Рейчел Уэллс - Alfie Far From Home

THUD. A basket appeared through the curtain and fell on the floor.

‘Oops,’ Mr Green’s voice said before he remembered himself. ‘Oops,’ he said again in the girl’s voice. Mrs Green rushed on to the stage and handed the basket back through to her husband. The girl disappeared and in her place came something that looked like an ugly dog.

‘Hello, children.’ The voice wasn’t that dissimilar to the little girl, although a bit meaner. ‘I am the Big Bad Wolf, I am going to Grandma’s house and I’m going to eat her up.’

I snuggled into Stanley’s lap. I was a bit scared.

‘Oh boy,’ Nathan said as the wolf then got tangled in the curtain and clattered to the floor. Mrs Green ran on to the stage again, picked him up and quickly gave him to Mr Green.

Things went properly wrong when the wolf met Grandma, an old lady puppet.

‘Hello, I am here to eat you up,’ the wolf said as the wolf puppet collided with Grandma.

CRASH. BANG.

‘Ouch,’ Mr Green’s voice said as the puppets disappeared. We all watched in horror as the wooden puppet theatre slowly tipped backwards and fell.

‘Ahhhhh, help,’ Mr Green cried.

Mrs Green rushed forward, as did Mr and Mrs Clover. As they lifted the puppet theatre, we saw Mr Green tangled up in the puppets’ string. Mrs Green pulled off her tool belt and set to work, finally freeing Mr Green.

The room was silent. No one knew whether to laugh or cry; even the children looked shocked. Mr Green shook his head and walked off and Mrs Green was left standing there.

‘Sorry, folks, things do go wrong sometimes, but I hope you all had a good evening, and goodnight.’

It was a glum end to a glum day and the children weren’t allowed to play together as they were all marched off to bed.

I was growing fond of Mrs Green. That morning when I found Humphrey, she was there. She gave me some scrambled egg, which I liked; I’d accidentally tried a few of Mr Clover’s eggs before. We sat outside their caravan while I ate.

‘How are things today?’ he asked.

‘Better. But not great. Viola’s still sad.’

‘That’s bad.’

‘I know, she was so upset at being left out of the midnight feast.’

‘Oh, by the way.’ Humphrey scratched behind his ears. ‘I heard Mrs Green telling Mr Green that instead of throwing all the children out, they should give them a project to do. My suggestion is you keep an eye on them, and look for opportunities.’

‘I like your thinking. What about you?’

‘I need to do my campsite rounds and then take a nap. Alfie, remember Mr Green doesn’t like you being here, so try to keep a low profile.’

‘Thanks, Humphrey, you are being great about all this.’

‘Yes, but don’t forget—’

‘I know – it’s not for me, it’s for Viola.’

‘Exactly.’ But as he grinned, I knew I was cracking this cat.

Mr Green rounded everyone up. ‘We’re having a big picnic on your last day.’

The children cheered. ‘Yes, well, no need for that. Rule 244 states no unwarranted overexcitement.’

‘What does that mean?’ Jack asked; Emily gave him a gentle kick.

‘As I was saying, we have a picnic for the whole campsite which we hold over there at the edge of the woods.’ He pointed to the clearing that Humphrey and I explored yesterday.

‘So what can we do?’ Mrs Clover asked.

‘Well, my wife suggested that the children could make some decorations for the picnic. In the clubhouse we have materials to make bunting for the trees, and we have lots of baskets to decorate. What do you think?’

‘I think it’s an excellent idea, Mr Green, and will definitely keep them out of trouble,’ Mr Clover laughed.

‘Right, well, good. I’ll leave you all to go directly to the clubhouse and get creative.’ Mr Green blew his whistle.

I felt pleased by the turn of events as I followed the children to the clubhouse. Stanley and Nathan ran in and straight up to the table where Mr Green had put the craft supplies; Jack tried to keep up with them. Poppy, Emily and Viola followed.

‘I know all about bunting so I should be in charge of that,’ Poppy said.

‘What’s bunting?’ Nathan asked.

‘Sort of like flags, tied together, that you hang up,’ Poppy explained. ‘Anyway, I’ll make it.’

‘I can help you,’ Jack said eagerly. Poppy nodded.

‘What shall we do?’ Stanley said. Nathan shrugged.

‘I know, why don’t you paint a sign saying Curly Wood’s Picnic 2016 ,’ Viola suggested quietly.

‘Hey, not a bad idea,’ Nathan said. I felt a tingling in my fur again.

This was what I needed. Viola was really creative, so I just needed to nudge her forward a bit. I jumped on her lap to give her confidence.

‘Miaow,’ I said loudly. Viola giggled.

‘Viola is so good at stuff like this,’ Stanley said; she blushed.

It worked, Viola was gaining confidence as ideas flowing. She helped Poppy and Jack make different-coloured bunting and even suggested painting the American flag on some of them in honour of Nathan. Then she and Emily started decorating baskets with flowers and ribbons. They started talking more; I was beside myself with happiness as they giggled and chatted happily.

‘We live in Bristol. It’s nice there but I have been to London once,’ Emily said.

‘We’ve just moved there – I have to go to music school,’ Viola explained.

‘Well, you are brilliant.’

‘Thanks, but it’s scary starting a new school and I was sad to leave my friends. I miss them.’ Viola smiled sadly.

‘You can always make new friends, though,’ Emily said.

Just then there was a commotion; we all looked over to where Nathan and Stanley were flicking paint at each other.

‘Yelp!’ I went over to them crossly; this was not a time for getting into trouble. Emily and Viola exchanged a look.

‘YOWL.’ I felt my legs slip beneath me as I skidded on some paint. BUMP! I landed on my bottom and flew head-first into a table. Then I could only watch in horror as a pot of paint jumped from the table. SPLAT! The sticky green paint slowly rolled down my fur.

‘Whoops, sorry, I didn’t mean to make Alfie slip over,’ Nathan looked upset.

‘Oh, Alfie!’ Viola shouted, rushing over, although she didn’t touch me.

‘What have you done?’ Poppy shouted. ‘Now we’ll be in trouble again.’

‘It was an accident,’ Stanley said.

‘Alfie’s green!’ Jack exclaimed.

I ran round in circles. It seemed I was in for a bath and I really hated baths.

‘I know – there’s a sink in the back room,’ Nathan suggested. ‘If we clean him in there, maybe no one will know?’

‘But it’s paint. It doesn’t just come off easily and it’s all in his fur!’ Poppy sounded more distressed than I was.

‘Dad has that stuff that cleans paint off his hands. It must be safe to use on fur if you can use it on skin,’ Viola said.

‘But is it safe for cats?’ Emily asked.

‘It doesn’t say so on the bottle, but then they probably don’t have to get paint off many cats,’ Stanley pointed out.

‘It’ll be fine, said Viola. Look, Stanley, take Alfie into the sink. Nathan, you go with him. Poppy and Jack, keep watch for Mr Green and if he appears, distract him, and Emily, we can go to the van and get the cleaner.’