Рейчел Уэллс - A Cat Called Alfie

‘Sorry, munchkin, he is at school today and Aleksy too. Come though, you can play with his toys.’ Franceska led Henry through to the living room. They had a dining table in the same room as their sofa; it was a big room, warm and inviting and larger than theirs on Edgar Road. The table was laid out with food and I could smell that she had sardines. As if she knew I was coming, my treat awaited. I walked to the table hopefully and miaowed loudly.

‘OK, Alfie, you can have your fish. Lucky I had some, although I had no idea you would be here.’ She laughed as she picked me up and gave me a lovely hug.

We spent a lovely afternoon together. I got to explore the flat — it was wonderful to see where they lived. Big Tomasz, Franceska’s husband, came up to see us after his lunchtime rush and made a huge fuss of me. Big Tomasz suited the name I gave him; he was a big man who was so much softer than he looked. I always wished I knew him better, but as he worked so much I saw the least of him out of everybody. When we had to leave I felt sad, but on the way back Martha and Henry slept so I curled up on Henry’s lap for my lift home, struggling to stay awake after my unexpected excitement.

I jumped out at Claire and Jonathan’s and rubbed Polly’s legs in thanks for my outing. It was time for me to have a nap but I couldn’t resist going to number 48, for one last look. They had already put curtains up at all the windows at the front and the downstairs ones were closed. This was yet another thing that was odd as it was middle of the day. One of the rooms upstairs also had closed curtains.

There was no activity to be seen and no sign of the beautiful white cat. I thought about going round the back but I didn’t want to have another run-in until I thought about how best to approach her. For now, I would sleep on it. It was the best solution, I decided, as I made my way round to my back garden. I was about to go through the cat flap when I remembered something. I went over to our garden fence, the one that divided our house from number 48. When I first moved into Jonathan’s house, I discovered that one of the panels was a bit loose at the bottom. It allowed me to look through to next door’s garden but I hadn’t bothered; I had no need to. Until now.

I nudged the panel with my nose and was overjoyed to see that it still moved ever so slightly. It wasn’t enough for me to squeeze through but I could see a bit of the garden, I could see the back door too. I could keep an eye on the cat next door, I thought, as I resolved that I would do whatever it took to befriend the white cat. And, as I stepped away from the fence, I knew I wouldn’t stop until I succeeded.

‘I don’t mind cooking,’ Jonathan offered, as he stood staring at his prized possession, the coffee machine, which was whirring away. When I’d first heard the chrome thing gurgling and spluttering I thought it was alive and would eat me, but now I was used to it. Jonathan liked shiny gadgets that cost a lot of money and made a lot of noise, it seemed.

‘Darling, no offence, but when you cook, I have to clean up and it normally takes weeks. Anyway you know what Tasha and Dave are like, they’re happy with anything.’

‘OK, but if you cook do I have to clear up?’

‘Jonathan, stop being an idiot, you know that I clean up as I go along. You can go and get some nice wine, buy some flowers for the house, and treat me to a new dress.’

‘Really, all that?’ Looking bemused he took his coffee and sat at the kitchen table.

‘OK, I don’t need a dress but you can get flowers and wine.’

‘I would buy you all the dresses in the world if you wanted, you know that.’

‘I do and that’s why I love you.’

Once again, I had to put my paws over my eyes as they started smooching. I was glad they were happy but I didn’t necessarily want to see it. Tasha teased Claire and called it the ‘honeymoon period’. I didn’t know exactly what it meant but I had guessed that it meant it wouldn’t last forever. Hopefully. I was all for affection but people could take it too far — it was almost enough to put me off my breakfast.

It was time for me to leave. I had said I would call on Tiger, so we could hang out. Maybe with some of the others, depending on who was around. For the past few days I had not had a sighting of the beautiful white cat. Or its owners for that matter. And I had spent a fair bit of time at the fence. Not only had I not seen her but I didn’t even know her name yet. And I desperately wanted to find out what it was.

I had heard Claire telling Jonathan she had popped round to say welcome, but there had been no answer, although she was sure she’d heard movement in the house. They were certainly mysterious and I wondered if Vic and Heather had managed to get to them yet. They probably had their binoculars trained on the house as it was.

I still hadn’t come up with a plan on how to meet the white cat again, but I was working on it. My little brain was always whirring and perhaps today would be the day that I caught sight of her again.

As I made my way out of the back garden — quickly checking the fence for activity — and round to Tiger’s house, she was waiting for me, giving herself a clean before we set off for our morning walk.

Exercise was important to me, particularly because of my injury, as I had to keep fit and my limbs moving. So I had taken to going to the park most days, sometimes with Polly, other times with Tiger, as well as strolling up and around Edgar Road.

‘Park?’ she asked.

‘You read my mind,’ I replied. The park at the end of our road was small but we loved it. Full of bushes, creatures to chase and, of course, children; we found plenty to entertain us there.

There was also a pond but I didn’t like to think about that after a near-death experience I had falling into it once. Matt rescued me but it taught me to keep away from water. I even avoided puddles if I could.

On the way, we sneaked a look at number 48, to see if there had been any developments but nothing had changed. The curtains were drawn, although lights were glimmering through them. I wasn’t a judgemental cat but it was most odd.

‘Salmon’s family said that there might be twenty people living there,’ I told Tiger. ‘But we only saw four.’

‘Yesterday they came round to ours and were ranting on about criminals to my humans. Saying that no one has seen them, they keep the curtains drawn and so they are definitely up to something. They said something about a drugs den but I have no idea what that is.’

‘Me neither.’ I tried to think about why they might be so secretive. ‘But I guess we’ll find out soon — they’ll have to show their faces at some point.’ I was agitated, my excitement at the idea of seeing the white cat again was off the scale. Just then we were rewarded as the front door opened and the surly boy walked out. He looked furtively around and then pulled his hood up as he started walking down the path. I felt all of a quiver as I saw that the cat was at his feet.

‘Look, Tiger,’ I said, nudging her with my head. We both stood still and looked. When the boy got to the street, he leant down and petted the cat.

‘Bye, Snowball,’ he said, sounding cross. ‘Wish me luck.’ Snowball purred and rubbed up against his legs in a most affectionate way. She seemed like a completely different cat from when we met her. And I knew her name!

As the boy walked off she looked directly at us. I gave her my most charming look but she immediately narrowed her eyes, turned and, with her tail flapping aggressively, stalked back to the front door, where I noticed the woman was standing. She smiled grimly at the cat, picked her up and shut the door.