Alfie Far From Home

Chapter 4

I decided to take one of my nine lives in my paws and seek out Humphrey. I needed a friend and wanted to try to win grumpy Humphrey round. I found him cleaning his fur by the Greens’ caravan.

‘Good morning,’ I said cheerfully.

‘What do you want?’ he asked.

‘Viola is unhappy. She doesn’t find it easy to make new friends. But, I have a plan to cheer her up.’

‘A plan?’

‘Yes, it’s what I do and I need your help. Anyway, Emily, one of the other girls, she’s a bit shy too and I think they would make lovely friends but I need to get them together.’

‘How?’

‘That’s the thing – I’m not sure yet but I thought you might have some ideas.’

‘Me?’ Humphrey looked uncertain.

‘I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important and it’s not for me but for Viola.’

‘Humph.’ Humphrey didn’t look happy. ‘I will help with the girl …’ He sounded reluctant.

That was as good as I could expect, and it had to be better than nothing, surely?

Help also came in the guise of Poppy. She was bossy and didn’t like sharing but when it came to adults, she was always very nice. She even told Mr Green it was the best magic show she’d ever seen and I couldn’t believe that was true.

I heard a knock on the van door; Mrs Clover opened it.

‘Hello, Mrs Clover, it’s a nice day, isn’t it? I like your hair, have you had it styled?’ Poppy asked.

‘Oh well, not really, dear; do come in.’ Mrs Clover stood aside and patted her hair, which was a terrible mess as usual.

‘Hi, Poppy,’ Stanley said.

‘I’ve organised a Swingball tournament,’ Poppy told him.

‘Is that an invitation or an order?’ Stanley asked. I wasn’t sure he liked Poppy.

‘We’ll just put our shoes on and come,’ Viola said. She swatted Stanley on the arm.

I followed them over to Poppy’s caravan; it was one of the best ones on the site, according to her, anyway. I had never seen a Swingball before – it was a pole with a string and a tennis ball attached. Poppy was brandishing two bats. Nathan, Jack and Emily were crowded round.

‘Right, as I was explaining, the winner of each game will go on to play each other until we have a final winner. I’ll play Jack, then the winner plays Stanley, then Emily, Nathan and Viola.’

‘Does that make sense?’ Stanley asked.

‘No idea, but let’s get on with it – we’ll be here all vacation otherwise,’ Nathan mumbled.

‘Wow, you’re good,’ Jack said as, after failing to hit the ball more than once, Poppy was declared the winner of the first game.

Feeling like having a bit of fun, I jumped for the ball, missed it and slipped. Luckily, I managed to land on my feet.

‘Yowl!’ I cried. The children laughed.

‘Alfie, we need to take this seriously,’ Poppy said. So I leapt again. This time I managed to swipe the ball with my paw and everyone clapped.

‘Right, Alfie, enough messing around, we really DO have to take this seriously,’ Poppy said. She was SO bossy.

‘Miaow!’ I was having fun.

‘Oh, let Alfie play. He’s funny,’ Stanley said.

‘No, Stanley Clover, this is a serious game for people only.’

As I raised my tail in anger, I wondered if perhaps Poppy and Mr Green were related after all.

I chased some leaves, cleaned myself and watched as Viola was declared the winner.

‘Wow, Vi, you were awesome,’ Stanley said. I pricked my ears up. This should help her confidence.

‘Yeah, I have to hand it to you – you beat me fair and square,’ Nathan said good-naturedly.

‘You were brilliant, Viola,’ Emily stammered.

Viola beamed.

‘The prize is that the winner gets to choose what we do next,’ Poppy declared. ‘So, Viola, it’s up to you.’

‘But that’s no good – she’ll only have to go and practise,’ Stanley said. I wanted to cover my ears with my paws; that was the last thing Viola needed to hear. Viola looked upset and ran off.

‘Stanley,’ Emily said, voice barely above a whisper.

‘What? What did I do?’ Stanley asked, looking confused.

‘OK, so Stanley, as her brother, then you get to choose,’ Poppy decided.

‘But shouldn’t someone go after Viola?’ Emily asked, but no one seemed to hear.

‘It’s called Spyhunter,’ Stanley said as they all stood on the roundabout in the playground. Stanley was wearing a hat with flappy ears – one I often wore when Stanley dressed me up as his Adventurer’s cat – and holding a magnifying glass. ‘I’ll be the hunter and you guys are all spies so you have to hide and I’ll catch you.’

‘So, basically we are playing hide-and-seek,’ Poppy said.

‘No, we’re playing Spyhunter, it’s totally different. It’s an adventurer’s game,’ Stanley argued. He stood facing a tree trunk as Stanley counted to one hundred. Then he ran off; I struggled to keep up.

‘Ha, spy, got you,’ he said as he found Jack hiding under a bush, his bottom sticking out. I think it was the worst hiding I’d ever seen.

He managed to round up Poppy and Emily fairly quickly, so that just left Nathan. We all searched for him, looking everywhere we could think of, until the only place that remained was the clubhouse.

‘I’m going in,’ Stanley announced.

‘But we’re not allowed. Remember, Mr Green said we could only go in there with adult supervision.’ Emily looked worried. The other children agreed.

‘OK, you guys stay here and I’ll go.’ Stanley tried to look brave as he pushed open the door. I followed him inside. We looked under all the tables, by the small bar and even behind the piano but there was no sign of Nathan. Suddenly, we spotted a moving curtain, which hung behind the stage.

‘Ah ha, there he is,’ Stanley whispered and gesturing for me to be quiet, we made our way over. ‘Got you, spy,’ Stanley shouted triumphantly.

‘You sure have.’ Nathan smiled. He was sitting by a big box which seemed to have wooden people in it, attached to strings. I poked my nose into the box. I had never seen such things before. Just as I was about to take a closer look, ‘PEEP!’ I jumped and landed on my tail. Ouch.

‘What are you two doing here?’ Mr Green’s voice boomed.

‘Sorry, Uncle, we were playing hide—’

‘I don’t care – you shouldn’t be here. Nathan, all you do is get into trouble, and as for you.’ He pointed at Stanley. ‘I just don’t know. I shall be speaking to your parents. Now scram – I have my important puppet show tonight, so I need to concentrate on that. I’ll work out what to do with you later.’

‘Is everything all right?’ Mrs Green appeared. She was holding a hammer. ‘I’ve just come from fixing a shelf in the shop,’ she explained.

‘No, it is not.’ Mr Green pointed at Nathan and Stanley.

‘Oh, don’t worry about that now. You need to be calm for your big show tonight. Come with me and I’ll make you a nice cup of tea.’ Mrs Green winked at the boys before leading him away.

‘Now we’ve had it,’ Stanley said.

‘He might have to send me back to the States now,’ Nathan said happily.

‘So is that what this is all about?’ said Stanley. ‘It’s all right for you, but I don’t actually want to get thrown off the campsite – my parents will go mad.’

‘Hey, calm down, I’ll take the blame. Although you might change your mind when you have to sit through the worst puppet show in the world ever.’

‘Is it that bad?’

‘You thought his magic show was pretty crummy?’ Nathan asked.

Stanley nodded.

‘Well, this is a thousand times worse. Tonight is going to be the opposite of fun.’ Nathan patted Stanley on the shoulder.

I could feel my fur tingle. I was thinking of a plan, and it was almost there. It was so brilliant. The puppets, Viola and the piano. In order to build Viola’s confidence, what would be better than for her to play the piano in the clubhouse? But Mr Green had a monopoly on the entertainment – although I wasn’t quite sure how entertaining he actually was – so how could it be achieved? I rushed off to find Humphrey.

He was outside one of the tents, eating as usual.

‘Hello,’ I said, trying to sound charming.

‘What now?’ Humphrey asked. He finished eating and cleaned his whiskers.

‘I really need your help. You see I have a plan to help Viola but I’m not sure how to go about it.’ I outlined my idea.

‘OK, so in order for your plan to work, we need to sabotage Mr Green’s puppet show?’

Humphrey tilted his head, as if he was weighing it up. ‘If it’s for the girl, then I’ll help. I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for her. Look, why don’t we sneak into the clubhouse and hide the puppets.’ As he explained the way my plan could work, I was overjoyed. It turned out Humphrey was quite a clever cat after all.

I lay on one of the benches in the van. It had been exhausting hiding the puppets. We had to get them in our mouths and drag them unseen to the place Humphrey chose – under the caravan. And now all I had to do was to get Viola to play the piano. I wasn’t going to fail. Even Humphrey thought it could work.

I followed my family to the clubhouse that evening. I was trembling with nerves and excitement. This was it, my big moment to help Viola.

It was chaos. As everyone sat waiting for the entertainment, Mr Green was hysterical. His wife was trying to calm him down.

‘Nathan, are you sure you didn’t take my puppets?’ Mr Green asked.

‘No, Uncle. As soon as we left the clubhouse I went with Stanley to help his dad get food for supper.’

The Clovers approached.

‘What seems to be the matter?’ Mr Clover asked.

‘I was supposed to perform my puppet show this evening, but somehow my puppets have disappeared. These boys were the last to see them.’ Mr Green pointed at Nathan and Stanley. Oops, I hadn’t thought about the boys getting into trouble.

‘Stanley, do you know anything about this?’ Mr Clover asked.

‘No, I really absolutely don’t. Dad, we’ve been with you all afternoon.’ Stanley stated.

‘Yes, that’s true; Mr Green actually Nathan was most helpful.’

‘What are we going to do?’ Mr Green shrieked. ‘We have a clubhouse full of people who need entertaining.’

It was my big moment. Humphrey was sitting by the door. He raised his tail. I ran over to the piano, sat on the stool, raised my paw and bashed some keys.

‘Look,’ Jack said, pointing. ‘Alfie the cat is playing the piano.’ He laughed.

I jumped on to the keys and tried to play more. Now everyone was laughing. Then, as I planned, Viola came and joined me. She stroked me, sat down beside me and started to play. As the most beautiful music filled the clubhouse, everyone was silent. When she finished her song, she stood up.

‘Oh no, please carry on,’ Mrs Green said. ‘I’ve never heard such wonderful playing.’

‘Humph,’ Mr Green said. ‘And that cat is not supposed to be here.’

‘Oh, one night won’t hurt. Please, Viola?’ Mrs Green said.

‘But …’ Viola stammered.

‘Go on, Vi, you’re the best piano prodigy ever,’ Stanley shouted and then the audience started chanting.

‘MORE, MORE, MORE.’ Viola blushed and smiled shyly at me. I gave her my most reassuring look, and tickled her with my tail.

When Viola finished, everyone was standing up, clapping and cheering. Her cheeks were flushed pink and she was beaming. My plan had worked. As the evening drew to a close and everyone started to leave, she was congratulated over and over.

Emily hovered. ‘Wow, you are so good,’ she muttered.

‘Thank you,’ Viola blushed.

‘Maybe tomorrow, I mean, if it’s OK, can I come and watch you practise?’ Emily asked.

‘I’d love that.’ Viola’s smile stretched across her whole face and so did my grin.