67f695396320fe1a34a41489ddea0fac

‘You’re right. As much as we never condone breaking the law and we always like to see justice done, you can tell she’s really not in a good way,’ Vic agreed, which surprised me. He normally loved having people arrested.

‘It’s agreed then,’ Heather said. ‘We will give her the chance to get help but not let her near the show. We can’t risk that.’

‘No and I don’t think Aleksy and Connie would be able to forgive her so easily. Right, let’s tell her,’ Claire added.

We returned to the doorstep.

‘We’re not calling the police this time,’ Vic said.

‘Oh thank you. I am sorry.’ She sounded sorry, she looked sorry, but I still didn’t trust her.

‘But you have to stay away from the show and I think it would be good if you wrote a letter of apology to Aleksy and Connie,’ Claire added.

‘Yes, yes I’ll do that. And I’ll keep away from the show. I think the idea of Christmas without my husband also hit me very hard.’ I saw tears streak down her face, but again, she could have been acting.

‘We are sorry about that,’ Heather said. ‘But for now, I think you need to figure out how you are going to live on this street with people like us and not want to do anything to hurt us.’ I didn’t often say it but I did agree with Heather.

‘You have my word that I am genuinely sorry. And I know if you hadn’t caught me I might have done something again, which is such a horrible thought but I really am not myself, I think I might have been temporarily insane or something.’

‘I hope the doctor can help,’ Claire said sadly, and we all turned to leave.

Salmon and I stopped by the recreation ground where Nellie, Elvis, Rocky and Oliver sat. We told them all about the confrontation that had just taken place.

‘And what do you think?’ Nellie asked.

‘I’m confused,’ I admitted. ‘She sounded sorry, and she seemed to have realised how deranged she was being but then she is an actress, as she keeps telling us.’

‘I think she was sorry though,’ Salmon said. ‘I think she meant it.’

‘Only time will tell,’ Rocky said. ‘Last night, when she was chasing us all over the stage, I really thought she would try to kill us.’

‘Well maybe not kill us,’ Elvis said. ‘But she definitely wasn’t playing tag.’

‘People are funny,’ I mused. ‘Anyway, I must go and see Snowball, she’ll want to hear the latest.’

‘See you later, Alfie. And you’re right, people can be funny. If only they were more like cats,’ Oliver said.

Chapter Thirty

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Iwas so ready to welcome family day at the end of one of the most stressful weeks of the year. It felt as if it might be the last one before Christmas Day, what with the show and everything. The house was looking amazing, fully decorated with tinsel, lights, and of course our wonderful tree. Claire had put candles around, which had Christmas trees on them, but she wasn’t going to light them – she had done that once and poor George caught his tail on fire, so they were now purely for decoration.

I was still a little tired, having had barely any time to catch up on sleep between seeing Snowball and then my friends, rehearsing for the show, and looking after George and Pickles, although George wouldn’t take kindly to me saying that. And I wasn’t without worry, even though we’d saved the show.

George said that Hana was still very tired and lethargic, barely able to muster up enthusiasm for the show. I knew she was having a tough time sleeping– she was a light sleeper and woke whenever she heard Theo – but it had been going on a while now. George was unable to get her to come out on their usual walks, and he said when he visited the last few days she just fell asleep. I told him he needed to be understanding, which he agreed with, but I could see he missed the fact they used to have more fun together. I knew that it was hard for them both. I just hoped it didn’t ruin their relationship. Marcus and Sylvie had had a few more rows than usual when Theo arrived, because they were both tired, but they had worked it out and I hopedGeorge and Hana would do the same.

In light of everything, family day– which was again at our house – was a welcome day without any show rehearsal, and with the people we loved the most. Our house was a fair size but with us all there it seemed small, and I loved that. Harold and Snowball, Sylvie, Marcus, Connie, Theo, Polly, Matt, Henry, Martha, Franceska, Tomasz, Aleksy, and Tommy – oh and Pickles, of course – all crowded in our kitchen for lunch. Hana didn’t come because, as George said, having a quiet house was important for her to catch up on her rest, and he did seem to support her in that, which made me proud and also a little relieved. We putall the Christmas lights on, and the children chose Christmas music to play, which they insisted on singing along to. It was a very, very noisy house today so Hana certainly had the right idea.

After lunch, the children went upstairs and the adults, and the older children, went into the living room. Pickles and George went upstairs to play, but Snowball and I stayed downstairs.