Рейчел Уэллс - Alfie The Holiday Cat

‘Why are we staring at the water?’ Andrea said, putting her hand up to shield herself from the burning evening sun.

‘Oh, look, there’s your cat, in that boat there,’ Aleksy shouted. They all looked and finally saw what we wanted them to see.

‘Oh no, oh no!’ Andrea started to breathe funny. ‘What are we going to do, my baby is floating away.’

‘When’s the tide coming back?’ Tomasz asked.

‘Not for hours. She can’t stay out there until then.’ Andrea was hysterical, Franceska took hold of her as if she might faint.

‘Do you have a boat?’ Matt asked.

‘No, of course I don’t,’ Andrea snapped.

‘Look, there’s a paddleboard there, we could go and get her on that,’ Aleksy said, spotting a board on the shore.

‘You can’t go without an instructor, or a life jacket,’ Tomasz pointed out.

‘But someone needs to rescue her, please, please I’m begging you,’ Andrea said. I noticed she didn’t suggest going herself.

‘Oh goodness, I’ll go,’ Jonathan said. We all stared at him. ‘How hard can it be?’ he asked. Claire looked a little horrified. ‘It’s just standing, isn’t it?’

‘It’s quite hard, actually,’ Tommy said. But Jonathan wasn’t listening. He was already approaching the board.

‘Are you sure about this?’ Claire asked, sounding terrified.

‘Sure,’ Jonathan lied. ‘I’ve got to get that cat, and no one else is offering to go.’ He took his shoes off, grabbing the board and the paddle and taking them into the water. I wasn’t sure if I could look. I had a bad feeling about this.

‘I have to rescue my love,’ George said suddenly, and before I could do anything he had run up to Jonathan and leapt onto the paddleboard.

‘My goodness, your kitten’s on the paddleboard!’ Lily exclaimed.

‘Oh no,’ I said to Gilbert, my panic was building. ‘I have to go after him!’

‘No, Alfie, stay here, he’ll be alright, Jonathan will take care of him,’ Gilbert said, giving me a reassuring nuzzle.

But who would take care of Jonathan, I wanted to ask.

‘Oh blimey, George, you’ve made this even harder,’ Jonathan shouted. Jonathan was in the water attempting to get on the board while George was staring out to where Chanel’s boat was. We were all watching from the shore, closer to the water than I liked but I had to be as near to my boy as I could be. Of course George wasn’t making it harder for Jonathan to get on the board, and I remembered how good he was on it when he went off with Tommy, so I tried to stay calm. Especially as the silly kitten seemed to like water.

‘Are you sure he knows how to paddleboard?’ Andrea asked. No one replied. No one needed to. It soon became clear Jonathan had no idea, as he tried to get on the board, and kept slipping off. He finally managed to get on but then fell straight off the other side, almost taking George with him. Luckily my kitten had really good balance. I felt my fur shaking with fear for both of them, but I tried to stay calm, in case I was needed. Not that I had any idea what I could do.

‘Can I help him, Dad?’ Aleksy asked after a while.

‘Sure, you better help him get on, Aleksy,’ Tomasz said, patting his shoulder. ‘But don’t go too deep.’ It was lucky Tomasz said that, because Andrea was on the sand, sobbing in a heap, Franceska trying to comfort her and, well, we might have been here all night if Aleksy hadn’t gone.

He waded out to where Jonathan was, luckily the water was only waist-deep. He held onto the board and the paddle while Jonathan sat down. Aleksy tried to take George but George wouldn’t cooperate.

‘George, come to me,’ Aleksy said, putting his hand out to grab him.

‘Meow!’ George swiped a paw at him. My goodness, he had never done that before.

‘Ow, George scratched me!’ Aleksy exclaimed as he held his hand away from George.

‘For goodness’ sake,’ Jonathan said. ‘If this isn’t bad enough.’

‘Right, Jonathan, just sit on it like you are doing and paddle either side to steer. Don’t try to stand up,’ Aleksy directed, rubbing his hand.

‘No, no chance of that.’ Jonathan looked mildly terrified as he started paddling off. The board was very wobbly and not exactly going in a straight line. I wanted to close my eyes again but, knowing George was on there, I couldn’t quite tear them away. It seemed to take him a very long time to move at all, but he kept trying. By this time Aleksy had returned to shore, soaking wet, and when we all examined his hand, it was only a tiny scratch.

‘He really wanted to go with Jonathan,’ Aleksy said. You don’t know the half of it, I thought.

I couldn’t help but notice that Jonathan and George were already soaked as they made their way, in a very long-winded manner, to the boat where Chanel was. After what felt like hours, they pulled up beside the boat. Jonathan had the paddle in one hand and was reached out to hold the boat with the other. Chanel looked at George and recoiled slightly. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I could imagine that Jonathan was saying those words that Claire said ‘not in front of the children’ to him about.

‘Get onto the board, Chanel!’ Andrea was screaming. I wanted to scream too, I wanted George back safe and sound and I could see that if Chanel didn’t get onto the board soon the whole thing would capsize. Although I wasn’t worried about Jonathan — he could swim — I was terrified for George who I wasn’t sure could. Finally, after Andrea had screamed herself hoarse, Chanel climbed out of the boat and somehow Jonathan managed to grab her without falling off. Everyone on the shore cheered loudly.

‘Go Jonathan!’ Tommy shouted and Jonathan started to paddle.

After going round in circles a few times, Jonathan managed to get the board and the cats near enough to the shore for the boys to go and help.

‘Hooray!’ Tommy shouted as he and Aleksy ran to greet the paddleboard. Aleksy held it tight while Tommy grabbed George and Jonathan disembarked, the latter clutching a terrified Chanel.

‘Thank you so much!’ Andrea grabbed Chanel from Jonathan’s arms and tearfully cuddled the cat. I had never seen Chanel look anything but disdainful but now she seemed shocked and shaken up. I almost felt sorry for her. Andrea wasn’t letting her go although she was wet and dishevelled. ‘Thank you so much again, but I ought to rush off, sorry to leave you like this but she’s traumatised, and with a pedigree such as Chanel’s I can’t take any chances. I think I ought to call the vet.’

‘Do you think we should have George checked over?’ Claire said.

‘No, he’s just a bit wet, he’s fine,’ Jonathan said. ‘I, on the other hand, am soaked and also a little bit unsettled from that little jaunt. I need a towel and a beer.’

‘What on earth was she doing in that boat?’ Franceska asked.

Yes exactly, I thought, glaring at George. Hide and seek, my tail.

‘You said you thought it would be a piece of cake,’ Tomasz pointed out, laughing at bedraggled Jonathan.

‘Yeah, you did, mate.’ Matt patted his shoulder.

‘OK, so maybe it’s not as easy as it looks,’ Jonathan conceded. ‘But now can I go and get dried off?’

‘So …’ I started. After being towel-dried in the utility room, Gilbert, George and I were alone. Well we weren’t, because Lily had followed us home for some reason. ‘Tell me why you thought it was alright to risk your life, George.’

‘OK, so it’s like this.’ George grinned. I could see he was mustering all his charm. ‘It was my fault that Chanel was in the boat, so I owed it to her to help rescue her. I’m good at paddleboarding after all, and did you see Jonathan, he was hopeless, he needed me.’