Did you miss Part One? It was yesterday! Go on -- we'll wait here!
The cat is waiting for me at the top of the stairs.
After a long day at a new job, one in which I am
regularly reminded of how very little I know, it’s like a breath of cold,
gin-flavored air.
Liza Bean Bitey, of the Minneapolis Biteys,
understudy/stand-in for the Blue Man Group and world-class cat-treat mooch,
holds the drink out.
The limes have been, as I like to say, pre-squeezed.
I don’t even take off my shoes but instead take a
healthy, mid-week kind of sip.
“AH!” I exclaim.
“Mmm,” the cat concedes.“Yes.”
I take another sip, set the gin and tonic on the window
ledge.“What’s this about,” I say,
pulling my cap off.I place it on the
hook. “I can’t remember the last time
you brought me a drink.”
Immediately upon saying this, however, I realize it’s
untrue.I can, actually, remember the
last time the cat brought me a drink.
Oh, no…
“Liza!Did you
wreck my car?”
I run to a front window.
The car is right where it should be, and it looks fine.
I turn around.
Liza Bean Bitey, a remarkably small animal, laughs.“Oh, Pearl,” she says.“How do you find your way home every day?”
I frown at her.“You know I take the bus,” I say.“The 17W, catch it at the – hey!That’s a crack, isn’t it?”
The cat lifts a clever paw, winks, taps the side of her
nose.
I pull my shoes off, pick up my drink and walk the rest
of the stairs to the second floor.
I look around.
I turn back to the cat.“What’s going on here, then?Why
the drink?”
“What,” she smiles.“Can’t a kitty bring her favorite person a drink?”
I stare at her.
“Oh, Pearl,” she says.“You’re going to give yourself wrinkles.”
I take another sip of my drink, make a c’mon-c’mon-c’mon
motion with my free hand.
“All right, then,” she says.She jumps up on the couch, pats the cushion
next to her.
I sit.
The cat primly wraps a careful tail around her feet.“Pearl,” she says.“It’s time you knew.”
I take another sip of my drink.
Dang.That cat
really knows how to mix a drink.
“Knew what?”
“I took your car last might.”
“Liza Bean,” I say.“I swear –“
And the cat laughs.
Come back tomorrow
for the rest of it – you know I can’t write more than 400 words at a time!