67f695396320fe1a34a41489ddea0fac

I was pleased with this. One of Pickles’ easiest activities – by that I mean one where he can rarely get into trouble – was ball. I would push a ball with my paw in the hallway, he would run after it, fetch it, and bring it back to me. He could play this for hours and although it was a little boring for me, I didn’t mind. It would give me time to think about the horrible lady at the end of the street, to think about Tommy, and to think about what I was going to do about it all. At the moment, I had nothing. Just hope that the talk Tommy had with Jonathan the other day would have an effect. That the woman at the end of the street wouldn’t be a problem if we kept out of her way. That Pickles would get fed up with playing ball before my paw really began to ache … Why on earth didn’t I hold out much hope for any of that? While Pickles was distracted with the ball, I jumped up onto the hall table, for a break. I noticed that there were various flyers with pictures of food on, and one which I knew was for a Christmas pantomime because Claire had put it there, saying that she needed to book. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but I did know it was some kind of show that happened every Christmas and the kids loved it. I wished for a moment we could go, but we were never invited.

‘Alfie, ball,’ Pickles said. And I jumped down. Sore paw or no sore paw, Pickles wasn’t going to let me off the hook for long.

Claire took Pickles out for a walk, and Snowball came to surprise me. Clearly I wasn’t going to get much rest today, not that I minded one bit.

‘I wasn’t expecting you,’ I said, nuzzling her.

‘Harold had some appointment and Sylvie’s taking him so I thought I’d visit.’

I filled her in about our near miss and also about Aleksy and Connie’s idea.

‘You need to keep away from that woman,’ she said.

‘I will and also when I have some energy I’ll warn everyone else about her,’ I added. ‘But let’s focus on Aleksy and Connie. They’re coming over later and they’ll probably be expecting an idea.’

‘Think about it, Alfie. Christmas, what does it mean to you?’

‘Ah, you are doing that thing Claire does. You know, brainstorming,’ I said.

‘Yes, I certainly am,’ she replied.

‘OK. It means nice food, family, friends, happiness, keeping George and Pickles away from the Christmas tree and the tinsel, presents, Santa, and everyone being together.’ I think I’d done a pretty good job of summing it up.

‘Right, so let’s try to get those into an idea. Being together is a good one.’

‘Oh I see, like if you get loads of people into one place to raise money.’ I suddenly felt excited as the ideas began to trickle into my brain. Everyone together. The community as a whole. Of course, that was what was needed. ‘Do you mean an event?’ I asked.

‘Oh yes, an event. Like the Christmas Nativity at school – everyone goes to that. In fact, the children love it and the adults do too,’ Snowball pointed out. ‘Although it’s usually done by the younger children isn’t it?’

How she was an expert on the Nativity, I didn’t know.

‘George told me about how the other year Tommy put him in a manger at the kids’ school Nativity and how he and you have been banned from going since,’ she explained.

Ah, that was how. But she was right, it was for younger children. But it didn’t have to be, did it? It wouldn’t even have to be at the school at all.

‘I’ve got it,’ I said. ‘How about a Christmas show for the community to raise money for the homeless shelter? What a brilliant idea.’ If I did say so myself. Although my fur fizzed with excitement at the idea, I was unsure how we would actually do it.

‘Wow, it is, although we might need a few more details,’ Snowball said.

‘No, what we need is to pass this idea to the humans and once we’ve done that they can come up with details. I mean, details are not what this cat should be concerned with. Gosh I still have it! I’m still an ideas genius.’ I did a little spin, I was pretty pleased with myself.

‘And as modest as ever,’ Snowball replied. ‘But you have to convey the idea to the humans now and you know that’s a whole other problem.’

‘Leave it with me, I’ll come up with something.’ I wasn’t going to tell her that I didn’t have a clue how to do that. I had got a bit carried away with talk of the show, and Christmas songs and someone being Santa and a part for me and George and even Pickles, Hana, and Snowball …

Now for the logistics. I needed to give them the idea of putting on a show but how? I started thinking, then had a flash of inspiration. I remembered seeing the flyer for the Christmas pantomime on the hall table, when I was playing with Pickles. And although I didn’t know what it was, I did know it was a show that happened at Christmas. So if I could somehow get her to link that to an idea for a show, it might just work. All I had to do was push the leaflet under Claire, Aleksy and Connie’s noses somehow. I hoped they didn’t think I meant for them to do an actual pantomime, because clearly someone was already doing that.