The Cat Who Came in Off the Roof Read Online Free PDF Page B

white mouse if she got a chance.
    He hurried back into the living room with a crooked plaster on his nose and was surprised to discover that Minou and Bibi had become great friends in the meantime. The mouse box was still safe on his desk.
    â€œCan I see the attic?” Bibi asked. “The whole attic?”
    â€œSure,” Tibble said. “Look around. I’ve actually got two ca—I mean… I have a cat too. As well as a secretary. Um… he’s called Fluff, but he’s out on the roof. Miss Minou, would you show Bibi the rest of the attic? Then I’ll get to work.”
    Sitting at his desk, he heard the two of them whispering in the junk room behind the partition. He was very glad that Minou had found a friend and when Bibi finally left he said, “Drop in again, if you like.”
    â€œThat’d be fun,” Bibi said.
    â€œDon’t forget your tin. I put something in it.”
    â€œOh, yeah,” Bibi said.
    â€œAnd don’t forget your drawing either.”
    â€œOh, yeah.”
    â€œAnd don’t forget your box with the, um…
you-know-what
in it.” He was too scared to say the word “mouse” in front of his secretary.
    â€œOh, yeah.”
    â€œAnd I hope you win first prize!” Tibble called after her.
    Â 
    Downstairs, in the house the attic belonged to, lived Mrs Van Dam.
    Fortunately Tibble had his own front door and his own staircase, so he didn’t have to go through her house to come in or go out.
    That afternoon, Mrs Van Dam said to her husband: “Put that newspaper down for a second. I need to talk to you.”
    â€œWhat about?” her husband asked.
    â€œAbout that upstairs neighbour of ours.”
    â€œOh, you mean that young fellow? Tibble? What about him?”
    â€œI don’t think he’s alone up there.”
    â€œWhat do you mean ‘he’s not alone’?”
    â€œI think he has a woman living with him.”
    â€œOh,” said Mr Van Dam, “that must be nice for him.” And he picked his newspaper up again.
    â€œYes, but I think it’s a very
strange
young woman,” his wife said again.
    â€œEither way, it’s none of our business,” he said.
    It was quiet for a moment. Then she said, “She spends all her time up on the roof.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œThe woman upstairs. At night time she goes out on the roof.”
    â€œHow do you know?” Mr Van Dam asked. “Do you go up on the roof at night to have a look?”
    â€œNo, but the lady across the road looks out of her attic window sometimes and she always sees her sitting there. With cats on both sides of her.”
    â€œYou know I don’t like gossip,” Mr Van Dam said irritably. He carried on reading while his wife went to the front door, because someone had rung the doorbell.
    It was Bibi with her collecting tin.
    â€œWould you like to make a donation for Mr Smith’s present?” she asked.
    â€œI’d love to,” said Mrs Van Dam. “Come in and sit down for a moment.”
    Bibi sat on a chair with her legs dangling and the tin on her knee, the drawing under one arm and the mouse box next to her.
    â€œTell us, have you been upstairs yet? To the attic flat?” Mrs Van Dam asked casually.
    â€œYes,” Bibi said. “To Mr Tibble and Miss Minou’s.”
    â€œMiss Minou?” Mrs Van Dam asked sweetly, putting a coin in the tin. “Who’s that?”
    â€œHis secretary.”
    â€œGoodness.”
    â€œShe sleeps in a box,” said Bibi.
    Now Mr Van Dam looked up over his reading glasses. “In a box?”
    â€œYes, in a big cardboard box. She just fits. Curled up. And she always goes out through the window, onto the roof. And she talks to cats.”
    â€œOh,” said Mr Van Dam.
    â€œShe can talk to all the cats,” Bibi explained, “because she used to be one herself.”
    â€œWho says so?”
    â€œShe