‘Wow, I can’t wait to meet him. But I’d rather go and see Chanel, can we, can we please?’ George begged.
Again, I was still unsure how to play this. I wanted to give George the benefit of my wisdom but I also knew that some things had to be learnt first-hand. If I refused he would probably just run off again and I didn’t want that, not at all.
‘I tell you what, I will take you out for a walk after breakfast and we’ll go by her place, but you know if she tells us to go away, we might have to.’
‘Oh she doesn’t mean it, she likes me really. Anyway, thank you, Dad, I’ll eat all my breakfast and then clean up really well.’
That put a spring in his paws. I just hoped I wasn’t going to regret it.
After everyone had eaten breakfast, the humans were going to spend the morning on the beach— the sun had returned — and we could join them after our walk/Chanel search. Although we hadn’t fallen in love with the sand, we were getting more and more used to it. Our humans packed up food, blankets, buckets and spades and then headed out, leaving George and I alone. The more I thought about his crush on Chanel the more I worried, but at the same time it allowed me to go and check on Andrea. I didn’t trust that woman. Not one little bit.
‘What are you doing in my garden?’ a voice hissed as soon as we crawled through the hedge. We straightened up to see Chanel looking angry as she stood, slowly waving her tail from side to side.
‘We were just taking our morning constitutional,’ I said, trying to be friendly.
‘Is that how you city cats talk?’ I had never heard a cat sound so disdainful. ‘Well the thing is,’ she continued, ‘that this is private property, it’s my property actually, and I would rather you didn’t set paw on it.’
‘Hello,’ George said as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘You are looking very beautiful today.’
I tried not to be amused, but it was funny; as if his crush had rendered him deaf.
‘What on earth is he talking about?’ Chanel looked at me.
As if I knew.
We were interrupted by two sets of bare feet approaching and I saw there were two very pretty girls, wearing matching sundresses.
‘Ah there you are, Chanel, Mummy wants you,’ one said, picking the cat up. George and I had quickly backed into the hedge so they didn’t see us.
‘Meow,’ Chanel said, sweetly, nuzzling the little girl’s neck.
‘See, I told you,’ George said, as they walked off. ‘She really is nice.’
Just not to us, I thought. As we made our way back to our garden I was thinking of what a nice day it was. We could definitely join the others on the beach— I’d decided to give it another chance after my experience yesterday. But George had other ideas. He lay in the sun, by the gap in the hedge, and refused to move.
‘Won’t you come with me, son?’ I asked, trying to coax him.
‘No thanks, Dad, I’m staying right here so Chanel knows where to find me.’
There was nothing I could do to get George to budge. He had it bad but I did remember what it was like, so I had to try to be understanding. The problem was that Chanel was not only horrible but also too old for him. Way too old.
I really wanted to join the others on the beach but I couldn’t leave George. I occupied myself by exploring the garden. It needed work — Polly said the garden would be done last — but there were some nice bushes, which were messy but interesting. Although loath to leave George, I did make my way round the back; what I liked about Seabreeze Cottage wasthat you could access the back of the house from the front, so I could see if there was any action in the back courtyard. There wasn’t, and no sign of Gilbert either.
I was getting a little bit bored of watching George by the time the families returned. They were all laughing and joking, a bit pink from the sun, and of course covered in sand. Claire spread out the blankets on the lawn, and flopped down. Franceska and Tomasz were going to go into town and their boys were going with them as they needed to buy some clothes and bits and pieces. Everyone waved them off as they got into their car and then we passed a pleasant couple of hours in the front garden. Martha and Summer had a picnic with their dolls and teddy bears and Henry and Toby played with a football. Jonathan and Matt joined in at one point while Claire and Polly looked on fondly.
‘This is just how I imagined it would be,’ Claire said, as I sat next to her.
‘George, play ball with us,’ Henry said.
‘Meow.’ George refused to move. Toby tried to persuade him but he wasn’t for persuading.
‘Oh shall we go and get some of those lovely ice creams?’ Polly said.
‘Did I hear ice cream?’ Matt said.
‘Yay!’ Toby and Henry shouted.
‘There’s a van across the road, it does the best ice creams. They’re made from local clotted cream, George and Alfie are in love with them too. We’ll go.’ Claire stood up.
When they returned they handed out the cones. One for each of the kids, an enormous one each for Matt and Jonathan and then Claire held one out to me.
‘George, Alfie, want to share an ice cream?’ she said. I have never seen George move so quickly in his life. He put his nose straight into the cone, and everyone laughed. Ha, he liked ice cream more than Chanel, there was hope for him yet.
‘Who knew cats liked ice cream?’ Matt said.
‘You’d think it would be too cold,’ Jonathan chuckled.
So much for sharing, I thought, but then I would never take that joy away from my boy so I didn’t mind too much. I’d wait for the leftovers. If there were any, I thought, as George licked manically at it, his little pink tongue darting back and forth.
‘I think it’s not a proper holiday without ice-cream cones,’ Toby said. ‘Even for cats.’ Everyone laughed.
I was pretty sure I knew what they were thinking. Everyone seemed to be happier here, or different at least, and even Toby was growing in confidence. It was as if the sun of Seabreeze Cottage was shining down on all of us and it was lovely. If only George would get over Chanel, I thought, as he discarded his ice cream and ran back to the bush. I finished it off and then lay down for a well-earned nap. After all, there were plenty of people around to keep their eye on George and one of my favourite things about this holiday was sleeping in the sun on the lawn.
Aleksy woke me, and I slowly opened my eyes. Blinking in the sun, I meowed and cuddled into him.
‘Hi, Alfie,’ he said. ‘We seemed to have been shopping for hours. Tommy got so bored he was in trouble — when we got back Mum and Dad said he had to go to his room for a while! Anyway, I am going to set up our cricket set in the garden and our new friends are going to come and play with us after tea. It’s going to be ace!’ He tickled my fur and I stretched out to encourage him. ‘Oh, Alfie, you are such a softy,’ he said, laughing.
I followed him around as he set up the game of cricket. When he finished I saw George sneaking out from the hedge. That boy had stamina, I had to give him that.
‘Did you see her?’ I asked.
‘No, Dad, no sign, but then I heard the girls in the garden. They don’t like us.’
‘What do you mean?’ I pricked my ears up. What now?
‘Well, I heard them say that their mum didn’t want us here, and they definitely didn’t want the children here.’
‘That’s not nice,’ I said, carefully.
‘Anyway, they said we wouldn’t be here for long anyway. What does that mean?’
‘I’ve no idea, George, but I tell you what, I will find out, so don’t worry. But if you hear anything else, then tell me.’