Рейчел Уэллс - Alfie Far From Home

I was impressed, if not still annoyed, as Viola mobilised the troops. I realised that this girl had so much going for her – she was talented, creative and clever so why didn’t she see what I saw?

I went to find Humphrey. Yet again, I needed help. It was as if we took a paw forward and then a paw backwards when it came to solving problems. At least I was no longer green, although the scrubbing took a bit more effort than I would have liked and I smelt funny. Humphrey was eating some fine-looking sardines outside a holidaymaker’s tent. No wonder he didn’t want me around.

‘Hi,’ I said sadly.

‘Oh boy, what now?’

‘It was all going so well, Viola was brilliant at making the decorations for the picnic, but then …’ I told him about the paint incident.

‘I wish I’d seen that,’ he chortled.

‘Well, anyway, back to the problem.’ I gave him a look. ‘The thing is that they cleaned me up, and they were laughing and all getting along but then Mrs Clover arrived and said she was organising the children to decorate the picnic baskets to keep them out of trouble.’

‘Get to the point, Alfie, I’ve got fish to finish.’

‘They were all excited, but then Mrs Clover told Viola that she had to practise her piano.’

‘Oh.’

‘And Viola begged her to let her do it later, but Mrs Clover said it was impossible because Mr Green had to set up for Bingo, and that she could do picnic baskets later.’

‘Viola’s feeling left out again?’

‘Yes, just as she and Emily were getting close.’

‘Poor kid.’

‘So what am I going to do?’

‘I’m not sure Alfie, but hey, look, we will come up with something, and in the meantime why don’t you share some of my sardines. You look like you need cheering up.’

Maybe Humphrey was my friend after all.

‘No we can’t do that,’ Emily was saying. What?

I was trying to listen in to the children in the playground.

‘Come on, it’ll be so cool,’ Nathan said. ‘It’s boring here. We’ll go to the woods, find the place where Stanley’s dad took us and see if we can spot any bears.’

‘There are no bears,’ Poppy said.

‘Well, come with us to find out for sure,’ Nathan challenged.

‘But we’ll get in so much trouble,’ Emily complained.

‘No one will know we’ve even gone, they’re so busy getting ready for the picnic,’ Nathan argued.

‘I know; as an adventurer I’ve got a very good idea. I’ll go and get some peanuts and we can leave a trail so we definitely absolutely won’t get lost,’ Stanley suggested.

‘Well, I’m not going and, Jack, you shouldn’t either,’ Emily said.

‘But, but …’ Jack looked at the older boys.

‘YOWL,’ I shouted. I was with Emily.

‘Oh, Alfie, it’ll be fine.’ Stanley patted my head and ran off.

After they left, Emily was alone. She was upset and so was I. Those children really shouldn’t have gone into the woods, and goodness knows what Mr Green would do when he found out. I had to act fast, so I went to find Viola.

As soon as I spotted her I yowled, and howled and yelped with all my might.

‘Goodness, Alfie, whatever is wrong?’

I headed for the playground; she followed me and found Emily crying.

‘What’s wrong, Em?’ she asked, putting her arm round her friend.

‘They’ve all gone to the woods – to the place where your dad took us the other day.’

‘What?’ Viola was concerned.

‘What are we going to do?’ Emily asked.

‘Hope they come back before anyone notices?’ Viola suggested.

Not really what I was thinking but, hey, I could go with that.

Emily and Viola looked worried as they wandered about the campsite. Every time they saw one of the adults they had to keep dodging questions about where the others were.

‘Lunchtime,’ Mrs Clover shouted finally. ‘Where’s Stanley?’

‘I think he’s having lunch with Nathan,’ Viola said quickly.

After lunch they still weren’t back. Viola and Emily were worried.

‘What do you think can have happened to them?’ said Emily.

‘I hope they haven’t got lost,’ said Viola.

I went to find Humphrey. He was sunbathing. ‘We have to go to the wood,’ I said.

‘What? Why?’ Humphrey listened as explained. ‘But how will we know where to find them? The wood’s massive.’

Ah, I hadn’t thought of that. But then I had a brainwave. ‘Emily – she went with Mr Clover, she might know.’

We ran off to find the girls, who were back in the playground. ‘Hurry up, we have to get going.’

‘We need to tell our parents,’ Viola was saying, as they stood by the swings.

‘They’ll be in so much trouble,’ Emily said. ‘But I don’t know what else to do.’

I made as much noise as I could, even making Humphrey jump, and as the girls looked at me I ran off in the direction of the wood.

‘No, Alfie,’ Viola shouted, but I ran as fast as I could, Humphrey beside me, and the girls had no choice but to follow.

Sometimes, I need to think out my plans more clearly. I was in the wood but had no idea which direction to go in. I then stopped and looked around; Humphrey was calmly sitting next to me. I ran round in circles, unable to get my bearings, before I tripped on a stick.

‘Yelp.’

‘Oh, Alfie.’ Viola scooped me up. Humphrey made a face and Emily looked worried. ‘What are we going to do?’

‘I guess, now we’re in the wood, we could find them,’ Emily said tentatively. ‘I remember the way we went. It’s not far.’

‘OK, we don’t really have a choice,’ Viola said, setting me down on the ground. We all set off.

‘I’m not sure this was your best idea,’ Humphrey said grumpily; the ground was very uncomfortable.

‘You didn’t have to come,’ I pointed out.

‘Who else will save you from trouble?’

I muttered under my breath, ‘What trouble?’

The uneven ground crackled underneath my paws, which made me uneasy. From up above came rustling sounds and strange-sounding bird noises. It was a little scary. I soon decided the woods weren’t my favourite ever place, as shadows loomed; it went from dark to light in an instant and I felt more and more nervous. I stumbled on yet another stone and tried to regain my balance.

‘YELP!’ I jumped as a furry thing with a bushy tail stood in front of me. I started trembling.

‘It’s just a squirrel, Alfie,’ Humphrey laughed, as he walked past it.

Before long we spotted them; they were clinging to a tree.

‘What are you doing?’ Viola shouted breathlessly, as we reached them.

‘Well, you see there was a bear,’ Jack started.

‘You saw a bear?’ Emily asked. I had a quick glance around. I hoped it wasn’t still here.

‘Not exactly but we sure heard one,’ Nathan said.

‘You see, we left a trail of peanuts, so we’d be able to find our way back,’ Stanley explained. ‘And we got here and carved our names on the tree trunk, did some adventuring and started to go back but the peanuts had been eaten. We heard a bear so we were all hugging this tree for safety.’

‘I’m hungry,’ Poppy cried.

‘I don’t think there’s a bear,’ Viola said sensibly. ‘In fact, I am sure you can’t get bears in these parts.’

‘But a bear must have eaten the peanuts,’ Jack said; he was trembling.

‘You’ll find that was the squirrels,’ Viola said. ‘There’s loads of them.’