I’d had the grand idea, but was definitely going to need help with the details.
‘The key is all in the timing,’ Cleo said. I got the feeling that she liked to pontificate – something Dad said I always did when he was watching the sport. Still, under the circumstances, I was willing to put up with a bit of fellow cat know-it-all-ness. ‘We can’t make the swap until after they check our pet passports and microchips.’
‘Of course,’ I murmured, even though I was actually thinking, I have a passport? I mean, I knew about the microchip thingy, buried under my fur, but I’d never needed a passport before. (I’d seen Dad’s, though. He looked hilarious in the photo, and Mum liked to show it around any friends who stopped by, whenever he was preparing for another trip.)
‘Once we’ve been checked, but before we go our separate ways, we need to switch places, without anyone noticing.’
‘Easy,’ I said, although actually, it sounded anything but. I tried to picture how it would work, but without ever having been to an airport before, or gone through the security things Gobi had talked about, I couldn’t imagine it. Would it be like getting on the ferry, with the man who scowled at paperwork? Or would it be totally different?
If our humans weren’t looking too closely, they might not notice if we swapped places. I hoped …
‘We’ll see,’ Cleo replied. I supposed she was right – I’d have to wait and see how it all worked.
But one thing I was certain of – it would work. It had to. This was my one chance to escape on a real adventure, not just tagging around after Gobi. I wasn’t going to miss it.
I raised my head, stretching out my neck as I sat, imperious. ‘It’ll work like clockwork, just wait and see. We’ll swap places, and I’ll go adventuring to Australia with Jennifer, and you can …’ The gap in my plan suddenly seemed obvious. ‘Wait, what are you really going to do once we’ve swapped?’ I didn’t think she’d want to fly to China with Mum and Dad, but what other choice would she have?
But Cleo just shrugged. ‘I’ll hang out with your people long enough for you to make your getaway, then I’ll lose them before we get on the plane.’
‘Lose them? How? You’ll be in my carrier.’ And I had tried opening that door from the inside before, usually when they were using it to take me to the vet. It didn’t work.
But Cleo looked unconcerned by the difficulties ahead. ‘Yowl loud enough and someone will open the door eventually. Then I just need to slip past them and make a run for it.’
‘What if you get caught? And, actually, what if you don’t? What will you do?’ It sounded to me like Cleo had her own adventure planned.
‘If I can stay free, I’ll just hide out around the airport as long as it’s fun and entertaining. Then, when I’m ready for humans again, I’ll let myself get caught by the airport staff. They’ll just check my microchip, then put me up in some pet hotel or another until Jennifer gets back in the country. Hopefully, losing me will put her off flying for a while.’
For
