Alfie in the Snow

‘What if there’s someone in there? They might be dangerous,’ Claire replied. She went to the kitchen and came back with a saucepan. Forgetting she had her slippers on, she ran to Jonathan and handed it to him.

‘What’s that for?’

‘In case you need to hit them,’ Claire said.

‘You honestly think Alfie is telling us that there’s someone dangerous in our shed?’ He sounded a little bit panicked.

‘No idea but to be on the safe side,’ Claire said sensibly.

‘It’s probably a cat. You know, a stray cat that we’ll end up having to give a home to, or maybe it’s Santa.’ Jonathan laughed and I swished him with my tail again, this was no time for jokes.

‘YOWL.’ Would you just open the door already? Claire gave Jonathan a little push and, saucepan in hand, he tentatively opened the door. A scream from inside filled the air, as Jonathan flung the door wide open.

‘Oh my goodness,’ Claire said as the three of us stared at Aleksy and Connie, huddled together in the shed, wrapped in dusty old painting blankets.

‘What the hell?’ Jonathan shouted. He was still holding the saucepan up.

‘Oh dear,’ Aleksy said. Yet another understatement. Jonathan shook his head, and looked at Claire.

‘Right, I’ll go and call Franceska,’ Claire said. ‘And then I’m going to get your mum, Connie.’ She sounded angry. ‘Blimey you two, it’s freezing, are you both mad?’ Without waiting for an answer she ran back to the house. I was tempted to go with her but I wanted to see how this was going to play out.

‘What were you thinking, Aleksy? You idiot.’ Jonathan didn’t mince his words. He finally let his arm with the saucepan drop.

‘We just want to be allowed to see each other,’ Aleksy said, his voice wobbly. He was still my sensitive boy and he seemed younger than ever as he held onto Connie’s hand.

‘Yeah, mate, but running away on Christmas Eve, it’s madness. What if your mum, dad and Tommy woke up and found you weren’t there? And you, Connie, your mum is alone, she’d be absolutely terrified. Honestly, I could bang your heads together. It was irresponsible and stupid and you could have ruined Christmas. Right, come inside before I get frostbite.’

If I could have spoken, I would have said exactly the same, I thought proudly.

As both Connie and Aleksy slunk into the house after Jonathan, I went to see Dustbin.

‘Great job tonight,’ I said. ‘Thank you so much.’

‘You did well, Alfie. Try to get some sleep though, big day tomorrow.’

‘Everyone is coming here, why don’t you pop over?’ I said. I didn’t like the idea of Dustbin being alone on Christmas Day, although I knew he wouldn’t mind. He liked being alone.

‘Nah, big rodent day, they think they deserve to get more food at Christmas, so can’t risk taking any time off,’ he said. I grinned and raised my whiskers.

‘You work too hard.’

‘You and me both.’ He wasn’t wrong. ‘See you, Alfie.’

‘Happy Christmas, Dustbin,’ I said.

‘And to you. I know it’s going to be hard for you, missing Tiger, but keep the courage, Alfie, and I’ll see you soon.’

I watched as he seemed to disappear into the night.

Aleksy and Connie were sitting on the sofa looking very guilty. Jonathan was pacing up and down, delivering a lecture about how irresponsible they were. He seemed to be enjoying it, and actually was doing a pretty good job. I gave Aleksy my best disapproving look.

‘How come you came to the shed?’ Aleksy asked.

‘Alfie made us.’ They all turned to look at me. I examined my paw closely; honestly, sometimes humans weren’t the smartest.

‘But how did he know?’ Connie asked.

‘I told him,’ Aleksy said. They all glanced over at me again. My paw was suddenly very interesting. ‘I had to confide in someone but I didn’t think that he understood it.’ He turned to Connie in confusion.

‘He’s a cat,’ she said.

‘Yes, we do know that,’ Jonathan snapped. ‘He probably just heard a noise from the shed and thought I should investigate it.’ Their suspicious glances were increasing.

‘But he’s a cat,’ Connie said again. ‘He can’t have known we were there.’

‘He’s more than a cat,’ Aleksy said and I felt proud. At least he noticed. ‘But maybe he did just hear something, but that other time—’ Aleksy quickly clamped his hand over his mouth.

‘What other time?’ Jonathan narrowed his eyes. We all stayed quiet. ‘Anyway, back to the matter at hand,’ he said. ‘I know you think your mum’s being unreasonable and unfair,’ he went on. ‘But Connie, she’s had a bit of a hard time. I lived in Singapore and I lost my job, and had to come back here. I know it wasn’t a divorce, actually it was worse than that.’

‘Meow.’ OK, maybe not that good of a job.

‘Oh right, maybe not worse, but anyway it was a huge adjustment and I had a very hard time processing what happened to me. I probably was depressed and not very nice to anyone, actually including Alfie.’

‘Meow.’ He certainly wasn’t very nice. He kept throwing me out of the house in actual fact.