Alfie in the Snow

‘Perhaps I should go and see Dustbin, just in case, see if he knows anything.’ I said later, starting to fret yet again after having had time to digest all the information George had given me.

‘OK, but I’m tired, so I think I better wait here for Summer and Toby. It’s been another busy day,’ George yawned.

‘And you know if Dustbin did know anything urgent, he would come and find us, so he probably doesn’t.’ The idea of walking all that way right now wasn’t appealing to me either.

George and I made our way downstairs, me trying to decide what to do. We had reached the kitchen when the cat flap bashed loudly. We both ran as quickly as we could and slid through, to find Dustbin standing on the other side.

‘Talk of the devil,’ I said. ‘I was just trying to decide if I had to come and see you, because George found out that Aleksy got Connie a phone,’ I gushed.

‘Ah, you know about that, yes he did. And I came to you as soon as I could, but I was very busy. The rodents seem to be more determined in winter.’

‘At least you’re here now. There’ll be big trouble if anyone finds out about the phone,’ I said, raising my whiskers worriedly. Aleksy and Connie were playing with fire. I understood how frustrating love could be, especially when you were young, but still.

‘Yeah, it’s worse than that,’ Dustbin said.

‘What?’ My fur stood on end.

‘I heard him speaking to her last night in the yard. They are planning on running away.’

I wondered if Tiger could see me and what she would be thinking if she could. Slightly out of ideas, we held our crisis council at the recreation ground. Thankfully, as Dustbin, George and I approached, Nellie, Elvis and Rocky were all there. It was a good time, before tea and before it got dark, and I was grateful for my friends. We needed to come up with a plan; it needed to be quick and I needed their input.

‘According to what Dustbin heard, we think they might be planning on running away tonight, late, when it’s dark and everyone is asleep,’ I finished, having filled them in the whole situation.

‘Oh dear,’ Nellie said, licking her paws in concern. ‘I don’t like the sound of this.’

‘The poor kids just want to be together,’ Elvis said. ‘I saw something like that on TV once, and I have to say I don’t blame them. Parents have a lot to answer for.’

George flicked his eyes towards me worriedly.

‘Not you Alfie, of course.’ Of course not. I’d tried to help George get together with Hana, not keep them apart – although that was just friendship. And yes, I had tried to warn him off Chanel, but that was because she didn’t like him. No, in the case of Aleksy and Connie, I was fully supportive. But not of them running away. Running away never solved anything. Not to mention that London at night was full of danger.

‘Well,’ Rocky said. ‘I think there’s only one thing for it.’

‘What is that?’ I asked, impatiently. If there was a solution, I wanted it. What with how full my head was at the moment, I was finding it hard to think.

‘Stop them,’ Rocky said.

‘Great, I think we know that,’ I said, a little snappily. ‘But how?’

‘Don’t snap, Alfie, we’re only trying to help,’ Nellie bristled.

‘Sorry, sorry, it’s a bit tough right now.’

‘But hey, Rocky’s right, we just need to stop them, literally.’ Dustbin’s eyes lit up as he seemed to be thinking. And then I got it.

‘Sorry Rocky, you are right. We need to lie in wait for Aleksy, and make so much of a commotion that he’ll think we’re going to wake his family up, or we actually do wake his family up, and he’ll have no choice but to abandon running away.’ My brain was back in proper operation now.

‘Oh, good idea, Dad, but what about Connie?’ George sensibly asked.

‘Go and tell Hana, if you can. I know it’ll be through the window but fill her in and see if she will try to stop Connie. It’d be easier if we could get in there to help but it’ll have to be down to her, I’m afraid. Once again, thanks guys, you are the best friends a cat could have. And I hope that Aleksy and Connie appreciate us.’

‘They probably won’t, not if you stop them running away,’ George pointed out, sensibly.

‘Not right now but my job, our job, is to keep them safe,’ I explained.

‘And it’s not safe out there, not for teenagers or most cats,’ Dustbin explained. ‘Honestly, if they did run away, I shudder to think how they’ll manage. I mean, Aleksy hasn’t exactly got survival skills.’

‘I’ll go to Dustbin tonight, and help him stop Aleksy. If he sees me there he’ll know that somehow we’ve foiled his plan and it might make him think again.’

I was a little cross now I thought about it. Aleksy was normally the sensible one but running away, late at night, was not clever and it was far from sensible. It was also not going to happen. As the others discussed the plan, I listened but I couldn’t help but think about the other day, when Tommy had come up with his plan for the nativity and Aleksy had said he’d help, as if nothing was amiss. And his good mood must have been down to this crazy running-away idea. I wasn’t happy with him at all.

I would not let this family fall apart. I would not let Aleksy and Connie run away. Yes, their situation was unfair, and yes, they should have been allowed to have their relationship, within the limits of their age, but this was not the way to go about getting Sylvie to change her mind. I worried that if she got wind of it then she’d lock Connie up at boarding school, far far away, whether she could afford to or not.

I calmed down as George and I headed home, and I felt confident in our plan. George had asked to come with us but I pointed out that Toby would worry if he wasn’t there. Although our plan didn’t involve any of my usual dangers, things could always go wrong, so knowing George was safely tucked up at home would be one less thing for me to worry about. The ideal outcome would be that we stopped Aleksy without his parents finding out and the same with Connie. Then they would realise how foolish they were being and rethink their behaviour. George and I parted ways and he went to Hana’s house and I went back to ours.

Marcus was at our house again. He had paint smeared on one of his glasses lenses, and he and Jonathan were both drinking beer and laughing. They seemed to get on well and I thought he would be a welcome addition to Edgar Road – although I had said the same about Sylvie not long ago.

I didn’t have much time to listen to their conversation though I picked up a bit. Harold was recovering well, but wasn’t coming home until the doctors were confident that he had the right medication. But that was all I managed to glean as I ate, had a quick wash and, after putting George to bed – he felt he had successfully communicated what he needed to to Hana – headed out to meet Dustbin. I was beyond tired, and my exhaustion was added to by the thought of the long night ahead. I wasn’t sure what time the kids would think about trying to escape, but I knew it would probably be fairly late if they were waiting for the adults to go to sleep. Just the idea of it made my fur feel weary.

Dustbin was hard at work when I arrived, evenings being his busiest time. It was pitch black, as the nights were now, and the street was lit only by a handful of stars and eyes of the cheeky rodents that Dustbin was charged with getting rid of.

‘Why don’t you get some rest while I finish up here?’ he suggested, kindly, when I told him how tired I was. I didn’t need asking twice, I curled up by the back door to Franceska’s house and I took my forty, or so, winks.

I was woken by Dustbin nudging me and although I was startled I shot up to see Aleksy opening the back door to their house. He was wearing dark jeans and a black hoody, and had a backpack with him. It didn’t look as if he had much stuff in it, I thought, as he was carrying it with ease. Dustbin and I blinked at each other and we turned to face Aleksy.

He jumped at the sight of me. ‘Alfie, what are you doing here?’

‘MEW,’ I said at the top of my voice. That was our cue. Dustbin and I yowled and meowed at the tops of our voices.

‘Shush, please shush,’ Aleksy said. We didn’t. He picked me up but I wouldn’t stop and I wiggled until I had to, reluctantly, give him a tiny scratch, which made him let go and drop me onto the floor. It wasn’t one of my best experiences. Dustbin, give him his due, thankfully kept going – turns out he had quite a pair of lungs on him. We saw a light go on inside the flat above the restaurant, and I saw Aleksy notice it too. I imagined them looking out of the window at us. Thankfully neither Tomasz or Franceska seemed to have heard us though.

‘Can you both please just be quiet, you’ll wake Mum and Dad.’ I could hear the desperation in his voice but I wasn’t going to be silenced.

‘Yowl,’ I shouted over and over.

‘Alright,’ he said, suddenly sitting down on the doorstep and pulling out his phone. We both stopped shouting and waited. ‘Hi, it’s me.’

I couldn’t hear what Connie was saying.

‘Hana tried to trip you up?’ There was a pause. ‘She woke your mum up?’ Another pause. ‘What did your mum say?’ Silence. ‘Oh, you shut yourself in the bathroom, quick thinking. But Alfie is here and he and Dustbin made such a noise when they saw me that my parents will wake up soon, and the flat next door is already looking out of the window. They haven’t seen me yet, I don’t think.’ Pause. ‘No, I agree, we can’t risk it tonight.’ He sounded crestfallen but it was for his own good. ‘I’ll text you and let’s talk at school tomorrow and come up with a new plan.’

That wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear but at least he and Connie were safe and had aborted their running away for now.

‘Alfie, why are you here?’ Aleksy asked, after he hung up. ‘Did you know I was going to try to be with Connie?’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘No, that’s silly. Of course you didn’t know, you just came to see your friend, Dustbin.’ He nodded. If it was easier for him to believe that, then who was I to argue?

‘Alfie, I’ll walk you home,’ Dustbin said, after we watched Aleksy go inside. I was glad I hadn’t woken Tomasz and Franceska, but also a little surprised. The fact that they had slept through me and Dustbin at our nosiest was slightly worrying. If that didn’t wake them then what on earth would?

‘You don’t think he’ll try to come out again?’ I asked. I was longing for home, for my bed, but I didn’t want to lose Aleksy.

‘No, we’ll wait a few minutes just in case. But that doesn’t mean that’s the end of this.’

‘We’ll keep our ears to the ground,’ I said, but I didn’t mean literally.

‘Sure, but we’re both tired, it’s been a long day. Let’s sleep on it and see what tomorrow brings.’

‘Oh goodness, I need a rest. In a few days we have the nativity play to look forward to. Maybe that will give us some light relief.’ I filled Dustbin in on Tommy’s plan as he walked me back to Edgar Road and even Dustbin thought it would be a riot. That was what worried me: it might cause a riot. I wasn’t sure how much more this cat was up to at the moment.