گربه‌زن

CHAPTER FIVE

Catwoman

Catwoman drove the motorbike very fast through the streets, with the wind against her face. She was having lots of fun moving in and out of the traffic.

She stopped in front of the jewellery shop and got off the motorbike.

Then she heard a crash of glass.

‘Oh no. Someone’s robbing the shop,’ she thought.

‘They can’t do that. That was my idea!’

She ran into the shop and saw two robbers. A fat robber was breaking some glass with his gun to reach some necklaces. A tall robber was trying to open a metal box. Catwoman blew in the tall man’s ear. When he turned around, she had disappeared.

There was a third robber upstairs. He was a short man and he was putting diamonds into a black bag.

Catwoman quickly put a black mask over her eyes and went up behind him.

‘You’re not very good,’ she said. ‘Look behind you!’

The short robber turned around quickly, but she had disappeared.

The fat robber had just opened a glass box. Inside was the necklace with diamond claws. He heard a noise and looked up. When he looked at the box again, the necklace had gone.

Then he saw Catwoman; She was standing next to the tall robber and she was wearing the necklace. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked, taking his gun out of his pocket.

‘I’m having lots of fun,’ she said. ‘But you’re stealing beautiful things. You’re taking things that don’t belong to you. You’re bad people.’

All three men pointed their guns at her and began to shoot. But Catwoman was too quick for them. She jumped away from the bullets and kicked the tall robber in the head. Then she kicked the fat robber’s legs and he fell to the ground with a loud thump.

The short robber jumped at her from behind but she suddenly sat on the floor. The short robber flew over her head and crashed into a big glass box.

Catwoman looked at the three robbers on the floor.

‘Well that wasn’t very difficult,’ she said. She quickly collected all the jewellery on the floor and ran.

Patience woke up and looked around the room. There was jewellery everywhere.

‘Where did all this jewellery come from’ she thought. She looked down and saw that she was still wearing her black leather clothes. And then she remembered.

‘Oh no! I can’t believe that I did this! It’s wrong, wrong, wrong!’

She found a paper bag and put all the jewellery inside. Except the necklace with the diamond claws. ‘I can’t take that back,’ she thought. ‘It’s so beautiful.’

Tom Lone was head detective on the jewellery shop case. He was talking to the jeweller now.

The jeweller showed him a photo of the necklace with the diamond claws. ‘It’s a very special necklace,’ he said. ‘It’s from Egypt and it’s the only one like it.’

‘So what do you think about those three guys that we found here last night, Tom’ asked one of the other policemen. ‘Do you believe their story?’

‘What are we going to call her’ called another. ‘Catgirl? Robbercat?’

‘Come and look at this, Tom,’ shouted a third policeman, just outside the shop door. He was pointing at a white box with a paper bag on top of it. Lone opened the bag. Inside was the jewellery. And on the box was the word ‘Sorry’.

Lone carefully opened the box.

‘Is it something important’ asked the policeman.

‘Yes,’ said Lone. ‘Chocolate cakes!’

Patience was standing at the front door of Ophelia Powers’ house.

‘Please help me,’ she said. ‘I don’t understand what’s happening to me.’

‘Come in,’ said Ophelia.

She took Patience into the library and showed her a large book. The book was called Bast and it was written by Ophelia Powers.

‘You’re a writer’ asked Patience.

‘Yes,’ said Ophelia. ‘I was a university teacher for twenty years.’

She opened the book and pointed to an Egyptian work of art: a beautiful golden cat, made of stone.

‘This is the goddess Bast,’ she said.

Midnight jumped onto the table and stood on the picture in the book.

‘Midnight looks very like the cat in the picture,’ said Patience.

‘Yes. Mau cats are very special in the Egyptian religion. They carry messages for Bast,’ said Ophelia. ‘Bast is the goddess of the moon and the sun. She joins the two sides of all women: good and bad, hard and soft.’

‘But what about me’ asked Patience. ‘I don’t understand how.’

Ophelia stopped her. ‘What happened the other night?’

‘I can’t remember,’ Patience replied. She moved towards the window.

‘I’ll tell you then,’ said Ophelia. ‘You died.’

‘What’ cried Patience. ‘I didn’t die. I’m here, aren’t I? You’re mad! You’re completely mad!’ She jumped onto the window-sill, ready to attack.

‘You died,’ Ophelia said again, ‘but you were reborn. You were reborn by Bast’s message-carrier, the Mau. Midnight saved you.’

Patience began to remember. The terrible noise; The mountain of water crashing over her. Falling down, down, down into the river. And then a cat with golden eyes - Midnight - giving her life. She got down from the window-sill.

‘You’re not alone,’ Ophelia said. ‘Mau cats have saved lots of others too.’ She showed Patience pictures of catwomen from many different countries. Some of the pictures were only a few years old; others were from many centuries ago. Then she gave her a cat mask.

‘So what should I do’ asked Patience. ‘If I’m not Patience now, I.’

‘But you are Patience,’ Ophelia explained. ‘You’re a catwoman. You can see and hear and move much better than you did before. You can do all the things that a cat can do. And at the same time, you’re still Patience. You’re both. Accept who you are and you can be free.

Patience took all the claws off the necklace and put them on the fingers of her leather gloves. Then she used the claws to cut her leather jacket, her trousers and her boots.

As she worked, she began to remember more and more. She remembered running through the factory. She remembered Wesley and Armando chasing her with their guns.

She put on her new cat mask and the clothes that she had designed. Then she looked down at her work table and saw a picture of George Hedare. She remembered that she had nearly died.

It was time to get some answers.