Coco & Coffee: The incredible true story

by Richard Gray

A softly spoken voice floats out of the false moon, bathing her in its blinding light and soothing inflections. ‘Press your body to the ground,’ it says. Coffee has not heard the voice in seven years but she knows to trust it implicitly. Frozen in the lights of a 4x4 vehicle as it devours the distance between them, she retreats deep into the amniotic memory where the voice dwells. It is 1985 again and she is a kitten, barely five days old and blinking into the bright light as her eyes open for the first time. Two of her brothers are tumbling toward her, locked in a ferocious mock fight. Her mother gently repeats her instruction and on a swept night in 1992 her body obeys just as the 4x4 runs her over. Coco is the best hider, the best fighter and the fastest runner. His siblings are beginning to resent him and soon he finds himself being excluded from their games. With nobody to play-fight he takes his frustration out on the timid Coffee. It is an unfair match but he doesn’t care, she is one of them. His teeth draw blood and howls of pain. ‘Don’t sit next to bully boy,’ his siblings begin to chant, whenever he enters the room. Vilified and humiliated he retreats into himself.The first months of life pass happily for Coffee until a human couple want her to live with them. Fearful of being separated from everything she knows and loves, she calls out to the only one wilful enough to help her, the one who attacked her, the one she secretly admires. Coffee’s fear is Coco’s salvation as he responds to her plea and soon they are both being taken away to begin a new life together. Free of his resentful brothers, Coco embraces life once more and discovers that his sister is far more than just a wall flower. Written for adults and told through the eyes of feline protagonists COCO and COFFEE, this is a novel for anyone who ever held an affection for animals and imagined for a moment what it would be like to experience the world through their eyes. An initial sibling rivalry gives way to a protective bond of love as fate entwines both their destinies but when Coco’s darkest thoughts lead him increasingly into an isolated and tortured inner world, only Coffee’s calming influence can temper his growing delusions. When she goes missing years later he must confront his deepest fear and take extraordinary action to bring her home. Their tale unravels over the course of three nights as one struggles for redemption while the other struggles for life itself.

188 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2015