Alfie in the Snow

‘I definitely was depressed. Anyway, when people are depressed they sometimes act in a way which might not seem rational.’ Like throwing charming cats out of your house, I thought. ‘Connie, you are the casualty of this, I can see that, but you know you and your mum need each other and you’re a team. I know it’s a lot for you to have gone through too, and you are the kid, but she needs your support. Don’t get me wrong, I’m on your side here.’

Really? It didn’t sound like it.

‘But you know, you have school and your new friends, and your mum, well I think she’s a bit lost at the moment. So as much as it’s not your responsibility, you need to try to understand, honestly it will make life better for both of you. And then she might come round to Aleksy, you know.’

I take it back, it wasn’t that bad after all.

‘Jonathan, we are sorry,’ Aleksy said. ‘I just didn’t know what to do, and it seemed a good idea.’

‘It was a terrible idea. Aleksy, tell everyone you are sorry and that you will never do anything so irresponsible again. Making people worry isn’t the way to solve anything.’

I purred my agreement, I had thought it a good idea once but not any more.

Claire, wearing a coat and some boots over her nightwear, came in, her arm around a crying Sylvie.

‘Your father is on his way too, Aleksy,’ Claire said. ‘Your mum couldn’t leave Tommy on his own so she’ll save her shouting for when you get home. She really wasn’t happy with you.’

‘I’m sorry, Mum.’ Connie burst into tears and flung herself at Sylvie.

‘Oh Connie, to think you had to run away. What have I done?’ They were both sobbing, arms around each other, as Tomasz arrived.

‘So, Aleksy, you want to tell me what happened?’ Tomasz said. He looked as if he had been woken up, thrown on the first clothes he could find, his hair was dishevelled and he didn’t even have that much of it.

‘We were stupid. But you know we just wanted to be able to see each other. We weren’t going to do anything bad, but we wanted you to know how serious we were and the only thing I could think of was running away, but the first time we tried—’

‘You mean you tried before?’ Claire screeched.

‘Oh.’ Aleksy clearly regretted mentioning it again; when would he learn? ‘Yes, we did, but then I got downstairs and Alfie and Dustbin started making such a noise that I thought they would wake you up – so we had to abort it and then we realised that London was dangerous and so we weren’t going to run away because that was silly.’

‘I’m not sure I’ve heard anything like this before,’ Tomasz said. He looked a little lost.

‘So then we thought we’d just pretend. And yes, we realise now it was very bad to make you wake up on Christmas morning with us gone, but we were desperate.’ He had tears in his eyes, which I knew he would push back. Aleksy felt he was too grown-up to cry. In truth, no one was ever too grown-up to cry.

‘And you were going to sleep in the shed all night?’ Tomasz continued. Sylvie was listening, but she was also still hugging Connie.

‘Well, actually I don’t think we would have in the end, because it was very cold.’

‘Worst runaways ever,’ Jonathan said, and Claire swiped him as that wasn’t very helpful. ‘Honestly, it was just like the nativity scene,’ he continued, rubbing his arm. ‘Mary and Joseph wrapped in old blankets in a shed.’

‘It wasn’t quite like that, Jon.’ Claire rolled her eyes.

‘I am sorry,’ Sylvie said. ‘To all of you and to Aleksy and Connie. If I’d known how miserable I was making you, but then … I’m struggling, Con, darling. I miss having your father help me with parenting and I feel a bit lost in London, like I don’t know anyone, and well I shouldn’t stop you from having a life. I still think you’re too young for a boyfriend but if you’re willing to abide by rules then I guess we can figure it out. I don’t want you to feel that you want to get away from me, I love you.’

‘I will, I’ll do anything,’ Connie said, her eyes full of hope.

‘Me too,’ Aleksy said. ‘Even if we aren’t alone ever, we don’t care.’ He sounded so excited.

‘But you will be punished,’ Tomasz said, unsurely.

Jonathan patted him on the back. ‘Hey, how about we let it go for now? It was stupid but I think they’ve learnt their lesson and it is technically Christmas Day.’ I went to rub Jonathan’s leg; he was right. ‘We’ll put him on washing-up duty or something tomorrow,’ he laughed.

‘And I know Frankie will just be relieved to have her boy home,’ Claire added.

‘OK. So maybe no punishment, I don’t know what to do in this situation but we better get home and let Claire and Jonathan go to sleep.’

‘Yes the kids will be up early and we’ve got a big lunch to prepare. Sylvie, Connie, please will you join us?’

‘Oh, no, we couldn’t. Sorry, but we just couldn’t.’ Sylvie said, almost pushing Connie out of the house.

‘Please?’ Aleksy asked.

‘No, we have plans, I’m sorry,’ she added and they were gone.

‘That was strange. Just as I thought she was being reasonable?’ Jonathan said.