The cat stumbled upon a phone quite by accident It smelled distinctly of humans and was wonderfully warm. Making himself comfortable, he wrapped his paws around it, curled up on topwhen, all of a sudden, the mobile switched on at the faintest brush of his paw.
Rebecca hardly had a chance to enjoy her brand new phone. From the moment she switched it on, it acted faulty: it heated up with every tap. Worse still, she managed to lose it almost immediately.
Such a shame. It really was the perfect phonegenerous screen, powerful batterythe very thing that turned against her in the end. Now there wasnt even a chance of returning it; the device had simply vanished.
Calling herself a silly fool, Rebecca grabbed her old brick of a mobile and dialled her own number. The line rang, but no one picked up.
Sighing, Rebecca made herself a cup of tea, added a dash of valerian for her nerves, and stretched out to retrace the day in her mind. Perhaps if she went over her steps in person, shed recover her phone. Just then, something buzzed beneath her handher mobile was ringing. Rebecca stared at the caller ID: the familiar digits of her own number.
Hello? Whos there?
All she heard was rustling, soft sighs and then, suddenly:
Miaow
Rebecca hung up immediately. Someones having a laugh, she thought. Worse still, shed never bothered to lock her new phonenow it was just a toy in someone elses hands. Her irritation was interrupted by the phone ringing yet again.
The same sighs, the same cracklingthen another miaow, just after she spoke.
Stop calling this number! she snapped.
But the calls didnt let up. After a while, Rebecca figured nothing could get worse and decided to try her luck. Wrapping herself up, she headed outside. The sounds, she realised, were coming from somewhere not too far; if the prankster was playing with her phone, perhaps they were still at the spot where shed lost it. Shed simply retrace her steps.
Rebecca walked, occasionally ringing her own number, hoping against hope. Suddenly, she recognised her ringtone. Following the sound, she steeled herself, ready to scold the rude person toying with her loss.
But under an old oak tree, she discovered the real prankster. There, beneath the branches, sat a scruffy ginger tom attacking her phone with his paw, as if trying to silence it. Yet, the moment he noticed Rebecca
He bounded over to her like an old friend. His loving purrs and reaching paws broke through her frustrationhow could she resist such a shower of feline affection? Standing there stunned, Rebecca felt his cold fur as he pressed against her face, like a kiss. No wonder hed found comfort on the warm phone.
With her phone in her pocket and the ginger cat nestled securely in her arms, Rebecca walked slowly home, marvelling at this strange twist of fate. How much this little creature had taken to her! After so much tenderness, she could never leave him behind under that tree.
The cat, blissfully content, squirmed in her arms, nudging her lips and chin in spite of Rebeccas half-hearted attempts to dodge himthough, to be honest, she was rather charmed by it all. For a stray, he was astonishingly affectionate.
But, as it turned out, the mystery was easily solved
The cat was utterly giddy, not so much from Rebeccas attention, but from the lingering scent of valerianshed spilt it on herself not an hour before, hoping to calm her nerves.
In the end, Rebecca realisedsometimes an unexpected loss is simply the start of a new friendship. Even a disappointingly broken gadget can become the bridge to a little happiness, if you keep your heart open to the surprises that life brings.
