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"The sooner you stop squirming the sooner you can be off to school little miss kitty. And don't take the short cut past the steel works. And get 'miss' to check that mask before you come back!"

Mummy always fusses about the soot and smoke. I had a bad cough when I was littler than I am now. I was off school for weeks and I had to go and stay in the country. It wasn't like home though. There weren't chimneys and factories or many folk at all. Just trees and grass.

The walk to school isn't far. I have my new blouse on and my favourite tartan skirt. Mommy says it goes with my ginger fur and green eyes. I do as she says and turn left before the steel works. The smoke is the biggest there and it's the noisiest. Daddy is in there somewhere. He's casting an anchor today with the wolf team. I hope he keeps all his fur. Last week some fur got burn't off his legs. He says the sparks like to dance and play and sometimes they play too rough.

I walk past the iron mongers shop. It has all the shiny metal things a mummy could ever need. Outside is a tin bath like ours. Except our one is old and it leaks. Mummy says it saves having to tip it up to drain it. She says, "Be careful of the sharp bits," because it is rusty at the top.

I have to stop here and listen through the fog for cars. I can hear one nearby. It's a big one driven by a tiger sitting up front. He has a smart dark blue uniform and leather goggles with brass fittings. As it goes past I can see all the cogs turning underneath. In the back bit with the windows sit two foxes laughing together. They must be rich people because they are dressed in white. Even the snow turns to black in a few hours. White is for rich people.

The curb on the other side is high. I can get up it okay now my cough is better. I see some work cats in flat caps building a wall. They say hello and I say hello back. The wall is clean and bright new. The wall to my school is old and black. The bricks are cracked and teacher says, "Don't climb on the wall or you'll be buying a new one." I don't know what bricks cost but it is probably a lot.

Inside the gate I meet Jenny. She's my best friend and she's a dog. She has always had a bad paw and we are the shortest in our class. We play hopscotch for a bit and then the bell rings. We go inside and hang up our coats and I hang up my mask. I only wear it outside and that's good because it's itchy.

Miss gives us our chalk boards and we get in our seats. My chalk is gone, but Jenny has a piece so she gives it to me. We start with the two times table. Two times ten is easy because you just put a zero after the two, but two times seven is hard. Jenny's older sister knows her seven times table. She is really clever!

Jenny's sister doesn't look so good today. She has a bruise on her face where her fur is thin. Her daddy wants her to go to work and her mummy wants her to go to school. Jenny says everyone shouts about it and she hides under her bed. She says she hides there all the time until it's quiet. She jumps as Miss shouts at some cubs at the back who are talking. Jenny doesn't like loud noises.

Mummy and daddy got shouty one day. Mummy was back early from work and she was sad and crying. Daddy was very angry and said that he would "sort them out!" But mummy begged him not too, because she had got too close to the big gears and it was her fault. Her arm was sore and her sleeve was missing. She wore a bandage and did easy work for a week and we had more stew than normal.

"Victoria Kitty. Are you here to learn or to daydream?"

I think for a moment about what Miss Oxford has asked me. I think daydreaming might be nice but I answer; "I'm here to learn miss". Jenny grins at me for being naughty and we copy down some sums. How does three plus four make seven? I can't see it at all.

Before I can see how they add up the bell rings for morning play. Now that the fog is gone we put on our coats and rush outside into the sunshine. Billy gets told off for standing on the wall and Jenny gets her ear pulled by Jimmy, but he soon runs off when he sees my claws extended. Miss is telling Billy off so she doesn't see what jimmy did. Jimmy is hiding on the other side of the playground behind the climbing frame.

We run around for the rest of play time trying to kiss Jimmy. He's fast and we can't catch him even if we come from different places. The bell rings again so we line up to go back inside. I'm right at the back because my name starts with a 'V' and Yvonne moved away last summer.

Back inside we learn about history. We learn about the time before the machines when everything was done by paw or hoof. It sounds horrible with everyone out in the fields poking seeds into the ground with a stick. I'm glad we have steam to do the work and keep us warm in the snow.

I draw a picture of a pony pulling a plough while a goat steers it. I work hard but it still looks like two dead bagpipes joined by a branch. Jenny giggles at my work because she drew a field or carrots and that was easy with chalk. Miss looks at it and all the others before we clean them off our slates and do ABC. A is for apple, B is for ball and C is for cat, like me.

School only lasts until dinnertime. In the afternoon the school is the big school and in the morning it is the little school for small folk like me. When the final bell goes we all rush out like a herd of elephants and get told to sit back down and leave in an "orderly fashion". I put my coat on myself now, but the mask is tricky. Miss Oxford makes sure the mask is on right so I am safe to go home.

Mummy didn't say to take the long way around on the way home. I can see all the cars and wagons now in the sunshine and I might see daddy. I get to the place where I must choose and I go toward the steel works. Steam and smoke is everywhere. Through the doorways I can see red hot metal being forced through rollers. Through another door a huge mechanical hammer smashes a red hot lump as two large bears wrestle it into shape. One of them shouts to someone I can't see. I'd like to watch, but I would get told off again.

I get half way along the street before someone stops me. "Hello daddy," I say muffled through my mask. He kneels down to my level and puts his arms on my shoulders. He laughs and then coughs a bit.

"I thought mum said to go the long way?"

She did say that, but I don't want to make daddy angry. I think of an excuse but daddy knows me and he gets in first.

"It's not safe for you here. The smells and the steam could hurt you. I don't want you ill again. You get off home and I'll see you tonight," he says with a wink. He's the best dad in the world!

I carry on home, but walk slowly. If I go quickly mummy will know I went the short way. Mummy is in the wash house when I get home. I hang up my mask because the air is nicer at home. Mummy says to go and find some bread and jam. She has a lot of washing to do. There is more stuff than we have because mummy washes other folks clothes. At night she works a shift at a gearbox factory. She looks so tired.

I'm good with the knife now. Daddy taught me how to cut bread slowly and carefully to make nice slices. I use a spoon to spread on some jam and eat it by the fire. Tonights stew is already simmering and the flames dance in the grate. Fire is good because it makes the steam so mummy and daddy can work. But I have to be careful of it because fire can eat your house. Once it ate a whole row of houses opposite. Everyone was throwing buckets of water, but the fire didn't stop until it ate all of them. Then aunty Jane and uncle Fred stayed with us while they built new ones.

I'm still thinking about this as mummy comes back in. "All finished? Time for bed then," she says. I have a dinner nap now because I was sick. There is a little bed in the kitchen and she pops me in there. She kisses me on the head and puts a blanket over me. "Sweet dreams my precious kitten, I'll come and wake you up in a bit."

I won't go to sleep, but I do and mummy wakes me up with a glass of warm milk. I drink it down and smile at her. She's the best mummy ever, with lovely soft grey fur and the brightest green eyes like mine. She's grabs me for a big squeeze, but I want to play, so I escape her hug and run around the back to Jenny's house three down. Jenny is sat on the wall.

Jenny has some chalk so we go back to mine and mark out hopscotch. We play that for ages and then mummy has a go. Mrs smith comes past to collect her washing and she has a go too. Mummy and Mrs Smith laugh a lot and say they are too old for that much jumping, but they don't look like it.

We sing silly songs for a bit, but we stop when we hear a siren. That's daddy home time, so Jenny goes home and I wait on the stairs for my daddy. He opens the door clanging his lunch box on the door jam. Mummy purrs when she sees him and then tuts at the burn marks on his shirt.

"I can still run fast," he grins. "There was an air pocket in the casting and the metal decided it wanted to come back out. It was like a fire work, but we start all over again tomorrow."

I play with my toys around daddy's feet while he reads the newspaper. He reads bits of it to mummy who stops to listen and nods. It's all full of grown up stories about far away places that I can't say properly. He says there is talk of a union, which is like a club for poor folk. That sounds nice.

I'm driving my train under his chair when he picks me up, swings me around and pops me in my chair. "Come on princess tiger, it's time for tea." He is really strong!

We have stew and bread and it tastes great. Mummy asks how school went and asks if I managed the walk okay. Daddy looks at mummy, but he doesn't say anything. I had better go the long way or he might say something next time. I say that is was good and I had drawn a plough, but it wasn't a very good drawing. Mummy says she would have liked to have seen it.

Mummy tidies up the plates before she goes to work and daddy takes me to the loo in the back yard. It's dark now and the dark scares me. It's full of spiders! I'm soon finished and daddy takes me upstairs to bed. He helps me get in my night gown and tucks me in tight and tells me a story. It's about three bears. There's a daddy bear and a mummy bear and their cub. And the daddy bear tried to rob the bank that my daddy was in and now he has tell a judge what he saw there. It's a very exciting story. I yawn as I think how sad little bear will be because he is in my class.

Mummy wakes me up early and the sun is just coming up over the roof tops. I grumble because she gets water in my ears as she washes me.

"You could do it yourself," she says. She looks tired. I get dressed and mummy puts the breathing mask on me and does up the brass buckles. "Now remember, go the long way there and back." She shuts the door after me and I hear her climb the stairs to bed.

The End

Team Idris Jan 2016