Alfie In The Snow

Matt and the children were with Jonathan in the living room and Claire was clearing up the kitchen when we heard the doorbell. Wiping her hands on her jeans, Claire went to open it with me at her heels. Polly, face like thunder, stood on the doorstep.

‘Oh dear,’ Claire said. Polly pursed her lips and walked in. The adults all made their way to the kitchen, leaving the children playing.

‘I’m actually really worried about that woman,’ Polly started.

‘So, she didn’t take kindly to your reasonable chat?’ Matt raised an eyebrow. ‘I did tell you to leave well alone.’

‘I told Claire as well,’ Jonathan said. The two men high-fived, looking pleased with themselves. Honestly, if we left it to them nothing would ever get resolved. I swished my tail against Jonathan, angrily.

‘Oh, for goodness sake, grow up. Anyway, I will tell you what happened. Sylvie now blames us – that’s me and you, Claire – for this whole thing. Apparently if we had left her alone, hadn’t tried to make her our friend, then Connie wouldn’t have met Aleksy and none of this would have happened.’

Even I had to admit that was terrible logic. Connie was in the same year as Aleksy in the same school.

‘I said,’ Polly continued, ‘very calmly, I might add, that they’re in school together so they would probably have met at some point. And do you know what she said?’ They all shook their heads. Polly can be a bit scary when riled. ‘She said that she was still going to figure out a way to pull Connie out of school and send her to an all-girls’ one. The thing is that she is behaving madly, and I think she needs help but she won’t let us anywhere near her.’

‘Oh dear,’ Jonathan, the master of understatement, said.

‘I asked if she would sit down with Franceska and Aleksy to talk, and she basically threw me out of her house.’

‘She must have been so badly affected by the divorce.’ Claire shook her head.

‘Yes, and I’m out of ideas. I do want to help her, not just the kids, but she really isn’t behaving rationally.’

‘I feel sorry for her, but I have no idea what to do.’

‘Maybe you can try next time,’ Polly said. Then she smiled. ‘Though if you value your life I wouldn’t recommend it. She’s feistier than she looks.’

‘If only there was a way though, to get her to see sense.’ Claire chewed her lip, thoughtfully.

I felt my brain begin to tick over. Sylvie felt as if she was alone, and she wouldn’t let the women in, but if we showed her that she was welcome here, I mean if I showed her … I just had to figure out how.

‘Poor Aleksy, it’s just like Romeo and Juliet,’ Matt said, and they all lapsed into silence.

It was clear no one knew what to do and it seemed that yet again it was going to be down to me.

I left them to see Tiger. George was still out and I assumed he would be with her. There was no sign of either of them, so I took one of my lives in my paws and jumped through the cat flap. Thankfully the kitchen was empty, and I made my way through to the living room where I stopped. Tiger’s bed was in front of a fire, although it wasn’t a real fire, and Tiger was alone in it. There was no sign of her humans, but Tiger was curled up. She looked up and saw me.

‘Alfie,’ she said, her voice quiet.

‘Hey, is it safe to come in?’

‘Yes, they’ve gone shopping for a bit, come on in.’

I made my way over to her bed, and sat down next to her.

‘I thought George might be with you,’ I said.

‘No, isn’t he home?’

I flicked my tail. ‘No, and he’s normally home by now.’

‘Alfie, he seemed a bit angry when I saw him today. He was trying to hide it but he kept saying it was unfair that I wasn’t going to be here soon. I tried to calm him down by telling him I’d always be watching him but I’m not sure he was buying it. Anyway, I think he might have needed a bit of time to himself.’

‘I know and he’s old enough, but Tiger, and I’m not telling you this to worry you, but he’s been going out a lot more lately. At first I thought he was visiting Hana, which he does but not the whole time, so I’m not sure where he goes. I asked Rocky, Elvis and Nellie but they don’t know either. He’s not spending much time with them, it seems.’

‘And asking George won’t work, will it?’

‘No, he gets defensive when I even ask him if he’s hungry these days.’ My lovely sweet kitten was becoming surly, monosyllabic and he was actually behaving like a teenager, but of course cats don’t normally do that. But, I accepted that, with the Tiger situation, normality had gone out of the window.

‘Alfie, you’ll have to follow him, just to check you know that he’s safe.’

‘I’m normally the one who would suggest such a thing.’ I grinned. It was obvious. Why hadn’t I thought of this? Although with everything going on, maybe it wasn’t surprising.

‘But just make sure that he doesn’t see you. I’m not sure he’ll take kindly to being followed.’

‘And with all the mounting problems at the moment, having George angry with me is not one I want to add to the pile.’

‘Please make sure you come back and tell me what you discover. If I can I’ll come out, but if not I’ll be right here. Even if my family is here – they are both quite sad at the moment, so they might even let you come in.’

‘Right, Tiger, before I do anything more about the whole human situation I will make sure that I know George is OK and I’ll find out where he’s going.’

If George was acting like a teenager, I hoped he wasn’t doing what I’d heard a lot of teenagers did, and getting into trouble. We had quite enough of that right now, thank you very much.

I casually established that George was going to see Tiger, and I lay in wait for him. Unfortunately it was cold, and I shivered in the bush in Tiger’s front garden, where I had chosen to hide. I had followed many people before, but never George, and although I kept a close eye on him, I had to admit this did feel different. I felt as if I was betraying him in a way, although I knew, deep down, it was for his own good. I would let him have his freedom, just as long as I knew he was safe. I needed to ensure he was being careful and there was no danger.

I knew I should be thankful that he was going out during the day – if it had been night I would have had a whole heap of fears and worries. He could have been hanging out with unsavoury cats, fighting, hunting, getting up to all sorts of mischief. Though if he had shown any signs of that I would have got Dustbin on the case. I really had to stop worrying about things that hadn’t happened, especially as I had my paws full with troubles that were very, very real.

It is characteristic of life, and I speak from my own experience, that when things start piling up the tendency is to fret more. It’s a vicious circle: when things are good you enjoy them and try not to think of the bad times, but when things are bad you can only think of how they could get worse. So, as I waited for George, I tried to count my blessings. Firstly, the sun was shining. Yes it was cold and windy, but at least it wasn’t raining. And I did have lovely families and friends. I might be losing Tiger but I was lucky to have had her in my life for as long as I had, and that was a gift. Although losing her wasn’t a gift, it was the opposite of a gift, whatever that may be.

Just as I was running out of both blessings and optimism, George appeared. He didn’t notice me as he set off down Edgar Road, towards where our cat friends met. I followed at a safe distance, hopping behind the odd lamppost to ensure I kept out of sight, but George didn’t look back once. None of our friends were at the recreation spot but he walked straight past it anyway; that clearly wasn’t where he was heading. As I carried on walking, I had a horrible feeling that I knew where he was going. As George stopped at the tatty house with the jungle garden and the horrible old man, my worst fears were confirmed.

I watched him from a safe distance as George played in the overgrown bushes which dominated the space. It really did look fun to play in; brambles and overgrown plants, a small, fat tree with overhanging branches and long grass. There were no flowers, no colour. But it was a garden you could definitely lose yourself in and I just hoped he was safe. I settled back to watch my boy.

After exploring the garden, he hopped up on the windowsill of the house and peered in. Next thing I knew, the old man from Halloween appeared and started banging a walking stick against the window in an angry fashion. George, however, sat on the windowsill and seemed nonplussed. Or nonpussed. I cowered behind a bush near the front wall, as close as I dared go. What if the man hurt George? He stood there shaking his fist and his walking stick. I saw him more clearly than I had in the dark that night. I could vaguely hear the words, ‘Get lost’, being shouted. George tapped his paw on the window one last time and hopped down, raising his tail in a salute. I quickly started running home.

All the way I tried to make sense of what I’d seen. George clearly knew the garden but the old man didn’t want him there. The thing was that my George wasn’t the best at reading signals, he’d thought Chanel liked him when she showed him nothing but disdain. But how could I discuss this with George without him knowing I was following him? I couldn’t.

Another thing to add to my mounting problems; I would have to keep an eye on it. If this was where George was disappearing to most days I would need to make sure that he was safe. That walking stick looked like it could do some serious damage. The man looked as if he could do some damage too. And if the Goodwins were right and he was dangerous … I shuddered.

My other dilemma on the way back was whether to tell Tiger or not. On the one hand I didn’t want her to worry, but on the other she’d asked me to treat her normally. Also, I had a vague idea that it might be better for her to tackle George about this, or at least to try to ask him about it. He was still talking to her, after all, whereas at the moment he seemed to be avoiding me as much as he could. Oh yes, he would still fill me in about Hana but it was as if talking to me was a duty rather than a desire. Our easy relationship, the one where we hung out, chased leaves, chewed the fat with other cats, talked through the day’s events together in the evening, seemed to be over.

I just hoped it wasn’t over forever.

I’d been at home for a while before George came in. I’d stopped at Tiger’s but the cat flap was closed and there was no sign of her. I hoped she was resting. Every time I saw her she seemed weaker and the idea that, one day soon, I would go and see her and she wouldn’t be there threatened to floor me.

I’d had a snack, a wash and a nap, only to be woken by the sound of the cat flap and the appearance of a very sad-looking George.

‘Are you alright?’ I asked, fussing despite saying I wouldn’t.

‘I’m a bit tired actually,’ George said. ‘I think I might have a nap. It’s very cold out.’

He was chattier than normal, which I was happy about, but I also knew not to push it.

‘OK, did you see Tiger mum?’ I asked, casually.

‘I did, earlier.’ He turned to go, then he stopped. ‘Dad, she’s really not going to get better, is she?’ His eyes were full of sadness and his whiskers seemed to droop. My heart broke and I wanted, so desperately wanted, to give him the answer he needed to hear, but of course I couldn’t.

‘No, son, I don’t think she is,’ I said, heavily. George, to my surprise, came up to me and nuzzled into me.

‘What about you? Are you going to leave me as well?’ he asked, his voice small.

‘No, son, not for a very long time,’ I replied and I crossed my paws and hoped, prayed, that that was true. No, actually I knew it was true. I wasn’t going anywhere. I wanted to reassure him, but I didn’t want to lie. ‘You know, George, I would never leave you willingly, and nor would Tiger mum. She has no choice but I’m still here and, for as long as I am, I’ll always be right by your side. I love you, son.’ I nuzzled him and I felt his sadness through his fur.

As I watched George go to find his favourite chair to nap in, I felt my heart breaking for him all over again. I would be around for a very long time – don’t ask me how I knew, but I did – and I would give George as much strength and courage as possible. That was what parents should do for their children, after all. That and try to keep him away from the scary old man at the end of the street, of course.