When I woke up, I was lying on soft mats. A sliver of sunlight was trying in vain to stab away the darkness at the other end of the room. My eyes locked hungrily onto that ray of light, grateful to see something real again even if it was only a sun beam not much wider than a whisker.

The mysterious cat had said his name was Nekure, or Neko, as his friends called him. He was sitting by my side, gently grooming the top of my head the way cats do, and I was purring!

“I almost got you killed!” I rumbled, for what must have been the twentieth time.

He touched my muzzle with his paw. “Hush. Don’t think of it again,” which by then sounded like he really meant it.

Trying to stand up, my head started spinning.

“Oooh. I’ve got a few lumps.”

“Get your strength back before you do anything,” Neko advised. “We’ll rescue your friends from those cats, don’t worry.”

We’ll rescue them. I breathed, and lay back.

But I wasn’t ready to close my eyes and shut out that delicious little bit of sunlight . . . and besides, there was something I needed to know.

“Neko! You’ve got to tell me. How do you see in the dark?”

He laughed, “I eat lots of carrots. Yumm! I love carrots.”

“Yeah sure, like cats love bananas,” I teased.

He laughed, “I seem to know my way around”

“This place is huge, and it’s pitch dark,” I argued.

“Well, please don’t think I’m strange, when I first set my paws inside these strange halls, it was as if I had a guide. The French call it déjà visité, which means to know your way around somewhere you’ve never been before.”

I sat mystified, trying to take this in. “Aren’t you lonely here?”

“I miss the cats in town, of course. They said they liked me because I was different. A wild handsome boy they called me, and we had lots of fun. But I am feral and people frighten me. People are too unpredictable, so I live out here, far from everyone.”

That figures, I thought, saying to him, “We find ourselves on opposite sides of the mirror — I mean a looking glass the English girl, Alice, stepped through, where everything was backward. You’re afraid of people, but cats admire you because you’re different. That’s something I could only wish for.

“So what is it like on your side of the mirror?”

When he sniffed my ear, I wanted to pull away, but he made my fur tingle all the way to the tip of my tail. I simply had to see what this fascinating fellow looked like. But he may as well have been a sleek black cat, for all I could tell, because that little ray of sunlight was hardly enough to start a moth race.

Replying with a question, I impulsively asked, “Do you ever feel like you don’t belong here?” regretting the words the instant they were out. Some sensible little voice inside my head, the one I never seem to listen to, shouted, Ridley! Why on Earth would you ask a thing like that to a boy you just met! What are you thinking, you idiot?

Neko didn’t seem to understand what I meant — as if anyone would.

“Well, Ridley, I never belonged anywhere as a pet,” he began. “I tried being someone’s cat once and found I wasn’t cut out for that kind of work. You see, in town, I grew tired of living on the street, so while taking up residence in the house of a wealthy man, I killed a scorpion—”

“What?!! A SCORPION?”

Looking around wildly, I suddenly realized there might be a hundred of them right now that I couldn’t see, crawling all around me in the dark.

“They’re so dangerous! Weren’t you afraid?”

Neko laughed, “To cats around here, catching scorpions is a national pass time. The creature was creeping across the bed of the man’s little daughter as she slept. In my haste to defend her, I carelessly broke a statue. It was her father’s god, placed for her protection. Some people still honor them, as the ancients once did. When the man found it in pieces, he bellowed like an elephant, shouting that I had ruined his good luck, as if any cat has power over another’s fortune. He ordered his servants to chase me from the house.”

“Oh that’s so unfair, Neko.”

“No, it made me realize life as someone’s possession was not for me. I value freedom above all else. To me freedom is happiness. What is it you search for, Ridley?”

“Where I came from. Who I am — what I am.”

“Ah! That explains the reason for your question.” He laughed, “And here I am going on and on about my life as a town cat.”

Without stopping to think, I asked, “Have you ever wondered if you might have come from out there somewhere?” hoping he wouldn’t think me some wifty space-case. Like from out where, little fool? I kicked myself inwardly, glad for once it was dark, because my face was suddenly feeling hot under all that weird mixed-up fur of mine.

Neko touched my cheek gently with his paw. “You’re smart, Ridley. You’re not like other cats.”

Not like other cats. That’s for sure, I laughed to myself.

“It’s just a silly idea,” I stammered. “Forget it.”

“Not silly at all,” Neko assured me, “because there used to be a cat living here named Pawa who looked like me. We could have been twins. He taught me to read the wall writing.”

“You can read these hieroglyphics!” I was genuinely impressed, and more curious than ever to see this cat in the light.

“Mostly the ones that are pictures,” he explained modestly. “Sounding them out is harder for a cat, but Pawa was fluent. Did you ever wonder why the ancients had gods like Mafdet?”

“The goddess with the head of a cat? Egyptians must have known something special about cats.”

“Yes, Ridley. Things we’ve forgotten. Pawa told me when he was exploring in tunnels deep below us, he met a phantom cat who lit up the darkness around her.”

“You mean like a ghost?” I could feel the fur along my back bristling up.

Neko quickly said, “You have to understand, this was one crazy old cat who’d been living alone for way too long. He had a lot of wild stories.” Neko hesitated. “I’m only a wild Egyptian cat who doesn’t understand any of these things, I only know what Pawa told me.”

“What did your friend say, Neko? Please tell me,” I urged.

“The phantom said there are hot suns with other planets like ours. She told him empty space is a kind of fabric we can’t see, and it passes through everything. And she told him how cats from other worlds came to Earth.”

“Came to Earth? From where?”

“Pawa claimed the ghost cat told him about people flying in ships from another planet long ago, and they brought their own cats with them.” Neko let out a breath. “But this is too much to believe. You shouldn’t take any of it seriously.”

“No, wait Neko. I heard about that!” My heart was racing. “The blue cats said it was exactly 3447 years ago when cats from their world visited Egypt. The blue cats are archaeologists looking for some ancient cat named Raya. Maybe she’s the same cat your friend Pawa found.”

“It couldn’t be those cats, Ridley, because it gets even stranger. Pawa said it was a lot farther back when cats like us came here, almost a hundred thousand years earlier. And he said there were many other visitors even before that.”

When I gave a little exclamation of surprise, Neko stopped.

“See, I told you it was too incredible,” he said.

Placing my paw on his, I urged, “Please, I want to hear more.”

So Neko told me the rest of his incredible story.

“The phantom cat told Pawa that Space is like a pool of water. There are cats from other worlds who know how to make ripples down deep into the fabric of that pool. In her language they’re called the Serasay, or the ones who come and go, because they travel in an instant and emerge someplace else far away. She said this still goes on. I mean these cats don’t come with people, they jump in on their own accord and come out where they want, and they still do it, even now.

“Could there ever be such cats, Neko?”

“I don’t know. Pawa said he lost his way trying to find the glowing cat again. He almost died of thirst wandering in the dark and never went back, and now he’s gone. Anyway, it sounded like the rambling of a crazy old cat telling ghost stories to impress a newcomer to make him afraid of the dark. At least that part of it worked, but there’s nothing else to it Ridley. This is the only place I come and go, and you won’t find any pool to dive into. Were in the desert.”

That was true, and my friends needed help. I forced myself to stand,

“Neko, can you show me the way out, please? I’d like to see the sun once more before I work up enough courage to go back to look for them because, I’ve got to tell you I’m afraid of the dark, too.”

“Imagine, cats afraid of the dark.” But Neko didn’t laugh. He placed his paw over mine, assuring me, “You have more courage than ten cats to search alone in this place to help your friends. Follow me and I will show you the way.”

Neko helped me take a few steps, but I stopped him because he’d find out as soon as we went out in the sunshine.

“There’s something you should know about me, Neko.”

“A secret, my friend? Tell me and I will understand.”

“Don’t tease,” I pleaded. “When we get outside in the light you’ll see that I’m different. Some cats think I’m . . . I’m ugly. They chase me away. Maybe you will too, when you see how I look.”

I took a deep breath, wishing I’d never been born.

“How can you be certain how others see you?” Neko gently challenged. “I have made the acquaintance of some gnarly one-eyed cats who were supremely happy with themselves and had a ton of great friends.”

He was right, of course. So had I.

“They tell me how strange I look! That I don’t belong with them.”

He softly rubbed my neck with his muzzle. “It’s how you treat others that makes you truly beautiful, Ridley.”

“Everybody’s heard that one before — beauty is as beauty does.”

Neko gave me an encouraging push. “Follow me, my courageous friend. I will not chase you even if you have a face like a crocodile and teeth like a camel. Let us go up into the light together.”

This confident cat led us down stairways and through twisting hallways. Several times he paused to shepherd me around some obstacle that was impossible for any cat to see, even if you lived on nothing but carrots.

We reached a twisting stairway where a shower of fresh clean air poured down from the desert, more refreshing after that dark maze than any breeze I’ve ever felt. At the top, light through a cleft in the wall flooded the top landing. Neko bounded ahead, enjoying his role as guide. When he turned back to look at me, I heard him take a quick breath.

“Why, Ridley — you are so beautiful!”

I turned away, “Don’t tease, Neko.”

He ran to the top of the stairway and stood under the light.

“Look at me, Ridley!”

Blinking in the bright sunlight, I saw his face.

Standing in front of me was the very cat I’d seen in the hall mirror at the Matthews’ house. The cat everyone chased away, the cat who thought she was so ugly and strange, the cat who no one could ever love.

Running up to him, I saw that Neko was exactly the same cat as me, with the same round eyes, the two-toned face divided down the middle, the soft deep mahogany coat.

That lashing tail.

In the bright sunlight, I could also see a beautiful pattern woven into Neko’s fur. Spinning around, there was the same pattern in mine. Strange how my eyes had never opened to it before. Guess I had to see my own reflection in someone else’s eyes to believe in myself.

We were both identical cats. One was the handsomest cat in town, the other was the one they all chased away, yet we were both exactly the same cat.

Except, Neko didn’t have that one white whisker. His were all black.

I carefully touched his face, hoping he wouldn’t suddenly disappear in a puff of mist. For the first time in my life I saw myself as I truly was, and even though I’d never thought of myself that way, I had always been beautiful. We looked at each other for a long time, sharing each others’ thoughts without speaking.

“You know something, Ridley,” Neko whispered. “We didn’t just happen to find one another in the dark. It was our destiny. We were looking for each other.”