They were yelling again. He knew that they would, he knew when they told him to go upstairs before his usual time, he knew that they would because they were very quiet when he was there. They had waited until they thought he was asleep, but he was awake. The door was closed, but he heard them. He couldn't make out every word, he tried not to listen, but he heard the anger in their voices, he felt the tension rising up to his bed.

He turned on his nightlight, but the brightness made it worse, so he turned it off again. He pulled the duvet over his face, to try to keep the voices out, but it didn't work. He still heard them, he heard them all the way through the duvet, and nothing he could think of could shut them out.

"I can't believe you did this!"

"Well you gave me no choice!"

Suddenly he heard a sound by the door. He listened carefully, for what felt like a long time, and just when he thought that he had imagined the sound, he heard it again. Now he knew, and began to gather courage. He got out of bed, quickly walked to the door, and opened it. He felt something brush past his leg, and he closed the door again, careful not to make a sound. Then he hurried back to bed.

He lay down, covered himself with the duvet, and tapped on the mattress with his hand. The cat jumped on the bed with a little thud, precisely where the boy had tapped. Using the opening that the boy created under the duvet, the cat crawled under the covers.

The cat lay down on the boy's chest. He placed his arms gently around his cat, whose soft fur felt silky against his skin. The cat started to purr, to purr with such conviction that the vibrations seemed to come from within the boy's own chest.

For a moment, the voices no longer reached him.