Absolutely Alfie and the Furry, Purry Secret Read online

  The purr-fect surprise

  “Follow me,” Hanni said, nudging Alfie toward the big kitchen, separated from the living area only by a gleaming white island. The Sobels’ kitchen looked like a magazine picture, Alfie thought, but there wasn’t any food lying around other than a big bowl of lemons. Alfie’s mouth puckered up just thinking about them.

  Why all the lemons?

  Hanni was heading toward a sliding door at one side of the kitchen. “Surprise!” she said, pushing it open a little.

  So Hanni had been teasing at the front door, Alfie thought, explaining it to herself. She could joke around! But here was the real surprise, in the laundry room. “Kittens,” she said, almost breathing out the word, she was so thrilled.

  It was love at first sight.

  Books by Sally Warner

  THE ABSOLUTELY ALFIE SERIES

  Absolutely Alfie and the Furry Purry Secret

  Absolutely Alfie and the First Week Friends

  Absolutely Alfie and the Worst Best Sleepover

  THE ELLRAY JAKES SERIES

  EllRay Jakes Is Not a Chicken!

  EllRay Jakes Is a Rock Star!

  EllRay Jakes Walks the Plank!

  EllRay Jakes the Dragon Slayer!

  EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk

  EllRay Jakes Is Magic!

  EllRay Jakes Rocks the Holidays!

  EllRay Jakes the Recess King!

  EllRay Jakes Stands Tall!

  THE EMMA SERIES

  Only Emma

  Not-So-Weird Emma

  Super Emma

  Best Friend Emma

  Excellent Emma

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

  375 Hudson Street

  New York, New York 10014

  Published simultaneously in the United States of America by Viking and Puffin Books, imprints of Penguin Random House LLC, 2017

  Text copyright © 2017 by Sally Warner

  Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Shearry Malone

  Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA IS AVAILABLE

  Ebook ISBN 9781101999875

  Version_1

  To Della Sutherland—S.W.

  To my sister. This is for you, Lynn.

  Without your unwavering love and support, this would not have been possible.

  I love you. —S.M.

  Contents

  (1) Floop!

  (2) Playing Ping-Pong with Words

  (3) Backwards Day

  (4) Surprise!

  (5) Free to a Good Home

  (6) The Decision

  (7) Kitten School

  (8) A Kitty Palace

  (9) Operation Kittycat

  (10) Flat-Out Lying

  (11) Ready and Waiting

  (12) Dinner in a Haunted House

  (13) Family Rules

  (14) Take Your Medicine

  (15) Coming Clean

  (16) What in the World Were You Thinking?

  (17) Such a Mess-Up

  (18) A Jakes Family Portrait

  1

  Floop!

  “It’s the last three weeks of summer, and there’s absolutely nothing to do,” Alfie Jakes said to her mom one Sunday night in early August. “I’m eight years old. I’m missing out on all the fun in life!” She drooped onto the kitchen island like a comma to show how sad she was. She shoved her hand against the island so she could whirl around in one of the tall chairs.

  Getting dizzy was something cool to do, anyway—when every other summer activity had come to an end.

  Little Acorns Daycamp, where she had woven the world’s blobbiest potholder.

  Tumbling lessons at Oak Glen Parks and Rec.

  Swim lessons at the Y.

  Alfie liked keeping busy.

  But now, even the Jakeses’ family vacation to San Francisco was long gone, along with the funny burnt-toast smell of that city’s cable cars, its foggy summer mornings, and the thrill of shopping for souvenirs in Chinatown. So cool.

  Alfie loved souvenirs. She thought regular life should have souvenirs—every single day. Why not? “Yes, it was just a boring Sunday in August. But I bought the cutest T-shirt to remember it by!”

  Alfie definitely wanted to live in San Francisco when she grew up. It had to be the best place in the world. It was much more fun than Oak Glen, California, for sure. So that was settled, she told herself, getting ready for another spin.

  “Don’t be so dramatic, Miss Alfie,” her mom said, laughing. “First, you’re only seven years old,” she reminded her daughter. “You won’t be eight until November. Second, you had a lovely summer. And third, don’t twirl around like that, sweetie. It’s distracting, and it’s hard on the chair.” Mrs. Jakes stirred the pot on the stove with a wooden spoon held in one hand. Her other hand marked a spot partway through whatever recipe she was trying to follow.

  Alfie’s mom did not like to cook, especially in summer. She would much rather be working on one of her books about the olden days, Alfie knew. Her mother’s first book had appeared in bookstores a year ago, and even Alfie and her big brother EllRay knew that was a big deal. But Alfie’s mom was now hard at work on another book. That surprised Alfie. She had already written one, hadn’t she?

  Was that what being a grown-up was like, doing the same thing over and over again?

  Boo!

  Her own life was going to much more exciting, Alfie promised herself. If her mom wasn’t writing, she liked being outside—working in the garden or doing something fun. Just like Alfie. Mrs. Jakes and Alfie had fun in common.

  “My good-time girls,” Alfie’s dad called them, joking. He also called Alfie “Cricket,” because she was so small and energetic, and she could jump really, really far.

  “I know I’m seven,” Alfie said, her voice a grumble. “I was just practicing.”

  “Are you telling me you’re bored?” her mother asked, glancing over at her.

  Alfie hesitated. She and EllRay had learned long ago what happened if they complained to their mom or dad that they were bored. “You make your own life interesting,” their parents would remind the two kids. “But there are plenty of chores that need doing if you run out of ideas. Just let us know.”

  “I’m not exactly bored,” Alfie told her mom now, sounding cautious.

  Mrs. Jakes laughed, as if she’d been teasing. She was a pretty mom with a nice smile and short, curly hair she often wore tied back with a colorful scarf. “Look,” she said, turning off the burner on the stove. “I know this is ‘The Vacuum,’ Alfie, the time when summer is almost over. You’re basically just hanging around, waiting for school to start. On the twenty-eighth,” she added.

  She would be in second grade, Alfie reminded herself, her breath catching in her throat. With a new teacher, Mr. Havens. A boy teacher. There would be new kids to meet, too.

  Her tummy gave a funny little jump. Floop!

  “‘The Vacuum?’” Alfie asked her mom. “You mean like a vacuum cleaner?”

  “Not exactly,” her mom said. “The word vacuum comes fro
m the Latin word meaning empty, Alfie. I was trying to say that we’re in kind of an empty period, here.”

  “But it’s real time,” Alfie argued, trying not to think of the first day of school. “And it’s in my real life, Mom. There are three whole weeks of summer left, and they should count just as much as any other weeks. Do you want to hurt those weeks’ feelings? A person can fly around the world in three weeks, EllRay told me once—and even see stuff along the way.”

  “Well, I’m not going to fly you around the world, tempting as that sounds,” her mother said, laughing again. “But Mrs. Sobel and I were talking on the phone yesterday. We’re in the same situation, it seems, since we both work at home.”

  Mrs. Sobel was Hanni Sobel’s mother. The Sobels had moved to Oak Glen a year ago and lived only one block away.

  Alfie and Hanni had been in first grade together, but they were not first-best-friends or even second-best-friends. They didn’t exactly have a lot in common, in Alfie’s opinion. She was a fun-loving cricket, and Hanni was “the world’s oldest seven-year-old,” to quote Alfie’s mom.

  In other words, Hanni Sobel was kind of a know-it-all who tried to be the boss of the other girls.

  “We came up with something that might be fun for you and Hanni,” Alfie’s mom was saying.

  “Like what?” Alfie asked, suddenly nervous.

  “Like a two-girl daycare club,” Mrs. Jakes said. “One day at our house, and the next day at Hanni’s house, and so on. From nine in the morning until three in the afternoon each day, Monday through Friday, for the next three weeks. There’s even a small budget for craft supplies and special activities,” she added, knowing this would grab Alfie’s attention. “We think we can count on you girls to organize your own activities in a fun but sensible way,” she said.

  That probably meant no TV, Alfie knew. And very limited time for video games, if any. But—craft supplies! Craft supplies were nearly as good as souvenirs. Alfie could almost smell the paste and feel small glittery stickers decorating her fingertips.

  Alfie Jakes was a champion shopper. For fun stuff, anyway.

  “Does Hanni know about this?” Alfie asked, her tummy fluttering again—because she didn’t want the would-be boss of the girls to end up being her enemy by the time school began.

  Alfie wanted second grade to get off to a really good start.

  “Hanni’s all for it,” Alfie’s mom reported.

  She was?

  “So when do we begin?” Alfie asked. Her brown eyes were wide with excitement.

  “Tomorrow morning. Nine A.M. sharp. Our house,” Mrs. Jakes said, smiling at the success of her plan. “So start thinking of some fun things the two of you can do, Alfie. And then you, Hanni, and I will go shopping for craft supplies tomorrow afternoon, before it’s time for Hanni to go home. That way you’ll each get to choose some things you like.”

  “I can’t wait,” Alfie said, hopping off the kitchen stool. “I’m gonna go start a list right now!”

  That end-of-summer vacuum was filling up—fast.

  2

  Playing Ping-Pong with Words

  “So what game is it gonna be tonight?” EllRay asked Alfie after dinner as they sprawled on the rug in his room. Sunday night board games were a brother-sister tradition in the Jakes household. “B-o-r-e-d” games, EllRay sometimes teased, spelling it out. Alfie didn’t really get the joke at first.

  Mrs. Jakes even made a special Sunday night snack for the kids to share.

  “Hmm,” Alfie said, thinking about it.

  EllRay was eleven years old. He was a tall, skinny string bean of a boy, their mom often said when describing him. But Alfie knew from family stories that he’d been the shortest kid in his class when he was her age. Now he was obsessed with sports and his friends, but he still hung out with Alfie sometimes. They were a team.

  She was the shortest kid in her class last year, she reminded herself, but that wasn’t so bad, because she was a girl. Her dad would still carry her in from the car at night if she pretended to be asleep.

  She loved that.

  “I don’t know what game. You decide,” Alfie said, still damp from her summer evening shower. Her lavender tank top and pink-and-white-striped jammie bottoms felt soft against her golden brown skin. She could still smell that night’s strawberry shortcake in the air.

  “No. You decide,” he said.

  “You decide.”

  “You decide.”

  “No, you,” Alfie insisted.

  Her brother reached for a nearby stack of games with a long brown arm. “Well, you got your candy game, where you hop along the path,” he announced, like he was selling it at the county fair.

  The fair had been the end of fun for their family that summer, Alfie remembered. But the two-girl daycare club was going to fix that. If it worked out, anyway.

  Craft supplies!

  “And you got your operation game,” EllRay continued, still being the salesman. “You know, where the goofy guy’s nose lights up and the buzzer sounds when you make a mistake. Except you like to do that on purpose, Alfie. And it messes up the whole thing,” he complained. “And then you got that game where you always lose your temper and throw the pieces across the room. Except I’m not sure we still have all the pieces—for obvious reasons, Alfleta,” he added, making a funny face.

  “Alfleta” was her long name, one her mom had once used in a book. It meant “beautiful elf” in some old language no one spoke anymore.

  “Stop teasing,” Alfie commanded. “I choose the candy game.”

  “For ages three and up,” EllRay said, reading aloud from the box. “That sounds about right.”

  “Quit it,” Alfie told him. “It’s fun, and you know it.”

  “It’s okay,” EllRay said, shrugging. He unfolded the colorful board and reached for a massive handful of popcorn.

  Alfie straightened the stack of cards and set up two figures for them to use. “You’re red, I’m green,” she informed her brother. “And I get to go first because I’m the littlest. Maybe I’ll play this game tomorrow when Hanni Sobel comes over,” she added, like the visit was no big deal. “I can get good at it tonight, then wipe her out.”

  “Nice,” EllRay said, laughing. “There’s not a whole lot of strategy to this game, though, Alf. And how come Hanni’s coming over? Does someone in this house need bossing around?”

  “She’s not that bad,” Alfie said. “And she’s coming over to fix the vacuum,” she explained, drawing the first card.

  Blue. She bounced her green plastic figure forward until it reached a blue square.

  “What vacuum? And you don’t have to actually hit each square when you move,” EllRay told his sister, shaking his head. “You can just find the right color with your eyeballs and put your piece there.”

  “You play your way, and I’ll play my way,” Alfie said.

  “But it gets on my nerves when you go click-click-click all the time,” EllRay said, picking a card and then moving his red figure forward—without touching the board on the way.

  “And it gets on my nerves when you chew popcorn with your mouth open while you tell me what to do,” Alfie replied.

  They weren’t really fighting. It was more like playing Ping-Pong with words.

  It was a brother-and-sister thing.

  “But I remember Hanni Sobel from last year at school,” EllRay said, stretching while he waited. “She thinks she knows everything. And that’s gonna be rough, because you know everything, too,” he teased. “Your turn to pick a card.”

  “Yeah, but she really kinda does know everything,” Alfie explained, examining her new card. “This says I’m supposed to lose one turn,” she said, flapping the card in the air as if it smelled bad and waving it might help. “But I don’t think it really means that.”

  EllRay sighed again. “You decide what y
ou want to do with it, then,” he said. “Because I’m not gonna fight about it. But is that what you’re going to say to Hanni tomorrow when you get that card? That you want to play the baby way?”

  “Maybe I will, and maybe I won’t,” Alfie said.

  She liked this kind of reply. It made it harder to be wrong.

  “That gets on my nerves, too,” EllRay said, shaking his head. “Maybe this, but maybe that. It’s kind of what you say about everything lately.”

  “Maybe I do, and maybe I don’t,” Alfie replied. “But okay, EllRay. Have it your way. I’ll lose one turn. And I’m not a baby.”

  “Maybe you are, and maybe you’re not,” EllRay said with a grin. “I guess we’ll find out tomorrow when Hanni Sobel gets here. Right?”

  “Maybe we will, and maybe we won’t,” Alfie told him.

  Ha!

  3

  Backwards Day

  Alfie was so excited the next morning that she couldn’t think straight. What should she and Hanni do first? She only had two more hours to figure it out!

  “How does this sound?” she asked her mom between messy bites of her breakfast burrito. EllRay had already disappeared outside with his. “I’m thinking we can start with dolls, unless Hanni thinks they’re too babyish. And then maybe we’ll have a tea party,” she said. Tea parties were a good excuse to eat cookies. And who didn’t like eating cookies?

  Alfie’s mom was careful about snacks, but she’d be busy working on her book.

  “And then we can go outside and play for half an hour,” Alfie continued. “And maybe make hand puppets, only with new socks, because otherwise it’s just gross. Too many smelly feet-ghosts in old socks,” she explained, shuddering. “And then I’ll tell Hanni about our vacation. Then—”

  “Hold on a minute,” Mrs. Jakes said, putting down her cup of tea. “You’re not a cruise director or a camp counselor, sweetie. This three-week daycare club is supposed to be relaxing and fun for both of you. So how about asking Hanni what she would like to do? Just regular hanging-out things, Alfie.”