Рейчел Уэллс - A Cat Called Alfie

‘Oh, Alfie,’ she said as she noticed me again. ‘I forgot about you.’

‘Alfie!’ Aleksy cried. ‘I thought you were sending him home.’

‘I was, but, Aleksy, you were right, Alfie is a very special cat. He found Molly, and he’s the hero of the school today.’ All the children cheered me and I preened myself. It hadn’t been hard but then again, I wasn’t going to refuse praise. Milking it, I first went up to where Aleksy sat and jumped onto his desk. As the rest of the class crowded round him I stood on my back legs and raised my paw. ‘However, I have heard that there was an altercation in the playground which we will talk about, mark my words.’ Miss Walton looked at Ralph who turned red and looked as if he would burst into tears.

‘High-five,’ Aleksy said, as I sat up, tapping my paw with his hand. A trick we practised every time I saw him. I was quite an old paw at it now, in fact.

‘Wow, can I do that?’ another child asked. I let them all high-five me, which was tiring but it made them so happy that I couldn’t refuse. Even Ralph was moving closer, but he didn’t seem quite able to join in.

‘Aleksy, you know the coolest cat ever. Can I come and see him at your house, if he’s ever there?’ one child asked. As everyone made a request to hang out with Aleksy and me, I felt as if my job here was done.

‘But Alfie really does have to go now,’ Miss Watson said all too soon, ‘so how about we write a story about him, and his journey here? Then we can all draw pictures!’

‘Yeah,’ the class chorused, excitedly.

‘Great,’ she said. ‘Right, while I show Alfie out, yet again, you can all start thinking about the story.’ She picked me up and took me outside. When we got to the gate she put me down. ‘Bye, Alfie, nice to meet you but it’s best if you don’t make this a regular thing,’ was her parting comment.

‘All OK?’ Tiger said, as she came to greet me.

‘Mission accomplished I think, and it was incredibly easy! Aleksy is very popular now and that horrible boy isn’t going to bother him again.’ Seeing how the children had reacted to Aleksy, I was confident of that. I wished I could have been there to hear their story about me though. I would have liked that.

‘All right, I said I’d go,’ Jonathan said reluctantly, as I appeared in the kitchen. It was the day after my school adventure and he had arrived back from his work trip.

‘Take the plant I bought them before it dies,’ Claire snapped. She had bought it about a week after Snowball’s family moved into number 48, and as all attempts she’d made to deliver it had been in vain, she’d been watering it herself.

I bristled, she clearly wasn’t in the best of moods.

‘Of course, darling. Hey, are you all right?’ His voice was tender so I knew he was as concerned as I was.

‘Yes, sorry I snapped. I just think those poor neighbours need warning about the horrors opposite them. I saw Vic today and he’s really got it in for them.’

‘OK, I’ll give it a go, wish me luck.’ He kissed his wife. ‘Alfie, come with me, you haven’t met the new neighbours yet either have you?’

How little he knew. However, unable to resist another glimpse of Snowball, I trotted off.

I wondered if Vic and Heather were watching as Jonathan stood on the doorstep and rang the bell. I was sure I could see a curtain twitch. Jonathan was quite insistent with the bell, and after what seemed like ages we heard footsteps coming towards us. It was the man who opened the door. Although he only opened it a fraction.

‘Hello?’ he said, suspiciously. What was it with these people?

‘Hi, I’m Jonathan, your next door neighbour. We wanted to welcome you to Edgar Road.’ The man opened the door a bit more.

‘Hi, I’m Tim. Sorry we haven’t introduced ourselves but it’s been pretty hectic.’ Tim sounded normal, not the way he had when I had heard him speaking to Snowball where his voice had been sad. Suddenly she appeared at his feet as the men shook hands.

‘Nice to meet you, Tim. Oh and this is my cat, Alfie.’

‘Snowball,’ he said, gesturing to her. Both men laughed awkwardly. Snowball looked at me through narrowed eyes; she clearly wasn’t over the moon to see me.

‘My wife, Claire, got a plant for you.’ Jonathan handed it over, looking a bit sheepish. It wasn’t very manly after all. ‘She’s been over but you must have been out.’

‘To be honest, we’re not home much. My wife, Karen, works shifts at the hospital and poor thing is doing killer hours at the moment. The kids have just started a new school, which, well, you know how it is.’

‘We don’t have children, yet.’ I marvelled at the fact Jonathan disclosed this information, he looked a bit bashful so I guessed he was surprised by his openness too.

‘Well take it from me, teenagers starting a new school is no fun,’ he laughed although it was edged with bitterness.

‘Sorry to hear that. Anyway, listen, we should grab a beer? Or maybe you and your wife would like to come over for dinner one night?’

‘We’d love to but to be honest at the moment things aren’t easy. Karen’s working all hours and with the kids …’

‘Well, when you have time the invitation’s there. Anyway, I wanted to warn you that there’s this couple over the road, Vic and Heather Goodwin. They’re Neighbourhood Watch Nazis, and they’ve got a bit of a bee in their bonnet.’ Jonathan scratched his head, awkwardly. Snowball stared at me, with beautiful but frosty eyes. I had to make myself concentrate on the conversation, she was so distracting.

‘Really?’

‘They are sort of, well, curtain-twitchers my mate Matt calls them. They think that as they haven’t met you and you didn’t come to the meeting the other night, you’re, well, you know … dodgy.’ Jonathan looked a bit red, and Snowball scowled at me. Tim bristled.

‘Dodgy, because we didn’t go to a meeting? Christ what kind of place is this?’

‘Oh, no don’t get the wrong idea! It’s just them, and I’m warning you because, well, they kind of have their binoculars trained on your house.’ He laughed again.

‘My God, you are kidding me.’ Tim looked across the street. I turned and could swear the curtains did in fact twitch again. ‘This is crazy. Look, we just like to keep ourselves to ourselves, so thanks for the plant but, really, I have to go.’

‘Please, I didn’t mean to offend you, it was just a friendly visit.’ Poor Jonathan looked confused.

‘Bye, Jonathan.’ Before he could say anything else, Tim closed the door.

‘Damn Alfie, I think I messed up.’ Jonathan looked flummoxed. ‘Claire’s going to kill me,’ he mumbled as he walked away. I stayed put, trying to figure out what went wrong.

All of a sudden I heard raised voices, but Jonathan was already out of earshot.

‘I hate school, this house and this stupid place, why can’t we just go home,’ a female voice shouted — the teenage girl I thought.

‘Because, Daisy, you know full well what happened. We have no choice.’ It was Tim and he sounded desperate.

‘Yeah well that doesn’t make it any better does it,’ a surly boy’s voice chipped in.

‘For the love of God, I can’t do anything right and now we’ve got the neighbours on our backs,’ Tim shouted.

‘Can we all calm down,’ a voice obviously belonging to Karen said. ‘It’s not your dad’s fault and if we continue like this our family is going to fall apart.’ Her voice was desperate. Then I heard noisy tears, which I thought was the girl again. My head was so close to the door, I was almost in it.

‘Alfie!’ Snowball’s voice came from behind the door, I pricked up my ears.