A little while later, after a refreshing nap, I opened my eyes but I couldn’t see anything — it was pitch black. I tried to move but I couldn’t, there was pressure pushing down on every side. I wiggled in fear, but I was surrounded by sand. I could barely breathe and I panicked, which made it even worse. The sand igloo must have collapsed, I needed help, now. I opened my mouth to yowl and it filled with sand. As I attempted to spit it out and tried again, I started meowing as loudly as I could, until I was exhausted and my mouth grainy with sand. Finally I could hear voices outside, so I yowled some more, hoping to draw their attention. I tried not to panic any more than I was, as the more I moved the more trapped I seemed to be. I couldn’t even swish my tail.
I was breathless from all the screeching and although I could breathe, I was feeling more terrified by the minute. Even my voice was sounding wrong as I squealed again. If someone didn’t come soon I might be living in a sand igloo forever, being washed out to sea, possibly ending up in a far and distant foreign land! I heard the voices coming closer and finally a glimpse of daylight through a crack in the sand.
‘See, Aleksy, I told you Alfie must be in there,’ Tommy shouted. ‘My goodness, he could be hurt!’
‘Oh no, poor Alfie, I didn’t know, I’m so sorry.’ Aleksy’s voice was distraught. They kept digging until I was free, and Aleksy took me in his arms, brushing the worst of the sand off. I slowed my breathing down and the panic began to subside. I had to blink a few times so I could see and adjust to the bright light.
The children and George surrounded me, full of concern. Franceska appeared with some drinks, while I tried to shake the rest of the sand off my fur and catch my breath. Claire approached with Summer and Toby — they’d been for a paddle in the water.
‘What happened to Alfie?’ Claire asked. ‘I turn my back for five minutes.’ She shook her head.
Five minutes? It was far longer than that, more like hours. Being buried in sand had now been added to my near-death experiences. Others involved a bad man hurting me, almost being run over crossing the road, nearly drowning in a lake, being stuck up a tree — oh and once I was nearly attacked by a seagull. George nuzzled me, whispering that he was so happy to see I was alright. I felt slightly embarrassed; I was constantly warning George of trouble yet it was me who’d put himself in danger.
‘He’s OK, he was in my sand igloo and then when we were making another castle, it sort of collapsed. We didn’t know Alfie was in there.’
‘It’s usually George who gets into trouble these days,’ Claire pointed out. I rested my case.
‘We’re exhausted,’ Claire said as Polly appeared on the lawn. Claire had told us all it was time to go home for a bit to get lunch. I was quite pleased as I was still recovering from being buried alive. Earlier, I had wanted to take George to explore the sand hills, which I heard were called sand dunes, but Claire wouldn’t let us out of her sight now. And although I wouldn’t let my experience put me off the beach, I knew I would be more careful from now on.
‘Chasing the children round in the sun has taken its toll but they love the beach already,’ Claire continued.
‘And the beach loves us,’ Franceska laughed, brushing sand off her legs.
‘Right, well let’s have a picnic lunch out here. It’s a bit dusty in there, although by teatime the kitchen should be usable,’ Polly said, coming over to join us.
‘What are we doing about lunch then?’ Claire asked.
‘I thought we could get sandwiches, crisps and cold drinks from the village shop,’ Polly said. ‘I daren’t go into the kitchen. Aleksy, do you want to help me? You can also choose some treats for everyone.’
‘Yes, I’ll help.’ Aleksy stood up proudly, as he went with Polly.
‘Any special requests or are you happy with whatever?’
‘You know what the kids like, and I’m happy with anything. Do you want some money?’
‘No, I’ve got some. Right, let’s go.’
‘Yelp!’ I said. I wanted something too.
‘I’ll see what seafood they have for you two, of course,’ Polly laughed. ‘After all, we are by the sea, so they should have something nice.’
She bent down to give me a pat and I purred. I deserved a treat after my ordeal.
We passed a lovely afternoon on the lawn. It was too hot for us to go back to the beach, I told George. In truth I wasn’t ready to revisit it just yet, I was still feeling a little bit anxious. We could see so much from here in the shade of a lovely bush. I did ask George why he hadn’t noticed I was missing earlier but he just raised his whiskers and said he was far too busy digging holes, as if that was the most natural answer in the world.
As we watched, there was even more activity on the beach; children, and people on the water, which had moved closer up the beach — Claire said it was the tide coming in. There were some flat boards that people seemed to be standing on. I didn’t know what they were, having not seen them before.
‘Can I learn to paddleboard?’ Aleksy asked. Ah, that’s what those people were doing.
‘Yes, kochanie,’ Franceska said. ‘We’ll find out how to do it and then you and Tommy can learn.’
I hoped they would be careful, water was tricky and although I knew humans seemed to quite like it — the bath, a swimming pool, the sea — us cats sensibly steered clear.
Aleksy set up a game of football for the kids as us adults relaxed on a blanket. Polly went to check on the builders every now and then, Claire dozed off and Franceska read her book. I watched George chasing the football around, pretty unsuccessfully, but I knew he would sleep well tonight. In fact, the sea air was making me sleepy again.
‘Dad,’ a voice woke me. I looked up to see George standing there. I must have nodded off.
‘George.’
‘Everyone’s gone inside for tea, the builders have gone and I think it’s our teatime.’ I glanced across at the beach again to see it was emptying. The sky was still bright but I felt hungry so, yes, it must be teatime.
‘Let’s go then, George, come on, round the back.’
We went through the cat flap and saw there was a doorway into the utility room which hadn’t been there before. It was a bit messy but not too bad as we made our way into the kitchen via the ‘sand room’. It was good because it took a while for George and I to shake even more sand off our fur — it sure did like to stick and I didn’t want Claire to insist on bathing us.
Before we headed into the kitchen I stopped. There was a funny smell again, I could have sworn it was a cat but there was no other feline here apart from me and George so I couldn’t understand it. I had a good poke around in the corners but there was no sign of anything, just the smell. I didn’t like it though. I lingered for a bit longer, double checking around as I heard George being greeted in the kitchen. Then I heard a lot of laughter. Reluctantly leaving my search, I made my way into the kitchen where I saw George sitting on the kitchen table near Summer. Claire was shrieking but everyone else was laughing. I took a closer look. All the children had ice-cream cones and George had his face in Summer’s.
‘Look, George likes ice cream,’ Henry said, giggling. Summer was holding the cone out to him.