Catch As Cat Can

                "First you fight and now you're best friends. You two are infantile." The dog rolled her eyes. She had squeezed next to Harry on the sofa.

                "Big word, Tucker. Congratulations," Mrs. Murphy said sarcastically as she turned her back on the company and lifted the tip of her tail in her right paw, bringing it to her lips for grooming.

                "Hee hee." Pewter couldn't resist laughing because it was funny to her but also because it would make the dog mad.

                Tucker ignored them, placing her head in Harry's lap, looking is adorable as possible.

                "You know what I'm doing, I'm venting. Humans vent all the time," Murphy said.

                "I wouldn't imitate humans." Pewter thought about grooming but hen decided she was too tired."It's a species that has as its motto: I can't al-rays do it the hard way but I can try. They make everything so complicated, no wonder they vent, bitch, and moan. It's their own fault."

                "There is that," the tiger cat agreed with her.

                BoomBoom had just finished an elliptical tangent that finally returned to its starting point, her need of Harry's help-". . . so you see Susan wouldn't be quite right and Lottie Pearson is too eager, if you know what I mean. She parties in B.C., Richmond, and Charlotte, all in search for a man of means. She's beginning to get panicky about marriage, I swear. Of course she says she's canvassing or contributors to the university. Her job as a fund-raiser covers a Multitude of sins, I swear." Lottie Pearson was a social acquaintance of BoomBoom's, whom she sometimes liked and sometimes didn't.

                Harry, fearing what was coming, quickly interjected, "But Lottie Pearson is single and Susan is not. That's a plus." Harry echoed BoomBoom's earlier dismissal of turning to Susan for help. She wished BoomBoom would get to the point. Exactly what did she want?

                "Lottie Pearson will complicate things. I really don't want my friends interviewed about their net worth."

                "Boom, you're losing me here. What friends? What net worth?"

                After a long, refreshing draft of steaming-hot Plantation Mint tea, the tall woman placed the china cup in the matching saucer and laid them on the coffee table."Your grandmother's china. I remember your grandmother."

                "Mom's mom." Harry smiled, an image of a lean, silver-haired lady crossing her mind.

                "She was a good teacher. Pony Club."

                Pony Club teaches young people all aspects of horsemanship. Riding is but a small portion of one's skills.

                Harry leaned forward."Remember when she made us take apart a bridle, strip it, dip it, put it back together, and she inspected everyone's work? Susan tried to cheat and used a toothbrush to clean around the bit instead of totally dismantling it?"

                BoomBoom laughed."And then she gave that lecture on shortcuts. Hey, I can still hear her voice when I'm considering the lazy way-'the shortest way around is often the longest.' "

                As they neared forty both women were slowly realizing that shared experiences were binding. Time possesses the greatest power. Men who fought on opposite sides in a war, in old age, often felt closer to their former enemies than people of their own nationality who were younger.

                "You know." BoomBoom lowered her voice, a sweet, dark soprano, a counterpoint to Harry's liquid alto. If the two had sung together they would have sounded heavenly."I've been seeing this divine man. He's so interesting. He's urbane, speaks four languages, and he's tremendously intelligent. He's coming down this weekend and at the last minute his assistant at the embassy said he could.

                "Embassy?"

                "Yes. He's Under-Secretary to the Ambassador for Uruguay."

                "Who?" Harry was fighting exasperation.

                "My friend, Thomas Steinmetz, is Under-Secretary." BoomBoom threw up her hands."I'm going in circles. Will you escort my friend's friend? That's what I'm trying to ask."

                Now this was interesting. The two cats and dog turned their leads to stare at Harry, who blinked.

                "Say something," Mrs. Murphy suggested to Harry.

                "Uh-"

                BoomBoom tried to be more organized now that the cat was out of the bag, so to speak."Handsome. Fun. A lot of fun really. Recently divorced."

                "How recently?"

                "U-m-m, a year."

                "Why are you asking me, really?"

                "Because you're fun, you're very attractive, and because, well, you never know." She held up her hand, her large diamond reflecting the light.

                "Know what?"

                "When lightning will strike."

                Harry scrunched down in the sofa a bit. Tucker refused to budge."Tucker."

                "I don't wont to miss a thing," the bright-eyed corgi replied to the complaint.

                "Ha," both cats giggled.

                "Harry, you need to get out more." BoomBoom picked up the teacup once more.

                "How ironic coming from you."

                When Harry and Fair separated and filed for divorce, his brief affair with BoomBoom kept tongues wagging in Crozet. It was like the small-town version of being splashed across the front page of le tabloids.

                Harry always felt that Fair could have picked someone out of town or that BoomBoom could have refused him. The fact that both Fair and BoomBoom were great-looking people, in the prime of life, escaped her.