by Rachel Wells
‘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.
‘I definitely was depressed. Anyway, when people are depressed they sometimes act in a way which might not seem rational.’ Like throwing charming cats out of your house, I thought. ‘Connie, you are the casualty of this, I can see that, but you know you and your mum need each other and you’re a team. I know it’s a lot for you to have gone through too, and you are the kid, but she needs your support. Don’t get me wrong, I’m on your side here.’
Really? It didn’t sound like it.
‘But you know, you have school and your new friends, and your mum, well I think she’s a bit lost at the moment. So as much as it’s not your responsibility, you need to try to understand, honestly it will make life better for both of you. And then she might come round to Aleksy, you know.’
I take it back, it wasn’t that bad after all.
‘Jonathan, we are sorry,’ Aleksy said. ‘I just didn’t know what to do, and it seemed a good idea.’
‘It was a terrible idea. Aleksy, tell everyone you are sorry and that you will never do anything so irresponsible again. Making people worry isn’t the way to solve anything.’
I purred my agreement, I had thought it a good idea once but not any more.
Claire, wearing a coat and some boots over her nightwear, came in, her arm around a crying Sylvie.
‘Your father is on his way too, Aleksy,’ Claire said. ‘Your mum couldn’t leave Tommy on his own so she’ll save her shouting for when you get home. She really wasn’t happy with you.’
‘I’m sorry, Mum.’ Connie burst into tears and flung herself at Sylvie.
‘Oh Connie, to think you had to run away. What have I done?’ They were both sobbing, arms around each other, as Tomasz arrived.
‘So, Aleksy, you want to tell me what happened?’ Tomasz said. He looked as if he had been woken up, thrown on the first clothes he could find, his hair was dishevelled and he didn’t even have that much of it.
‘We were stupid. But you know we just wanted to be able to see each other. We weren’t going to do anything bad, but we wanted you to know how serious we were and the only thing I could think of was running away, but the first time we tried—’
‘You mean you tried before?’ Claire screeched.
‘Oh.’ Aleksy clearly regretted mentioning it again; when would he learn? ‘Yes, we did, but then I got downstairs and Alfie and Dustbin started making such a noise that I thought they would wake you up – so we had to abort it and then we realised that London was dangerous and so we weren’t going to run away because that was silly.’
‘I’m not sure I’ve heard anything like this before,’ Tomasz said. He looked a little lost.
‘So then we thought we’d just pretend. And yes, we realise now it was very bad to make you wake up on Christmas morning with us gone, but we were desperate.’ He had tears in his eyes, which I knew he would push back. Aleksy felt he was too grown-up to cry. In truth, no one was ever too grown-up to cry.
‘And you were going to sleep in the shed all night?’ Tomasz continued. Sylvie was listening, but she was also still hugging Connie.
‘Well, actually I don’t think we would have in the end, because it was very cold.’
‘Worst runaways ever,’ Jonathan said, and Claire swiped him as that wasn’t very helpful. ‘Honestly, it was just like the nativity scene,’ he continued, rubbing his arm. ‘Mary and Joseph wrapped in old blankets in a shed.’
‘It wasn’t quite like that, Jon.’ Claire rolled her eyes.
‘I am sorry,’ Sylvie said. ‘To all of you and to Aleksy and Connie. If I’d known how miserable I was making you, but then … I’m struggling, Con, darling. I miss having your father help me with parenting and I feel a bit lost in London, like I don’t know anyone, and well I shouldn’t stop you from having a life. I still think you’re too young for a boyfriend but if you’re willing to abide by rules then I guess we can figur
e it out. I don’t want you to feel that you want to get away from me, I love you.’
‘I will, I’ll do anything,’ Connie said, her eyes full of hope.
‘Me too,’ Aleksy said. ‘Even if we aren’t alone ever, we don’t care.’ He sounded so excited.
‘But you will be punished,’ Tomasz said, unsurely.
Jonathan patted him on the back. ‘Hey, how about we let it go for now? It was stupid but I think they’ve learnt their lesson and it is technically Christmas Day.’ I went to rub Jonathan’s leg; he was right. ‘We’ll put him on washing-up duty or something tomorrow,’ he laughed.
‘And I know Frankie will just be relieved to have her boy home,’ Claire added.
‘OK. So maybe no punishment, I don’t know what to do in this situation but we better get home and let Claire and Jonathan go to sleep.’
‘Yes the kids will be up early and we’ve got a big lunch to prepare. Sylvie, Connie, please will you join us?’
‘Oh, no, we couldn’t. Sorry, but we just couldn’t.’ Sylvie said, almost pushing Connie out of the house.
‘Please?’ Aleksy asked.
‘No, we have plans, I’m sorry,’ she added and they were gone.
‘That was strange. Just as I thought she was being reasonable?’ Jonathan said.
‘I think perhaps she’s too embarrassed to see everyone at once,’ Claire said. I agreed with her. ‘You know she’s sort of fallen out with all of us, and she probably thinks she needs to build bridges but Christmas Day, us all en masse, it might be a bit much.’
I thought that Claire was spot on. The thing was that a broken heart was a terrible thing, and Sylvie definitely had one of those. As did I. However, I seemed to be coping better, more rationally, than she did, which was darn lucky for my family.
‘You see, I’m no good at this stuff, I never even thought of that.’ Poor Tomasz looked perplexed. ‘Right, young man, come on, let’s get you home.’
Aleksy was smiling, he was allowed to see Connie. Tomasz, Claire and Jonathan seemed pleased with the outcome, and I was too. It was a Christmas miracle after all and it seemed I had saved our Christmas.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The excitement of Christmas Day was something I would never tire of, despite being incredibly worn out. But we had rallied, when woken by the kids at ‘silly o’clock’, as Jonathan called it. George was excited by the prospect of his wrapping paper and so was encouraging the children to rip open their presents, hopping around them as they did so. As he blew a stray piece off his head, I looked on affectionately. Happy Christmas.
Everyone was fizzing around, a bit like the drink that Claire and Jonathan had. Although it was champagne, it had orange juice in it which made it suitable for breakfast apparently, although not for children or cats it seemed.
The presents were soon opened. Toby was so happy he was beside himself, and Jonathan who had to help him with some very complicated Lego, was beside himself but not with happiness as he struggled. He kept scratching his head and looking pleadingly at Claire. Summer had added even more dolls to her collection and apparently Santa was the cleverest person in the world, as he had got everything right. George was in wrapping-paper heaven although we did have to untangle him at one point when he got himself stuck with Sellotape, but everyone was cheerful. Including me. Because seeing everyone I loved having such a nice time warmed my heart. I knew how lucky we all were: we were warm, fed, loved and it made me sad for anyone who wasn’t as lucky as us. But I couldn’t dwell on that today, I had a kitten to unwrap from the tinsel he’d liberated from the windowsill.
I hoped Tiger could see us, she would have enjoyed this scene, and although I missed her with every piece of fur on my body, I couldn’t help but smile as I heard her voice wishing us, ‘Happy Christmas.’ It was a happy Christmas, but a sad one too. But then life was all about balances and contrasts in feelings after all.
‘Right, I’ve showered and now I better start cooking,’ Claire said. She was wearing a bright red jumper with a Christmas tree on it. Jonathan was supposed to wear a matching one but he claimed to have lost it. I knew that it was hidden as I heard him say it was ‘ridiculous’ and that he wouldn’t ‘be seen dead wearing it’. Which was a phrase I didn’t understand. But anyway, Claire looked quite Christmassy as she tied on an apron. I was not only excited for lunch but also the knowledge that my other families would be here soon.
‘Do you want a hand?’ Jonathan asked, looking pleadingly at her as he studied the Lego instructions. Jonathan didn’t like cooking but it was clearly easier than putting a Lego spaceship together.
‘No, you carry on with Toby.’ Claire grinned.
‘Yay!’ Toby said, and then stared very intently at Jonathan, who was still scratching his head.
‘Mummy, can you help me with my car?’ Summer asked. She’d been given a pink car which spun around when operated with a remote control. She wasn’t the best driver, though, my tail had already been run over and George had had a few close calls.
‘Darling, I have to start cooking. Toby, can you help her for a moment?’
Toby looked thoughtful, as if weighing up the Lego or his sister.
‘OK, but only for a minute,’ he said, as suddenly and without warning the Christmas tree lights went off.
‘Oh no, they must have fused,’ Jonathan said, jumping up and trying the living room lights. But they didn’t come on either. ‘Strange, I wonder if it’s tripped?’ he said, going to the hallway where the fuse box was. ‘No, it’s not tripped,’ he said, sounding confused just as the phone rang.
‘Oh my goodness. The power in the whole of Edgar Road is out,’ Claire screamed, as she lowered the phone from her ear.
‘What do you mean?’ Jonathan asked.
‘No power. None at all. How am I supposed to cook Christmas lunch?’ She looked at the handset, which she was still holding. ‘Sorry, Pol, I’m just in shock, I’ll call you back,’ she said, hanging up.
‘What are we going to do?’ Jonathan said. We all stood in the semi-darkness in horror. What was Christmas without food? For me, that was the best bit. I was so looking forward to my Christmas dinner. George looked horrified, Toby concerned and Summer played with her dolls as if nothing was wrong.
As panic continued all around me, I tried to calm myself and think. I had saved Christmas once already this year and now I needed to do it again. And I was still sleep-deprived from a long, long day yesterday, an early morning today and not even any turkey to show for it. No, we couldn’t have that. As they say, a cat’s work is never done.
I listened as Summer suggested they eat sandwiches for lunch and Toby chocolate coins – although he had already put a fair few of those away, as far as I could tell. He even offered to share round his selection box. Which was all well and good, but what about us cats? We didn’t eat chocolate and as for sandwiches, unless they had pilchards in them, or some other kind of fish, I simply wasn’t interested. No, I wanted my traditional Christmas lunch and by the look of horror on Jonathan’s face, so did he. And what about all the people who were having lunch with us? What about the rest of the street? This was a disaster.
The phone rang again and Claire snatched it up. After a few moments she replaced the receiver.
‘That was Marcus. Apparently there’s a fault and it’s down as an emergency but they don’t expect it to be fixed until tonight at the earliest,’ she explained.
‘Oh no, Christmas is ruined,’ Jonathan moaned.
‘Shush, of course it’s not. We just need to think,’ Claire said sensibly but she had panic in her eyes too.
Of course, as soon as it went quiet, it came to me. They said the fault was with Edgar Road, so Tomasz and Franceska’s road might be fine and their restaurant was closed today, so we could all decamp to their place with our food, cook and eat it there. Brilliant and simple. Now, how to convey that? I looked at them, licked my lips. I mewed and then ran to the front door.
‘Now what?’ Jonathan said as he g
lared at me. OK, so that wasn’t clear. I took George aside and told him my idea.
‘Such a good idea,’ my boy said. ‘But how are we going to tell them?’ I thought and thought.
On the table by the front door were leaflets for take-aways that Claire and Jonathan sometimes had; would that give them a clue? I jumped on the console table and knocked them to the floor.
‘What the hell is he doing?’ Jonathan asked.
‘Yowl,’ I said. This wasn’t easy. Then I saw it. Aleksy had left his backpack here in his rush to get home last night, and Claire had put it by the front door. This had to work, I thought as George and I climbed on it, mewing loudly.
Claire and Jonathan looked at each other.
‘I’ll call Tomasz,’ Jonathan said. Finally. ‘Oh of course, the restaurant is closed today and they probably haven’t lost power!’ He sounded jubilant, as if it was his idea.
I was feeling a little smug, as George nuzzled me.
‘I miss Tiger mum, but I am lucky to have the cleverest dad in the world,’ he said and I couldn’t be any happier at that moment, or sadder, because I really missed Tiger mum as well.
It was all organised. Well, in a very disorganised way. While Franceska stayed to organise the restaurant, Tomasz drove over with the boys to pick up the food that needed cooking to take back. Jonathan and Matt went along the street inviting any of the neighbours who were stuck to come and join us. I went with them and was delighted when Tiger’s family agreed to come. They were fretting about being without power, and on top of missing Tiger, I was glad they would be with us.
Marcus and Harold were on board, although Marcus was going to drive his dad there, as it was too far for him to walk, and he offered to take anyone else who needed a lift. I wondered if that meant me? The busybody Goodwins also agreed to come and Jonathan didn’t even complain about that, in the interest of it being the day of goodwill to all men – and cats. And in that vein, I invited Salmon who said he would love to come with us, as it was the only way to guarantee any Christmas dinner. There was no sign of my other friends, though, and I could only hope that they would be alright.