Рейчел Уэллс - Alfie Far From Home

Dogs? Did I hear right? I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay now.

‘We promise he’ll be no trouble,’ Stanley said.

The man looked at him, took a whistle out of his pocket and blew it loudly. We all jumped.

‘I’m looking through my rule book and I appreciate silence.’

After a while, he put the book back in his shirt pocket. ‘I am not happy but unfortunately I can’t find anything in the rule book about visiting cats. And I can’t break the rules when enforcing the rules, so, against my wishes, he can stay.’

‘Hooray,’ Stanley said; he was silenced by a look.

‘But one whiff of trouble and you’ll be out.’ Mr Green pointed his whistle at me. ‘Enjoy your stay.’ As he left the van, he asked Mrs Green to show us where to park.

We stood outside the van; we were going to look around the campsite.

‘Alfie, you need to stay inside,’ Mr Clover said, lifting me back in. ‘We assured your family we’d take care of you and we can’t risk you getting lost. Or worse,’ he finished.

What could be worse than getting lost? Some holiday this was! But then I noticed an open window. When the coast was clear, I jumped out. There were tents, caravans and other camper vans and in the distance I could see the wood. It was lovely—

‘Hisss.’

I stopped, turned and found myself staring at a plump ginger cat.

‘Hello.’ My legs trembled.

‘What are you doing here?’ he asked nastily.

I flashed him my most charming smile. ‘I’m Alfie; it’s very nice to meet you.’

‘I said what are you doing here?’

‘I accidentally came on holiday.’

I wondered if he would attack; he was huge.

‘This is my campsite and I don’t need the likes of you on it,’ he said.

‘Humphrey?’ a woman’s voice said. The cat softened as he turned round. ‘Humphrey, it’s teatime,’ the voice repeated.

He narrowed his eyes at me then ran off.

I felt unsettled by my encounter so I went off in search of Stanley and Viola. I came across a small building and snuck in through an open door. Mr and Mrs Clover were sitting at a table with some other adults. I stalked, unobserved, to the back of the room and found Stanley and Viola. Stanley was laughing and joking; there were two other boys and a girl with them. Viola hung back – she seemed to be hiding behind her long hair. I wanted to go to her but Stanley spotted me first.

‘Alfie,’ he whispered, scooping me up and hiding me under his jacket. ‘If anyone sees you, you’ll be in trouble.’

‘Who’s that?’ a boy asked.

‘Alfie, our cat from home,’ Stanley explained. “Well, not exactly our cat. You see, he is and he isn’t.’ I saw the other children look at Stanley in confusion. ‘Oh, but that’s a bit of a long story—’

‘Hey, best not to let Uncle Green see him in here,’ the boy interrupted. ‘Let’s go outside, quick.’

The boy had an accent I hadn’t heard before.

‘Cute cat,’ the girl whispered, as the smallest boy stood beside her. I saw Viola’s cheeks redden as they did when she was around new people.

‘Thank you,’ she said quietly, with a smile.

She could be awfully shy, poor thing. I knew she was nervous about starting her new school when they got back too. I rubbed against her legs to offer support.

Stanley walked out with the boy and girl next to him and Viola went to follow, but Mrs Clover stopped her.

‘Ah, Viola, there you are. Mr Green has said you can see the piano now.’

‘Piano?’ said Viola.

‘Yes, we found a campsite that had one,’ her mother explained. ‘So that you could practise while we were away.’

‘Oh,’ said Viola in a small voice.

It was clear that she wanted to come with us but, instead, she followed her mum to the piano.

As I wandered outside the following morning, I saw Humphrey glaring at me. ‘Hi Humphrey.’

‘You still here?’ he replied.

‘Well, I don’t really have a choice,’ I pointed out. ‘It would be nice if we could be friends?’ I raised my whiskers hopefully.

‘I already told you – I don’t like other cats on my campsite.’

I was about to argue, but then rounding the corner were the three children from last night. I discovered, after Stanley had got me safely out of the clubhouse, that they were Nathan, Emily and Jack. Nathan was the oldest at twelve – he was staying with his uncle and aunt, Mr and Mrs Green. He had come from America, which was very far away. Emily and Jack were brother and sister. Emily was ten and Jack was seven. As soon as he spotted them, Humphrey changed; he was nice to children. Stanley stepped out of the van.

‘Hey, Stan, meet Humphrey the campsite cat. He’s really cool,’ Nathan said.

I miaowed. I was cool too.

‘Wow, he’s big. Alfie and he can be friends,’ Stanley said, picking me up.

‘What are we going to do now?’ Jack asked excitedly.

‘There isn’t a whole lot to do here,’ Nathan said. ‘My uncle sure likes his rules, but we can go to the playground, I guess.’

‘Lead the way. I’m an adventurer and generally I can find adventures everywhere,’ Stanley said confidently.

‘Yay!’ Jack said. I wasn’t sure why.

‘Vi, are you coming?’ Stanley shouted into the van.

Viola emerged, smiled shyly at the others and they all set off. I started to follow.

‘You’re coming too?’ Humphrey asked, not sounding thrilled.

‘Yes, I’m an adventurer’s cat, after all,’ I replied huffily.

The playground had seen better days. There were a couple of swings, a slide which was scuffed and rusty, a roundabout which creaked when it moved and a see-saw.

‘We don’t have much to work with to make an adventure,’ Stanley said as he surveyed it.

‘I told you that, pal,’ Nathan said, patting his shoulder.

Jack was on the swing, asking his sister to give him a push, and Viola, I noticed, hung back again. I went to rub myself against her legs, but then I spotted something under a nearby bush. Viola followed me as I dived under it.

‘It’s a football,’ Viola said, as I nudged it to her with my nose.

‘Nice one, Vi,’ Stanley said. ‘Right, we can make an assault course.’

‘What’s an assault course?’ Jack asked, wide-eyed.

‘It’s like a race where we do different things. ‘We can start the course here.’ He walked towards some wooden stumps with a bench at the end. They were all different heights. ‘Right, follow me!’ he said as he climbed from the bench to the tallest one. ‘It’s going to be cool.’ He excitedly explained to everyone how it would work. ‘Right, let’s go,’ Stanley announced.

They took it in turns. They had to jump over the bars of the roundabout while the other children spun it, then when a bit dizzy they had to stand on the swing and do ten swings without falling off; run across the see-saw, and finally walk up the slide with the football and then throw it between the swings, like a goal. I had to admit it was impressive, although it didn’t look safe.

‘There’ll be trouble,’ Humphrey grumbled, coming up beside me.

‘Why?’ I asked.

‘It’s against the rules. Mr Green’s rule book clearly states that the playground must only be used as it should be.’