Читать книгу A Cat Called Alfie - Rachel Wells - Страница 13

‘I don’t mind cooking,’ Jonathan offered, as he stood staring at his prized possession, the coffee machine, which was whirring away. When I’d first heard the chrome thing gurgling and spluttering I thought it was alive and would eat me, but now I was used to it. Jonathan liked shiny gadgets that cost a lot of money and made a lot of noise, it seemed.

‘Darling, no offence, but when you cook, I have to clean up and it normally takes weeks. Anyway you know what Tasha and Dave are like, they’re happy with anything.’

‘OK, but if you cook do I have to clear up?’

‘Jonathan, stop being an idiot, you know that I clean up as I go along. You can go and get some nice wine, buy some flowers for the house, and treat me to a new dress.’

‘Really, all that?’ Looking bemused he took his coffee and sat at the kitchen table.

‘OK, I don’t need a dress but you can get flowers and wine.’

‘I would buy you all the dresses in the world if you wanted, you know that.’

‘I do and that’s why I love you.’

Once again, I had to put my paws over my eyes as they started smooching. I was glad they were happy but I didn’t necessarily want to see it. Tasha teased Claire and called it the ‘honeymoon period’. I didn’t know exactly what it meant but I had guessed that it meant it wouldn’t last forever. Hopefully. I was all for affection but people could take it too far – it was almost enough to put me off my breakfast.

It was time for me to leave. I had said I would call on Tiger, so we could hang out. Maybe with some of the others, depending on who was around. For the past few days I had not had a sighting of the beautiful white cat. Or its owners for that matter. And I had spent a fair bit of time at the fence. Not only had I not seen her but I didn’t even know her name yet. And I desperately wanted to find out what it was.

I had heard Claire telling Jonathan she had popped round to say welcome, but there had been no answer, although she was sure she’d heard movement in the house. They were certainly mysterious and I wondered if Vic and Heather had managed to get to them yet. They probably had their binoculars trained on the house as it was.

I still hadn’t come up with a plan on how to meet the white cat again, but I was working on it. My little brain was always whirring and perhaps today would be the day that I caught sight of her again.

As I made my way out of the back garden – quickly checking the fence for activity – and round to Tiger’s house, she was waiting for me, giving herself a clean before we set off for our morning walk.

Exercise was important to me, particularly because of my injury, as I had to keep fit and my limbs moving. So I had taken to going to the park most days, sometimes with Polly, other times with Tiger, as well as strolling up and around Edgar Road.

‘Park?’ she asked.

‘You read my mind,’ I replied. The park at the end of our road was small but we loved it. Full of bushes, creatures to chase and, of course, children; we found plenty to entertain us there.

There was also a pond but I didn’t like to think about that after a near-death experience I had falling into it once. Matt rescued me but it taught me to keep away from water. I even avoided puddles if I could.

On the way, we sneaked a look at number 48, to see if there had been any developments but nothing had changed. The curtains were drawn, although lights were glimmering through them. I wasn’t a judgemental cat but it was most odd.

‘Salmon’s family said that there might be twenty people living there,’ I told Tiger. ‘But we only saw four.’

‘Yesterday they came round to ours and were ranting on about criminals to my humans. Saying that no one has seen them, they keep the curtains drawn and so they are definitely up to something. They said something about a drugs den but I have no idea what that is.’

‘Me neither.’ I tried to think about why they might be so secretive. ‘But I guess we’ll find out soon – they’ll have to show their faces at some point.’ I was agitated, my excitement at the idea of seeing the white cat again was off the scale. Just then we were rewarded as the front door opened and the surly boy walked out. He looked furtively around and then pulled his hood up as he started walking down the path. I felt all of a quiver as I saw that the cat was at his feet.

‘Look, Tiger,’ I said, nudging her with my head. We both stood still and looked. When the boy got to the street, he leant down and petted the cat.

‘Bye, Snowball,’ he said, sounding cross. ‘Wish me luck.’ Snowball purred and rubbed up against his legs in a most affectionate way. She seemed like a completely different cat from when we met her. And I knew her name!

As the boy walked off she looked directly at us. I gave her my most charming look but she immediately narrowed her eyes, turned and, with her tail flapping aggressively, stalked back to the front door, where I noticed the woman was standing. She smiled grimly at the cat, picked her up and shut the door.

‘Well, I hate to agree with Salmon but they are acting very strangely,’ Tiger stated.

‘They are, but at least now we know the beautiful cat is called Snowball.’

‘Alfie, she’s mean! And whilst you may think she’s beautiful, I think she’s cold.’ I raised my whiskers – Tiger sounded cold herself.

‘Yes but, Tiger, remember how Jonathan was when I first met him. He was horrid and angry towards me, and now he loves me. I think there’s more to this than meets the eye and I intend to find out what’s going on.’

‘Here we go again,’ Tiger said, giving me a stern stare.

I squirmed as I tried to avoid her glaring eyes, but I knew what she meant. I had always meddled and tried to help people; it had been my role since moving to Edgar Road and although things had been calm lately, this little cat couldn’t change its fur. Humans often say that curiosity killed the cat but, actually, it was this that kept me going. Part of our intelligence is our interest in everything; that’s what I fully believe.

Blip over, we eventually strolled on in companionable silence. Every now and then we’d stop to chase a flying insect, or play with an inviting looking leaf that dangled over the street. I tried to placate Tiger by catching a fly, and I ended up spinning round in circles chasing it, which made her laugh. Soon I was forgiven, although I couldn’t help but wonder why she was so grumpy with me recently.

When we got to the park, it was almost deserted. I led Tiger to our favourite area, which had some of the bushiest bushes, as well as lots of colourful flowers and a couple of inviting trees. We played a new favourite game of hiding and then jumping out at each other. Although we were pretty silly, it was enjoyable.

And it was then I saw him.

‘Incoming!’ I shouted to Tiger, and we scrambled up the nearest tree. A small, rotund dog, with short legs but long hair, yapped up at us as we teased it. When we came here at this time of day we often ran into this particular dog and it had become part of our exercise routine – I had to hide from him when my leg was bad though. The dog was always followed by its screaming owner.

‘Roly, come here! Roly, stop, ROLY,’ a grey haired woman cried out as she made her way, huffing and puffing over, brandishing a lead as if it was a whip. It made us laugh as she finally clipped the lead on the dog and chastised him.

‘Bad dog. We do not chase cats,’ she shouted. ‘How many times do I have to tell you?’

‘Many more, I hope,’ Tiger laughed. We weren’t in any real danger after all, and it certainly livened up our afternoon.

‘Honestly, humans spend all this time and money going to the gym whereas all we have to do is get a dog to chase us,’ I observed to Tiger.

‘And those humans think they’re the smart ones,’ she replied with a wry smile.

When we got back to Edgar Road, Tiger went off for her nap and I went to Polly and Matt’s. I suspected Matt would be at work but the children might be there. I let myself in through the cat flap and to my delight found Polly and Franceska in the kitchen.

‘Alfie,’ Franceska said, getting up to give me a stroke. ‘I’ve seen so much of you this week.’

‘I bet you want some lunch.’ Polly smiled and got up. She opened a can of salmon and put it in a special bowl she kept just for me. She poured water into my water bowl too, which I was grateful for. Exercise left me thirsty. There was no sign of the children; I realized the boys were at nursery and school respectively and Martha was probably asleep. I curled up by the kitchen window and took a well-deserved rest as I listened to the chatter of the two women.

‘The thing is, Aleksy doesn’t talk to me,’ Franceska said. ‘I mean I ask him how is school and he just says “OK, Mama.” But nothing else.’

‘But you think something is wrong?’ Polly looked concerned, as did I. I remembered the other day when he’d been a bit quiet, I thought he was about to tell me something when we were interrupted.

‘He has some tears in his clothes, and he loses his things, like his pencil case. He seems quieter than normal and suddenly less keen on school.’

‘Have you spoken to the school?’

‘I’ve got an appointment with the head later, but you know you hear about bullying and how hard it is for children to talk about it. I can’t bear it if someone hurts my Aleksy.’

‘Of course you can’t, Frankie, being a mum means we worry about them constantly. I get upset at playgroup when I see someone pushing one of mine, but the thought that we don’t know what they are going through …’

‘I know. Motherhood is wonderful but worry is the price.’

‘And guilt.’ Polly’s eyes clouded over, briefly. ‘Well, let me know what the school says and if there’s anything we can do. Aleksy and Matt are close, so maybe he can take him out for football and talk to him.’

‘I would so very appreciate that.’ Franceska’s English was so much better than it had been when we first met but when she was upset, mistakes started to come through. ‘His dad tries to talk to him but he’s clammed up with him too.’

I felt a flutter in my chest. Things had been calm for so long that there was bound to be something else coming up. But Aleksy? I never expected that. I knew I would need to keep a close eye on this situation, as well as the new family. I had a feeling things were going to get busy again.

‘What about the weekend? Why don’t we meet up on Sunday?’

‘Ah that would be great, we could all go to the park and maybe Matt could try to talk to Aleksy then. We’ve both tried but he won’t …’

‘Frankie, it’s common for children not to want to worry their parents; they don’t understand by not talking they worry us more. But we’ll get to the bottom of it, I promise.’ Polly reached over and grabbed Franceska’s hands. I purred gently, happy to see another friendship that was so solid and knowing that I had been its foundation. It reminded me that I wanted to help people, both Aleksy and the new family. It was what I did.

I miaowed loudly and went to rub against Franceska’s legs. Yes we would get to the bottom of it, I was determined. My to-do list was growing again.