Alfie the Christmas Cat Page 6

  I was lying in my basket in the kitchen when George appeared. I told him of my plan.

  ‘I love the idea of the Christmas show but do you think if you shove the flyer in front of her she’ll get it?’

  ‘’Course, Claire’s clever.’ I began to have doubts, but still, I had nothing better.

  ‘Well, you said that Aleksy and Connie are coming over after tea to come up with ideas, wouldn’t it be better if you got them all to see it?’ George said. ‘Then it’s more likely that one of them might understand.’

  ‘Clever, just like your dad. Yes, of course, if they all see it someone will definitely get it. But how? I’ll have to pounce as soon as they come in.’

  ‘Or you could find a way to get the leaflet to them – you know, when they sit around the kitchen table,’ George suggested. He was examining his paws. I got the feeling that he was trying to teach this old cat new tricks.

  ‘But how? Pushing it all the way from here to the kitchen with my paw will be quite exhausting.’ I had done this before, but it wasn’t easy. You see we cats did have our limitations. ‘And how would I even pick it up?’ My mind was whirring, trying to figure out the logistics.

  ‘Can’t you try carrying it in your mouth the way Pickles carries his ball, or Dustbin carries a mouse?’

  I considered it. I had once carried some of Polly’s best flowers in my mouth when trying to woo Snowball. That hadn’t gone well, but I had managed and for a lot further than the hall to the kitchen. It wasn’t the worst idea, I decided, but then …

  ‘How will I pick it up from the floor?’ I asked George. I felt as if I should have all the answers but I didn’t. My kitten, it seemed, did.

  ‘Slide your paw under it like this.’ He demonstrated. His paw lifted up a bit of the piece of paper, and he bent down and picked it up in his mouth.

  ‘I’d have figured it out eventually,’ I muttered.

  ‘’Course you would have, Dad,’ he said. ‘But I do have youth on my side.’

  I tried not to take offence. I also tried to copy what he’d done, but it wasn’t anywhere near as easy as he made it look. I was getting frustrated and George was trying not to laugh at me. First the flyer kept sliding away from me, and then when I did manage to elevate it slightly I couldn’t grip with my mouth. I even managed to bang my head on the floor, which hurt.

  ‘I just can’t seem to do it,’ I said.

  ‘Dad, you never give up. Look, I’ll talk you through it.’

  After a bit more (annoying) coaching from George, I used my tongue and ta dah! I did it. The leaflet was a little bit soggy from all my attempts, and my head was a bit sore, but I felt confident that when the time came I would be able to do this again.

  ‘Teamwork,’ I said to George. Although I wasn’t sure that it was, actually. More of an old cat struggling to learn new tricks. But if it worked, it would be worth it, I kept having to tell myself that.

  ‘Teamwork, Dad,’ he replied. ‘And now I’m going to see if I can get a snack. Trying to teach you has made me very hungry. And after I’ve eaten, I’m going to see Harold.’ I lay down on top of the leaflet. I was exhausted, too tired to try to get to my basket, so I just shut my eyes.

  I heard the door open, which woke me, and I sat up to see Claire come in alone.

  ‘Hi Alfie,’ she said. ‘Polly and Matt are taking the kids out for tea tonight, to give me a bit of a break, and also as a treat for them.’ She smiled. I could see sometimes that Claire got tired, and as she worked at home, she didn’t have much time to herself. Claire might be the only one who didn’t have an official ‘job’ but she worked harder than anyone, as far as I could see.

  ‘Meow.’ You deserve it.

  ‘And Connie and Aleksy will be over soon to talk about their fundraiser. I hope they’ve come up with some ideas, because I have to admit I haven’t really got any. Goodness, there’s so much to do, but I really don’t want to let them down.’

  ‘Meow.’ Don’t worry, I had it all in paw.

  My plan now ready, I stayed in the hall to wait for the right time. It felt like ages, but then I was impatient, so it probably wasn’t. I really wanted to get going with this, not only because I was a little nervous about making it work, but also because the more I thought about it the better it sounded to my ears. I shuffled around, unable to sit still, willing them to hurry up.

  Eventually, the doorbell rang and I started to get ready. Aleksy and Connie walked in, gave me a quick fuss before following Claire into the kitchen. It was my cue. I managed to get the leaflet into my mouth on the third try – definite improvement – and I walked slowly to the kitchen with it in my mouth. I had to be careful not to drop it, and although it was a bit bigger than I would have liked and meant I could barely see over it, I finally made it. As I approached the table, I misjudged and banged into the table leg, and I nearly dropped the leaflet, but managed to keep hold of it. My poor head would have two bumps on it, possibly.

  ‘So, you haven’t got any ideas?’ Claire was asking, as I turned myself and got ready to jump up.

  ‘No, we’ve been thinking and thinking. We don’t want to do anything sponsored, as that’s normal, and we want to get people involved. Our aim is to raise money so they can have a nice Christmas dinner and get some warm clothes and sleeping bags maybe … We need something good to raise enough money and get many people involved.’ Poor Aleksy sounded dejected.

  ‘Yes, we want everyone at the shelter to have proper treats at Christmas, to give them something to look forward to, or as much as they can when they’re homeless,’ Connie added. ‘Also, we thought we could help raise awareness at the same time.’

  ‘Of course, it’s such a lovely idea. I feel terrible that I haven’t got a good idea for you, but I’ll keep thinking about it.’ Claire sounded a little upset now. It was my cue. I steadied myself and jumped on the table, nearly but not quite dropping the leaflet. When I reached the middle of the table, I let the leaflet go and it fluttered down looking a bit worse for wear. I hoped it would still work. The best thing was that finally I could feel my tongue again as I licked my lips, and rubbed my head with my paw.

  ‘What is this?’ Claire asked, picking it up. ‘The flyer for the pantomime? Why on earth have you brought this here, Alfie?’

  ‘Oh, maybe Alfie is trying to tell us something,’ Aleksy said, stroking me.

  ‘Meow.’ Of course I am. Even after all these years my humans could be a little slow on the uptake.

  ‘You want to go to the pantomime?’ Claire asked. See what I mean?

  ‘Yowl.’ No.

  ‘You want us to do a panto?’ Aleksy asked. I tried to move my head a bit, but it still smarted.

  ‘It would be far too hard,’ Connie said. ‘And anyway there’s loads of them around, so why would anyone come to ours?’

  ‘Meow, meow, meow.’ Honestly, I couldn’t spell it out any more than this. I did a spin on the table, not sure why but I was frustrated.

  ‘What about a show?’ Claire said.

  ‘Purr. Purr.’ Yes!

  ‘You mean a Christmas show?’ Aleksy said.

  ‘Purr.’ Now we were talking.

  ‘For the local community, with everyone involved?’ Connie added.

  ‘MEOW.’ Finally.

  ‘Oh what a fabulous idea,’ Claire said. ‘We could have Christmas songs …’

  ‘And what about a grown-up Nativity, that could be a good idea?’ Aleksy chipped in.

  ‘And maybe carols, and all the children can be involved, and we can ask at school …’ Connie sounded excited.

  ‘We could sell tickets, and make posters advertising it.’

  ‘I think it’s a brilliant idea. Of course it should be a Christmas show.’ Claire sounded excited. ‘It’s perfect, in fact.’

  ‘But where would we have it?’ Aleksy asked. ‘And what about the cost?’

  ‘Leave that to me,’ Claire said. I lay down, relieved. They had got the idea, they liked it and now it was going to hopefully come to life. I wondered what part I would play, and George and Snowball, too, of course. And maybe Hana would be involved. It would be a real family affair and I loved the idea that we’d get to all work together on it. After all, we were a big part of this community. I could see it bringing everyone together in the most wonderful way.

  I listened with one ear open as they chatted around some ideas, it seemed they were really getting it now.

  ‘Yes there’s a lot to do,’ Aleksy said, after they’d chatted for a while. ‘But maybe if we make a list we can do it.’

  ‘How about you and Connie be the directors?’ Claire suggested. ‘And if you want to do the Nativity you could even write a script so it will be new and original?’

  ‘Good idea,’ Connie said.

  ‘We could ask the school to support us as well,’ Aleksy suggested.

  ‘Now that is a good idea,’ Claire said. I agreed.

  ‘And we could hold auditions, which would be really fun!’ Connie added, excitement audible in her voice.

  I loved the way they were all thinking and coming up with ideas, and I was so proud of Aleksy and Connie. Teenagers get a bad rap (and yes I am guilty of that), but Aleksy and Connie were doing something good, rather than just worrying about themselves. They were being so unselfish, helping others. I had taught them well.

  ‘We’ll need to do lots of social media,’ Connie said. I climbed onto Aleksy and nuzzled into his neck. As they continued to chat away about the show, I could see it in my mind. I lay down in Aleksy’s lap. My work was done and yet another plan was now underway.

  Chapter Nine

  The next few days proved a whirlwind for my humans and me. As the show was my idea, I felt as if I had to be involved in everything. And as Claire pointed out, we didn’t have any time to lose. As it was a Christmas show, it really only gave us just less than a month to hold auditions, build sets, and get everything ready. If we were able to pull it off, it would mean a lot of hard work for everyone involved. And of course, that meant very hard work for me.

  It seemed that there were a lot of issues we needed to address. Firstly, my idea might have seemed simple, but it was not. As soon as they understood my vision, they then began questioning everything, which in turn made me question everything.

  ‘Do you think we have enough time?’ Claire said, when she told Jonathan. ‘It’s nearly November, and we’ll need the show to be on just before Christmas so that doesn’t give us a lot of time to find a hall, write the show, rehearse, sell tickets …’ She chewed her lip anxiously.

  ‘It is ambitious. But there are a lot of us,’ Jonathan said supportively, which I was pleased about. He wasn’t always so keen to take on our projects. ‘We can all muck in and help. Write a list – you’re really good at them – and we can take it from there.’

  Claire made a list, which she talked about to me a lot. The first thing we needed to do was to find a venue. We needed a hall which could accommodate a lot of people, had a stage, and was free, because we couldn’t spend money when the aim was to raise it. I didn’t understand everything but as Connie, Claire, Aleksy and I sat around our kitchen table trying to come up with something, I had to admit it made me a bit nervous.

  Claire called a number of people, but there was always a problem. Aleksy asked at school but they weren’t allowed to let him use their hall for anything which wasn’t related to school. There were insurance problems, apparently.

  Franceska offered the use of the restaurant but then realised that it was busy so how would they rehearse there, even if they closed it off for the show. Tomasz asked everyone who came to dine at the restaurant but it seemed there was nowhere we could use. I had a terrible feeling in my fur that the show might be over before it even began. I hated the thought that one of my ideas might fail. They never did. Or almost never, anyway.

  We were all feeling a bit dejected when Matt turned up at our house with Pickles and started babbling.

  ‘Slow down, Matt,’ Claire said. ‘I can’t understand a word you are saying.’

  ‘There’s a hall, I just found it. Edgar Road Parish Hall, it’s tucked behind the end of the road not far from here. It’s a bit neglected but come on, come look.’ He was breathless but excited. Could this be it?

  ‘How did you find it?’ Claire asked as she grabbed a coat and left the house, shouting to Jonathan to mind the kids. Of course I followed her.

  ‘Polly is making me take Pickles for longer walks to try to get him to lose some weight, and I was just doing that really. I managed to look through one of the windows and it’s a bit dusty but it looks as if it might fit the bill.’

  ‘Oh Matt, if you’re right then you’re the hero of the hour.’

  I wondered how I had never noticed the hall before; it wasn’t a long walk to get there, and it was tucked away past the park we used to go to a lot when the children were younger. And George too actually. We went there sometimes still, but to be honest, not as much as we used to. I remember when Summer was a baby we would go with Henry and Martha, hauling prams and pushchairs, and have picnics with Claire and Polly. Those were the days before George of course, and goodness how it felt like a long time ago. George was right, I was a pretty nostalgic cat these days. In my early days in Edgar Road I had even fallen into the pond at the park – I was admiring my reflection – and Matt had to save me. Goodness, I’d almost forgotten about that.

  The building was near the church and Matt said that as it was a parish hall it probably belonged to the church, which was a good thing, as churches were known for charity.

  We had a good look around and I was able to jump onto one of the lower window sills and look through a very big window. It was dirty, though, as Matt had said, so we were limited in what we could see. Inside was big, there were chairs stacked up and I thought I could make out a stage. It was dark as well, and clearly needed a good clean.

  Claire had gone from despondent about the show to buoyed up, as had I. She said she didn’t want to speak about it to Aleksy and Connie though until she had tracked down the vicar. That necessitated a trip to the church the following day, but if he agreed it looked as if the show might be a go after all. I had my paws firmly crossed.

  Being an optimistic cat, I decided to get George, Hana and Snowball on board now. Although they knew about my idea, and had agreed to be part of it in theory, they, like everyone else, weren’t sure it would actually happen. Our other Edgar Road friends were shyer than us and didn’t want to be part of a show, and of course Dustbin and Ally would rather be in the yard, but the four of us were willing to take centre stage. I knew we wouldn’t have talking parts – I did accept I was a cat after all – but we could definitely be very important members of the cast. However, first we needed to secure that venue.

  I woke up feeling tense the following day. Claire was going to find the vicar after she dropped the children off at school, and I didn’t go with her because it was pouring with rain, which meant she had to take the car. All I could do was wait and pace the floor until she returned.

  It felt like hours before I heard the key in the lock. Claire rushed in, picked me up and spun me around.

  ‘We can use the hall! Matt is a genius, and you’re a genius, Alfie, and I can’t wait to tell Aleksy and Connie.’

  I purred my delight. This was turning out to be a very good day.

  Claire arranged to visit the hall with Aleksy and Connie after school. It did have a stage, as I suspected, but it wasn’t really used much nowadays. Ralph, the local vicar, told Claire that with dwindling congregation numbers and lack of funds, the hall was used less and less. But, not only was he keen for the hall to be used for something big like this, he also was a keen supporter of the shelter. Claire said that, in a way, us having a show there might put it back on the map, and make it a very valuable community asset. Not that I quite knew what that was. Ralph and Claire agreed to work together to make the show a possibility. And Ralph said he would not only ask for volunteers to help clean the hall up – after all, it desperately needed it – but also he and his church goers would get involved in the show.

  Today we were going to have a look at the hall. When I say we, I mean Claire, Connie, Aleksy and myself. I invited George and Snowball along but it was cold, so they passed and said they would be just as happy with me telling them about it. Honestly, it was lucky that I wasn’t a fair weather cat like them, we would never get anything done.

  We met Ralph, who wore a collar around his neck – a bit like a cat collar. I recognised this as a sign he was a vicar. I had seen one before, after all, having been to church for Claire and Jonathan’s wedding, a long time ago.

  ‘Hi, this is Aleksy and Connie,’ Claire said.

  ‘Meow.’

  ‘Oh yes, and Alfie.’

  Ralph didn’t seem to notice me.

  ‘We don’t get many requests for the hall these days, as I said,’ he explained. ‘It’s a shame that it’s going to waste. We used to have some local groups come here and the school used to use it but now they’ve got a new school hall, they don’t anymore.’

  ‘It’s amazing,’ Claire said. ‘Such a waste of a great space, maybe after the show there’ll be more events on here.’

  ‘That would be great,’ Ralph said. We were still standing at the door, freezing and getting wet.

  Claire shivered. ‘Can we go in?’

  ‘But that’s a cat,’ he said, pointing at me.

  ‘Yes, that’s Alfie, he likes to come with us.’ Aleksy said it as if it was perfectly normal, which it was, of course.

  ‘I don’t think we normally have cats in here,’ Ralph said, narrowing his eyes at me. ‘But OK, then, come on in.’ He bent down to give me a stroke, so I decided I did like Ralph the vicar.

  As he opened the door we all gasped. The big hall was still a bit dusty and gloomy, but we could see where they had started cleaning it and the stage at the front would be perfect.