Chapter 1

Once I was a very free cat. Very free. I was just a small ginger kitten, born in an alleyway in a place of which I didn't know the name or anything else for that matter. But of course, what did I care? I was, and still am, a free cat, minding his own business. A very free cat. Freedom has no limits, I once thought to myself while eating some breadcrumbs alone in the red brick alleyway, and even if it did, I had long since crossed those borders. My mother and father had left me a long time before. I still remember that day.

"Why are you leaving?" I had asked, more out of curiosity than sorrow and wretchedness.

"I am sorry, child," my mother replied, "But we have to leave this dirty dark alleyway, and we have no more space for you in the box.

Besides," she added on a more serious note, "You remind me of an ugly person."

She then left without goodbye. I suppose I can say that my parents and siblings absence did not bother me very much, but later that day I found myself feeling an emptiness in my heart. I desperately searched for something that I could look at myself with. I found a shard of a mirror coincidentally leaned against the wall with which I could observe myself. I peered at the mirror and paused. I have to admit I looked quite handsome, cute and affable, and had started to wonder which devilishly good-looking person my mother had associated my face with when I looked closer. There was a small black stubble of something just under my tiny pink nose. I was confused. What was this thing that dares destroy my handsome looks! I tried to poke at it and persuade it to leave, but instead, I hurt my eye. I flinched with pain and cursed myself. I decided to leave the small black stubble alone for the time being. If only my mother had told me the name of the person she disliked, I could have searched for him and confirmed whether he had this black stubble or not. But I forgot to do so since I am a very dedicated dilettante.

So there I was, a free cat, roaming the dark alleyway destiny had selected for me to dawdle about in. I was never bullied and always had enough to eat by myself. I drank water from the puddles that formed after a heavy bout of raining. No one except the garbage-men came in my abode, and that too only once a week. To sum it up, I think I was happy enough all by myself. I didn't feel any grief, only happiness, and occasionally, a little grumpiness when I found fewer crumbs than usual.

But Fate had, in all its complex mysteriousness, decided something else for me. Perhaps she had thought that I was having too much a... monotonous life, the same routine all day, not a care in the world, that one day she decided to disrupt my schedule and make my life more stimulating. Heavens knows I had not asked for that, but all in all, I think that it was better for me to comply with Fate's strange requests and to resort to her prophetic predictions.

It was late afternoon and I was having supper, enjoying myself thoroughly, not at all foreseeing the events that happened so suddenly. I saw some people coming in the alley. First, I thought they might be the garbage-men, so I hid behind some barrels of oil that were perched behind the dumpster. But they were three normal men. Except for one of them. He was thin, lean and was wearing a brown jacket. He had torn woollen gloves and wore large boots that had laces of different colours and sizes. He had tufts of hair on his cheek and chin, but most terrible was his demeanour. His nose was bleeding; so was his lower lip. He had a black eye and it was most obvious to me that the other two, fat and ugly people had been picking on him. One of the fatties was bald, but the other had short cropped hair and a shaggy beard. Right now the Injured Man was limping away from Baldy and Hairy. Baldy was watching with amusement as Injured Man tried to focus his gaze properly at his surroundings and was trying hard not to feel disoriented. Hairy was stroking his beard and I noticed that his hands had bloody knuckles. Injured Man tried to get up but the poor man stumbled and his head hit the cold hard ground, followed by a small moan.

"This will teach you to never defy us, Schumacher!" Baldy yelled.

Then he took off his right shoe and hurled it straight at Schumacher. It hit him in the back and he let out a small groan. Hairy imitated the groan and laughed.

"What a blöd," he said.

Then they both left the dark alleyway, laughing and mocking Schumacher, leaving the latter sprawled on the ground. I had watched this all behind the barrels and with extreme fascination.

'So this is what humans are like,' I thought to myself.

I looked over to Schumacher. He was now pitifully moaning and cursing both his enemies and himself for not having retaliated quickly. Maybe I could help. I crawled over to the horribly decrepit Schumacher and meowed softly. Schumacher looked up wearily. I tilted my head in interest and meowed again.

"Hey, little guy," Schumacher whispered hoarsely, but his voice was warm and kind.

"Were you watching all that?" he asked, and then was able to manage a good-hearted laugh. "Yeah, good-old Schumacher wasn't able to completely satisfy his customers, so they came after him."

He strained his eyes to look at me closely.

"Boy, you don't look so good." He observed.

True, I admit, after the departure of my mother, I hadn't been too keen on baths. Schumacher sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Listen," he said, "If you want, you can come with me and live at my house. I have milk, food and a warm fire. I haven't had a freund since... my old cat Felix disappeared." He smiled, but his eyes gave away a sadness I had never seen in a human.

I considered. I looked around at the dirty alleyway and realized that I was wasting my time here. Sure, I was able to satisfy my hunger, but I had already felt the strong winds and chilly temperature and soon, there would be no warmth here. But if Schumacher has milk and a warm fire, then I should take it! My parents never took my permission to leave this place without me, so why should I stay here on my own? Schumacher seemed like a decent guy, so I readily complied. I gazed towards him and found that he was groaning.

"Who do I think I am?..." he muttered, "Talking to an animal... must be going cuckoo in the head."

I grinned at his self-loathing. I meowed enthusiastically and took a few steps towards him. He backed away at first, but then he grinned. "Ah, what does it matter, I'll take a friend any time of the day. Company is good for the verstand and besides, I hate living alone by myself." He took me in his arms. I felt warm almost immediately and was grateful for it. Schumacher was certainly a great guy. He got up and limped towards the alleyway entrance. Someplace I had never ventured to before, was now a few steps away from me, and I was being carried towards it by a human. What would mother say? Probably something like, 'Go take a bath!' before chiding me for resting on the arms of the obliging Schumacher.

I chuckled inwardly and thought to myself what a strange little world it is where I live. It was about to get even stranger. I could almost feel Fate giggling to herself like a schoolgirl, holding the string of events loosely in her hands.