Alfie Far From Home

Chapter 7

‘No we can’t do that,’ Emily was saying. What?

I was trying to listen in to the children in the playground.

‘Come on, it’ll be so cool,’ Nathan said. ‘It’s boring here. We’ll go to the woods, find the place where Stanley’s dad took us and see if we can spot any bears.’

‘There are no bears,’ Poppy said.

‘Well, come with us to find out for sure,’ Nathan challenged.

‘But we’ll get in so much trouble,’ Emily complained.

‘No one will know we’ve even gone, they’re so busy getting ready for the picnic,’ Nathan argued.

‘I know; as an adventurer I’ve got a very good idea. I’ll go and get some peanuts and we can leave a trail so we definitely absolutely won’t get lost,’ Stanley suggested.

‘Well, I’m not going and, Jack, you shouldn’t either,’ Emily said.

‘But, but …’ Jack looked at the older boys.

‘YOWL,’ I shouted. I was with Emily.

‘Oh, Alfie, it’ll be fine.’ Stanley patted my head and ran off.

After they left, Emily was alone. She was upset and so was I. Those children really shouldn’t have gone into the woods, and goodness knows what Mr Green would do when he found out. I had to act fast, so I went to find Viola.

As soon as I spotted her I yowled, and howled and yelped with all my might.

‘Goodness, Alfie, whatever is wrong?’

I headed for the playground; she followed me and found Emily crying.

‘What’s wrong, Em?’ she asked, putting her arm round her friend.

‘They’ve all gone to the woods – to the place where your dad took us the other day.’

‘What?’ Viola was concerned.

‘What are we going to do?’ Emily asked.

‘Hope they come back before anyone notices?’ Viola suggested.

Not really what I was thinking but, hey, I could go with that.

Emily and Viola looked worried as they wandered about the campsite. Every time they saw one of the adults they had to keep dodging questions about where the others were.

‘Lunchtime,’ Mrs Clover shouted finally. ‘Where’s Stanley?’

‘I think he’s having lunch with Nathan,’ Viola said quickly.

After lunch they still weren’t back. Viola and Emily were worried.

‘What do you think can have happened to them?’ said Emily.

‘I hope they haven’t got lost,’ said Viola.

I went to find Humphrey. He was sunbathing. ‘We have to go to the wood,’ I said.

‘What? Why?’ Humphrey listened as explained. ‘But how will we know where to find them? The wood’s massive.’

Ah, I hadn’t thought of that. But then I had a brainwave. ‘Emily – she went with Mr Clover, she might know.’

We ran off to find the girls, who were back in the playground. ‘Hurry up, we have to get going.’

‘We need to tell our parents,’ Viola was saying, as they stood by the swings.

‘They’ll be in so much trouble,’ Emily said. ‘But I don’t know what else to do.’

I made as much noise as I could, even making Humphrey jump, and as the girls looked at me I ran off in the direction of the wood.

‘No, Alfie,’ Viola shouted, but I ran as fast as I could, Humphrey beside me, and the girls had no choice but to follow.

Sometimes, I need to think out my plans more clearly. I was in the wood but had no idea which direction to go in. I then stopped and looked around; Humphrey was calmly sitting next to me. I ran round in circles, unable to get my bearings, before I tripped on a stick.

‘Yelp.’

‘Oh, Alfie.’ Viola scooped me up. Humphrey made a face and Emily looked worried. ‘What are we going to do?’

‘I guess, now we’re in the wood, we could find them,’ Emily said tentatively. ‘I remember the way we went. It’s not far.’

‘OK, we don’t really have a choice,’ Viola said, setting me down on the ground. We all set off.

‘I’m not sure this was your best idea,’ Humphrey said grumpily; the ground was very uncomfortable.

‘You didn’t have to come,’ I pointed out.

‘Who else will save you from trouble?’

I muttered under my breath, ‘What trouble?’

The uneven ground crackled underneath my paws, which made me uneasy. From up above came rustling sounds and strange-sounding bird noises. It was a little scary. I soon decided the woods weren’t my favourite ever place, as shadows loomed; it went from dark to light in an instant and I felt more and more nervous. I stumbled on yet another stone and tried to regain my balance.

‘YELP!’ I jumped as a furry thing with a bushy tail stood in front of me. I started trembling.

‘It’s just a squirrel, Alfie,’ Humphrey laughed, as he walked past it.

Before long we spotted them; they were clinging to a tree.

‘What are you doing?’ Viola shouted breathlessly, as we reached them.

‘Well, you see there was a bear,’ Jack started.

‘You saw a bear?’ Emily asked. I had a quick glance around. I hoped it wasn’t still here.

‘Not exactly but we sure heard one,’ Nathan said.

‘You see, we left a trail of peanuts, so we’d be able to find our way back,’ Stanley explained. ‘And we got here and carved our names on the tree trunk, did some adventuring and started to go back but the peanuts had been eaten. We heard a bear so we were all hugging this tree for safety.’

‘I’m hungry,’ Poppy cried.

‘I don’t think there’s a bear,’ Viola said sensibly. ‘In fact, I am sure you can’t get bears in these parts.’

‘But a bear must have eaten the peanuts,’ Jack said; he was trembling.

‘You’ll find that was the squirrels,’ Viola said. ‘There’s loads of them.’

I could vouch for that.

‘Come on, let’s go – we’ll get you home. Emily’s so good at directions,’ Viola said.

‘Thanks.’ Emily was pink. ‘And hopefully no one will know you were missing.’

But as I looked at them, covered in dirt, I was pretty sure they would.

Sure enough, Mr and Mrs Green and all the adults were standing by the playground when we got back. I was tired; it had been a long walk. Humphrey went to stand behind Mrs Green.

‘Where on earth have you been?’ Mr Green shouted.

Nathan hung his head. ‘We went to the woods.’

‘Without an adult?’

Nathan nodded.

‘You have broken rules 3, 7,10, 17, and, well, just about every rule in the book.’ He looked very cross, as Mrs Green put her hand on her husband’s arm; but even she looked angry.

‘It was my idea,’ Nathan admitted.

‘Stanley, you should have known better,’ Mrs Clover bellowed. ‘We were worried, worried sick.’

‘Sorry, Mum. We weren’t going to be long but we kind of got lost. Viola and Emily rescued us,’ Stanley said. Everyone looked at Viola and Emily.

‘That’s all well and good but you should have come to get us.’ Mr Green blew his whistle.

‘We were going to,’ Viola said, her voice barely above a whisper. ‘But then Alfie ran into the wood, so we had to go after him, then Emily remembered where they went with Dad.’

‘Ah, I see,’ Mrs Green said.

‘And Em wouldn’t come with us in the first place. She told us we shouldn’t go,’ Jack added.

‘Good girl, Emily,’ her father said.

‘Right, well, girls, you deserve a reward. You can have pizza in the clubhouse tonight,’ Mrs Green said.

‘But the rest of you – you should really all be thrown off the campsite, the amount of rules you’ve broken,’ Mr Green added.

‘But tomorrow is their last day,’ Mrs Green pointed out. ‘And we’ve got the picnic so they can’t get into any more trouble. Nathan, go to the caravan and stay there.’

Mr Green looked as if he was going to argue but he didn’t.

All the other children were grounded, so I went with Viola and Emily to the clubhouse that night. Outside, Humphrey was eating tuna; he gestured to a second bowl.

‘That’s for you. A reward for rescuing the kids,’ he said, and we shared a pleasant dinner together.