ALI, a fifth grade student, was the teacher’s pet. Almost every teacher sang his praises, especially Mr Junaid, the math instructor.
Ali did not achieve this mathematical brilliance through the mere chance of being born. He was in the habit of working hard for his grades and taking extra credits where it was possible. From February each year, he would enrol in Mr Junaid’s home tuitions and slave away for the preparations of the final exam.
On a wet, nippy day in March, Ali trod carefully back from school through muddy streets. He usually stopped at his home to change out of his uniform but the path was flooded. He made his way instead to his teacher’s house an hour earlier, at 3 pm.
“You are an hour early today,” said Mr Junaid who came to open the gate, dressed in his overcoat and carrying an umbrella. “I have to step out Ali,” he told the boy while showing him the way to the living room. “My brother will arrive shortly and my cook is in the kitchen if you need anything. Stay here till I get back.”
He watched his teacher walking out and felt a little scared and abandoned. He sat on a sofa but after some time, his calves began to ache and he began to walk in the room, which displaced some mud in his damp shoes and he felt more uncomfortable than ever. Finally he could take it no longer and he silently and carefully tiptoed toward the door under the stairs.
It opened onto a cosy little dining room with a kitchen on the side where a man (Mr Junaid’s cook) in a white polo shirt was busy feeding titbits to a fat black and white cat.
Ali let go of the door which was on spring hinges and it slammed shut with a bang. The cook sprang around and the cat emitted a loud yowl as it got hit in the side by his elbow. It leaped off the counter and scurried away like a frightened rabbit.
“Who are you?” growled the cook.
“I’m Mr Junaid’s student. I came early today, and Mr Junaid told me to wait in the house.”
“Oh, did he?” the cook said rather impudently. “Well look what you’ve done to the cat! It has run upstairs! Go on and get it down, a boy like you should be very persuasive with that friendly animal.”
Ali was not particularly fond of cats but he felt responsible for scaring the pet away. He hurried upstairs making awkward calling noises and saying “Here kitty, kitty,” in hushed tones.
He thought he heard a noise from one of the rooms so he went to investigate. He saw the dark animal slink away on the bedstead so he turned on the lights. It startled the cat and it took off again, this time taking refuge in what looked like a bathroom. He entered the bathroom and for a second was completely befuddled because he couldn’t see the cat anywhere. Then he caught sight of it out of the corner of his eye, lurking on top of the medicine cabinets. It almost scared him out of his wits because the lights were not on. He calmed himself and grabbed a towel, which he assumed would come in handy when he had to collect and mollify the animal. The cat read otherwise from this gesture, and it leaped at him with a screech.
Ali’s heart jumped to his mouth and he covered his head with the towel. The cat slipped, missed and fell with a loud splash!
Horrified, Ali threw away the towel and saw the top of the animal submerged in a tub full of water. The cat made a whole lot of fuss and Ali felt he had no choice but to plunge his hands into the watery fiasco and rescue it.
He released the writhing beast out into the bedroom and it shook itself violently sending water everywhere. Ali’s hands were not hurt much in the ordeal but he was soaked. He trailed dirty footprints into the bedroom, shivering all over, a bit from the cold but mostly from nerves….
“I- I- I only meant to bring your pet cat from upstairs, but it attacked me and fell in the tub,” Ali explained to his teacher, managing to stammer through a dry throat.
“My cat?” Mr Junaid exclaimed. “I don’t have a cat! In fact I can’t stand cats!”
Now Ali began to shiver again, this time out of fright!
