Рейчел Уэллс - Alfie In The Snow

‘Right, of course how did we concoct this with no phone? Well, that’s the clever part. Connie’s best friend, Sophie Hawker, is also my friend and we live on the same street. She went to visit Connie and she gave her a note from me. Her mum didn’t even suspect a thing. Clever, huh?’

He looked so pleased with himself, I really felt like scratching some sense into him, but I wasn’t going to use violence, it didn’t solve anything. And I couldn’t do that to my Aleksy. Not unless I really had to.

‘And then Connie gave Sophie a note for me agreeing to the plan!’ His eyes sparkled.

‘Mewmewmewmew.’ This was quite possibly the worst plan I’d ever heard. What Aleksy was suggesting was ruining everyone’s Christmas morning by going missing. I knew how I’d felt when George went missing, it had been the worst time ever. Aleksy was going to put his parents, Tommy and Sylvie through that? Even for an hour it was too much and it would ruin Christmas. Totally ruin it.

‘I knew you’d approve. And we won’t ruin Christmas as we’ll only be gone for a bit.’

‘Yowl?’ How could I stop this one, I thought, as my poor overworked brain started whirring.

‘The best bit is that we’re going to hide in your shed, so we’ll only be in your garden. And I’ll set my alarm so we don’t leave it too late to tell everyone we’re fine. Hopefully before they call the police.’ His eyes clouded over slightly at that mention.

Oh no. I put my paws over my eyes. Of course, they’d call the police straight away. This was not good. Not good at all, I had to put a stop to this madness, but how?

Chapter Thirty-One

This Christmas Eve was not going according to plan at all any more. I should have been relaxing in the warm with my boy while the families all went to the carol concert, but no, no I had to go and clear up yet another mess that my humans were making. I knew Aleksy was young so I really tried to give him some kind of concession, but this was possibly the worst plan I’d heard, and trust me, I had heard and even been the mastermind of quite a few. None that involved ruining Christmas, though.

And now I was going to have to save it.

I toyed with the idea of not telling George, but after all I had told him he needed to be open with me, so I felt I should do the same with him. I filled him in, but I downplayed it a bit; even so, he was shocked. He had been to visit Hana to wish her a Happy Christmas Eve through the glass door and she obviously had no idea what the kids were up to. I said the best thing would be for him to stay home to make sure all was alright here, while I went to see Dustbin. By giving him a very important job I managed to persuade him to wait at home. I was a little annoyed, as I was looking forward to a relaxing festive evening with my family, but of course life didn’t always give us what we wanted, did it?

My legs were so weary as I made my way there, but I had no option. The snow was falling more heavily – I had to be careful, as it was slippery under paw in certain parts. I felt as if my fur was freezing to my body, as worry flowed through me. We had to sort this out, and I had only one idea. Dustbin was in the yard having a rest by the bins. Obviously the rodents had scrammed.

‘Alfie, what a surprise.’ He stood up and stretched out. Poor Dustbin seemed tired as well.

‘I know. It’s Christmas Eve and it’s snowing, and I’ve had a really full day, but Aleksy came to my house and he confided in me that he and Connie are going to run away tonight.’

‘Oh no, that’s terrible.’

‘Yes, but the best or worst bit – I can’t figure out which – is that they are only planning on hiding in our garden shed for a while. They think if they scare the parents just for a short time, they will see sense, or Sylvie will, and let them see each other.’ I was almost tripping over my words.

‘This sounds like one of your plans,’ he pointed out. Not terribly helpfully, I might add.

‘Well, yes, normally I would, perhaps, agree but I wouldn’t do anything at Christmas. Christmas is, well, Christmas, no one should mess with Christmas.’ I was getting quite worked up now. ‘Imagine Franceska, Tomasz and Tommy waking up on Christmas morning to find Aleksy missing, it’ll be awful, and the same for Sylvie, only worse as she’s all alone. And then they’ll call Claire and Jonathan, which will ruin Christmas morning for the little ones, and the same with Matt and Polly as everyone aborts normal Christmas festivities to find the idiots!’ The more I thought about it the worse it sounded.

‘Oh dear, what a mess.’ Dustbin could sometimes be a bit too calm, although as I was so worked up, that might not have been such a bad thing. ‘So, we’ll stop him like we did last time,’ he suggested, licking his paw.

‘No, we can’t because Connie is going to meet him in the garden shed.’ I was so agitated. I suddenly wanted to knock the heads of a number of my humans together. Sylvie, for being so ridiculous about keeping these two apart, them for this silly plot, and well the mood I was in, I could probably find a reason for all of them. Happiness was so precious, so fleeting, why couldn’t they see that?

‘Um, I see.’ Dustbin licked his other paw and glared angrily at a mouse who was trying to approach. The mouse took one look at him and scurried away. ‘I almost feel bad not letting them in in this weather, but you know, a job’s a job.’ He raised his tail.

‘Dustbin, back to the matter at hand,’ I snapped.

‘Oh yes, so what do you think we should do?’ he asked. He looked at me with sympathy in his eyes and I knew I was being unfair, snapping at him, so I tried to calm down.

‘Well, I was thinking there is only one thing to do, and that is for me to somehow get Jonathan and Claire to discover them tonight, so the morning isn’t ruined.’

‘Good thinking. So what can I do to help?’

Now I could see us being able to foil this plan, I was beginning to feel calmer.

‘It’s a big ask but I wondered if you could follow Aleksy, you know, make sure he’s OK. He shouldn’t be wandering the streets at night, even if it’s only to our house.’

‘Right, that’s good, yes that’ll work. And then when I get to your place I’ll bang on the cat flap to let you know they are in the shed, so you can alert the humans straight away.’

‘Perfect. You really are such a good friend, Dustbin.’ I felt emotional, probably because I was so tired, angry, missing Tiger, and the idea that Christmas might be ruined, it was all getting on top of me.

‘No, you are. And you take care of these families so well. Right, so I’ll let you know when they are there. You will have to really make a fuss to get Jonathan and Claire out though.’

‘Oh, don’t worry, I seem to have had a lot of experience doing that lately.’ I really had. And although they sometimes could be a bit slow on the uptake, they seemed to get what I was telling them in the end. After all, that was how I had saved Harold. I just hoped I could stay awake long enough, I was so cat-tired (Yes, I know the expression is dog-tired but I would never compare myself to a dog.)

‘Right you are. We’ll sort this out and, you never know, the shock of them actually running away, albeit to a garden shed, might even make her mother see sense. I hope so, Aleksy is such a good lad.’

I nodded, I did understand. Love wasn’t always easy; I had learnt that the hard way.

My house was once again a hive of activity when I returned home, brushing the snow off my fur and warming my bones by the radiator.