Samantha liked a lot of things about her new boyfriend, Louis, but the one she liked the most was that he liked animals. She always thought that was a good sign in a man.
Once he’d been out on his bike and come across a pigeon with its neck caught in a swing bridge. The bridge had been raised to let a boat pass under it and then lowered to allow cars to drive across. The pigeon had been pecking at the dirt in gap where the bridge would come to rest and apparently hadn’t been fast enough to pull its head back. So the edge of the bridge had come down and the bird had been trapped. That was how Louis had found it: feet on the pavement, body twitching and head trapped.
A lot of people would have just driven past. A lot of others wouldn’t even have seen it. But not only did Louis see it, he also stopped, tried to see whether he could rescue and then, when he realized he couldn’t, took out his mobile and called the police. They directed him to the local animal hospital who, in conjunction with the bridge operator, raised the bridge enough for the bird to pull back its head.
Just a pigeon, Samantha thought. But not to Louis. Louis had seen a creature trapped and taken steps to save it.
As he saved them all.
He didn’t swat flies. He’d spring sideways to avoid stepping on a snail. He’d pull thorns from a dog’s paw and burrs from a horse’s mane. Wind farms enraged him because they so often hurt birds. It went without saying that he wouldn’t eat meat and had no time for fishing.
Such consideration and attention extended to her as well. Unfailingly polite. Always on time. Never a harsh word. But after a while she couldn’t help noticing that he never mentioned any other friends. She certainly never saw him with anyone and his phone never rang with a message from someone. So she asked him about it.
‘I’m not the only person in your life, am I?’
He laughed. ‘No. Not at all. I just haven’t got around to introducing you to anyone yet. You’re too important to us to share just yet.’
‘Us?’
‘What?’
‘You said us.’
‘Slip of the tongue. I’ve been watching The Crown too much. You know, the royal we.’
Then he laughed again and ran off to rescue a ball that had got trapped in a tree, threw it back to the dog chasing it, and Samantha started laughing too and forgot it all.
For then, at least.
Not long after, they went away for a week. Louis had arranged for his downstairs neighbour to feed his cat, Roody. But the train bringing them back was delayed and Louis hadn’t been able to contact the neighbour to let him know. So Roody hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast and it was now almost midnight.
Louis fed her, spent several minutes scratching the fur on the back of her head, then opened the front door and let her out into the garden. A little later, when they decided to go to bed, he said he was going to leave the door open all night. After being shut up all day, Louis thought she’d enjoy the chance to wander in and out as the mood took her.
And since the house was at the back of a small courtyard, with another door opening onto the street, leaving the front door open posed no security threat. Louis and Samantha could sleep safely and Roody could take a stroll around the little garden and enjoy the warm dry late summer evening.
It was still dark when she woke up. Louis was beside her, breathing softly, steadily. The air was still and through the half-closed curtains, she could see the full moon beaming down on the shrubs and ferns in the little walled garden.
When she felt something move at the foot of the bed, her heart gave a little leap of fear. But that faded fast when she realized it must just be Roody coming in from the garden. The bedroom door was open as well as the front door.
But, she thought, if that was Roody padding back and forth at the foot of the bed, why could she hear her purring in her ear. She twisted her head to the side and saw she was right. Roody was curled up less than a foot away from her head, paws tucked under her body, head up, purring gently.
Heart beating fast, Samantha raised herself up onto her elbow and gazed along the length of the bed.
It wasn’t a cat at the foot but a dog. No, bigger. A wolf. What she’d thought were four little paws stepping lightly across the duvet was in fact just one of the wolf’s paws tapping softly. First to the right of her feet, then on them, then to the left.
Her breath caught in her throat as she looked from the matted, dirty hair on the wolf’s back to the other animals ranged around the bed. She saw crows and jackdaws and cats with eyes glowing yellow in the moonlight. Beside and behind the wolf stood other dogs, mouths open, ears pricked, teeth bared. As she watched, a stream of mice and rats scuttled up onto the duvet and ranged themselves around her motionless feet.
As they did, Louis’ words in the park that day echoed and spun in her head.
‘I just haven’t got around to introducing you to anyone yet. You’re too important to us to share just yet.’
There was a roaring in her ears. Her heart was pounding. Her skin was cold but she was streaming sweat. She tried to call out to Louis but her throat wouldn’t move and her mouth wouldn’t open. All she could do was watch as snakes slithered up from the floor, onto the bed and across the duvet towards her.
DoubleSpeak 