Alfie in the Snow

by Rachel Wells

  ‘Yes, it might well have been, but Mrs White, the headmistress, didn’t find it funny, she’s angry and for some reason she blames us. Honestly, Claire, we’ll be made to bake cakes for every occasion as penance,’ Polly said.

  ‘You can’t bake,’ Matt pointed out. He was right, she couldn’t. She bought all the cakes, then put them in tins and took them to school, we all knew that.

  ‘Not the point,’ Claire replied. ‘Right, why did you do it, Tommy?’

  ‘Well, Toby was so upset about being Joseph and he and Henry weren’t really being like friends and I wanted to make them happy again, so I came up with the plan to get them together.’ Ah, he was a boy after my own heart. ‘And Aleksy was so sad about Connie and the fact her mum won’t let them spend time together, and I thought it would cheer him up. I roped them all in, honestly, and Alfie, well I didn’t want Alfie to miss seeing George as the baby Jesus.’

  ‘Of course you didn’t.’ Jonathan grinned and shook his head. ‘Look guys, Tommy meant well and no harm done. I mean, everyone thought it was funny. Apart from Mary but then she had just given birth to a cat.’

  ‘Jonathan,’ Claire snapped. ‘They have to apologise to Mrs White.’

  ‘We can do that,’ Tommy said. ‘I’m happy to write her a letter, not that she deserves it,’ he mumbled.

  ‘Toby?’

  ‘OK, I’ll say sorry. It was worth it, wasn’t it, Henry?’

  ‘Sure was, Tobe.’

  I agreed. It really was worth it.

  ‘What about me?’ Martha asked. ‘Do I have to say sorry?’

  ‘Well you should,’ Polly said. ‘You knew all about it so that makes you guilty too.’

  ‘OK.’ Martha shrugged in the good-natured way she always did.

  ‘But not me?’ Summer said.

  ‘Why not you?’ Jonathan asked.

  ‘I’m a star, I’m allowed to do what I want,’ she said.

  ‘No, you are not.’ Claire rolled her eyes. ‘You apologise too, young lady.’ Summer scrunched her nose up.

  ‘And guess what?’ Aleksy said. It was the first time he had spoken and his voice was animated as he looked at his phone.

  ‘What?’ Tomasz asked.

  ‘George is trending. The video is on the internet already and “cat as baby jesus” already has thousands of views. George, you’re famous,’ he said, punching the air with joy. ‘Tommy, the video you put on YouTube is being watched and shared. We might get rich!’

  ‘Good thinking, boys. We could make some money out of this.’ Jonathan rubbed his hands together.

  ‘Jonathan, don’t make this worse,’ Claire warned.

  ‘Oh come on guys, look how happy it’s made the internet.’ Matt grinned.

  George looked nonplussed as he licked his paws.

  Everyone was relaxed again. The kids were playing by the Christmas tree. The adults all had drinks and snacks and Claire had lit her hundred candles. To be honest, I didn’t expect this to last long – they took ages to light and to blow out so she didn’t bother too much. Her interest in ‘hygge’, whatever that was, was definitely waning. But it looked and felt Christmassy, as the tinsel glinted, the tree lights sparkled and the candle flames danced. I thought of Tiger, of course, and how much she would have loved to be around for Christmas, how much we would have loved having her around. That was the weird thing about grief, it appeared at the strangest times. I was happy, with my families, but then I thought of her and I was sad again. But happy, and sad. It was most confusing.

  ‘Oh no, George is on fire,’ Tomasz screamed.

  ‘Yowl,’ George said. He had caught his tail on one of the candles and it was now on fire. My poor boy. I ran around in circles looking for something to put the fire out with, as did the adults.

  Thankfully Aleksy and Tommy were quicker than all of us. Aleksy grabbed George, holding him away, and Tommy threw a glass of water over his tail, then grabbed one of Claire’s ‘hygge’ blankets – there were quite a few – and wrapped it around him.

  ‘Oh my goodness, is he alright?’ Claire asked, tearfully. I felt my heart pounding.

  ‘Meow,’ George said. I knew that meant he was in pain but he was alright.

  ‘I think so,’ Aleksy said.

  ‘Tommy, Aleksy, great job,’ Jonathan said. ‘But we need to get George to the vet, there’s a clinic I can take him to,’ he said.

  Not the vet, I thought, but this time I agreed with them.

  ‘I’ll drive, I haven’t been drinking,’ Tomasz said.

  ‘Oh, that was so scary,’ Polly said.

  ‘I think I’ll get rid of the candles,’ Claire finished.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  It was very exciting, Harold was coming home. Well, it was to everyone else, because I, quite frankly, was having a down day. There would be all these distractions that I was used to, being the kind of doorstep cat I was, but then I would remember how much I missed Tiger and my heart would collapse all over again. I tried to keep my tail upright but, sometimes, it just didn’t want to do it and all I felt capable of was curling up in my bed and yowling. George was my salvation in the darker days, him and my families of course, but mainly him.

  Since becoming the star of the school nativity play, and actually getting to spend time with Hana, he was doing pretty well. Of course the tail incident was still fresh in our minds, but apart from it being painful and singed, George was fine. The vet had given him an injection which took some of the pain away and my resilient boy had bounced back. Toby said all of the school now wanted to come to our house to meet George, and Summer suggested selling tickets – Jonathan was proud at this, Claire not so much so. And George took being famous in his stride but I could tell he quite liked it. He still talked to me about missing Tiger mum, and how hard he found it to walk past her house. I knew that one. Some days I would find myself in her back garden, staring at the closed cat flap as if she would slide through it, but of course she never would. Sometimes seeing her house, knowing she wasn’t there, floored me, so I understand how he felt. One day, I literally froze as I approached the house and couldn’t bring myself to walk past it. It was beyond hard.

  After the apology at school, the children had returned to normal for the last week of term. Well, as normal as they ever were at Christmas. Summer declared that she was going to be a famous actress when she was older and Toby said he wouldn’t want to be an actor, because there were too many girls involved, so he was going to do something like be a spaceman, where you didn’t have to hold anyone’s hands. Henry and Toby were firm friends again and Martha, with her customary laid-back manner, was just lovely Martha.

  So many people had viewed the video that George had even been mentioned in a newspaper, and now he felt that he was the most famous member of the family, which of course he was. But no one dared tell Summer that.

  Amidst all the chaos, Christmas was drawing closer and closer. More and more of the advent calendar doors were open, festive food was being bought, presents wrapped, cards displayed. The weather was also getting colder, frost greeted us most mornings and everyone talked of snow. Despite the ache that now sat with me daily for Tiger, I couldn’t help but enjoy everyone’s festive spirit. I knew they felt as if it was the most wonderful time of the year and I tried to bask in their happiness even if I wasn’t going to ever say this was my favourite Christmas.

  It couldn’t be, not without Tiger here. The thing was that, last year, when we went away to our holiday cottage in Devon for Christmas, I hadn’t seen her but I’d known she was there. And when we had returned home, we’d all been so excited to share our stories. She’d told me that she got extra turkey, some toys and a very fetching new red collar for Christmas. In return, I’d told her that we’d spent time with our friend Gilbert in Devon and, although the beach was freezing, we had braved it, and I’d managed to keep George out of the water this time. It was moments like these, sharing moments, that kept friendship and love alive, I believed, and so I was still sharing with her;
every evening I had a chat to her before going to sleep. It was just very one-sided.

  ‘I can’t wait to see my friend Harold again,’ George said, hopping with excitement, as we sat on the windowsill looking out at the quiet street. Marcus was collecting Harold this afternoon, and Polly and Franceska were at his house now, getting it ready for his welcome-home party. We were both invited and I just hoped Harold wouldn’t tell us to get lost or wave his stick at us now. Apparently he wouldn’t, he’d told Jonathan that we were both welcome in his house after all. George was so looking forward to it; he’d taken ages getting himself looking his best, as had I. I was one cat who always took care over his appearance – even when I was heart-broken, I had learnt not to let myself go.

  Claire returned with Toby and Summer and shortly afterwards the doorbell announced the arrival of Franceska, Tommy and Aleksy.

  ‘Meow?’ I asked as I greeted them. Where was Tomasz?

  ‘Tomasz is going to meet us at Harold’s later, he had to sort something out at work,’ Franceska explained as she petted me. But I think she was talking to Claire.

  ‘Come in for a bit, have a coffee. Boys, can I get you anything?’ Claire asked, as coats were shaken out and hung up.

  ‘No, we’re good, thanks,’ Tommy answered, shooting worried glances at Aleksy who was back to not talking. Franceska shook her head and followed Claire into the kitchen.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Franceska asked as Aleksy headed out to the back garden, carrying me for some unfathomable reason.

  ‘Alfie wants to go out, I thought I’d go with him,’ he replied, looking at his feet. I had no idea what sort of pawn I was now, but I didn’t want to go out, I wanted no such thing. I had just got myself all smart and the wind and the cold would probably ruin all my hard work. But I didn’t say anything. I knew, better than any cat, when one of my humans needed me and Aleksy clearly did. No one argued as he opened the back door and we went into the garden.

  It all became clear. Aleksy started walking around the garden, trying to find a vantage point where he could see into Connie’s house. I stood there, freezing and quite astounded, as he even tried to climb the fence. Was he mad? Yes, he was but then I remembered what young love could do to you.

  ‘Yowl!’ That wasn’t a good idea. I had done the same thing when I was trying to woo Snowball, of course, but it seemed humans were slightly happier for cats to get into their gardens than other humans.

  ‘It’s no good.’ Aleksy looked so downcast. I sighed. It was always down to me. I led him to the bottom of the small garden, where a table and chairs sat. They were covered for the winter but if he stood on a chair, he might see something. ‘Alfie, you’re a genius,’ he said, as he took one of the chairs over to the fence and climbed on it. ‘Bingo,’ he shouted as he saw Connie appear in one of the upstairs windows. He started waving wildly at her.

  I have to say, as I climbed on top of the fence to watch, her face seemed to beam as she waved back. He took his phone out of his pocket and pointed at it. I looked around. I saw how Claire and Franceska were pretending not to watch us from the kitchen as a number of annoying birds flew overhead. But I knew that for Aleksy and Connie they were the only two people in the world right now, I could see it on their faces. I saw Hana appear on the windowsill and I tried to wave my paw but I nearly lost my balance so I stopped. I could see she was raising her whiskers though. I couldn’t help but think how sweet this was, and also how unfair. I had to find a way to get these two kids together.

  Fourteen years old, responsible enough, hard workers, they weren’t the worst teenagers by a long shot. They should have been allowed to be together with adult supervision at the very least. I felt angry with Sylvie.

  Speak of the devil.

  ‘Yowl!’ I tried to warn Aleksy as Sylvie appeared in the window behind Connie, and not only did she see us, but she also saw that her daughter had a phone. I tried to get Aleksy’s attention by tapping him, but I wobbled and fell on him. The shock of seeing Sylvie, coupled with me landing on him, meant he lost his balance and fell off the chair.

  ‘Ahhh,’ he shouted as we landed on the grass. Luckily for me, I was on top of him. But his face was stricken as he scrambled up, dropping me into a patch of mud as he did so.

  ‘Meow,’ I complained. But he didn’t seem to hear me as he ran round to the front of the house. I got up, certainly not looking my best now, and ran after him.

  Connie was outside the front of her house, sobbing, when we got there. The rain had started in earnest, so we were all getting soaked.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

  ‘It’s not your fault,’ she replied. I ran around in a circle, what on earth could I do? Sylvie appeared, then Claire and Franceska came out of our house. I could hear Claire shouting at Tommy to look after the kids and we all stood around. No one seemed sure what to do next, as we shivered in the rain.

  ‘Your son gave my daughter a phone, although I forbade it,’ Sylvie shouted. A vein seemed to be throbbing on her head, and although her face was red with anger, it was also puffy as if she had been crying. She needed someone to support her, I knew that, and if she’d had such a person maybe she would have been handling this whole situation better. But there was no one for her: her ex-husband didn’t want to know and she had pushed everyone else away.

  ‘Aleksy, that wasn’t good,’ Franceska said carefully. ‘I promise you I didn’t know, but Sylvie, can’t we work things out? The kids want to spend time together, and they are both good kids.’

  ‘Good kids don’t lie and get phones when they’ve been forbidden.’

  ‘I agree, Sylvie, and I will punish Aleksy but they just want to see each other. Perhaps if they were chaperoned?’ Franceska suggested.

  ‘What is this, the 1920s?’ Claire said, unhelpfully. She blushed and shut up but I agreed with her.

  ‘No, that won’t work. I mean, who will do it? You work, I work, and well, just no. I told Connie she can date when she is sixteen,’ Sylvie replied.

  ‘But that’s two years away!’ Aleksy was horrified, and I noticed that he was still holding Connie’s hand. My heart went out to him. Love was hard enough without it being forbidden.

  ‘Can’t we figure this out somehow?’ Claire said. ‘Sylvie, look at them, the lengths they’ve gone to to try to be together. Aleksy doesn’t lie but he has done now, and that’s only because you won’t let him see Connie.’

  ‘Oh, you mean leaving dead mice, birds and flowers on my doorstep.’

  ‘Eh?’ they all said. I wasn’t sure how to own up to that, but then, as Sylvie continued, I decided not to.

  ‘It scared me, like someone was warning me off,’ she stormed. ‘Why would you do that?’

  ‘I didn’t do that.’ Aleksy scratched his head. ‘I would never do anything to upset you.’

  ‘Well, actually you have. The lengths you both have gone to are not acceptable, and I want this to stop now.’

  If only you knew the lengths they were going to go to, and still might, I thought. Perhaps Dustbin and I should have let them run away. I mean, I have kind of championed running-away plans in my time … Well, actually only one, which ended up with George getting catnapped. And also Snowball had run away once when her family were all having a terrible time – that had been nothing to do with me, but she nearly died. Luckily Dustbin rescued her on my behest. But no, it was far too dangerous. And it would probably just make Sylvie lock Connie up. Oh, why was this one so hard to crack? I wished I had Tiger to talk through my thoughts with, she had always been my sounding board. She was also often my voice of reason, not that I always listened to her. And I wondered what she would say about the ‘gifts’ plan. Though I had a feeling she’d just laugh about that.

  ‘Claire, Franceska, I have said it before, I think Connie is too young for a boyfriend, and it’s as simple as that. She lived a very sheltered life in Japan and quite frankly I am looking to move her to an all-girls’ school now. Her father thinks she should go back to Japan.’ S
he looked and sounded threatening.

  ‘But I love my new school, I’ve made friends, you can’t send me away.’ Connie burst into loud, angry tears.

  ‘I think we need to sort this situation out, somehow, please,’ Franceska pleaded, putting her arm around Aleksy. ‘The children are so unhappy, surely we can work something out.’

  I thought Sylvie might crack. Her daughter sobbing, my families being sensible, Aleksy so sad … But just as I thought she would, she shook her head.

  ‘No, not at the moment. And take your phone back. When I say my daughter shouldn’t have a phone, I don’t expect to be defied. You say they’re good kids but look, they went behind our backs. I can’t stop you seeing each other in school for now.’ She crossed her arms as if she would do soon. ‘But I’m seriously looking at alternatives, so that is that. And you.’ She pointed at Connie. ‘Are grounded until further notice.’

  ‘I’m never allowed out anyway,’ Connie shouted and ran back in the house, slamming the door. With a final glare at Aleksy, Sylvie followed.

  ‘Aleksy, that wasn’t good of you,’ Franceska said.

  ‘But—’

  ‘No, you never used to lie to us, but now look.’ Even Franceska was angry now.

  ‘Mum, please.’

  ‘No, Aleksy, I support you as much as I can, but not when you lie to me and to Sylvie. It makes her seem less mad and more right, and for now I have to agree with her.’

  It had put a bit of a dampener on the day, but George’s excitement infected me. He was really looking forward to seeing Harold again, and after all he’d been through lately I certainly wasn’t going to rain on his parade. Ha, the irony as the rain had ruined my neat looks and I had to dry myself off and then lick myself smooth again. Claire gave me a rub with a towel to help with the worst of it, then she went to change, and lent Franceska some clothes. Aleksy, covered in mud, had to get into a bath – thank goodness I didn’t have to – before Claire sponged the worst of his trousers and then dried his clothes off on the radiator. It was quite a mission and we were worried we would be late for Harold’s party with all that was going on.