Cats on the Wall

IT was 9 'o'clock at night. My husband was getting into bed. We lived in a twobedroom portion in the back of our ancestral home. The rest of the building was let out to assorted tenants. In fact it was a huge anachronistic structure in a fast developing locality .
Not ready for sleep, I went to the window and looked at the dark holes in the moonlit grounds of courtyard. In the old days our ancestors cooked food in the open for their many guests. For that purpose pits were dug that worked as sunken furnaces. Traces of those pits still exist.

I checked my baby daughter to confirm that she was asleep. Then I heard a wailing sound akin to that of a child.

Taken aback, I walked into my daughter's bedroom to inspect. She was OK.

The sound came from outside. I opened the main door and peered out.

On the high wall that separated our place from our neighbors' I saw five cats squatting, their eyes glowing. I let my eyes rove for any kitten being bullied that might be the cause of that sound. I found none. Now from the inside I heard my husband calling me.
Back by his side I waited till he slipped into his snoring routine. Again, I heard the cry I could not suppress my curiosity and tiptoed to the main door, quietly exiting into the land close by the wall.

The cats were still there. In fact their numbers increased to about a dozen.
I was undaunted by the army of cats because I was so used to them day in and day out. My neighbors raised about two dozen cats. Now, the cats clung to the high wall, their faces apparently lost in private thought as though attending a funeral service. I marched across the entire stretch, looking for the source of that wailing. No luck. Defeated, I rejoined my husband, now awake. He chided me, adding that it was not for me to worry about a supposedly injured kitten or an unlucky kitten deserted for its own good.
Soon it was 11. I was unable to close my eyes. I wondered where that injured kitten was and why I couldn't trace it. Resolutely I slipped out and went up to our first floor landing. From there I could surely take a look over the cats' heads on the high wall.
It was quiet in our neighbors' land in the moonlight. The cry continued intermittently