Рита Браун - Pawing Through The Past

"Maybe we'd better catch the mice in the barn first."

Mrs. Murphy moved over to Pewter, leaning against her in the chill. "I heard them singing in the tackroom this morning. I expect them to be saucy in the feedroom. But the tackroom. It was humiliating. Fortunately, Harry can't hear them."

"An original song?"

The tiger cat laughed. "In those high-pitched voices everything sounds original but it was 'Dixie.'"

"Well, at least they're Southern mice."

"Pewter, that's a great comfort." Mrs. Murphy laughed so loudly she interrupted the humans.

"Getting a little nippy, Miss Puss?" Harry scooped her up in one arm while lifting Pewter with the other. "Pewts, light and lively for you."

A cat on each shoulder, Harry walked back to the house as Tucker trailed at Tracy's heels.

Tracy picked up where he'd left off when Murphy let out what sounded to him like a yowl. "-one of the prettiest girls in the class. Natural. Fresh."

"Was she plump?"

"Uh . . . full-figured. You girls are too skinny these days. Miranda sparkled. Anyway, we'd go on hay rides and trips to other high schools for football games. I played on the team. Afterwards we'd all ride back to school in our old jalopies. Fun. I think I was too young to know how much fun I was having. And World War Two ended five years before our graduation so everyone felt safe and wonderful. It was an incredible time." He chuckled as he opened the porch door for Harry. "Every chance I had I got close to Miranda and I nicknamed her 'Cuddles.'"

The kitchen door, open to catch the breeze, was shut behind them as the night air, drenched in moisture and coolness, was drawing through the house.

Harry put the cats on the kitchen counter. "Must be a cold front coming through. The wind is picking up. This has been an unusual summer. Usually it's brutally hot, like the last few days have been."

"Nothing like a Virginia summer unless it's a Delta summer. One year in the service I was stationed in Louisiana and thought I would melt. Heat and hookworm, the history of the South."

"Cured the latter. Did I interrupt you? If I did I apologize. You were telling me about Miranda."

"In my day we were all friends. It wasn't quite as much sex stuff. I had a crush on Miranda and we did a lot of things together but as a group. I took her to the senior prom. You know, I loved her but I didn't know that either. It wasn't until years later that I figured it all out but by then I was halfway around the world, fighting in Korea. I wish you could have known Miranda as a youngster."

"I'm glad to know her now."

"More subdued now. She said you thought she was a religious nut."

"I give her a hard time. She needs someone to give her hell," Harry half-giggled. "She's more religious than I am but I don't know as she's a nut. You know, Tracy, I've known Miranda from the time I was a child but what do children know? She was bright and chirpy. George died and she took a nosedive. That's when she turned more to religion, although she was a strong churchgoer before. But I've noticed this last year she's happier. It's taken her a long time."

"Does. Lost my wife two years ago and I'm just pulling out of it."

"I'm sorry."

"Me, too. You live with a woman for half of your life and she's the air you breathe. You don't think about it. You simply breathe."

"Poor fellow." Tucker whimpered softly.

"He's on the mend and he's sure good with chores so I hope he hangs around." Mrs. Murphy, ever practical, batted water drops as they slowly collected under the water tap.

The phone rang. Harry picked it up. Tracy noticed Mrs. Murphy and walked over to the faucet. He unscrewed the tap with his fingers, so strong was his grasp. The washer was shot. He put it back and grabbed a notepad by the phone and made a note to himself which he stuck in his pocket.

"All right, Susan, all right."

Susan, on the other end of the line, said, "Now the hysteria is, should BoomBoom use the picture with Charlie or not?"

"She should look at the proofs first."

"One of them is bound to turn out."

"Susan, what does she intend to do with the superlatives that Aurora and Ron are in? They're dead, too."

"She can't make up her mind whether to use their old photographs either."

"I'll make it up for her. Tell her we all suffered in the heat for that photograph of her and Charlie, so use it."

"You know, Harry, that's a good idea. Hang up and call her before she emotes anymore. It is tiresome." Susan paused. "Go on, Harry. You call her."

Harry, grumbling, did just that and BoomBoom blurted out three or four sentences of inner thoughts before Harry cut her off and told her to just use the new photo. The whole idea was to see the passage of time!

Harry finally got off the phone. "This reunion is becoming a full-time job."

"Ours is going to be real simple," Tracy said. "We'll gather in the cafeteria, swap tales, eat and dance. I don't even know if there will be decorations."

"With Miranda as the chair? She can't have changed that much in fifty years, I promise you." Harry smiled.

"That's something about one of your classmates getting shot." Tracy noticed the weather stripping on the door was ragged. "Everyone seems calm about it."

"Because everyone thinks they know the reason why. They just have to find out which husband pulled the trigger. What has upset people, though, is the mailing that went out to our classmates before Charlie was killed. 'You'll never get old!' it said."

"Ever hear the expression, 'Expect a trap where the ground is smoothest'?" Mrs. Murphy commented as she wiped her whiskers.

"What made you think of that?" Tucker, now rolled over on her back, inquired.

"People have jumped to a conclusion. Charlie Ashcraft could have been killed for another reason. What if he was involved in fraud or theft or selling fake bonds?"

"That's true." Pewter, now on the table, agreed. "No one much cares because they think it doesn't have anything to do with them."

"Like I said, 'Expect a trap where the ground is smoothest.'"

18

The dually's motor rumbled as Harry leaned over to drop Tracy's rent check and her deposit slip in the outdoor deposit box on the side of the bank.

The truck gobbled gas, which she could ill afford, but the thrill of driving her new truck to town on her lunch hour superseded prudence.

Susan had given her expensive sheepskin seat covers, which pleased the animals as much as it pleased Harry. They lounged on the luxurious surface, the cats "kneading bread."

Harry flew through the morning's chores, then drove over to Fair's clinic at lunch.

"Hi, Ruth." She smiled at the receptionist.

"He's in the back." Ruth nodded toward the back.

Harry and the animals found him studying X-rays.

"Look." He pointed to a splint, a bone sliver detaching from a horse's cannon bone, a bone roughly equivalent to the human forearm.