Aleksy put all the shepherds together first and then got us to stand in front.
‘Can I just make a suggestion?’ Peter – the man who had been a terrible juggler but was now a shepherd along with Magic Marvin and Dolly – said. I looked at his feet, they were big, possibly about the right size for the yellow paint intruder. I made a mental note.
‘Sure, what is it?’ Claire asked. Franceska was with us today too.
‘How about I juggle the sheep?’
‘Yowl!’ I shouted, no way. George, Hana, and Snowball backed away.
‘Not the cat sheep, but stuffed ones.’
Franceska looked at Claire, who looked at Aleksy, who looked at Connie.
‘If we get some toy sheep we can try it, maybe,’ Connie said, with her face scrunched up. That seemed to be good enough for Peter.
‘Right, action,’ Aleksy shouted.
As the shepherds watched us fondly, we began to frolic. George was going for it, bounding around like an overactive lamb, and we all jumped a bit, shuffled and Snowball and I did a good impression of eating grass.
‘Brilliant, cats,’ Connie said, as she gave the cue for the song. As the music started and the shepherds started singing it wasn’t terrible. Tomasz and Matt, who were shepherds, looked a little embarrassed as they seemed to mumble rather than sing, but thankfully the other four shepherds werepretty good, so it didn’t matter.
Sienna the angel couldn’t make it today because she had a dance class, so, in the meantime, Claire read her part. Before we knew it, we were finished. The next scene was the wise men, and so we went to rest while they did their bit. Barbara, who seemed to think she was leading the wise men, spoke very loudly, and when they sang their song ‘We Three Kings’, she drowned out the other voices. And not in a good way.
‘It hurts my ears,’ George said.
‘That was great,’ Claire said, as they finished. ‘Um, we couldn’t hear Steve and Cath very well. Perhaps you guys could sing a bit louder,’ she suggested. I could tell she didn’t dare tell Barbara to sing more quietly.
‘Or, maybe this is a better idea, you each have a verse of your own and sing the chorus together,’ Aleksy said. The kid was a genius. It was a very fair idea.
‘But, perhaps you need my expertise to carry the song,’ Barbara said. Cath shot her a dirty look.
‘I think it’s much nicer for everyone to have a part and then join together in the chorus, as Aleksy said,’ Claire said diplomatically. Barbara first looked as if she was going to argue, but she then seemed to change her mind.
‘Of course. I’ll do the first verse,’ she said, quickly. I saw Cath and Steve – two people from our road – smile at each other. Barbara was one of those difficult people, she seemed to think she was an expert on all things to do with the show. She had a lot in common with George, in that respect.
The rehearsals finally came to an end. We didn’t have the Mary and Joseph scene today, as Aleksy had said we would rehearse each part before putting it all together, so the weekend would be the first full run through of the Nativity. It really felt as if it was all coming together. Now I could see the reality of the show and I felt as if I would burst with excitement. I just hoped the stage would be finished so we could rehearse properly soon.
‘Great work everyone,’ Aleksy said, sounding happy.
‘It’s really going very well,’ Connie said. ‘And you are all doing such amazing jobs.’
‘Right, see you all at the weekend,’ Claire said with a massive smile on her face.
Most of the cast left then, Matt rushing off to relieve Polly, who was coming here to work on sets, and I stayed with Aleksy and Connie because I wanted to be involved with everything. I also wanted to find the paint culprit which meant I had to be here as much as possible. The others all went home with Claire– not even Snowball could be persuaded to stay, as she said Harold would be expecting her home for dinner.
We all said our goodbyes, and I went to the backstage area to look at feet. Tomasz was supervising a team of people, some painting, others building things, and it was really quite noisy as they chatted, hammered, and assembled bits and pieces. They were building a shed-like structure, which would be the place where Mary and Joseph had the baby Jesus, and where we sheep and the shepherds would go and visit. When she arrived, Polly would be assembling props to go in it. They’d decided on hay bales for seats and Tomasz was building a manger with a couple of helpers. It was going to be quite minimal, to show that they didn’t have a luxury place for the birth, staying true to the original story. Also, I gathered they needed something that could easily be placed on the stage; we weren’t an elaborate production after all. Not with Jonathan in charge of budgets, in any case.
As they worked, I checked out as many feet as I could. There were only a few suspects, feet-wise, I mean. I ruled out all women– their feet were far too small – and only a few men had the right size feet and kind of shoes. None had yellow paint on, but then they would have got rid of them, wouldn’t they? One of the men had yellow paint streaks on his overalls, but then he had been painting the star before the stage sabotage happened, so I needed to keep that in mind.
Of course, it had also crossed my mind that the culprit might not be here at the moment. We had so many volunteers and they didn’t all come at once, because of the roster. In order to find out who did it I would have to be here all the time and even I couldn’t do that. I just had to hope that whoever it was hadn’t meant to tread paint over the stage but was too embarrassed to own up, and therefore wouldn’t be a problem again. I crossed my paws.
The evening passed nicely, actually. Even Barbara was friendly and nice to people, although she ignored me. I gave her as much space as I could and I was glad when Polly said it was time to finish up and she picked me up to take me home. I was tired and hungry. Food and bed, that was all I wanted.
But then Barbara offered to walk home with Polly and I. I was glad to be safely in Polly’s arms, I can tell you.
‘The cats seem to come everywhere with you,’ she said.
‘Yes, they are important members of our family,’ Polly said. ‘And of course they have to be involved in the show. Aleksy said it was Alfie’s idea.’
‘Meow.’ Finally, some recognition.
‘Really?’ Barbara sounded full of disbelief. ‘I’m pretty sure cats can’t have ideas.’
‘It’s a long story, but Alfie is quite remarkable. In fact, we are all friends because of Alfie.’
‘I never much liked cats,’ Barbara said.
Who’d have guessed? I narrowed my eyes at her but she didn’t look at me.
‘My late husband, he loved dogs, and we had one for years but when she died we were both so heartbroken we couldn’t think about getting another one. And now he’s gone too and I have nothing left.’ She began to sob.
‘Oh Barbara, I’m so sorry. It must be awful, losing him and then moving to a new place. Do you have family nearby?’
‘No, my daughter and her husband live up north. She encouraged me to join the play actually, said it would be good for me. She thinks I’m depressed.’
‘How long since your husband died?’ Polly jiggled me so she was holding me with one arm and touched Barbara’s arm with the other.
‘Six months. I had very little money left and had to sell our house in Richmond and move somewhere smaller. I hated leaving it. It felt as if he died all over again.’
She was properly crying now and Polly put her arm around her. I somehow found myself squashed between them but I didn’t object. I felt sorry for Barbara; she was obviously heartbroken. And she was crying, so she couldn’t hurt me, right?
‘Hey, listen, on Sunday we have a couple of friends coming round for lunch, would you like to join us?’ Polly asked as she stepped out of the hug.
‘That’s kind, but, no, no thank you. I’m happy to do the show but not quite ready to be in that sort of situation.’