‘Yowl,’ he said, as he rolled himself upright again.
‘Yowl,’ I replied. Serves you right.
The talk over lunch was all about the show and also about Christmas.
‘Maybe you could do a performance for us,’ Clive said. ‘I, for one, would like to see it but of course it might be hard to get us all there, all the Sunday Lunch Club.’
‘Oh goodness,’ Jonathan said. ‘We’ve got enough members to fill the hall, and of course then we’ll need to be able to transport you all, seeing as most of the families you go to are in the show …’ He scratched his head.
‘There must be a way,’ Claire said. She lapsed into thought. ‘Leave it with us.’
I had a brainwave. On Christmas Day, we were all going to be hosting our Sunday Lunch Club for all members who would be alone. And most of the people involved in the show, as Jonathan rightly said, were involved in the club, so Christmas Day would be perfect for us to do a show for them. It might have to be in the evening and maybe not everyone could make it, but surely we could put on an edited version? It would be better than nothing, and like the people in the shelter, the Sunday Lunch Club didn’t get to go out very often so it would be special for them.
I jumped onto Claire’s lap, and mewed at her, trying to convey my idea. But of course she didn’t understand. How could I tell her what I meant?
‘We’ll sort something out,’ Claire said again, looking at me with a puzzled expression. I would have to keep trying, because clearly she wasn’t quite as advanced in ideas as me and this was a tricky one to convey. I thought maybe I would try again at the next family day, because if everyonewas there, someone might understand me. Or maybe George and Snowball could help me explain it to Harold. That might work. In the meantime, I would just enjoy some nice lunch treats that Jonathan had put down for George and me. Although I was still wearing this awful bonnet, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.
Later, with everyone at home and the bonnet gone, I went to see Snowball to see what she thought about my latest idea.
‘I agree it’s a very good idea but how to tell the humans? Maybe they’ll come to the same conclusion themselves?’ she said, hopefully.
‘I agree they might … After lunch and games we all have a bit of time before we have to arrange for everyone to go home, so maybe if we did the show then – like a kind of finale – that would be a great end to Christmas Day.’
‘Ah, Alfie, it’s lovely, it would be perfect and mean that everyone we care about gets to see the show. It’ll be like a family showing. Otherwise our Sunday Lunch Club family might miss out.’
‘You know what, Claire said she’s drawing up a list of who from the Sunday Lunch Club is going where for Christmas Day, because some families go away, so we double up, don’t we? If we can see the list and maybe jump around on it or something she might get the idea.’
‘It’s worth a try, but,’ Snowball yawned, ‘I still think that if Claire tells the others that Clive said he wanted to see the show, they will come up with the idea themselves.’
Snowball had a lot more faith in the humans than I did.
‘Or we could do our sheep bit when it’s next family day, so that might give them the idea.’
‘We could, or we could wait for them to get the idea themselves,’ Snowball reiterated.
‘Or we could wait until they put the Christmas tree up and all climb it – OK, actually just George – so they get the idea.’
‘Or we could wait …’ Snowball licked her paw. ‘Alfie, you don’t need an elaborate plan for everything, you know. Do as you said, see if they come up with the idea at the next family day and if they don’t then we’ll think of something. But, whatever you do, don’t tell George about the idea of climbing the tree, you’ve only just got him to stop doing that.’
‘Fair point.’
We strolled around Harold’s small garden and though it was cold and dark, my mind was whirring. Could I really trust the humans to come up with my brilliant idea on their own? Without my help? I really didn’t think I could.
Chapter Eighteen
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‘Alfie, I feel as if I haven’t seen you in ages,’ Nellie said.
‘I’m sorry.’ I was. I knew I had neglected my friends yet again. Rocky, Elvis, and Oliver were all at the recreation ground and I felt even more guilt as they seemed so pleased to see me.
‘So, fill us in? We’re dying to hear about the show. We saw Snowball briefly, although she was in a hurry because Harold needed her at home, but she said it had been busy.’
‘Understatement of the year. There’s so much to do. Who knew when I came up with the idea—’
‘Dad, will you stop saying that? We all know it was your idea, we’ve heard it a thousand million times,’ George interrupted. I hadn’t seen him approach.
‘As I was saying, there is so much to do. It’s hectic, and of course we feel as if we ought to keep an eye on everything.’
‘Not least because, of course, I have so much stage experience,’ George added. Clearly, it was OK forhim to boast, then.
We took turns to tell them about the show, and we also filled them in about Barbara.
‘Oh my, I met her,’ Nellie said. ‘I was walking past where she lives, just minding my own business and she shouted at me to get away, but I was on the pavement, not even in her garden. I did run a bit though.’
‘Remember, we nearly got killed by her bin bag,’ George said dramatically. He then did a mini re-enactment by running, spinning and then falling over. Although they had heard about it, they indulged him.
‘Definitely not a cat fan then,’ Rocky added.
‘She was also mean to us at the auditions,’ I explained. ‘Even suggested we shouldn’t be in the show.’
‘We ought to give her a bit of a wide berth, if we pass her flat we should cross the road, you don’t want to provoke people like that,’ Elvis said. ‘Never know what might end up happening to you.’
‘Or we could find out why she’s like that.’ I studied my paw and waited for the reactions.
‘No, Alfie,’ Nellie, Rocky, Elvis and Oliver shouted at the same time.
‘We can’t avoid her though, she’s in the show,’ George pointed out.
‘Perhaps we just win her round, we’ve done it before,’ I suggested.
‘No,’ they all chorused.
‘Oh goodness, please be careful around her and if you need our help then you can always come to us,’ Rocky said, which moved me. My friends had my back, and although we had so much to do, I needed to make sure I made time for them too. Although, because they were such wonderful cats they did understand that it was tricky at the moment.
We hung out for a while longer and I promised to visit at least once every two days to check in. I still couldn’t persuade them to come to the hall – it was out of their comfort zone to venture past the recreation ground, actually – but they said they would still love to hear all about it. When George and I went home I thought about the fact that I must go and see Dustbin soon. I didn’t want to neglect him – and Ally – either.
‘I’ve tried to tell him that he needs to be more reindeer but you know Pickles, he’s a bit limited isn’t he?’ George said. We sat on a table by the stage watching the children and Pickles’ first rehearsal. They had fixed a soft red nose to Pickles but he kept trying to eat it. They hadn’t yet put the antlers on but I doubted that they would fare much better. The door banged open just as Toby and Henry started their rap. The hall went quiet and turned to look. It was the awful Barbara.
‘Hi,’ Claire said. ‘We didn’t expect to see you.’
‘I was just passing so I thought I’d see if I could help you at all.’ Barbara smiled, but I didn’t like the smile. Of course, I also just didn’t like her.
‘What’s she doing here?’ George hissed. I raised my whiskers; I had no idea. I wondered if she had decided to put her meanness aside and try to join in finally. I know that Salmon said she was missing her husband, and I understood grief better than most cats, but still, my grief didn’t makeme mean. Hopefully she had come round and was ready to be a part of the community. People did change after all. I had seen that happen time and time again. My theory was that people who were horrible were sometimes just unhappy, and I had to keep remembering that.