Alfie in the Snow

It was very exciting, Harold was coming home. Well, it was to everyone else, because I, quite frankly, was having a down day. There would be all these distractions that I was used to, being the kind of doorstep cat I was, but then I would remember how much I missed Tiger and my heart would collapse all over again. I tried to keep my tail upright but, sometimes, it just didn’t want to do it and all I felt capable of was curling up in my bed and yowling. George was my salvation in the darker days, him and my families of course, but mainly him.

Since becoming the star of the school nativity play, and actually getting to spend time with Hana, he was doing pretty well. Of course the tail incident was still fresh in our minds, but apart from it being painful and singed, George was fine. The vet had given him an injection which took some of the pain away and my resilient boy had bounced back. Toby said all of the school now wanted to come to our house to meet George, and Summer suggested selling tickets – Jonathan was proud at this, Claire not so much so. And George took being famous in his stride but I could tell he quite liked it. He still talked to me about missing Tiger mum, and how hard he found it to walk past her house. I knew that one. Some days I would find myself in her back garden, staring at the closed cat flap as if she would slide through it, but of course she never would. Sometimes seeing her house, knowing she wasn’t there, floored me, so I understand how he felt. One day, I literally froze as I approached the house and couldn’t bring myself to walk past it. It was beyond hard.

After the apology at school, the children had returned to normal for the last week of term. Well, as normal as they ever were at Christmas. Summer declared that she was going to be a famous actress when she was older and Toby said he wouldn’t want to be an actor, because there were too many girls involved, so he was going to do something like be a spaceman, where you didn’t have to hold anyone’s hands. Henry and Toby were firm friends again and Martha, with her customary laid-back manner, was just lovely Martha.

So many people had viewed the video that George had even been mentioned in a newspaper, and now he felt that he was the most famous member of the family, which of course he was. But no one dared tell Summer that.

Amidst all the chaos, Christmas was drawing closer and closer. More and more of the advent calendar doors were open, festive food was being bought, presents wrapped, cards displayed. The weather was also getting colder, frost greeted us most mornings and everyone talked of snow. Despite the ache that now sat with me daily for Tiger, I couldn’t help but enjoy everyone’s festive spirit. I knew they felt as if it was the most wonderful time of the year and I tried to bask in their happiness even if I wasn’t going to ever say this was my favourite Christmas.

It couldn’t be, not without Tiger here. The thing was that, last year, when we went away to our holiday cottage in Devon for Christmas, I hadn’t seen her but I’d known she was there. And when we had returned home, we’d all been so excited to share our stories. She’d told me that she got extra turkey, some toys and a very fetching new red collar for Christmas. In return, I’d told her that we’d spent time with our friend Gilbert in Devon and, although the beach was freezing, we had braved it, and I’d managed to keep George out of the water this time. It was moments like these, sharing moments, that kept friendship and love alive, I believed, and so I was still sharing with her; every evening I had a chat to her before going to sleep. It was just very one-sided.

‘I can’t wait to see my friend Harold again,’ George said, hopping with excitement, as we sat on the windowsill looking out at the quiet street. Marcus was collecting Harold this afternoon, and Polly and Franceska were at his house now, getting it ready for his welcome-home party. We were both invited and I just hoped Harold wouldn’t tell us to get lost or wave his stick at us now. Apparently he wouldn’t, he’d told Jonathan that we were both welcome in his house after all. George was so looking forward to it; he’d taken ages getting himself looking his best, as had I. I was one cat who always took care over his appearance – even when I was heart-broken, I had learnt not to let myself go.

Claire returned with Toby and Summer and shortly afterwards the doorbell announced the arrival of Franceska, Tommy and Aleksy.

‘Meow?’ I asked as I greeted them. Where was Tomasz?

‘Tomasz is going to meet us at Harold’s later, he had to sort something out at work,’ Franceska explained as she petted me. But I think she was talking to Claire.

‘Come in for a bit, have a coffee. Boys, can I get you anything?’ Claire asked, as coats were shaken out and hung up.

‘No, we’re good, thanks,’ Tommy answered, shooting worried glances at Aleksy who was back to not talking. Franceska shook her head and followed Claire into the kitchen.

‘Where are you going?’ Franceska asked as Aleksy headed out to the back garden, carrying me for some unfathomable reason.

‘Alfie wants to go out, I thought I’d go with him,’ he replied, looking at his feet. I had no idea what sort of pawn I was now, but I didn’t want to go out, I wanted no such thing. I had just got myself all smart and the wind and the cold would probably ruin all my hard work. But I didn’t say anything. I knew, better than any cat, when one of my humans needed me and Aleksy clearly did. No one argued as he opened the back door and we went into the garden.

It all became clear. Aleksy started walking around the garden, trying to find a vantage point where he could see into Connie’s house. I stood there, freezing and quite astounded, as he even tried to climb the fence. Was he mad? Yes, he was but then I remembered what young love could do to you.

‘Yowl!’ That wasn’t a good idea. I had done the same thing when I was trying to woo Snowball, of course, but it seemed humans were slightly happier for cats to get into their gardens than other humans.

‘It’s no good.’ Aleksy looked so downcast. I sighed. It was always down to me. I led him to the bottom of the small garden, where a table and chairs sat. They were covered for the winter but if he stood on a chair, he might see something. ‘Alfie, you’re a genius,’ he said, as he took one of the chairs over to the fence and climbed on it. ‘Bingo,’ he shouted as he saw Connie appear in one of the upstairs windows. He started waving wildly at her.

I have to say, as I climbed on top of the fence to watch, her face seemed to beam as she waved back. He took his phone out of his pocket and pointed at it. I looked around. I saw how Claire and Franceska were pretending not to watch us from the kitchen as a number of annoying birds flew overhead. But I knew that for Aleksy and Connie they were the only two people in the world right now, I could see it on their faces. I saw Hana appear on the windowsill and I tried to wave my paw but I nearly lost my balance so I stopped. I could see she was raising her whiskers though. I couldn’t help but think how sweet this was, and also how unfair. I had to find a way to get these two kids together.

Fourteen years old, responsible enough, hard workers, they weren’t the worst teenagers by a long shot. They should have been allowed to be together with adult supervision at the very least. I felt angry with Sylvie.

Speak of the devil.

‘Yowl!’ I tried to warn Aleksy as Sylvie appeared in the window behind Connie, and not only did she see us, but she also saw that her daughter had a phone. I tried to get Aleksy’s attention by tapping him, but I wobbled and fell on him. The shock of seeing Sylvie, coupled with me landing on him, meant he lost his balance and fell off the chair.

‘Ahhh,’ he shouted as we landed on the grass. Luckily for me, I was on top of him. But his face was stricken as he scrambled up, dropping me into a patch of mud as he did so.

‘Meow,’ I complained. But he didn’t seem to hear me as he ran round to the front of the house. I got up, certainly not looking my best now, and ran after him.

Connie was outside the front of her house, sobbing, when we got there. The rain had started in earnest, so we were all getting soaked.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

‘It’s not your fault,’ she replied. I ran around in a circle, what on earth could I do? Sylvie appeared, then Claire and Franceska came out of our house. I could hear Claire shouting at Tommy to look after the kids and we all stood around. No one seemed sure what to do next, as we shivered in the rain.

‘Your son gave my daughter a phone, although I forbade it,’ Sylvie shouted. A vein seemed to be throbbing on her head, and although her face was red with anger, it was also puffy as if she had been crying. She needed someone to support her, I knew that, and if she’d had such a person maybe she would have been handling this whole situation better. But there was no one for her: her ex-husband didn’t want to know and she had pushed everyone else away.

‘Aleksy, that wasn’t good,’ Franceska said carefully. ‘I promise you I didn’t know, but Sylvie, can’t we work things out? The kids want to spend time together, and they are both good kids.’

‘Good kids don’t lie and get phones when they’ve been forbidden.’

‘I agree, Sylvie, and I will punish Aleksy but they just want to see each other. Perhaps if they were chaperoned?’ Franceska suggested.

‘What is this, the 1920s?’ Claire said, unhelpfully. She blushed and shut up but I agreed with her.

‘No, that won’t work. I mean, who will do it? You work, I work, and well, just no. I told Connie she can date when she is sixteen,’ Sylvie replied.

‘But that’s two years away!’ Aleksy was horrified, and I noticed that he was still holding Connie’s hand. My heart went out to him. Love was hard enough without it being forbidden.

‘Can’t we figure this out somehow?’ Claire said. ‘Sylvie, look at them, the lengths they’ve gone to to try to be together. Aleksy doesn’t lie but he has done now, and that’s only because you won’t let him see Connie.’

‘Oh, you mean leaving dead mice, birds and flowers on my doorstep.’

‘Eh?’ they all said. I wasn’t sure how to own up to that, but then, as Sylvie continued, I decided not to.

‘It scared me, like someone was warning me off,’ she stormed. ‘Why would you do that?’

‘I didn’t do that.’ Aleksy scratched his head. ‘I would never do anything to upset you.’

‘Well, actually you have. The lengths you both have gone to are not acceptable, and I want this to stop now.’

If only you knew the lengths they were going to go to, and still might, I thought. Perhaps Dustbin and I should have let them run away. I mean, I have kind of championed running-away plans in my time … Well, actually only one, which ended up with George getting catnapped. And also Snowball had run away once when her family were all having a terrible time – that had been nothing to do with me, but she nearly died. Luckily Dustbin rescued her on my behest. But no, it was far too dangerous. And it would probably just make Sylvie lock Connie up. Oh, why was this one so hard to crack? I wished I had Tiger to talk through my thoughts with, she had always been my sounding board. She was also often my voice of reason, not that I always listened to her. And I wondered what she would say about the ‘gifts’ plan. Though I had a feeling she’d just laugh about that.

‘Claire, Franceska, I have said it before, I think Connie is too young for a boyfriend, and it’s as simple as that. She lived a very sheltered life in Japan and quite frankly I am looking to move her to an all-girls’ school now. Her father thinks she should go back to Japan.’ She looked and sounded threatening.

‘But I love my new school, I’ve made friends, you can’t send me away.’ Connie burst into loud, angry tears.

‘I think we need to sort this situation out, somehow, please,’ Franceska pleaded, putting her arm around Aleksy. ‘The children are so unhappy, surely we can work something out.’

I thought Sylvie might crack. Her daughter sobbing, my families being sensible, Aleksy so sad … But just as I thought she would, she shook her head.

‘No, not at the moment. And take your phone back. When I say my daughter shouldn’t have a phone, I don’t expect to be defied. You say they’re good kids but look, they went behind our backs. I can’t stop you seeing each other in school for now.’ She crossed her arms as if she would do soon. ‘But I’m seriously looking at alternatives, so that is that. And you.’ She pointed at Connie. ‘Are grounded until further notice.’

‘I’m never allowed out anyway,’ Connie shouted and ran back in the house, slamming the door. With a final glare at Aleksy, Sylvie followed.

‘Aleksy, that wasn’t good of you,’ Franceska said.

‘But—’

‘No, you never used to lie to us, but now look.’ Even Franceska was angry now.

‘Mum, please.’

‘No, Aleksy, I support you as much as I can, but not when you lie to me and to Sylvie. It makes her seem less mad and more right, and for now I have to agree with her.’

It had put a bit of a dampener on the day, but George’s excitement infected me. He was really looking forward to seeing Harold again, and after all he’d been through lately I certainly wasn’t going to rain on his parade. Ha, the irony as the rain had ruined my neat looks and I had to dry myself off and then lick myself smooth again. Claire gave me a rub with a towel to help with the worst of it, then she went to change, and lent Franceska some clothes. Aleksy, covered in mud, had to get into a bath – thank goodness I didn’t have to – before Claire sponged the worst of his trousers and then dried his clothes off on the radiator. It was quite a mission and we were worried we would be late for Harold’s party with all that was going on.

Aleksy was upset, though everyone gave him a wide berth.

‘Mum, can I go home rather than come to the party?’ he asked, as he sat in his pants and socks. ‘I really don’t feel like it.’

‘You come to the party,’ Franceska stated, indicating the case was closed.

We set off, picking up Matt, Polly and the kids on the way. Toby was insisting on carrying George, but I had to walk, and thankfully the rain had stopped as quickly as it started. I listened to my humans chatter as we went towards Harold’s house. George and I had visited a few times while Harold was in hospital, seeing the progress being made. Having been around Seabreeze Cottage while they did lots of building work, I was quite the expert in home renovations, I liked to think.

‘Oh no, my garden,’ George said as Toby set him down in front of the house.

‘Sorry, son, but they were always going to tidy it up for Harold,’ I pointed out. It was no longer a jungle, but a very neat front garden. Grass trimmed, bushes cut back, and although the house wasn’t quite painted yet, the front door had been smartened up, and I could see it was going to look very nice soon. Even if poor George no longer had his jungle.

Polly opened the door and let us in and the warmth hit me first, followed by the light. No more gloomy interior, that was for sure, and all the lights worked. Walls had been painted a bright white, the living room furniture had been replaced by a nice sofa and one of Claire and Jonathan’s old armchairs. A coffee table sat neatly over new carpet and a bigger television hung on the wall. I ran to see the rest of the house. It was such a transformation. Still quite simple, but more homely. The kitchen hadn’t changed but had been cleaned up, the hallway carpet had been replaced, there was a small dining table at one end of the sitting room, overlooking the small, but tidy, back garden. I thought Harold would be very pleased, even if George was not.

They had even insisted on getting Harold a small Christmas tree, which sat in the corner of the living room. It was adorned with lights and baubles, and I saw George eyeing it up.

‘George, you cannot attack the tree before Harold even sees it,’ I said.

‘There is no fun in this house any more,’ he complained as he slunk away. I flicked my tail. Kids!

Claire and Polly supervised Matt and Jonathan hanging a ‘Welcome Home’ banner across one wall. Franceska got Tommy to help her with the food in the kitchen, which as usual looked delicious, and Toby, Henry, Summer and Martha played happily in the living room with George. It was heart-warming after what we had just witnessed with Sylvie. If only she and Connie would be part of this, I knew it would help them, but it seemed there was no way to win Sylvie around. She didn’t even seem to notice me, let alone allow me to charm her, and I had no ideas left. But I knew we would have to do something, we couldn’t go on like this. Not my poor Aleksy. But clearly dead things as presents were off the menu.

We were all lined up in the living room when Marcus texted Matt to say he was just outside. Tomasz had just arrived, with even more food, and as we all stood there Harold came in, with his stick in one hand and his son holding the other arm.

‘Welcome home,’ everyone cheered at once and as Harold’s eyes took in the scene they filled with tears. Oh no, we’d made another person cry today.

‘I can’t believe it,’ he said. My eyes widened; he sounded moved rather than angry. ‘I don’t know how to thank you for all of this. I’m such a cantankerous old man, I don’t deserve it, but I’m so happy to be home and what a lovely home it is. I don’t know how to thank you. And you …’

I almost ran in front of George as Harold slowly bent down. Was he going to hurt him? Instead though he gave him a pet. Wow, who was this man?

‘Thank you, clever cat, for saving my life, I’ll never tell you to “get lost” again.’ George purred and nuzzled into him, and I wondered where my thanks were. After all, I had gone and got the humans. I should have been used to being ignored by now, but you know, some appreciation would have been nice.

As they all crowded round Harold to show him the work they’d done to the house and then sat him down with food and a cup of tea, George, his new best friend, sat proudly next to him. I softened a bit. OK, so I was underappreciated at times but I had my George, so it was alright. And George needed any cheering up he could get.

‘And I have told Dad that I’m moving in here for a while,’ Marcus announced.

‘You don’t have to, son, and I’m sorry again about the whole divorce thing,’ Harold said. Being in hospital had really changed him.

‘No, we’ve put that firmly in the past where it belongs. Dad, I should never have let our row get out of hand. We’re family, so I’m staying at least until after Christmas and then we’ll see. I’ve arranged some home help for when I’m working, so you’ll be looked after as you should.’

‘And we’re going to pop in and see you as well,’ Jonathan said. He was quite fond of the old man; apparently they shared the same taste in football teams.

‘Oh, and I was thinking, we’re having a big Christmas this year, at our house,’ Claire said. ‘So why don’t you both join us?’

I felt like squealing; this was the sort of situation I loved, bringing more people into our family circle.

‘That’s so kind,’ Marcus said. ‘And if you’re sure we won’t be in the way, then we’d love to. I’m not much of a cook.’

‘He isn’t,’ Harold laughed. ‘He can burn water.’ Everyone laughed although I didn’t quite understand what that meant. It was a shame I couldn’t get Sylvie there, after all she and Marcus, well they were both divorced, both nice-looking, a similar age … Although one of them was insane. But then no one, not even me, was perfect.

‘You might have to bring a couple of chairs,’ Polly laughed.

‘Deal.’

‘Daddy, George is in the Christmas tree,’ Summer shouted and everyone moved at breakneck speed to find George sitting in the middle of the tree, a tangle of lights.

When he’d been untangled and sat back on the floor I went up to him.

‘What did I say?’ I chastised.

‘You said, don’t attack the tree before Harold sees it. Well he’s seen it now.’

I couldn’t argue with that.