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‘The thing is, we cast the actual mother of Theo, who is going to be the baby Jesus, in case he cries, and we chose a teenager for the angel Gabriel because we wanted to get the youngsters involved, you see. We thought your audition was brilliant but it’s just a Nativity, so there’s not a huge scope for speaking parts.’ I could hear Claire trying to be diplomatic, but Barbara did not look happy.

‘I am not happy about it. Not at all. It’s wasting my talent.’

See, I was right.

‘I’m sorry but Aleksy and Connie are doing this to help the homeless shelter and they’re doing a great job, so we need to all work together. I really hope you still want to be a part of it. The wise men will probably have the best costumes anyway.’ Poor Claire was really trying. ‘And, I know you’re new to Edgar Road, so it might be a really good opportunity to meet others in the community. Do you live alone?’

‘I do, but what’s that got to do with it?’

‘Well, we have a Sunday Lunch Club whereby people on their own can join another family for lunch a few Sundays a month.’

‘I’m quite capable of making my own lunch,’ she snapped.

I was relieved. I really didn’t want her joining us. By the look on her face, Claire was no longer keen, either.

‘Of course, I was just thinking that if you wanted to meet people …’ Claire shook her head. She didn’t know how to deal with this woman.

‘I shall probably still take part but I hope you have noted my displeasure at not being given a bigger role.’

‘Duly noted.’ Claire glanced down at me, her eyes wide.

Without another word, Barbara turned and walked away. I looked up at Claire, she shook her head. See, this woman was not normal. Not normal at all.

‘I don’t know, Alfie,’ she said, picking me up and shutting the front door. ‘I hope she’ll just be happy to be part of it, but she didn’t seem very happy did she?’

‘Yowl.’ She certainly did not.

The rest of the week passed quickly and largely uneventfully. George insisted on getting Snowball, me, and Hana together to practise being sheep, which involved a lot of standing and pretending to eat grass. I wasn’t sure how much rehearsal we needed if that was all we had to do. I was slightly disappointed not to have a bigger role, still, but then I would remember Barbara’s reaction and think of the shelter and all the people there who were so happy to see us. Sometimes, you had to put your ego aside, and this was one of those times. I just hoped that Barbara would too. I knew it wasn’t always easy but it was definitely the right thing to do.

‘Dad, you are still not standing right,’ George chastised as I realised I’d been thinking and therefore not concentrating.

‘Sorry,’ I said.

‘Honestly people, you need to take this seriously. We are doing a show, we are raising money for charity and we are also going to be all over social media, so I would suggest we all pull our socks up, and work harder.’

‘I don’t wear socks,’ Snowball said. She was getting impatient with George, but she was amused at the same time.

‘You know what I mean. Right, let’s take it from the top. Annnnd stand. Now look up. Now look down. Now pretend to eat grass. Oh my goodness, how hard can it be? I knew working with amateurs wasn’t going to be easy but still … it’s a disaster.’

Hana, Snowball, and I watched as George flounced off, and then we all laughed. I felt bad but he was really too funny.

‘He’s really trying,’ Hana said, she was the softest out of all of us.

‘A bit too trying,’ Snowball said.

‘I said it earlier, we’ve created a monster.’

‘A monster in sheep’s clothing,’ Snowball finished and we all grinned.

Chapter Seventeen

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We were wrapped in Christmas suddenly, although not literally. Because of the show, our Christmas started even earlier than normal. At home, we played Christmas songs all the time, and at the hall we played Christmas songs all the time. By the time we were ready to hold the first rehearsal, I was fully in Christmas mode.

As they were opening the show, the first rehearsal involved the dancers and the singers. They had decided to do a routine to‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’, and they’d found a version which was fast and more modern. The crew – that was what they called themselves – were made up of boys and girls from the same dance class. Their teacher, a relatively young man called Nicky who wore very low-cut baggy trousers, coached them and they were actually pretty good from what I could tell. Aleksy, Connie, Claire, and myself were watching and George had insisted on tagging along. Polly was thankfully able to look after the children and Pickles. Tommy couldn’t make it as he actually had to do some urgent homework,so Aleksy was filming bits so he could upload to social media later. We were getting quite an online following, apparently, and us cats had naturally caused quite a stir after the auditions. They hadn’t actually thanked us yet, but they were very busy at the moment so I was going to let it go. For now.