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    The Kilkenny Cat Book 3: "Freedom"
    The Kilkenny Cat Book 3: "Freedom"
    The Kilkenny Cat Book 3: "Freedom"
    Ebook384 pages5 hours

    The Kilkenny Cat Book 3: "Freedom"

    By William Forde

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    About this ebook

    This author's works have been praised by numerous celebrities, the most notable being Nelson Mandela who described two of his African stories as 'Wonderful', the late Princess Diana who used to read two of his books to the Princes William and Harry when they were aged 9 and 7 years, and a former Chief Inspector of Schools for The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (OFSTED), who described the author's writing to the press as being of 'High quality literature.'
    The Kilkenny Cat has been written as a trilogy. Book One deals with the theme of ‘truth’, Book Two with ‘justice’, and Book Three on the theme of ’freedom’.
    All three books seek to show that truth, justice or freedom cannot exist in isolation, and that the only way one can experience any one of them is when one is able to experience all three.

    Book Three is set in the English North and has as its backdrop, the riots that embraced this area from the 1990s onwards. Recent riots all around the country merely reflect how deeply rooted the 'gang culture' of Great Britain has since become.

    The trilogy is designed to show that every country on the face of the Earth exercises discrimination against some of its citizens. The nature of discrimination may subtly change and vary from one country and situation to another in both shape and form, but it will always be present in some degree for those of us who care to look.
    Particular forms of discrimination looked at in this trilogy include the issues of colour, race, religion, age, culture, sexism, disability, homophobia, gypsies, asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants.
    These issues are looked at through the eyes of travelling cats, whose experiences mirror those of human society. Overarching all the themes of this trilogy is the issue of ‘Good’ versus ‘Evil’, where the terms ‘God’ and ‘Satan’ are used to denote opposing values, qualities and lifestyles.
    The speech of the cat characters who come from Jamaica is distinguished from the speech used by non-Jamaican cats by changing the word ‘you’ to ‘ya’ and its linguistic associates, and no attempt has been made to replicate the patois more commonly used by many Jamaican citizens.
    The Kilkenny Cat Trilogy is an allegorical story of all manner of discrimination practised throughout the world; and particularly in Ireland, Jamaica and England. Told through the eyes and experiences of travelling gypsy cats, it is a must for all cat lovers and students of the discrimination, the 'Northern Riots', Ireland, Jamaica and Northern England and 'Good v Evil.' It is suitable for reading by teenagers and adults.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilliam Forde
    Release dateDec 2, 2011
    ISBN9781466062511
    The Kilkenny Cat Book 3: "Freedom"
    Author

    William Forde

    William Forde was born in Ireland and currently lives in Haworth, West Yorkshire with his wife Sheila. He is the father of five children and the author of over 60 published books and two musical plays. Approximately 20 of his books are suitable for the 7-11 year old readers while the remainder are suitable for young persons and adults. Since 2010, all of his new stories have been written for adults under his 'Tales from Portlaw' series of short stories. His website is www.fordefables.co.uk on which all his miscellaneous writings may be freely read. There are also a number of children's audio stories which can be freely heard.He is unique in the field of contemporary children's authors through the challenging emotional issues and story themes he addresses, preferring to focus upon those emotions that children and adults find most difficult to appropriately express.One of West Yorkshire's most popular children's authors, Between 1990 and 2002 his books were publicly read in over 2,000 Yorkshire school assemblies by over 800 famous names and celebrities from the realms of Royalty, Film, Stage, Screen, Politics, Church, Sport, etc. The late Princess Diana used to read his earlier books to her then young children, William and Harry and Nelson Mandela once telephoned him to praise an African story book he had written. Others who have supported his works have included three Princesses, three Prime Ministers, two Presidents and numerous Bishops of the realm. A former Chief Inspector of Schools for OFSTED described his writing to the press as 'High quality literature.' He has also written books which are suitable for adults along with a number of crossover books that are suitable for teenagers and adults.Forever at the forefront of change, at the age of 18 years, William became the youngest Youth Leader and Trade Union Shop Steward in Great Britain. In 1971, He founded Anger Management in Great Britain and freely gave his courses to the world. Within the next two years, Anger Management courses had mushroomed across the English-speaking world. During the mid-70's, he introduced Relaxation Training into H.M. Prisons and between 1970 and 1995, he worked in West Yorkshire as a Probation Officer specialising in Relaxation Training, Anger Management, Stress Management and Assertive Training Group Work.He retired early on the grounds of ill health in 1995 to further his writing career, which witnessed him working with the Minister of Youth and Culture in Jamaica to establish a trans-Atlantic pen-pal project between 32 primary schools in Falmouth, Jamaica and 32 primary schools in Yorkshire.William was awarded the MBE in the New Year's Honours List of 1995 for his services to West Yorkshire. He has never sought to materially profit from the publication of his books and writings and has allowed all profit from their sales (approx £200,000) to be given to charity. Since 2013, he was diagnosed with CLL; a terminal condition for which he is currently receiving treatment.In 2014, William had his very first 'strictly for adult' reader's novel puiblished called‘Rebecca’s Revenge'. This book was first written over twenty years ago and spans the period between the 1950s and the New Millennium. He initially refrained from having it published because of his ‘children’s author credentials and charity work’. He felt that it would have conflicted too adversely with the image which had taken a decade or more to establish with his audience and young person readership. Now, however as he approaches the final years of his life and cares less about his public image, besides no longer writing for children (only short stories for adults since 2010), he feels the time to be appropriate to publish this ‘strictly for adults only’ novel alongside the remainder of his work.In December 2016 he was diagnosed with skin cancer on his face and two weeks later he was diagnosed with High-grade Lymphoma (Richter’s Transformation from CLL). He was successfully treated during the first half of 2017 and is presently enjoying good health albeit with no effective immune system.

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      Book preview

      The Kilkenny Cat Book 3 - William Forde

      The Kilkenny Cat

      Book Three: 'Freedom'

      by

      William Forde

      © William Forde. July 21st, 2005

      First Edition 300 copies print run

      Published by William Forde (July 21st, 2005) Mirfield, West Yorkshire, England.

      © William Forde, July 21st, 2005

      Cover Illustration by Joel Stephen Breeze.

      All text, characters, reproduction, manufacturing, exploitation and artwork copyright reserved by William Forde.

      Revised publication, November, 2011

      Copyright November, 2011 by William Forde

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      Thank you for downloading this ebook. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      #####

      The Kilkenny Cat

      Book Three: 'Freedom'

      By William Forde

      (Dedicated to my sisters Mary, Eileen and Susan, and my brothers Patrick, Peter and Michael Forde).

      Author's Foreword

      The Kilkenny Cat has been written as a trilogy. Book One deals with the theme of 'truth', Book Two with 'justice', and Book Three on the theme of 'freedom'.

      All three books seek to show that truth, justice or freedom cannot exist in isolation, and that the only way one can experience any of them is when one is able to experience all three.

      Book One is set in the country of Ireland, the land of my birth, Book Two in Jamaica and Ireland, both countries I know well, with Book Three being predominantly set in Northern England, the place where I have lived for most of my life.

      The trilogy is designed to show that every country on the face of the Earth exercises discrimination against some of its citizens. The nature of discrimination may subtly change and vary from one country and situation to another in both shape and form, but it will always be present in some degree for those of us who care to look.

      Particular forms of discrimination looked at in this trilogy include the issues of colour, race, religion, age, culture, sexism, disability, homophobia, gypsies, asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants.

      These issues are looked at through the eyes of travelling cats, whose experiences mirror those of human society. Overarching all the themes of this trilogy is the issue of 'Good' versus 'Evil', where the terms 'God' and 'Satan' are used to denote opposing values, qualities and lifestyles.

      The speech of the cat characters who come from Jamaica is distinguished from the speech used by non-Jamaican cats by changing the word 'you' to 'ya' and its linguistic associates, and no attempt has been made to replicate the patois more commonly used by many Jamaican citizens.

      Book Three is set in the English North and has as its backdrop, the riots that embraced this area from the 1990s onwards. Recent riots all around the country merely reflect how deeply rooted the 'gang culture' of Great Britain has since become.

      My heartfelt appreciation is given to the artist Joel Stephen Breeze for the cover of all three books. I also extend my thanks to 'cat expert' Silvia Williamson for the invaluable information she gave me at the research stage of this trilogy.

      My eternal gratitude, however, is reserved for my deceased parents, Paddy and Mary Forde, all of the Forde and Fanning family, and the Brennan family of Kilkenny, Ireland, all of whom provided the inspiration for this book's setting.

      By better understanding how we became who we are, we can more easily understand the nature of the person we have become.

      William Forde

      #####

      Chapter One

      'The English North'

      Imagine a world of wickedness, a place of thick darkness in which it seems pointless to look ahead, where dreams possess no purpose to hold and hope of brighter days to come cease to exist. Imagine!

      Imagine a land where the sun no longer shines and the wind of tolerance refuses to blow, a place where birds no longer sing because they've nothing to sing about. Imagine!

      Imagine a country in which its laws are ignored, where life is cheap and death can be purchased by a wayward glance in its streets of anarchy: a place where all fresh food tastes sour, a land ruled by the forces of evil spirits who devour the flesh and blood of goodly creatures. Imagine!

      Imagine the forfeiture of all freedom, the imprisonment of life itself: being too blind to see, too deaf to hear, too emotionally distant to touch, too poor to provide, too powerless to act, and too different in colour, character, culture or nature to belong. Imagine!

      Imagine the confusion of the innocent young, fighting for identity, sanity and understanding in the war zones of cultural conflict, economic blight and employment abandonment. Imagine having to see the hate in the eyes of your brother, simply because the cause they choose to fight makes an enemy of your beliefs. Imagine!

      Imagine having found first love in the partner of your dreams, only to abandon her in the flush of pending motherhood. Imagine feeling anger, but unable to express it. Imagine the silent screams of the spent arrow, the hurtful word, which cannot be taken back and the wrongful act which cannot be undone. Imagine!

      Imagine all this and you will gain an inkling how Eowa felt to be trapped in his land, country, home and nature during the Northern England riots of the 21st Century. Imagine!

      One hundred years earlier, Oldham and its surrounding areas were at the heart of England's industrial north. Its towns were filled with white textile workers and their families. The rows of identical terrace houses that filled its cobbled streets accommodated poorly paid workers who toiled fourteen hours of their day for dignity and livelihood. They spun, twisted and wove the finest of the world's cloth, dispatching to the four corners of the globe the type of clothes they could never afford to buy for themselves or their families. And although they often went short of this and that, there was never a shortage of good manners and neighbourliness. They were a community steeped in national pride, who taught their young of the right to dream.

      It was rare to see a black face, unless one happened to visit the country's seaports and docks. Being relatively untraveled and uneducated by 21st Century standards, most English people believed what their betters told them. To them, England was the richest and most powerful country on the face of the Earth. Its army, navy and defences were unconquerable, and its monarch was the crowned ruler to half the world. The English flag had never flown so proud and so extensively and, the English people, be they commoner or Lord, effectively believed themselves to be the kings of their castles. The black person was believed to be inferior to that of the white, and anyone who was born outside English shores was seen as a foreigner, a second-rate person invariably viewed with suspicious eyes.

      And so it was in the life of all English creatures, be they cat or human. Everyone grew up on English soil knowing 'their place' and accepting the order of things. English culture was the marrow of English backbone; class coursed through English blood, and nationalism filled the core of every English heart.

      Whereas the 19th Century had seen one hundred years of unparalleled wealth, power and glory, the following century witnessed a time of change and fluctuating fortunes, uncertainty and decline. Two world wars in the first half of the 20th Century severely tested the might and courage of the English citizen, and left this once great country with a questionable sense of its own greatness. The English soldier had fought valiantly but had, on a number of occasions, looked defeat in the face. A realization was beginning to emerge that, without the protection of its island waters, the assistance of its European allies and the late intervention of the Americans, the Second World War would have been undoubtedly lost.

      The 1950's, 60's and 70's blew in the winds of change, and the country that was once more commonly known as 'England' began to be called 'Great Britain'. Towards the end of the century, the term 'Great' was rarely used in its title, and a more European partnership of customs and ways was being strongly fostered by the Government of the day.

      The second half of the 20th Century witnessed colonies of the British Empire rise up against their white masters and press for their independence and self-rule. As the conscience of the British people was stirred into acknowledging the past wrongs of its colonial ways, the British rulers assuaged their collective guilt by attempting to wipe the slate clean.

      England had dropped its pretence of being any more than one more player in the game of world domination. Its border controls became more relaxed and large numbers of immigrants were invited to its shores.

      By the 1980's, however, a new form of repression in the shape of 'political correctness' was being forced upon the English citizen by a ruling class of politician, whose eagerness to redress the balance resulted in their noble aims being pursued by questionable motives and unpopular methods with the masses.

      Bit by bit, the very identity of 'Englishness' was being systematically eroded. Even the English flag was rarely flown above half-mast. Being English had radically begun to have new meaning. The concept of 'class' was abolished, and yet still existed. An English person could think what they wanted, but had now been legally deprived of the freedom of voicing their thoughts outside their own company. In many areas, the practice of 'positive discrimination' seemed to provide more benefits and rights for the immigrant than the English native had ever enjoyed. A feeling of unfairness rapidly spread.

      Whenever a wrong is perceived to have occurred, wrongful actions by those most aggrieved invariably follow!

      Towards the end of the 20th Century, English natives started to rebel against this perceived cultural invasion of their land and government suppression of their ways; none more than in the northern counties of England where riots broke out with seeming effortlessness. The English cats felt no different than the English humans in the gravity of this perceived wrong. Their fear revealed the thin veneer of their civilization that covered this cultural sore.

      The English North was more vociferous than the sedate southern counties in voicing its opposition to these changes now being forced on them and, like their ancestors (the textile Luddites), they became determined to retain their own traditional customs and ways.

      Between the years 2,000 and 2,008, riots broke out frequently in the industrial north, and Bradford, Oldham and Burnley became ungovernable. Open warfare erupted between the English native and the immigrant and, before long, extremist gangs from both sides began to exploit the ever-widening divide which separated black from white, Christian from Muslim and east from west.

      By 2008, Bradford, Burnley and Oldham had become the epicentre of all discontent and cultural intolerance: 'no go' areas where only the most violent of cats was prepared to walk the streets after dark or cross alone into another gang's territory.

      Eowa, his mother Molly mewed anxiously, gather this kindling together quickly and let's get out of here before it gets dark and the street gangs start to prowl.

      Yes, Mum, Eowa replied.

      He collected the loose pieces of wood they'd gathered, quickly bundled them together, and then tied them with a cord that was attached to his neck so that the wood could be more easily taken back to the family squat.

      Eowa knew that it would get too dark in about half an hour to travel back home without danger. He wanted to get off immediately as he didn't relish the prospect of them getting ambushed on their way back by one of the non-white gangs.

      Since his two older brothers had been killed by The Terrible Turks two years ago, Eowa was his parents' only remaining offspring. He therefore felt an additional responsibility to stay with them in this troubled place, given that his mother (who'd lived here all her life), had no intentions of moving to more settled climates. When it came to making a decision, Molly was always one of the quickest to make up her mind, and the last to change it!

      Eowa's father, CGAT, would willingly have moved to a safer part of the country after the killing of his two oldest sons, but all efforts to persuade his partner to do so had proved futile. It was like trying to push jelly up a hill.

      There's no way that any gang of foreigners is going to push me off my turf, CGAT. I was born in this street and although I now live closer to the bottom of it, I'll not move out of it! All my family's buried here. This street has been home ground for six generations. It's my castle and I won't be driven out or persuaded by you to move on!

      If that's your last word on the matter, Molly, then so be it, CGAT calmly replied. But if you stay, so do I.

      Me too, Mum, Eowa mewed.

      This show of family unity had done little to reassure the anxieties of Molly, who quite frankly knew that the continued presence of her partner and son was representative of no extra protection at all. In many ways, where her survival was the issue, they were more hindrance than help on the mean streets of Oldham. And yet, it hadn't always been thus. Molly could still remember her days of courtship with CGAT and, in particular, the risks he would take and the lengths he would go to defend her honour.

      He had always been a gentle and considerate cat, even pacifist by inclination, but if ever he was pushed beyond the level of reasonable toleration by any other tom, he would always defend his ground.

      But over the years of their union, CGAT had changed, and she held little love and admiration for the tom he now was. Indeed, some of those peaceful qualities, which had once endeared Molly to him, were now viewed by her as being a curse upon their union.

      CGAT's nature changed after he'd first come into contact with Merlin the Wizard. Having done a good deed for the wizard (as CGAT would willingly have done for any cat in need of help), Merlin decided to reward CGAT with a generous gift, never before given to any earthly cat.

      Merlin had been so impressed by CGAT's gentle nature and his search for the non-confrontational response to any situation that he faced in life, that he presented CGAT with the gift of peace itself.

      Take this, Merlin had told CGAT, handing the English White a phial that contained a colourless potion. Take this and swallow its contents.

      What is it, Merlin? CGAT had asked curiously.

      It is my most recent discovery, the wizard replied. It is an extra chromosome which contains the Gene of Peace. Once it has entered your bloodstream, its immediate effect shall automatically remove all hostile and aggressive responses from your behaviour pattern. You shall no longer need to search for the peaceful response, as it will always be inside you.

      What's more the wizard told CGAT, this is not just a gift for the present day. The Gene of Peace shall be passed down from yourself to every offspring you father.

      Upon receipt of Merlin's gift, CGAT couldn't have been happier. No longer would the expression of opposing emotions need to wrestle with each other. He would no longer need to exercise control over anger and his aggressive drives, whenever occasionally, the situation he was in stirred his annoyance. Control of anger would no longer be required, as he would simply be incapable of expressing such emotions.

      The time eventually followed, soon after, when Molly and CGAT had three kittens to their union. Both parents loved the three male kittens to bits, and their obvious happiness appeared to herald a lifetime of blissful partnership for the loving duo.

      But no sooner than the three kittens were one month old and had been placed in the company of other kittens, it then became clear to Molly that their peaceful natures, alongside their inability ever to express aggression or hostility, was hampering their development instead of advancing it.

      Initially, the signs were barely noticeable, as their pronounced gentleness and non-aggressive responses made them appear more loveable to their parents and non- threatening to their playmates.

      Gradually, however, as the mother watched over her growing young, Molly began to notice that her three sons were constantly being pushed out and taken advantage of by the more boisterous and aggressive kitten. And then the bullying started.

      The other kittens soon realised that whatever they said or did to the sons of Molly and CGAT, not one of the three brothers would retaliate with force. Nothing incites the emergence of aggressive traits in the more boisterous than the purr of a pacifist!

      Move it! one of the street's kittens had growled at Steady, the oldest of Molly and CGAT's three sons.

      The rough playmate of Steady had pushed the quiet cat out of line as he'd waited his turn in the queue of other cats at the water pump.

      Go on, scram, Buster!

      Okay, mewed Steady calmly as he allowed himself to be pushed out of place and towards the back of the queue. There's no need to be aggressive. If you wanted my place, all you had to do was ask and I would gladly have given you it.

      Ask! mewed the other cat. Ask you? That's a laugh. If you want to get on in this life, 'Mama's boy', you've got to learn to take!

      Whenever Molly saw any of her sons being bullied, her maternal instincts would lead her to intervene on their behalf. CGAT, on the other hand, couldn't view it the same way as his sons' mother.

      They'll have to find their own way out of their situations, dear, he would frequently tell Molly, without resorting to scratching. You can't expect them to walk the path of peace unless you allow them every opportunity of first finding it. Fighting solves nothing. If the only tool you possess is a hammer, then all you'll see are nails.

      Whenever Molly heard such pacifist remarks from her partner, instead of persuading her to his argument, she'd find herself emotionally exploding in exasperation.

      You…you're a hopeless lump of lard, she'd mew angrily. Throw you in the frying pan and you'd melt before you'd scream out! Can't you see that if nobody teaches them how to fight back and stand their ground, they'll never have any to defend – and if you won't do it, then I will!

      It's not a question of 'won't' dear, CGAT replied, I 'can't'. It's just not in me. You know I can't go against my nature, and neither can they. Having the Peace Gene doesn't come without a price. It obligates the holder to find the road of non-conflict.

      Molly blew her lid when CGAT provided her with this explanation. Ever since the Wizard Merlin had given him the Peace Gene, his entire thoughts, feelings and actions has become totally non-confrontational in all circumstances and conditions.

      Molly eventually concluded that her partner's inability to see only one side of the argument was making him wholly unreasonable. She also discovered that living with a saint was insufferable. She would frequently berate him for the unnaturalness of his constant calm. What's the point of having this so-called Gene of Peace if it doesn't bring us any? she would mew.

      Whenever he came under such reproach from his partner, CGAT would simply endure Molly's abuse and emotional blows, and would stay silent.

      When their three sons were one year old, the two oldest were on their way back home one evening when they suddenly found themselves under attack by a gang known as The Terrible Turks.

      Steady and his brother Ride it Out had strayed onto the turf of The Terrible Turks, and before they realised it, they'd found themselves cornered by Attilla and thirteen of his gang.

      Attilla (who'd always prided himself on being the best street fighter between Burnley and Bradford) decided to show off to his gang members. Waving a blade beneath Steady's chin, Attilla offered the two white hostages a choice.

      This is your lucky day, Whites, he mewed, you can either die like warriors or the cowards that most of your breed are!

      Ride it Out had replied, And what choice is that you offer me and my brother?

      Either fight me to the death or have your throats cut where you stand, Attilla had replied.

      We've no intention of trying to harm you, Steady mewed nervously. We've no desire to fight you either.

      Then suffer the death of the snivelling cowards you are, Attilla said sneeringly.

      He then approached Steady and Ride it Out and, without a second thought, he cut their throats with a single swish of the blade to their jugulars.

      Molly and CGAT found the discarded corpses of their two sons the very next morning. Their deaths caused a rift between the parents, a rift that would never be reconciled for the duration of their partnership.

      This sad event had occurred two years earlier, time in which the loss of their two oldest sons had seemingly aggravated Molly's wounds instead of healing them.

      In March, 2008, the snow fell heavy on the cobbled streets of Oldham. CGAT had been making his way back home for the night when three drugged-up white cats approached him. The three druggies had previously mugged two queens and an elderly tom earlier that day, but not wanting to return to their squat without another fix, the three decided to mug the next cat to cross their path and rob their victim of any belongings they carried. Spying CGAT, the three muggers pinned him up against the wall and the oldest mugger snarled, Give us your weed or we'll snuff you out!

      CGAT swallowed hard and replied, I don't have any weed to give you. I never touch the stuff, it's harmful.

      Well then, snarled the oldest, if you've no weed, hand over anything else you've got – anything we can trade!

      I've nothing to give you except friendship and understanding, CGAT replied to the three white muggers.

      He'd intended to try and talk his way out of the corner he was in, but before CGAT could say another word he was instantly kicked to the ground. The muggers kicked him about the head and body mercilessly and then ran off, leaving CGAT unconscious, lying there in a pool of blood.

      He eventually regained consciousness and stumbled back home holding his ribs. His chest felt like it had caved in and he began spitting blood. Upon seeing the state that the muggers had left her partner in, Molly realised that CGAT had at least three of his ribs broken. She bandaged him up tightly and left him in bed for the next two weeks so that he might recover.

      With her partner laid up in bed, Molly assumed his duties, including those of looking for firewood in squats farther up the road. These squats were in the process of being demolished. When Eowa and his mother eventually returned to their squat, they found the bandaged CGAT still in bed where they'd left him before going for firewood.

      We're back, Dad, Eowa mewed as he re-entered the squat and unloaded the bundle of kindling.

      Molly didn't speak to CGAT. She was still angry with him, having come home, yet again, battered and bruised.

      As Eowa made up a fire to keep the trio warm, he kept looking across at the stillness of his mother 's face nearby. He was conscious of the angry silence, which had recently crept into his parents' relationship. And while his father hadn't changed from being the cat he'd always known, his mother had. It was as though she'd given up all prospects of the two of them ever being happy again that she'd thrown in the towel. She'd effectively stopped trying to change the tom she'd once loved, and had now stopped loving him at all.

      Over the years, since Eowa's two brothers had been killed, Molly seemed to have given up on all enjoyment of life. Now she only went through the motions of doing whatever needed to be done. She had stopped arguing with CGAT. She had stopped trying to persuade him to her ways and she had almost stopped talking to him at all, unless it was unavoidable!

      While Eowa could well appreciate his mother 's position, his very own natural desire for peace at all cost inevitably led to a greater identification with his father 's values and philosophy. As time to settle down for the night approached, Eowa could hear his mother cry in the corner where she now slept. Most nights of the week, Eowa would witness her crying, as she'd now done for two years. She cried for her two sons, Steady and Ride it Out. She cried for her inability to provide them with the necessary survival skills, which may have saved their lives. She cried for their crucifixion on the Cross of Peace. She cried for her lost love, and the growing realization that it would stay lost between herself and CGAT.

      Oh CGAT, Molly mewed mournfully, how could you have let it happen? How could you bury our sons without wishing revenge upon their killers? If… if only you'd given them the skills of survival instead of that worthless Gene of Peace, then they'd still be alive. They'd be here today. How could you? How could you?

      Across the other corner of the room where Eowa's father slept, the heavily bandaged CGAT also began to cry . As Eowa looked across towards his father's sick bed, he could see the tears running down his father's cheeks. CGAT tried to stifle all sound of his tears and cry in silence. He knew that he couldn't possibly provide his partner with a reply that she would find comforting. He had grown accustomed to hearing these accusations from her lips too many times in the past. He'd been down this road of recriminations too many times, and he'd no desire to get himself trapped down this emotional cul-de-sac ever again.

      As the three whites slept, the March wind blew across the English North with the ferocity of a wild beast on the prowl. It was too cold to snow. Every now and then, the howling wind would beat against the boarded-up windows of the derelict houses in the street where they lived, raising dustbin lids sky-bound and blowing them around like flying saucers.

      Ten years earlier, these rows of terraced houses on the east side of Oldham had been the homes of human families, but as crime in the area rapidly increased, all surrounding properties began to collapse in value. Homeowners started to leave – to sell up and get out to safer areas. The rot continued and, eventually, the homeowners couldn't give their properties away. So they boarded them up and left in droves to live elsewhere.

      Once the humans had abandoned the east of town, the stray cats moved in. Initially all breed of cat managed to live side-by-side, but as more cats moved into the east side and space became a premium, tempers began to flare. Whenever the conditions of one's environment start to decline, the search for scapegoats begin. It is an accepted axiom of all 21st Century creatures, that whenever anything goes wrong, 'someone' should be held responsible – 'someone' is to blame!

      And as the sight of foreign faces and eastern accents became more common on Oldham streets, the English White didn't need to look far to find their preferred scapegoat. The Oldham cat took their lead from the humans who'd lived there before them. Bradford, Oldham and Burnley became seen by the asylum seeker and economic black migrant as the Mecca of the North. These were the places that they headed for as soon as they placed their feet on English soil.

      However, creatures looking from opposite sides of the fence very rarely see the same view. Thus, the black newcomer saw the English North as 'the place to be', whereas the English native began to see their homeland becoming 'the dumping ground' for foreigners and migrants.

      Around the year 2000, the blacks and whites in Oldham lived in an uneasy multicultural mix of neighbourhoods, but as the fighting between natives and settlers started to increase, spontaneous riots

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