Рита Браун - Cat's Eyewitness

Pewter turned her back on Mrs. Murphy. "Alley cat."

"Oh, bull, Pewter, we're all alley cats. This is America. Even the humans are alley cats."

"Am I an alley cat?" Little Lucy softly came up to Mrs. Murphy, who rolled over to look the tiny bundle of red fur in the eye.

"You are."

"Are you my mommy?" Lucy asked.

"Ha!" Pewter hooted.

Desi padded up to Mrs. Murphy. He squeezed tight against his sister. "We don't remember our mommy very well. She didn't come home one night."

"Where were you?" Tucker joined with the cats.

At first the kittens puffed up, then calmed down when Tucker, who seemed very big, smiled at them reassuringly.

"We lived in a washing machine down in the ravine."

"Ah." None of the adults said anything after that, since all knew their mother had been killed in some fashion.

"How did you find BoomBoom?" Mrs. Murphy inquired.

"She and the other pretty lady were riding and we screamed. She got off her horse and we were really scared, but she kept talking to us and we were so hungry. Then she picked us up and put us in her jacket and we felt warm. We were cold. She's a nice lady."

"She fed us," Desi chimed in. He wasn't as talkative as his sister.

"And then," Lucy's voice rose, "the next day she took us to a man with a beard who gave us pills and shots. That was awful."

"But necessary." Tucker's brown eyes sparkled.

"I'm not going back there," Desi boasted.

"That's what we all say" Tucker laughed.

"I saw a dog with hair the color of BoomBoom's at the vet's," Lucy remarked. "Are they related?"

At this, the grown-up cats and dog laughed so hard the humans noticed.

"Isn't that sweet? Mrs. Murphy is grooming Lucy." Alicia smiled broadly.

"She has a maternal streak," Harry commented.

"Oh, I am going to throw up." Pewter pretended to gag.

"Roundworms," Mrs. Murphy said sarcastically as she pushed Pewter with her front paw.

Pewter pushed back. This escalated into a boxing match, then Pewter took off, Mrs. Murphy in hot pursuit.

Desi's jaw dropped. "Gosh."

"Mental." Tucker touched noses with the little guy. "If one says apples, the other says bananas. They live to disagree." She sighed, then added, "But that's cats for you."

"We're cats." Lucy blinked, her eyes still blue.

"Don't get me wrong. Cats are very fine." Tucker sounded very worldly. "But dogs are much more logical, especially corgis."

"Don't believe a word of it." Mrs. Murphy, having heard everything, soared over all the seated animals in a dazzling display of athletic ability.

Pewter cleared the kittens, only to land smack on Tucker, who took it with her usual sense of humor.

As the cat and dog rolled over each other, the humans laughed and refilled their cups while trying to sort out Susan's dilemma.

"Why don't I discreetly poke around?" BoomBoom turned her attention for a second to the TV, which was on but muted. It was the start of the news report.

"Susan's upset. It surprises me. I mean, her imagining something unproven. If Susan gets upset it's about an event or someone being ill. It's not in her head." Although not much of a coffee drinker, Harry found the espresso delicious, especially after the biting cold up on Afton Mountain.

"People respond to different situations in ways even they don't understand." BoomBoom again checked the TV.

Harry crossed one leg over the other. "Isn't it odd how we don't know ourselves? We think we do, but if life is a circle of three hundred sixty degrees, has there ever been any human being who experienced all three hundred sixty degrees? We'll never know everything about ourselves."

"Then how can we know about anyone else?" BoomBoom asked.

"Because it's easier to look out than to look in," Alicia briskly replied. "Don't you think?"

"I don't know," BoomBoom honestly answered.

"I'm not sure I do, either." Harry smiled.

"I guess we spend our lives finding out." BoomBoom laughed.

"I'd rather work on my tractor or fix the barn roof." Harry shook her head. "The interior stuff is too much for me."

"You have a good mind for solving problems. The interior stuff, as you call it, is a different kind of problem." BoomBoom complimented her, then blinked her eyes, a slight jerk to her head as a handsome young man appeared on the TV. She rose to turn on the sound.

Wearing a deep-green silk tie against an ecru shirt, and an expensive tweed jacket over that, Nordy Elliott smiled the biggest, phoniest smile he could muster at the petite redhead sitting beside him. "So, Jessica, how's it look for football? And what about travel tonight? A lot of people are on the road on turkey day."

"Nordy, a low pressure system is—"

BoomBoom, who had brought the remote back to the table, clicked off the sound. "Nordy Elliott is like sand in my eye, a major irritant. I can't stand the note of false urgency in his voice, which is always the same whether he's interviewing shoppers at the mall or covering a car wreck."

"He irritates you because he pesters you." Alicia reached down to entice one of the cats to come over.

"He doesn't listen." BoomBoom turned to Harry. "I told him over and over—I mean, I tell him every time I see him or he calls that I am taking a year's vacation from dating. So he calls each week and says"—she imitated his delivery—"one more week bites the dust. Twenty more to go!"

"Give him credit for persistence." Alicia laughed.

Ruefully, BoomBoom shrugged. "Yes and no. I hate it when men don't listen."

"Sometimes they can't." Harry offered an unexpected insight. "Their bodies trump their minds. When most men look at either one of you, the blood heads south."

"Harry, you flatter me," Alicia demurred.

"True, though." BoomBoom exhaled. "Men fall in love with their eyes."

"For us, the true hook is, 'Honey, I'll take care of it.' " Harry's mouth turned up as the other two laughed, since that, too, was true.

"A sweeter sound coming from a man than 'I love you.' " Alicia reached over and touched Harry's forearm.

" 'I love you' is too easy. Fixing the dead battery in your car or doing your taxes—that's love." BoomBoom's laughter sounded like perfect crystal when struck. It filled the room.

"I can do all that," Harry boasted.

"Can't we all?" Alicia said. "But how wonderful when a man does it."

"Sometimes." BoomBoom pointed toward Harry's cup and Harry indicated she'd had enough. "But sometimes I'd rather get my hands dirty. Is it just me? Maybe it is, but I feel constrained around a man and I don't want to feel I owe him something."

"You're beautiful, Boom. A man wants to keep you to himself. I suppose that feels, urn, restrictive?" Alicia replied.

"You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, Alicia. It doesn't happen to you?" BoomBoom's large, expressive eyes seemed even larger.

"Yes."

"Constrained is an interesting word." Harry wiggled her toes in her boots. "I don't want a man telling me what to do. I don't want anyone telling me what to do, including the damned government. I can make my own decisions. If I make a mistake, it's my mistake."

"Hear, hear," Alicia agreed.

"Oh, call the Duncans." BoomBoom changed the subject, mentioning the couple, Fred and Doris, who ran Alicia's farm. They were wonderful people. "You can stay here, safe and sound. We'll sit by the fire and tell stories."

Alicia didn't reply to that directly. "When this storm clears, let's go up to see the Virgin Mary."

"Speaking of going, I'd better hit the road. Sun's set and it's looking like a real storm." Harry checked outside the window, then back to the TV screen as the news cut frequently to Jessica, the weatherwoman.

BoomBoom also watched. "Snuck up on us, this one. Alicia, we'd better bag going to the country club."