Alfie The Holiday Cat

Chapter Eight

The absence of the men was felt keenly on Monday morning. I was secretly excited though, because Gilbert had emptied my bowl, and therefore it was obvious he understood my message. I still hadn’t seen him but I thought if I got enough rest today, if George let me, then I would stay up late tonight to have a chat with him. I felt as if it would be great to have a new friend here, and also an ally wouldn’t go amiss either.

We had had an uneventful Sunday with no other children sighted, no Andrea, or Chanel, despite George’s desperation. The poor kitten was devastated and had insisted on camping out in the hedge watching her house for hours, but to no avail. I had to persuade him back in with the promise of ice cream, and then I had no idea how to get any. Thankfully Summer had a cone which she thought was hilarious to feed him. Jonathan wasn’t impressed though, but it was cute and Claire videoed the whole thing. Little George, all eager with his head in an ice-cream cone, pink ice cream all over his fur when he emerged. It took an age to get him properly clean but at least it took his mind off Chanel for a few minutes.

Anyway, when in the afternoon Franceska had driven the men back to the train station we had all been sad to see them go. It was lovely here but it was definitely better when they were all with us. Everyone seemed to agree. We all missed them.

‘I thought we might go across the estuary on the ferry today, cheer us up,’ Claire suggested.

‘Fab idea. I can leave the builders, they are doing a great job with the attic,’ Polly agreed. ‘And they don’t need me at all.’

‘It’ll be nice to see another new place,’ Franceska thirded. ‘Right, children, get dressed and we can go out.’

George and I went to the boys’ room as they got ready.

‘I want to go on a ferry,’ George hissed to me. Honestly this kitten was always in need of entertainment.

‘We can’t and, anyway, the estuary is water, we don’t do water,’ I said. That was the end of that.

That wasn’t the end of that. George was being all cute with Tommy and I knew exactly what his game was. He was rubbing his legs, purring, lying on his back asking to be tickled; he was trying to give Tommy a message.

‘Hey, Aleksy, what if we take the cats with us? We can smuggle them in our backpacks, like we used to with Alfie when we were little.’ Actually, Aleksy did that only once, but obviously they had never forgotten.

‘But, Tommy, we could get into so much trouble if we’re caught.’ Thankfully Aleksy was sensible. ‘But it would be kind of fun to have Alfie and George with us.’ I could see Aleksy, who was a clever boy, weighing it up. I really liked adventures but when they involved water, no thank you. ‘It would be funny though, like the cats were stowaways. If we get caught we have to say we didn’t know the cats were there.’ Not that clever then. Who would believe that I would voluntarily go anywhere near water? No one, that’s who.

‘Yes!’ Tomasz high-fived Aleksy. Operation cats on a ferry was a go, whether I liked it or not.

George was so excited as we stayed in the boys’ room like we’d been ordered to. The plan was that just as they were ready to go they would say they needed their backpacks, come upstairs and get us. No one would ever find out. I raised my whiskers. I loved a good plan, don’t get me wrong, it was what I did, but I didn’t have a great feeling about this one.

I tried to quash my misgivings as I peered out of the gap in Aleksy’s backpack. This wasn’t a bad way to travel, I thought, as the sun shone and we got to see more of the village. We walked past the beach — busy with families — then along to a big wall. There were steps leading down to the water and a boat, which didn’t look very big, or safe for that matter, was waiting. I tried to be brave but my fur was quivering. I couldn’t see George, who was tucked up in Tommy’s backpack, but I hoped he was alright. It felt a bit jerky as they went down the steps.

‘God, it’s a bit steep,’ Claire said.

‘Just be careful, children,’ Franceska said.

Yes, I thought, please be careful. As the backpack was put on the floor with a gentle thud, I looked around through the small gap. All I could see were legs. There were all of us, plus some other people on the boat. Luckily I couldn’t see any water, so I could pretend it wasn’t there. I just hoped we didn’t sink. When I first met Claire she was sad and watched this film called Titanic a lot, so I knew just how precarious boats could be.

I couldn’t see George still but I knew he would be excited by this. He didn’t share my fears, and actually in some ways that was a good thing. I didn’t want him to be scared of everything, but I did want him to sense danger. It was another parenting lesson I was trying hard to get right. The boat ride itself was quite smooth, there were a couple of rocky patches but nothing too bad, I thought as I almost held my breath.

‘I love this,’ I heard Toby say, and Claire kissed him. ‘I’ve never been on a boat before.’

‘Have I?’ Summer asked.

‘No, darling, this is your first ever boat trip, both of you.’ Sometimes I forgot that there was a time when Toby wasn’t with us, and I felt emotional. He was such an important part of our family now.

The boat stopped with a jerk and I fell back, but luckily Aleksy had put a jumper in the bag so it was soft for me. Then I felt him pick me up and we were off. As we disembarked I saw us walking up a steep slope where lots of people were playing.

‘Let’s just find a space on the quay to decamp,’ Polly said. Again I was put down on the ground. The quay led down to the water and I could see lots of people were scattered along it, with fishing lines. I perked up. Things were improving. I might not like water but I certainly liked fish.

‘What are you doing?’ I heard Tommy ask someone.

‘Crabbing. We’re trying to catch crabs,’ a voice replied. Oh, not fish then; I felt disappointed.

‘Can we do that?’ Aleksy asked.

‘Please,’ Henry said.

‘Gosh, I vaguely remember doing that when I was a kid. Blimey. Right, I’ll go to the shop and get lines and buckets. Summer, you can share Toby’s.’

‘Oh, and Martha and Henry can share. But I don’t want any of you getting too close to the edge.’ Polly echoed my fears.

‘Psst,’ a voice said, and I looked to see George’s face. Tomasz had put the backpacks next to each other.

‘Are you having fun?’ I asked.

‘The most fun, but can I go crabbing?’

‘Best not. Let’s stay here and watch for a bit, we don’t want to get into trouble,’ I hissed.

‘OK, Dad.’ George sounded happy, which made me happy. I settled down to enjoy the sliver of sunlight coming into the bag and I felt sleepy all of a sudden.

‘Alfie,’ I heard Aleksy whisper. I opened my eyes. How long had I been sleeping for?

‘Meow,’ I said, sleepily.

‘George is out of the backpack. The adults have taken the little ones to the toilet, and left us and now George is insisting on crabbing with us.’ He sounded panicked. I climbed out of the bag, stretched — my legs were a little stiff — and looked for my kitten.

‘George,’ I said, quietly.

‘Yes, Dad.’

‘We were only allowed to come if we stayed out of sight,’ I explained, trying not to sound impatient.

‘Yes, but where’s the fun in that?’ he said. He had a point. I thought back to when I was younger, before George, and I used to go on many adventures. Yes I got into trouble at times, but at least I had some great experiences. I realised I was getting a bit boring in my old age. I tickled my boy with my tail.

‘OK, but listen, stay close to me and watch out for dogs.’

Aleksy looked worried but Tommy thought it was funny as we joined them on the quay to see what this crabbing business was. They had these long orange lines which they were dangling into the water. Beside them were two buckets which contained some funny-looking creatures — crabs — in. Aleksy was putting food on the line, it didn’t smell too bad actually, but I tried not to eat it. I was beginning to enjoy myself, when Ben, one of the children from the other day, approached.

‘Alright,’ he said.

‘Hi, Ben,’ Aleksy said, sounding friendly.

‘Hello.’ Tommy was more suspicious.

‘Sorry about the other day, those girls, Savannah especially, have started to be a bit bossy. They’ve always been nice girls, but lately they can be a bit mean. I am sorry though, we were having fun.’

‘They seemed really horrible,’ Tommy said.

‘But they aren’t always like that. I think that maybe they were upset that we were playing with you and they weren’t. And like I said, recently they have been a bit meaner than normal, and everyone tries to keep the peace with them.’ He looked at his sandalled feet.

‘You’re scared of them?’ Tommy asked.

Ben nodded, his face reddening.

‘I know what bullies are like,’ Aleksy said. He did, I had to go to school with him once to sort out a little boy who was bullying Aleksy. ‘But you know, you need to stand up to them.’

‘I know, but we’ve been friends for years, and normally they are really nice, so we don’t really understand.’ Ben looked downcast. ‘We do want to play with you though. But what if we still meet up on the beach? And now, how about I join you crabbing? My mum is having coffee with one of her friends so I’m a bit bored to be honest.’

‘Here,’ Aleksy said, handing him his line. ‘You have a go.’

I was so proud of my boys. They didn’t hold a grudge.

‘Oh, your cats are here!’ Ben giggled.

‘Yes, we stowed them away on the ferry.’ Tommy beamed with pride.

Ben stroked both me and George. ‘That is so cool!’ he said. George, loving the attention, started showing off. He put his head into one of the buckets.

‘Yelp!’ George sprang up, an angry crab attached to his nose.

‘Oh boy,’ Aleksy said. ‘What do we do?’ He looked panicked, as did I. What on earth was this crab doing attaching itself to my kitten?

‘Don’t wriggle,’ Ben said, picking George up and gently removing the crab. He carefully placed it back in the bucket as George rubbed his nose, which looked a bit swollen, with his paw. I backed away from the buckets and nuzzled George.

‘Will he be alright?’ George was making a very loud noise, I knew it meant that it hurt but there was nothing I could do. Ben cradled him and tried to stroke him. I think we were all glad that he was there. I saw the boys looking worried but then Aleksy laughed.

‘Sorry, George, but you did look funny with a crab on your nose,’ he giggled. The others joined in and I have to say I did see the funny side. If only someone had taken a photo — that would have gone down a storm on Facebook!

‘Yowl!’ However, George did not.

We were so caught up in the excitement we didn’t notice the others returning.

‘What on earth is going on?’ Franceska said. Aleksy, Tomasz, Ben, myself and George all looked at them. At least that silenced George.

‘Alfie, George, what are you doing here?’ Claire snapped. The children giggled.

‘Um, we may have accidentally stowed them away,’ Tommy said.

‘No, they stowed away on their own,’ Aleksy corrected, but he was such a good boy he couldn’t tell a lie without laughing.

‘You boys!’ Franceska chastised. ‘Right, well there’s nothing we can do now, and we are heading back soon anyway. Ice cream?’ She smiled and picked me up.

‘MEOW!’ George said loudly and everyone laughed.

I was glad when we got back to Seabreeze Cottage with no further incidents. Apart from the crab incident — poor George’s nose was still a bit swollen — we’d had a very nice day out. Ben had been helpful and I was pleased that they were friends again, although I knew that those girls wouldn’t exactly welcome them being so. But as they said, if they played together on the beach — a public place — hopefully there was nothing they could say about that. Although I thought they probably could. I wondered what had happened to them to make them mean — Ben said that they were nice until recently. It was another conundrum for me to add to all the others. I fleetingly wondered if Chanel had been nice once, but I couldn’t see that.

As they all sat down to eat tea, and George and I went to the garden, I felt quite relaxed. Of course, George went straight to the gap in the hedge and crawled through. He struck gold, because Chanel was there, sniffing some of Andrea’s very nice flowers.

‘Hello!’ George said, excitedly. I stayed close to him, just in case. He didn’t need any other injuries today.
‘Oh it’s you,’ she said, narrowing her eyes and swishing her tail.

‘How are you?’ he asked, bouncing around. Honestly, he hadn’t quite mastered the art of flirting yet.

‘I will be much better when you have gone,’ she hissed.

‘Hey, there’s no need for that,’ I said.

‘Look, you might be staying next door but this is my house, my garden, and you need to keep out of it.’

‘Oh well, you can come to my garden any time,’ George said, looking hopeful.

‘My owner is going to get rid of all of you, mark my words,’ Chanel replied. ‘So, it won’t be your garden for much longer.’

Again, I felt a shiver in my fur as Chanel stalked off and I herded George back to our side of the hedge.

‘Oh, Dad, she’s so lovely,’ George sighed. ‘And I really think she likes me.’

‘Did you hear what she said?’ I asked.

‘Not really. I was too busy looking at her beautiful eyes,’ he replied.

There was no hope, none at all.

But it annoyed me that a run-in with Chanel — even if George hadn’t noticed it — had ruined what was otherwise a nice day out. Well that and a crab. I had been relieved, by the way, when the boys put the crabs back in the sea. I think they should have been allowed to stay there to be honest — I wasn’t sure how kind crabbing actually was. Even if the crabs weren’t hurt they were sort of kidnapped, which seemed a little unfair. Anyway, as we went back inside we met Polly on the doorstep with a shopping bag from the little local store.

‘Do you think we’ll get more ice cream?’ George asked hopefully.

‘No, I think there’s been enough today.’ I patted his head with my paw.

Polly opened the door and we followed her into the kitchen.

‘Hey,’ Claire said, as Polly put the bags down on the counter.

‘That woman …’ Polly fumed.

‘Oh, now what happened?’ Franceska said.

‘Andrea and two of her friends were in the café in the shop and she was pretty nasty.’

‘So what she said to the men?’

‘Total rubbish. I said to her, “You didn’t mention to our husbands that you wanted us out of Seabreeze Cottage,” and she replied, sneering through those bright pink lips of hers, “Oh dear, it must have slipped my mind. But mark my words, you’ll regret not selling it to me soon enough.”’

‘You’re kidding?’ Claire said. ‘What did her friends say?’

‘They looked embarrassed but didn’t speak. Well, one of them tried to introduce herself but Andrea told her to shut up. A bit like the kids, actually, it’s like they’re scared of her, but I tell you what, that woman is not nice, and we need to watch out.’

‘Oh no, I don’t like this hostility,’ Franceska said, brow furrowing.

‘Don’t worry, Frankie, we will not be bullied by her.’ Polly looked tough.

‘There’s nothing she can do anyway,’ Claire pointed out. ‘Yes, she might intimidate us but we’re big girls, we can handle it.’

I sincerely hoped they could.