Toby Finch lived in a little town called Brooksville, whose most thrilling feature was Mrs. Higg’s cat getting stuck up in the same gnarled oak tree every single Thursday afternoon like clockwork. The fire brigade had long since stopped sending a full crew; now they just dispatched Jenkins, the youngest recruit, with a ladder and a resigned sigh. Mrs. Higg would stand below waving a tin of tuna and calling,
