Alfie in the Snow

George flicked his eyes towards me worriedly.

‘Not you Alfie, of course.’ Of course not. I’d tried to help George get together with Hana, not keep them apart – although that was just friendship. And yes, I had tried to warn him off Chanel, but that was because she didn’t like him. No, in the case of Aleksy and Connie, I was fully supportive. But not of them running away. Running away never solved anything. Not to mention that London at night was full of danger.

‘Well,’ Rocky said. ‘I think there’s only one thing for it.’

‘What is that?’ I asked, impatiently. If there was a solution, I wanted it. What with how full my head was at the moment, I was finding it hard to think.

‘Stop them,’ Rocky said.

‘Great, I think we know that,’ I said, a little snappily. ‘But how?’

‘Don’t snap, Alfie, we’re only trying to help,’ Nellie bristled.

‘Sorry, sorry, it’s a bit tough right now.’

‘But hey, Rocky’s right, we just need to stop them, literally.’ Dustbin’s eyes lit up as he seemed to be thinking. And then I got it.

‘Sorry Rocky, you are right. We need to lie in wait for Aleksy, and make so much of a commotion that he’ll think we’re going to wake his family up, or we actually do wake his family up, and he’ll have no choice but to abandon running away.’ My brain was back in proper operation now.

‘Oh, good idea, Dad, but what about Connie?’ George sensibly asked.

‘Go and tell Hana, if you can. I know it’ll be through the window but fill her in and see if she will try to stop Connie. It’d be easier if we could get in there to help but it’ll have to be down to her, I’m afraid. Once again, thanks guys, you are the best friends a cat could have. And I hope that Aleksy and Connie appreciate us.’

‘They probably won’t, not if you stop them running away,’ George pointed out, sensibly.

‘Not right now but my job, our job, is to keep them safe,’ I explained.

‘And it’s not safe out there, not for teenagers or most cats,’ Dustbin explained. ‘Honestly, if they did run away, I shudder to think how they’ll manage. I mean, Aleksy hasn’t exactly got survival skills.’

‘I’ll go to Dustbin tonight, and help him stop Aleksy. If he sees me there he’ll know that somehow we’ve foiled his plan and it might make him think again.’

I was a little cross now I thought about it. Aleksy was normally the sensible one but running away, late at night, was not clever and it was far from sensible. It was also not going to happen. As the others discussed the plan, I listened but I couldn’t help but think about the other day, when Tommy had come up with his plan for the nativity and Aleksy had said he’d help, as if nothing was amiss. And his good mood must have been down to this crazy running-away idea. I wasn’t happy with him at all.

I would not let this family fall apart. I would not let Aleksy and Connie run away. Yes, their situation was unfair, and yes, they should have been allowed to have their relationship, within the limits of their age, but this was not the way to go about getting Sylvie to change her mind. I worried that if she got wind of it then she’d lock Connie up at boarding school, far far away, whether she could afford to or not.

I calmed down as George and I headed home, and I felt confident in our plan. George had asked to come with us but I pointed out that Toby would worry if he wasn’t there. Although our plan didn’t involve any of my usual dangers, things could always go wrong, so knowing George was safely tucked up at home would be one less thing for me to worry about. The ideal outcome would be that we stopped Aleksy without his parents finding out and the same with Connie. Then they would realise how foolish they were being and rethink their behaviour. George and I parted ways and he went to Hana’s house and I went back to ours.

Marcus was at our house again. He had paint smeared on one of his glasses lenses, and he and Jonathan were both drinking beer and laughing. They seemed to get on well and I thought he would be a welcome addition to Edgar Road – although I had said the same about Sylvie not long ago.

I didn’t have much time to listen to their conversation though I picked up a bit. Harold was recovering well, but wasn’t coming home until the doctors were confident that he had the right medication. But that was all I managed to glean as I ate, had a quick wash and, after putting George to bed – he felt he had successfully communicated what he needed to to Hana – headed out to meet Dustbin. I was beyond tired, and my exhaustion was added to by the thought of the long night ahead. I wasn’t sure what time the kids would think about trying to escape, but I knew it would probably be fairly late if they were waiting for the adults to go to sleep. Just the idea of it made my fur feel weary.

Dustbin was hard at work when I arrived, evenings being his busiest time. It was pitch black, as the nights were now, and the street was lit only by a handful of stars and eyes of the cheeky rodents that Dustbin was charged with getting rid of.