I had a lovely sleep, I dreamt of Christmas, dinner, all the treats, the happiness, and the show. It was all merging into one. When I woke I did think of Barbara, as she really did seem so upset and I was pretty sure she wasn’t acting anymore. But how could we convince the others to let her back in, maybe not to the show, but as a friend? She and Harold seemed to be friends now so maybe he would help her, but it would have been good if she could join the Sunday Lunch Club – I couldn’t believe I was thinking that.I was better at forgiveness than I thought.
‘Dad,’ George said, as I woke up fully.
‘Yes, son?’
‘I think we should all forgive Barbara. I was thinking how bad I felt when we lost Tiger mum and how sad I was after. I didn’t always want to be nice, did I?’
‘Neither of us did, lad,’ I said.
‘So, maybe she should have another chance, although with her it’ll be about her hundredth chance.’
‘I think you’re right. After all, what would Tiger mum do?’ We often asked this, because it kept her alive not just in our hearts, but in our lives.
‘She’d give her another chance, but she would only let her have one more,’ George said. He was right, that was exactly what she would do.
‘The thing is, I’m not sure how we get everyone to give her another chance?’ I said.
‘I don’t think we need to, I think Harold will do that,’ George said. Interesting, I thought, if he was right then I would be one happy cat.
George was spot on, as it turned out. At rehearsal that evening, Harold climbed on stage, clutching Snowball for confidence, and addressed everyone.
‘I know that Barbara messed up. She knows she messed up. But we’ve had a heart to heart and she is very sorry. She’s getting help but you know the best help is friendship. Most of you in this room, especially the cats, have taught me that, and so I’m asking you all to extend the hand of friendship.’
‘But she nearly ruined the show,’ Vic pointed out.
‘Yeah, how do we know we can trust her?’ someone else shouted.
‘Listen,’ Harold said. ‘I know she did wrong and she is going to put it right. She doesn’t have much money but she is going to donate all her husband’s clothes to the shelter, and she is also going to volunteer there to make amends. She really is trying and I think if we give her another chance to be in the show, to be friends with her, we’ll find out she really has changed; or gone back to who she was before, which I think is probably more the case.’
‘Don’t forget the Nativity is about God and what he did for the world. God and Jesus are both all about forgiveness,’ Ralph the vicar added.
‘We should give her another chance, it is Christmas after all,’ Sienna, who was so lovely, said.
‘Yeah, even though I was a trouble maker for a bit, everyone gave me another chance,’ Tommy said. I had a feeling he was more interested in impressing Sienna than worrying about Barbara. Never mind.
‘OK.’ Jonathan clapped his hands. ‘Let’s take a vote. Who votes we give Barbara another chance – bearing in mind that we can keep a close eye on her from now on. Raise your hands.’
‘I still won’t leave the hall without checking it is all fully locked, but I also think she deserves another go,’ Franceska added.
I watched, impressed, as everyone raised their hands until it was unanimous. Barbara was back in. I saw Jonathan grin as he went over to Claire.
‘No need to measure me up for a costume then,’ he said with a wink.
Chapter Thirty-Two
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‘Pickles, stop doing that,’ Polly shouted as she scooped Pickles up from where he was trying to eat the pretend Christmas presents.
‘Can you keep him with you?’ She shoved him into Jonathan’s arms, and he had no time to object as Pickles started wriggling. Pickles had a new Christmas collar on – it was decorated with Christmas trees and it made him look very festive, we all thought, although he had even tried to eat that.
It was chaos. It was wonderful. We had finally reached the dress rehearsal and backstage was mad. What we hadn’t thought of when we were rehearsing was the fact that when the acts weren’t on stage they were out front, watching. However, out front tonight was full of the people we were doing this for. Even Claire was struggling to keep everyone under control, but it didn’t matter because we were all excited and raring to go.
The hall had never looked better. The Christmas decorations were all in place, it was lit up beautifully, the curtains hung invitingly across the stage, and the smells of mince pies (not baked by Claire), and gingerbread filled the air.
The Helen Street Shelter patrons had arrived, led by Greg and some of the other volunteers. It was so real now, as they filled the hall. We had done it and it was really happening. I was chock-a-block full of emotion. We were doing it for them.
Tonight was the first time we’d all been in full costume. The dancers and the singing groups had arrived already dressed, as their costumes had consisted mainly of Christmas jumpers, and the dancers wore Christmas leggings and T-shirts, but those in the Nativity, the children, and us, had costumes to be fitted. The children were dressed as reindeer, and we were dressed as sheep, but more about that later.
‘Right, dancers get ready. As it’s so cramped back here, when you’re finished, go and sit in front of the stage, I think that’s best,’ Claire directed as she, and her clipboard, started organising the acts. She was pretty good at it, calm but just bossy enough. There was so much noise backstage, everyone was excited.
‘We need quiet,’ Franceska shouted, clapping her hands together, and everyone began to lower the volume.
There was a hush in the hall as Aleksy and Connie made their way on stage. I had to look so I squeezed through legs to the side of the stage, and pushed my head through the curtain so I could see. Not brilliantly, but I could see a bit.
‘Hello, good evening,’ Aleksy said shyly, finding his voice.
‘We’d like to welcome you to your Christmas show,’ Connie said. The crowd clapped.
‘We hope you enjoy it, but bear in mind this is our dress rehearsal, so if anything goes wrong, please be kind.’ They all laughed. ‘And after the show we would love for you to join us for hot drinks and some food,’ Aleksy added. ‘Right, well, here it is, the Edgar Road Christmas show!’
Everyone clapped as the curtains opened– much to our relief – to reveal the dancers waiting on stage.
I couldn’t see much of the show from where I stood but I’d seen most of it before, though having everyone in costume made it even more amazing. The music sounded good, and from what I could see the audience were enjoying themselves. I began to relax, and I saw from Aleksy’s face that he did too. It was all going to be more than alright.
By the time the children, who looked adorable as reindeer, mounted the stage with Pickles, the show was in full force. I had to watch this, so again, I snuck round to where I could almost see. They sang and danced enthusiastically but Pickles was trying to get his antlers– possibly to eat – and he ran around in so many circles he ended up falling off the stage.
There was a bit of a commotion, but one of the dancers caught him and put him back on stage. He seemed relatively unharmed as he resumed trying to eat his antlers. The children, professional as ever, kept going and they got the biggest cheer of the night so far.
With the Nativity about to begin, it was all still going well. Snowball, George, Hana, and myself were ready to go. We looked like sheep, and I know this because we all had the same costumes and I saw how the others looked. Even the woolly hats made us more sheep-like. Hana looked the best because she was small and round, but we all looked pretty amazing, I thought. We didn’t like dressing up, as a rule, but I was willing to make an exception. It was for a good cause.
‘Break a leg,’ George said, before we were due to go on.