Alfie The Holiday Cat

Chapter Sixteen

The men had left but the house had been strained since Tomasz and Franceska’s announcement. Before they went, Tomasz promised to see if there was anything he could do and Matt and Jonathan had offered help but I caught Claire crying when she and Jonathan were alone. Jonathan tried to reassure her but Claire said that if Franceska and Tomasz needed to pull their money out, then they might have to sell the cottage to the horrible Andrea. And she said she couldn’t bear to give up their dream. Jonathan promised he would do whatever he could but a heavy cloud hung over them.

The tension between the adults was clear. It was as if no one blamed Tomasz and Franceska but they were unhappy so the easy relationship had changed. Franceska and Claire seemed to be avoiding each other — and living in the same house that wasn’t easy. I needed to keep an eye on this one. The optimistic part of me thought that perhaps it would all be sorted but the other part suspected I would have to be the one to do so. Again, there was a lot to do for this cat, and although I had Gilbert and my kitten to help (although I was not sure how much help lovesick George would actually be), it still seemed my problems were mounting.

It had rained for the past two days and the children were largely housebound, as was I. George, however, still insisted on sitting under the hedge, despite constantly coming in drenched and miserable after not catching even a glimpse of Chanel. Today I’d finally persuaded him to stay with me and the children in the big living room. The adults had got a selection of films for us to watch and we all snuggled up on the sofas watching and eating popcorn, which was a real treat, as we’d only just finished breakfast. The kids were enjoying lazing around, eating treats, and watching films. The one currently showing was called Despicable Me, chosen because it was suitable for all of them, and of course us cats. I was quite enjoying it although George, who was sitting with Summer and Martha, seemed a little bit lovesick still.

The point was that we never did this at home so it was still like being on holiday even when we were inside. Seabreeze had that effect on us. It made everything feel like a holiday. I was quite keen on licking the popcorn, as was George it seemed, and the kids took great delight in feeding us. I snuggled down more and realised holidays could be a lot of different things.

But there was a cloud over our lovely holiday home, and not just a rain cloud. The women were all uneasy. It felt that the friendships that had been so strong almost from the moment I got my families together were now under threat. Franceska was in her bedroom, it was clear she wanted to be alone. Claire and Polly were supposed to be ordering furniture but they said they didn’t know if they should now that the future of their shared cottage was in question. I knew Franceska felt guilty, although it wasn’t her fault, and I also knew that Claire was so upset at the idea of losing the cottage she didn’t know how to act. Polly was trying to keep the peace but although they weren’t arguing, or angry with each other, they were all sad and quiet. The atmosphere inside Seabreeze almost matched the weather outside. Which was why I was keeping well away and in with the children.

‘You know how Mum seemed a bit sad earlier?’ Aleksy said quietly to his brother.

‘Yes,’ Tommy said. ‘So did Claire.’

‘Well what about if we put a play on for the mums to cheer them up?’

I meowed. What a good idea.

‘Guys,’ Tommy said, loudly, ‘we’re going to put on a play for our mums.’

‘Yay!’ Toby said.

‘Can I be a spaceman?’ Henry asked.

‘I want to be a princess,’ Martha chipped in.

‘Me too,’ Summer agreed.

‘And can Alfie and George be in it too?’ Toby asked.

‘Of course,’ Aleksy replied.

I was going to make my acting debut it seemed.

‘Can I go out, Dad?’ George asked after lunch. I looked at the children who were going to the living room to do more rehearsals for the play. Although we were in it, it seemed we had very little to actually do, so I was sure we wouldn’t be missed. But still it was awful out there as the rain persisted.

‘I’d rather not, it’s still quite wet out there.’ I was a fair weather cat.

‘But can I go to the hedge to look for Chanel then?’ he pushed.

‘OK, but you know what, I’ll come with you, I’m not happy with you being alone in this weather.’ My thoughts were that if George got too wet I could drag him back inside — not literally of course. I would have been happier in the warm but I didn’t want to be a bad parent.

When the others had gone I followed with George; we ran quickly to the hedge and nestled in. Looking at Andrea’s house I assumed she was inside; Chanel was definitely a fair weather cat, a bit like me in that respect.

‘I just wish I could see her,’ George said.

‘I know, but the weather is terrible, so I’m not sure she’ll come out.’ My poor kitten looked so dejected, I had to think of a way to cheer him up. ‘Tell you what, if you come home now maybe we can play hide and seek.’ As he bounded off, I followed. Thankfully that seemed to do the trick.

When we got home, George urged me to hide, so I went upstairs where I found another commotion. I went to the doorway of the adults’ bathroom to see Liam with his head hanging down. There was a broken window, and glass all over the floor.

‘What the hell have you done?’ the plumber asked. ‘How can you manage to put a wrench through a window?’

Colin approached, looking annoyed.

‘Liam, again?’ he asked.

‘I slipped,’ Liam whined, sounding like a little boy, ‘and the wrench smashed the window. You said you were replacing the windows anyway.’

If it hadn’t been for the glass all over the floor I would have gone up to him and swished my tail or something.

‘We are but not until the end of the summer. It’s booked in before we paint the house as the last job. Honestly, boy, you’re a liability,’ Colin said, still shaking his head.

‘What shall we do? I’ve got to get the fixtures all working today,’ the plumber said.

‘I’ve got some sheet glass in the van. Liam, go and get it and you’ll have to stay late and fix it. But first clean up the glass — if any of the kids or the cats get cut you’ll be for it.’

I followed Colin downstairs where he found Polly looking at fabric samples in the smaller living room.

‘Can I have a word?’ he asked.

‘Sure.’ Polly smiled.

‘It’s Liam, I’m afraid. He slipped and put a wrench through the bathroom window.’

‘What?’

‘Yelp!’ I tried to tell them that he probably did it on purpose but it fell on deaf ears.

‘He’s a calamity I know, but we’re going to fix it up so it’ll be fine until the double glazing goes in. Luckily you’ve got two windows in that bathroom but for now, only one will open. I’m so sorry.’ Colin looked upset, and I felt sorry for him. He didn’t know that one of his workers was trying to sabotage his job, which actually could have a really detrimental effect on him, couldn’t it?

‘Colin, that’s just the latest in the long list of things that Liam has done to mess up, cause delays and general trouble on this job. Can’t you get rid of him? The others are working here so well but he’s more trouble than he’s worth. I can’t afford not to be on schedule, we’ve got to go in a few weeks for school, and you know I want the bulk of the work done by then.’ Polly sounded kind, she wasn’t a shouter, or nasty like Andrea, but she had a fed-up edge to her voice.

‘I know and if it was anyone else I would. Look, Polly, I know this isn’t your problem but Liam is my brother’s lad, and my brother’s been unwell, he had to give up work, so well, they rely on Liam’s pay packet. I’ve been swallowing up the extra costs, apart from his time of course, but I really can’t sack him. I’ll take full responsibility for him but I don’t want my brother and sister-in-law to have any more stress.’

‘OK, I understand, but you know I can’t have him bringing the house to ruins.’ Polly smiled sadly and touched Colin on the arm. ‘I am sorry for your brother, but maybe you can get Liam to do jobs where he can’t damage anything.’

‘Good idea. Or I’ll give him some play tools like Henry and Toby have!’

‘Not a bad thought, he can borrow theirs,’ she laughed.

‘Thank you so much for understanding, it really is good of you.’ Colin’s mouth curled down, sadly. And suddenly I felt sorry for Liam although I wasn’t happy with him but again, as George, my very astute kitten, said, things aren’t always what they seem.

After tea that evening, we put on our play. Aleksy was the director, and he also narrated the (very thin) storyline. The play was about the royal family who visited the beach. It was a little bit strange and didn’t make total sense, but then neither did life.

‘I’m a princess,’ seemed to be Summer’s only line, which she repeated.

‘I’m a royal prince,’ Toby added. Tommy was the king, and he re-enacted the paddleboard incident with George, only without a paddleboard. Henry was the spaceman servant to the royal family. It was quite funny and the women all clapped very loudly, but I could tell they were putting a brave face on things. My only part was to be the royal cat and I joined in, quite happily; we needed some light relief. Aleksy even tied a towel around me to be a royal robe and I was pleased to see the women smile as the play reached its final scene. Even if things were still strained, everyone appeared to be happier than they had been before as they broke into another round of applause, and the three women were momentarily united as they cheered us all.

As I moved on from my acting debut, I went to find Gilbert. In my time I had learnt to trust my instincts and when I felt something in my fur, well, let’s say I believed those feelings.

‘Alright, Alfie,’ Gilbert said. His gruff greeting was warmer each time I saw him.

‘Did you see Liam break the window today?’ I asked, no time for small talk.

‘I did, I found a good spot to watch him from, the idiot broke it on purpose, but that’s not all. When I was following him earlier his phone rang and he went to where he thought no one was listening but, of course, I was. Anyway, I heard him say Andrea’s name and I imagine she was shouting at him as he was flinching quite a lot. In actual fact, he seemed scared of her, but asked if they could have dinner … Well anyway, she must have said yes because he smiled and then he went and smashed the window.’

‘He might be next door right now!’ I said.

‘He might.’

‘What are we waiting for?’ I made to go to the back door.

‘Where’s George?’

‘Fast asleep, he stays with Toby all night, and anyway we won’t necessarily need to be long.’

‘OK, Alfie, I’m right behind you.’

We circled the house before we hit gold. There was a room with full-length doors. The doors had curtains but they weren’t completely closed and we could see inside. As we peered in, we saw that Andrea was on a very comfortable-looking sofa, holding a glass. Chanel was perched on the arm of the sofa and opposite her sat Liam, wearing clothes that were smarter than we had ever seen him wearing. He looked quite nice, his hair was neat and he looked clean.

The problem was that the doors shut out any sound so we couldn’t hear what was being said, although I could see Andrea’s lips moving a lot and Liam just sitting there looking besotted.

I noticed that Chanel seemed to sense there was something amiss as she made her way to the glass doors and we quickly darted back so she couldn’t see us. She sniffed a bit, before baring her teeth then leaving.

‘Isn’t Liam a bit young for Andrea? I know I’m a cat but she seems a lot older than him,’ Gilbert said as we started to head home.

‘I think so.’ I wasn’t an expert, but I was pretty sure that Andrea was using Liam to get to us and it looked as if he had a crush on her just as George did on Chanel. ‘But then Chanel is too old for George but he’s so besotted he won’t listen to me.’

‘It must be the same for Liam,’ Gilbert said.

‘Yes but if he is trying to help her get us out of the cottage, then how are we going to stop him?’ I felt as if Andrea was in charge of too many aspects of our lives.

‘I don’t know but if I stay close to him I can try to make sure that he doesn’t do anything too bad. You know, when he broke the window I wasn’t expecting that but if I had I could have tripped him up or something.’

‘Or if you can’t do anything then try to come and find me if you can, or yowl so loudly that the humans all come running.’

‘But then they’ll find me.’ Gilbert was still uncertain.

‘They have to meet you at some point,’ I told him.

‘Humph,’ was his reply and I knew I was winning. With him at least.

Once again, I felt that things were mounting up and, for the first time this holiday, I missed Edgar Road badly. I missed Tiger and my other friends. I missed not having anyone to ask advice from; although I now had Gilbert, it wasn’t quite the same as having my usual cat gang. I was feeling as if things were threatening to slip out of control and our idyllic holiday home was under threat. The worst thing was that my humans were still oblivious to all this. They thought that Franceska and Tomasz were the only threat to keeping the cottage. Yes they knew that Andrea wanted the house, they knew her children were mean and they thought that Liam was one of the most incompetent builders they’d come across, but apart from that they had no idea that there was a plan underway, a plan I was pretty sure was going to turn our holiday upside down. I couldn’t believe it had only been a few short weeks since we had come here, it felt as if we belonged here in so many ways. I wanted what Claire wanted, I wanted our families to have this wonderful holiday home for many years to come, even after I was no longer around. I wanted it for them so badly that I knew I would have to play a big part in making sure it happened.