Catch As Cat Can

                Miranda was the lead singer for the Church of the Holy Light and the choir was arranged on a float called Stairway to Paradise, which was just what you would expect.

                "Have you seen Boom?"

                "I did a minute ago. Primping." He smiled.

                "Big surprise. Hey, you'll be at the tea dance. I'll find you there."

                "You got it." He kissed her again and jogged back down the line, where Miranda could be seen in her choir robes, her back turned toward Harry. The other choir members were taking their places on the stairway to paradise. A few appeared as though their Maker might call them soon enough.

                "Mom, don't forget to drink water yourself," Tucker, ever solicitous, barked.

                Harry stepped down, lifted the dog, and climbed back up. She didn't understand a word the corgi had said.

                Jim Sanburne and Little Mim sat in an open convertible behind Herb's float.

                Harry smiled at them and they smiled back."Little Mim, Sean's looking for you."

                "He found me. I'll do what I can," came the unenthusiastic reply.

                Lottie was on the third float, Daughters of Time, sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Lottie's hoopskirt was so big a stiff wind would send her airborne. Roger was driving that float while Sean was driving the O'Bannon float.

                "Four minutes," Harry called out.

                A tug at her jeans behind her turned her around. BoomBoom, dressed as a 1920s flapper for the Heart Fund float, said, "I want you to meet Diego before the tea. Mary Minor Haristeen, please meet Diego Aybar."

                Harry's mouth moved but nothing came out. She was staring into the liquid brown eyes of one of the most gorgeous men she had ever seen."Uh-welcome to Crozet."

                "My pleasure. BoomBoom tells me I should meet you at Aunt Tally's"-he said "Aunt Tally's" with a Spanish accent and a hint of good humor-"garden. She says everyone falls in love in the garden."

                "With the garden." Harry smiled.

                "No, in the garden," BoomBoom corrected."Listen, I've got to get back on my float. Diego, the two best places to see the parade are from the back of Harry's truck or on the corner of Route 240 and Whitehall Road."

                "Try the truck," Harry stammered."The two cats are good companions."

                The two cats at that very moment were laughing at their mother, who was in a state. Neither could ever remember seeing Harry like that.

                "The best friends come on four feet," he said in his beguiling light baritone.

                "Now there's a man with sense." Mrs. Murphy walked forward to greet him as he gracefully bounded into the truck bed.

                "One minute," Harry called into the bullhorn.

                Reverend Herb Jones straightened up, took a deep breath. In the car behind him, Little Mim leaned over and kissed her father on the cheek. The drivers started their motors. Some band members threw back their shoulders, others licked their reeds, while the drummers spun their drumsticks in anticipation.

                "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one-showtime!" Harry called.

                The drummers clicked their sticks in rhythm. The four different high-school bands interspersed throughout the parade marched in place. The Reverend Jones cruised first, slowly out of the school lot. The St. Elizabeth band, first with the music, initially walked out to bass drums only, boom, boom, boom; then the snare drums kicked in and within a minute they all burst forth with the ever-popular theme song from Rocky.

                Harry waved as each group passed her. She heard the roar from all the people crowded along the path. Tears sprang into her eyes. She felt as if her own life were parading before her. The sight of Tally Urquhart in her rickshaw, participating in her ninety-second parade (Tally was a star even as a toddler) brought the tears rolling down.

                What great good fortune to be where you know people, you love people, and hopefully they love you. The fact that her family had nested here immediately after the Revolutionary War, having drifted over from the Tidewater, where they'd lived since 1640, only deepened the experience of home.

                Tucker crowded next to Harry. Tucker loved music. The cats had leapt to the roof of the truck so as not to miss a single thing.

                Harry waved as friends and neighbors passed, and then she glanced back at Diego. His smile was five thousand megawatts. She smiled back at him, grateful that this small slice of Virginia pleased him. It hadn't occurred to her that she pleased him, too.

                Harry felt as though her chest would burst. The joy, as high as grief was deep, nearly overwhelmed her.

                8

                Although covering less than two miles from the high school to the town's main intersection, the route was hilly. The float builders, knowing this, had devised railings and props such as fake boulders with little handholds on them, so that the people on the floats could grab them when the floats rolled downhill.