A Kitten Called Cat

Chapter Thirty One - A New Family

About lunchtime, the next day, we were on the plane. I'd never been on one before and, even though Mr Lovely wasn't there, I was still quite stupidly excited.

It was quite a small plane with only about eight comfy seats and everything was smart with white leather and wood and shiny metal. I sort of guessed this was like an aeroplane limousine.

The take off was a bit lumpy and bumpy, and then, for a few seconds, we had a view of the soggy grey-green English countryside before it was swallowed up by a misty mess.

Then a lady came round and offered us some lunch but I was too tired to eat so she showed me how to change the chair into a sort of bed.

The next thing I knew, Terri was waking me up and telling me that I had to get ready for landing. The view out of the window was very different with the dazzling blue sea on one side and brown hills on the other. Things became clearer as we got lower and you could see little villages with white buildings and roads with cars and things. I held my breath as the ground got closer and closer until, at last, we touched down. The landing was much smoother than the take-off and I found I could breathe again as we taxied across the airport.

Then the doors were opened and we stepped out and it felt like you were stepping into an oven and everything was so bright you could hardly look. There was a limo waiting for us at the bottom of the steps with very dark windows.

And, as soon as we were in our seats, the doors were closed and we were zooming out of the airport. I did vaguely wonder about customs and passports and things but I suppose, if you're rich enough and powerful enough, those are the sort of things that only happen to other people! A second car was following us and Terri just said, "Security! You get used to it."

The journey to the villa didn't take long but we were driving fast and the other cars on the road were getting out of our way. I guess everybody knew whose car this was!

If I thought security around our home was tight, it had nothing on what was going on around the villa. They had a high wall topped by barbed wire and there were dozens of security guards wandering around with guns. They were all wearing a uniform with dark trousers, a thick belt; a tan shirt; and scary-looking dark glasses. The two who were guarding the gate must have recognised the car, though, because, when they saw us coming, they opened the gates for us so that we could whizz through without even slowing down.

There was a surprisingly long driveway made of little chippings of a shiny white stone. It led through a fancy sort of garden with all sorts of marble statues and things. They also had the only green grass I'd seen since we'd arrived. Everywhere else it was a tired-looking yellow brown colour.

Then the car rounded some little bushy trees and the villa came into view at the end of the drive. It was stunningly beautiful - like a fairy princess palace - or maybe a wedding cake - all shiny white stone with elegant arches and tall, narrow windows. It had a red coloured roof with green metal statues on top. There was a long balcony running all the way along the front at the first floor [second U.S.] level and they had more of their security guards wandering around up there too.

The car came to a stop outside a grand entrance and the doors were opened and we were helped out.

We stepped through an enormous pair of double doors into a spectacular entrance hall with dazzling white marble and a beautiful honey-yellow coloured stone. An amazing chandelier hung down from the middle of the ceiling and, on either side, there were the biggest mirrors I'd ever seen, in crazily fancy frames.

But, as I stepped through the doors, I noticed that we were walking through a metal detector. It was cleverly hidden behind some beautifully painted panels but, because we'd just had one fitted at home, I spotted it straight away.