Page 11 - Billy the Cat and Katie

Aunt Mabel had left the house on Saturday morning when William and Kathleen went down to
the bottom of the garden to the large shed where William’s father’s things had been stored.
The shed itself was made from an old railway carriage and still had all the doors and windows in
it, all of them with blinds that could be pulled down to keep out the light. Kathleen’s father had
it put there before the war when she was younger as a playhouse for her to keep her dolls
house, large toys and bicycle in but now it was used mostly for storage and as it was waterproof
and dry inside it was a perfect place to keep things safely. There were even good locks on the
doors on the inside as Kathleen’s father was obviously very security conscious, probably due to
the war and the possibility of German paratroopers hiding in there, at least that’s what he told
Kathleen. The garden backed onto the municipal park and boys would often kick their footballs
over the fence and Kathleen was sure it was mostly to keep the local schoolboys from getting in
there and making a nuisance of themselves. There in the corner of the shed sat three large
chests marked with the initials ‘W.G.’ each with a brass padlock on the front. William produced
some keys from his trouser pocket and opened up the first chest which was full of handwritten
books and folders of his father’s work. The contents of the second chest was a surprise to both
William and Kathleen as it contained not only several suits, helmets and other items that
formed part of the catsuit but also a small box labelled ‘Danger – Explosives’. They both agreed
that this box should probably be left for another time, maybe when Aunt Mabel went off to see
her sister in the nearby village of Cobbridge. She usually stayed there the whole Saturday and
that would give them plenty of time to explore the contents of the box more carefully.

William lifted the rucksack that he’d brought with him from the house off the floor and emptied
the contents onto the lid of the third chest. Holding up his catsuit he smiled. ‘What do you
think?’ Kathleen smiled too, realising that William really was keeping a secret from everyone.
‘What does it do, I mean, what’s so special about it? It looks just like my fathers overalls except
his were blue. It looks just like any other kind of clothes.’ William winked and decided that the
best thing to do was to demonstrate the suit and everything it did. Firstly he showed Kathleen
that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t possibly lift one of the chests on his own, not
even one end off the floor. Slipping off his shoes and putting on the suit, plimsolls and gloves
he stood before her and watched her face change, from surprise to disbelief and back to
surprise again, as he picked up the whole chest with apparently no effort at all. Then he put
down the chest and picked her up along with the chair she had sat down into, not believing
what she had just seen. Kathleen laughed ‘I want to try it, let me try it please.’ Kathleen
proceeded to lift William off the floor almost without trying and jumped for joy, which
presented her with another shock as she banged her head on the ceiling of the shed. ‘I forgot
to tell you, that’s another thing it does, you can run, jump and climb faster and better than you
could without the suit and its also waterproof and bulletproof.’ Kathleen looked shocked. ‘You
mean you’ve been shot?’ William laughed and shook his head. ‘No, my father tested the
material of the suit with knives and guns, even a rifle bullet fired at close range. The bullet just
sort of stopped when it hit the material as the fabric is treated with chemicals that change it.
He said I probably wouldn’t have even felt it although I really wouldn’t want to find out for
sure.’ Kathleen lifted on of the helmets out of the chest and put it on as William helped her
adjust the chin strap to fit. ‘Now hold on while I turn out the light and prepare to be amazed
even more.’ It was like a miracle to be able to move around in the dark and still be able to see