A Friend Called Alfie

After a restful cat nap, I woke up feeling uplifted for a change. It was girls’ night, or rather ladies’ night at our house and my favourite human women would all be under one roof. It was lovely being a friend to so many people, but when they were all together, my heart would swell with happiness. Since coming to Edgar Road, I had been incredibly busy, making friends, bringing people together and solving problems, so George was right, I did have a vocation, and so, therefore, I understood how important it was to him. I determined that I would help him with his quest. I might not have taken him as seriously as I should have done … But for now, I was going to hang out with my favourite bunch of women; Claire, Franceska, Polly and Sylvie.

I said goodnight to George, who although now old enough to stay up with us, wanted to go and be with Toby.

‘That’s fine, son, but you know where I am if you want me,’ I said.

‘Of course. But I need an early night, I’m exhausted,’ he said, stretching his paws and yawning.

‘Pickles kept you busy earlier, didn’t he?’ I had been quite pleased when George said he’d hang out with Pickles for a bit, so I could go out and see my friends. We still had to be careful because if we both went out, he followed us.

‘Yeah it was fun, I was trying to teach him how to meow.’

‘And how did that go?’

‘Not great, whenever he tried it still came out as a woof, but it was quite funny.’

‘Sweet dreams, son.’ I gave him a quick nuzzle and then headed downstairs, chuckling to myself. Poor Pickles didn’t stand a chance.

Jonathan had gone to Matt’s to ‘get out of the way’, as he put it, but I was pleased; he’d been working so much lately he hadn’t had time for any of us, including his friends. He and Matt were best friends, so it would do them good to spend a bit of time together. Again, thanks to yours truly. They did invite Marcus, but he was with his dad at the hospital, and he’d taken Connie with him to cheer Harold up. The children were tucked into bed, but I knew that Toby and George were not asleep but playing on Toby’s tablet under the covers. I think Claire knew as well but was also turning a blind eye. We parents sometimes did that, we would choose our battles. Besides, it wasn’t a school night, and therefore we could all have a lie-in the following day. Paws crossed.

‘Dig in,’ Claire said, as they sat at the kitchen table, all with glasses of wine and food laid out.

‘It looks great, Claire, I am so hungry right now. Sometimes I think that working in a restaurant puts me off food,’ Franceska said.

‘Frankie, you work in the office,’ Polly pointed out. They laughed.

‘Yes, but I am around the food all day still,’ Franceska argued. ‘It’s a good diet in a way.’

‘Maybe I should come and work with you,’ Sylvie said. ‘I’ve put on a bit of weight lately.’

‘Not that anyone can tell.’ Polly rolled her eyes.

‘It’s because you’re happy,’ Claire pointed out. ‘You are, aren’t you?’ Claire worried about Sylvie, I knew because she had had such a hard time, and meeting Marcus had been great for her, but with Harold at the hospital, it wasn’t as peaceful as it had been, although they seemed to be coping well.

‘I am. I wish they would sort out Harold though. Marcus is incredibly worried, naturally, and he’s running himself ragged being at the hospital all the time. But you know, he’s going to be there for longer than we hoped. Which isn’t great for any of us.’

‘It must be hard, well I know it’s hard because fitting everything in including visiting Harold in hospital isn’t easy,’ Polly said.

‘And you guys have been great, knowing that you’re all visiting him takes some of the pressure off Marcus, but you know what he’s like.’

‘A lovely man,’ Franceska said. She was a big fan of Marcus, in fact, we all were.

‘It’s funny because I still think of it as the early days in our relationship. We see each other a lot, but we haven’t discussed the future yet, but you know I feel as if he’s been there forever in some ways. And he’s so different from my ex—’

‘Don’t go there,’ Polly warned wagging a finger at Sylvie. They laughed.

‘No, but you know he, my ex, really wants Connie to go to Japan for Christmas, and I know I won’t be alone, but it would be the first Christmas I wasn’t with my daughter since she was born.’ She shuddered. ‘And I’ve told them both, him and Connie that is, that it’s her choice. The problem is I know she’s conflicted.’

‘She would be, do you think she wants to go?’ Claire asked. I thought it would be sad to not have Connie here for Christmas, but I also knew that Connie missed her dad.

‘I don’t know. She’s so loyal after the turmoil of last year she doesn’t want to say, I’ve tried to tell her that I don’t mind and that I’d be fine here with Marcus and all of you, but I don’t know. She’s not happy with her father, especially now he has a new family, but I also don’t want her to cut him off. He is her dad, after all.’

‘Do you want me to talk to Aleksy about it?’ Franceska asked. ‘I never ask him to betray her confidence, but I could say that we’re worried she doesn’t know what to do so maybe he could make sure she is OK?’

‘That’s a great idea, as long as you don’t say it’s come from me,’ Sylvie said. ‘Thanks, Frankie, I don’t need to know what she says, but it would be great to know that she can confide in Aleksy.’

I would have suggested the same – I had taught my humans well.

‘Gosh, can you believe we’re talking about Christmas already?’ Claire said. I couldn’t believe it. It was late October, so actually, it wasn’t that far away. It would be our second Christmas without Tiger who we lost in December last year. I felt emotion well up, I missed her. I would have given anything to see her one last time. Just as I was about to wallow, I felt a drop of something wet on my head. I jumped up and then onto Franceska’s lap.

‘Sorry, Alfie, I got carried away, and spilt my wine,’ Polly said, looking guilty. Franceska wiped my fur and then stroked me as I settled down on her lap, purring.

‘So what do you think, we should do a big Christmas again, like last year?’ Polly asked.

‘Not exactly like last year,’ Claire laughed.

‘Oh can we not talk about it yet, I have so much work to do because I like to take time off in December, but if I don’t get it done then you’ll have to do my shopping, Claire,’ Polly laughed. It was a family joke that Claire loved shopping, a bit too much. Jonathan moaned about it all the time.

‘You know I’d love that,’ Claire replied. ‘But you know, I’ll have to do everything this year, because Jonathan’s been tasked with heading up a department which has lost staff due to incompetence, so he needs to turn it around. He is also hiring staff, so when he finds the right people, in theory, it will take the pressure off him a bit.’ Her eyes darkened slightly.

‘Bear with it, Claire,’ Franceska said. ‘When we started out with the restaurants, remember how mad I got about never seeing Tomasz or him seeing the kids? But we sorted it out.’

‘You went back to Poland and threatened not to come back,’ Polly pointed out.

‘Yes, I did, but that was because Tomasz didn’t realise how much he was neglecting his family, which was different. Jon knows he’s working too much and he’s already trying to sort it out.’

I crossed my paws that he was.

‘I know, and I’ve said that I will support him,’ Claire said. ‘But if it carries on into the new year then maybe I’ll go to Poland.’ They laughed again.

Their easy chatter was music to my ears. Life might not be perfect, never perfect, but still better than it could have been. And that was enough for this cat. For now.