Q1: What does the author notice one Sunday afternoon? What is his mother’s reaction? What does she do?
Ans:
One Sunday afternoon, the author noticed a strange smell. Then he saw smoke pouring in through the seams of the ceiling and filling the room very quickly. They could barely see anything. By the time they ran out into the front yard, the roof was already engulfed in flames and was spreading very quickly.
His mother ran back into the house. She had brought out a small metal box full of important documents. She wanted to bring out important things from the house one by one. She was in a ‘crazed state’.
After the fire, he broke down into tears because it suddenly struck him that he was suffering a big loss. He
realized that his cat could not be seen anywhere. Then, everything hit
him at once − the new school, the fire, and his cat. That was when he broke down and cried.
The author is deeply embarrassed the next day in school because when the fire broke out, he was still wearing the dress he had worn to church that morning but he had no shoes as he had lost them in the fire. So he had to borrow some tennis shoes from his aunt. He was totally embarrassed by everything.
The clothes he was wearing looked weird, he had no books or homework, and his backpack was gone. Words used in the lesson that shows his fear and insecurity are “…outcast and geek…”, “…like a zombie.”, “…wanted to curl up and die.” , “Everything felt surreal”, “All the security…had all been ripped away”.
The author had great affection for his cat. He cried inconsolably when he couldn’t find his cat after the fire. He would regularly go to the site of his house in the hope of finding the cat. He remembered how the cat would crawl into his pocket and fall asleep and missed her terribly.
The cat was so freaked by the fire and ran a mile away from the house. One woman found her and took her in. She located the author’s number on the cat’s collar.
However,
she couldn’t reach them as the phone had been disconnected because of
the fire. The woman then made personal efforts to find the author and
returned back the cat.
The schoolmates showed genuine concern for the author in spite of not knowing him well. They helped him by collecting supplies, books and clothes for him. People whom he had never spoken to before started coming to him and befriending him. They also called him to their houses.
After the fire, the author was so depressed and dejected with all that had happened in his life; he just wanted to curl up and die. He had also given up all hope of ever finding his cat. However, the kindness and generosity of all the people around him, especially at school and the kind woman who returned his cat made him realise that things would be okay.
He now had a new outlook on life. His cat was back and he too was ready to go on with his life. This is what he meant when he said "My cat was back and so was I". The author had not gone anywhere but felt gratitude for his life for his new friends, their genuine outpouring of concern and the kindness of a stranger who had brought back his beloved cat.
When he looked at his house being rebuilt, he felt that the same thing was happening with his life. He had made new friends and his cat was back. All this had brought him back to life.
