Рейчел Уэллс - Alfie And George

‘Oh God.’ Claire and I stood back as she opened the door. Tasha, her best friend and one of mine too, stood on the doorstep, holding her son, Elijah, who was only a bit older than Summer. She was crying with such force, it suggested she might fall over.

‘Tash, come in,’ Claire said. She grabbed Elijah, almost dropping him; he was only a few months older than Summer but he was about two children heavier. She shouted for Jonathan, who came running, thrust Elijah at him and told him to take him into the kitchen with Summer. Jonathan looked shocked but didn’t argue as Claire led Tash into the living room with me at their heels, where Tash immediately collapsed onto the sofa.

‘Tash, darling, what on earth is it?’ Claire wrapped her arms around her friend as she sobbed. Not quite knowing what to do, I curled up next to her. At least she would know I was there for her.

Tasha and I had met when I started living with Claire on Edgar Road, a long time ago. I had loved her straight away. She was a good friend to Claire and had seen us both through some tough times. Claire and Tasha used to work together and had quickly become best friends. Now, with the children so close in age, they spent loads of time together and she remained one of my favourite humans. I didn’t go to her house, as it was too far away, but she was nevertheless part of my family.

‘It’s Dave, he’s gone!’

Dave was her partner. They had never married, and although he seemed an all right kind of bloke, he was allergic to cats, so we always had a bit of an issue between us. He used to take pills when he was around me but he still never touched me, so our relationship was far from close.

‘Gone? Gone where?’

‘He’s, he’s …’ She hiccupped.‘He’s left us. Moved out.’

‘What? Tash! What on earth?’ Claire took hold of her friend’s hands, looking as shocked as I felt. I might not have been Dave’s biggest fan but I thought they were solid in their relationship. Immediately, I felt a kinship with Tash — we both were suffering heartbreak, after all.

‘He said last night he couldn’t do this, this relationship with me. He said he loved Elijah but this wasn’t how he thought family life would be and he wasn’t cut out for it. I tried to ask him for reasons, he just kept saying that he didn’t love me anymore. I tried to talk him out of it, but he, he didn’t change his mind. I cried, I begged, I didn’t sleep all night and this morning he packed a few bags and went. What am I going to do?’

‘Oh, Tash, I can’t believe it.’ As Tash sobbed in Claire’s arms I came to the sad realisation that I had been right all along not to trust a man who was allergic to cats.

Claire was good in a crisis, a bit like myself. She mobilised the troops. She told Jonathan to look after the children while she took Tash into a different room. She ordered Jonathan to call Dave and try to get to the bottom of it, then she said that Tash and Elijah had to move in with us for now. She drove Tash home to get some of their belongings so they could stay for a few days at least. Basically she did exactly what I would have done, if I were a human. I had taught her well.

I felt sad for my lovely friend. Why did humans continue to hurt each other? It was something I didn’t understand. I knew how Tash felt, a little bit, having lost Snowball. But at least Snowball hadn’t abandoned me — she didn’t have a choice but to leave.

I knew I needed to be there for Tasha; I had to help her heal and let her know I understood how she felt. As I pondered how I would do that I heard George miaowing urgently from the kitchen. I had only taken my eyes off him for a second but I ran in to find him standing in my food bowl. In the crisis, Claire and Jonathan had obviously forgotten to put our food away as they usually did.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked, exasperated. He had flakes of tuna on his head.

‘I wanted to try your food, then I thought how much bigger your bowl was than mine, so I thought I’d see if it was bigger than me. I got in but I can’t get out again.’

‘George, if the humans find you they’ll be cross,’ I admonished as I helped him get out.‘Quick, clean yourself up before they get back.’ I supervised his clean-up and tried not to be annoyed that he had used up the rest of my breakfast with his experiment. After all, I had more important things than food on my mind right now.

‘Yum, I liked that,’ George said, licking his lips when he was clean again.

‘But that was my breakfast. You have special food because you’re little. Like Summer,’ I explained.

‘I’m going to get big now so I can eat like you,’ George declared before scampering off. I checked that there was definitely no food left — there wasn’t, George had either eaten what I had left or worn it — before chasing after him.

I found him running round in circles.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked, mildly amused.

‘I’m trying to catch my tail but it keeps running away from me.’

Oh, how I laughed as he determinedly ran round in circles. I didn’t have the heart to tell him he’d never catch it. In the midst of all the doom my kitten was cheering me up. He had this magical power and I wondered now if it was time for me to pass the baton. Should I train George up to help people the way I always did? It seemed like a good idea, and perhaps George could help me help Tash. I was already teaching George what I knew, so when it came to my families, and being a doorstep cat, George would be my apprentice. I grinned — what a nice thought that was.

I looked around the living room. Tash was lying on the sofa, cuddling Elijah, who was asleep. George was curled up at her feet, which was sweet. I had asked him to spend time with Tasha and, actually, when he did the chasing-his-tail thing she had laughed for the first time, so it had worked. My gorgeous kitten was a tonic for us all, it seemed.

Summer was napping in her bedroom, so I joined Claire and Jonathan in the kitchen, where they were talking quietly.

‘So he’s not going to change his mind?’ Claire asked.

‘No, the idiot’s met someone else. I suspected it already, so I tripped him up and he admitted it. Typical story, she’s younger, no kids and he probably thinks she’ll never make the demands of him that Tash does. Anyway, he was too cowardly to tell Tash. I’m afraid he’s moved on. He’s even talking about selling their place and splitting the money. It’s only been five minutes!’ Jonathan looked incredulous — angry and red faced. What made me most proud of Jonathan was how honourable he was as a person. He would never do that to Claire; I would put all the pilchards in the world on it.

‘Oh God, what are we going to tell Tash?’ Claire asked.

Jonathan shook his head. ‘He really doesn’t care that she’s in pieces. He just seems to ignore that he’s hurt her, and when I tried to talk about Elijah he said that plenty of kids grow up with parents who aren’t together. He doesn’t seem to think he’s done anything wrong. I wanted to punch him — it was lucky he was on the other end of the phone.’

Jonathan and Dave had never really been friends. They spent time together because of Tash and Claire but I heard Jonathan say he thought he was missing a few brain cells, and apparently he had committed an even worse crime than being allergic to cats: he supported Arsenal. Jonathan could never forgive that but I didn’t really understand why.

‘So what do we do?’ Claire was distraught. Jonathan held her.

‘Well, she can stay here as long as she needs to. I’ll tell Dave to get the rest of this stuff out of the house. And I know she might not be ready, but I’m going to get her a solicitor for when she is. He’s not going to do the right thing, so I’m going to take him on.’ Jonathan sounded pretty certain.