It was four o'clock in the morning and Patience couldn't sleep.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

What a terrible noise! The loud music went on and on and on. Her neighbour in the flat opposite was having an all-night party.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

Patience had gone to bed at ten o'clock because she had to get up at six. Today was really important. She had to show her boss her designs for the new beauty cream adverts.

Patience got out of bed and went across the room to the window of her third-floor flat. She looked out and saw her neighbour and his friends. They were dancing and laughing and having lots of fun... and making lots of noise.

'I don't want to be difficult, but I need to sleep,' she thought as she opened the window.

'Hello?' she called. 'Excuse me? Could you please...?' But she didn't finish her question because no one could hear her.

Just then she heard a miaow. She looked down. There, sitting on the seat of her neighbour's motorbike, was the largest cat that Patience had ever seen. It was grey and black, with huge golden eyes. The cat was watching her.

'Hi, cat!' Patience called. 'Some people are having a good time, aren't they?'

'But I'm having a very bad time,' she thought. She shut the window and went back to bed.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

The music continued and Patience still couldn't sleep. Finally she got up and began to paint. Patience loved painting. She worked as a designer but she really wanted to be an artist. She used lots of colours on the paper: reds, blues, yellows, purples... She started to feel better.

Suddenly the music stopped. The party was over.

'At last!' Patience thought.

Then she heard an unhappy miaow from outside the window. She opened the window and looked up. The cat with the huge golden eyes was on a window-sill above the window next door. It miaowed again. It looked frightened.

'Hello again, cat,' said Patience. 'Can't you get down?'

'Poor thing!' she thought. 'It's too scared to move.'

'Come on, kitty, kitty, kitty. You can do it!' she said. The cat miaowed again and stayed where it was.

'Oh OK, cat,' Patience said. 'I'll come and get you. Wait a minute. One, two, three...'

She climbed out of her window onto her window-sill. She looked down and suddenly felt very frightened. It was a long way down to the street below. She counted to three again and moved closer to the cat.

'Come on, kitty,' she said. But the cat didn't move.

There was a metal box on the wall near the cat. Patience put one foot on the box and then the other. It seemed safe. She reached for the cat.

'Don't do it!' called a voice from the street below.

'Don't jump!'

Patience looked down and saw a tall, slim man with dark hair. The driver's door of his car was open behind him.

'It's going to be OK,' the man continued. 'I'm a policeman. Maybe I can help you.'

'Oh no! He thinks I'm trying to jump out of the window!' thought Patience. She tried not to laugh - a laugh was dangerous up here. She reached for the cat again but it had disappeared. Suddenly the metal box began to come loose. It started to fall away from the wall and Patience almost fell. 'Help!' she shouted.

'What's your flat number?' shouted the man.

Patience held onto the window-sill. 'Twenty-three!' she called.

The man ran into the building and up the stairs. The metal box moved again. 'Oh no!' thought Patience. 'I'm going to fall. Hurry, hurry!'

A moment later the man crashed through the door into her flat. The metal box fell to the ground and Patience started to fall. Suddenly the man was at the open window. He caught her and pulled her back into the room. 'I've got you, I've got you,' he shouted. He fell onto the floor next to Patience.

'Oh thank you,' she said. She looked into his dark eyes and handsome face. 'What am I doing?' she thought suddenly. She stood up quickly.

'Are you OK?' the man asked as he stood up.

'Fine,' Patience said. Her face was going red. 'Never better. And you?'

'Is that all that you can say, Patience?' she thought to herself. 'This man's just saved your life!'

At that moment the cat with the golden eyes came through the window and jumped onto the floor.

'I went out there to rescue that cat,' Patience told the man.

He was amazed. 'You went out there to rescue your cat? What a mad thing to do!'

'No,' Patience said. 'I mean yes, but it's not my cat.'

The man laughed. 'So you went out there to rescue someone else's cat?'

'Well you came out to rescue me!' said Patience. She smiled at him, and he smiled back. He had nice white teeth. He really was very handsome. Patience quickly looked at her watch.

'Oh no! Is that the time?' she cried. 'I'm going to be late. I've got to go.'

She ran to the table and picked up all her designs. She had worked really hard on them for the past four weeks. She couldn't be late for the meeting with her boss.

'I've got an important meeting today,' she explained as they left the flat.

'Good luck,' he said. 'I hope it goes well.'

'Thank you,' she said. She wanted to say more but instead she just stood there.

'Go,' he ordered.

Patience smiled. She turned to go, but she dropped her handbag. She picked it up quickly and left.

The policeman watched Patience as she went. Then he looked down and saw her purse lying on the ground.

He picked it up and smiled.

'Today is getting very interesting,' he thought.

Patience worked for Hedare Beauty, one of the biggest beauty product companies in the United States.

She hurried into the office building. There were large photos everywhere of Laurel Hedare, the beautiful blonde wife of the head of the company, George Hedare.

Patience crashed into someone. 'Sorry!' she said. Then she crashed into someone else.

'Oh no,' she thought. 'Things are not going well today.'

George Hedare was a very important man. He had built Hedare Beauty from a very small company into a huge world corporation. He was having a meeting with the other directors of the company.

On a screen behind him were two large photos of the same woman. In one photo, the woman looked ugly and old. In the other photo, she looked very beautiful and twenty years younger.

George Hedare pointed at the photos.

'Women want to look beautiful,' he said. 'They want to look younger. That's good news for us because they will pay us lots of money for our beauty products!'

He laughed. Everyone in the room laughed with him... except his wife.

'In one week,' he continued, 'we will give them a new product: Beau-line. It's the most exciting beauty product since soap. It doesn't just hide the lines on a woman's face - it really makes her skin young again!'

Everyone clapped.

'And we're going to have a new face for our new product, aren't we, Laurel?' Hedare looked at his wife.

Laurel stood up. 'Yes,' she said. 'My husband... and I... have decided that after fifteen years it's time for a new face for Hedare. A younger face.'

She sat down. The photo on the screen changed to a beautiful young woman with long, dark hair, dark skin and beautiful eyes.

'This is Drina!' said Hedare. 'The future of Hedare Beauty.'

Patience stood in front of Hedare's door with her designs.

'I'm so nervous,' she said to her friend, Sally. 'These are my first really important adverts and I want everything to be perfect.'

'Don't be nervous,' said Sally. 'You're such a good artist and your designs are wonderful. Good luck.'

'I'm going to need it,' thought Patience as she walked into Hedare's office.

Hedare was sitting at his desk. Laurel was standing by the window.

'Hi, Mr Hedare,' said Patience as she put her designs on his desk.

'Sit down,' said Hedare.

Patience sat down. Hedare looked quickly at her work.

'I don't like these designs at all,' he said. 'I told you clearly what I wanted. Why haven't you done them that way? Look at this red, for example. It's completely wrong. I wanted something darker.'

'But you said...' Patience began, and then stopped. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to say anything.

'I know what I said!' shouted Hedare. 'Your clothes are terrible and your hair is terrible. It's no surprise that your designs are terrible too.'

'I'm sorry, Mr Hedare,' said Patience. 'Please give me another chance.'

Laurel turned around. 'Give her more time, George. You know she's a good designer.'

'OK,' said Hedare. 'By midnight, tonight.'

Patience got up. She gave Laurel a quick smile as she walked to the door.

'That's the second time that someone has rescued me today!' she thought.

While Patience was working on the designs, Sally was standing behind her. She was putting cream on her face.

'This Beau-line cream is brilliant, Patience,' she said.

Patience looked round. 'You're using a lot of that cream, Sally,' she said. 'You can't buy it yet. How did you get it?'

Sally didn't answer. She offered the cream to Patience.

'No, thanks,' Patience said.

'Well, you don't really need it,' said Sally. 'Ow!'

'What's the matter?' asked Patience.

'I've got another headache. It's OK. It'll go away.'

'There's a man to see you, Patience,' said Lance, another Hedare designer.

Sally looked into the hall. 'Wow!' she said. 'He's really good-looking.'

When Patience looked up, she got a surprise. It was the handsome policeman.

'Hello,' he said.

'Hi,' said Patience. 'Sally, this is...' She stopped. She realised that she didn't know the man's name. 'This is the detective that I told you about this morning.'

'Tom Lone,' said the man.

'Nice to meet you,' said Sally. 'Well, I must go. See you soon.' And she left Patience alone with Tom.

'How did you know where to find me?' Patience asked him.

'You dropped your purse,' he said, giving it to her.

'Oh! I didn't know. Thank you so much,' she said.

'I like your work,' he said. He pointed to her drawing book, which was open on her table.

'Thank you,' she said. Her face was hot.

'Would you like to have a coffee with me tomorrow?' he asked. 'There's an Italian cafe around the corner. Grecio's. On Sixth Street. Is one o'clock OK?'

Patience tried to speak but she couldn't move her mouth. 'Urn... yes. I'd like that,' she said finally.

'Great,' said Tom. 'See you tomorrow then.'

As he walked away, Sally arrived.

'Wow!' said Sally. 'Lucky you! But what are you going to wear for your date? I know! Why don't you wear those leather clothes that Lance and I gave you for your birthday?'

Patience imagined herself in the tight leather trousers and jacket. 'No way!' she thought. 'That's not my style at all.'

Patience worked hard on her designs all day. By the time she had finished, it was half past eleven at night and everyone else in the office had gone home. There was no one to take her designs to George Hedare at the factory. Patience decided to take them to him herself.

She didn't have much time, so she took a taxi to the Hedare Beauty factory. She tried a door but it was locked. She looked at her watch. 'Oh no! It's almost too late,' she thought.

She shouted as loudly as she could, 'Hello? Is anyone there?' But there was no reply.

Then she saw some lights at the back of the factory. She walked towards them and found another door. Luckily it was open. Patience went in.

She could hear people talking in a room not far away. She walked towards the room.

'I don't care if women get terrible headaches when they use Beau-line,' Dr Slavicky was saying. 'I can live with that. And I don't care if women can't stop using Beau-line. That will make me very rich! But I don't want to destroy women's faces. I won't do it.'

Patience looked into the room and saw a video screen. On the screen there was a woman's face. It was an old face, with lots of lines. Then, slowly, the face began to change. It became younger and younger. The lines disappeared. But the face continued to change. It became hard like a stone. The skin began to crack.

Patience turned and ran. She crashed into a table.

'Who's there?' shouted Slavicky.

Patience ran as fast as she could. A door opened and two men came out. Their names were Armando and Wesley. Their job was to protect George Hedare, and they went everywhere with him.

Patience hid behind a big machine.

'Come out,' Wesley called. 'It's OK. We only want to ask you a few questions.'

'Oh good. That's OK then,' thought Patience. She came out from behind the machine. 'I'm sorry. I think I'm in the wrong...'

Bang!

A bullet from Wesley's gun hit the machine beside her.

Patience dropped her designs and ran. Bullets flew past her as she ran through the factory. She came to a pool of dark water. There were lots of metal bridges over it, but there was no way out to another part of the factory. Patience looked up. Above her were several huge pipes. Maybe she could find a way out up there.

She climbed inside one of the pipes and began to move down it on her hands and knees. Then, suddenly, she reached the end. It felt like the edge of the world. Far below her was a fast river. And between her and the river were 200 metres of nothing.

Suddenly she heard a terrible noise. A huge wall of water was coming up behind her. Armando and Wesley had opened the pipes! The water crashed over her, throwing her down, down, down into the river below.

Everything went black.

Patience's phone was ringing. She woke up. Then she sat up and fell off the cupboard!

'What's happening? Why was I on top of the cupboard?' she thought. Her arms and legs were black and blue and her dirty clothes were all over the floor.

Patience's machine answered the phone. It was Sally. 'Where are you, Patience?' she said. 'Hedare is very angry - and Tom called. He said you didn't meet him at the cafe. I'm worried about you. Please call me.'

'I'm not late for work already, am I?' she thought. 'What time is it?' She looked at her clock. 1.50 p.m. It was the afternoon already and she'd only just woken up! How was that possible?

She heard a miaow. The cat with golden eyes was sitting there. It was watching her.

'It's you again,' said Patience. 'I think there's something very strange about you.' She read the address on the cat's neck.

'I'm going to take you home, cat. Now.'

A fifty-year-old woman opened the door.

'Are you Ophelia Powers?' Patience asked. 'I rescued your cat and now it won't leave me alone.'

The woman looked at Patience. 'I think you should come in,' she said.

Patience went into the living room. There were cats everywhere. Ophelia brought her a cup of tea.

'Midnight,' said Ophelia.

'I'm sorry? What?'

'Her name's Midnight. She's an Egyptian Mau. There aren't many cats like her. She can do special things.'

'You mean that she suddenly appears and frightens people?' asked Patience.

'Things like that,' said Ophelia. 'You seem worried about something. Do you want to talk about it?'

'I'm sorry. I can't. I've got to get to work. I'm really late.'

'Then I think you should come back,' Ophelia said. 'Come when you want to. I'm always here.'

'What's wrong with you?' shouted Hedare. Patience was sitting at her desk.

'I needed those designs at midnight. But they didn't arrive. And now you can't even remember where they are. You can't remember?! I've never... Are you even listening to me, Philips?'

'No. You're a lot more interested in all this than I am,' replied Patience. She was drawing in her book. Hedare quickly took the page from her. It was a funny picture of him: fire and smoke were coming out of his head. Hedare threw the paper on the floor and walked away angrily.

Patience was frightened. 'What have I done?' she thought. 'That wasn't me. That was a different person.'

'Mr Hedare, wait!' she called. 'I'm sorry.'

Hedare turned around. His eyes were cold. '"Sorry"? Is that all? "Sorry" isn't enough.'

Patience suddenly became the other person again. 'Let me explain it better,' she said. 'I'm sorry for every minute of my life that I've worked for you. You're a terrible boss. You only think about yourself and your money.'

Hedare spoke coldly. 'Take your things and go,' he said. 'Leave this company immediately.'

Patience became herself again. 'What just happened?' she asked herself.

'Wait, Mr Hedare!' she shouted. But Hedare didn't stop.

Sally came up and put her arm around Patience. 'Well done!' she said. 'That was so cool!'