Catch As Cat Can

                A door slammed, feet could be heard running for the back door. The screened porch door opened with a creak and then a knock reverberated with the thunder at the back door.

                "It's Lottie Pearson," Tucker barked.

                36

                Harry hopped up, surprised to see who stood at her back door."Lottie, come in."

                Lottie stepped through, removed her coat, hanging it on a peg."I'm sorry to barge in."

                "It's a pleasure to see you," Harry replied, just as her mother had taught her."How about a hot cup of coffee or tea? I have cider and hot chocolate, too. It's easy to take a chill in this kind of weather."

                "Actually, I'd love a hot chocolate." She moved toward the kitchen table, remembered her cigarettes, and returned to retrieve them and a matchbook from her coat pocket, which she slid under the cellophane of the cigarette pack."This is the coldest, wettest spring."

                "Sit down. I'll have this ready in no time." Harry pointed to the kitchen chair."We could go in the living room."

                "The kitchen is fine. Everything important happens in there anyway." She dropped in a chair, Tucker sitting next to her, on guard.

                "Let's plop by our food bowls. We won't look as nosy there," Mrs. Murphy whispered to Pewter.

                "Good idea." Pewter crouched, gathered steam, then soared up on the counter. Sitting by the food bowl was her natural position.

                Lottie exhaled through her nostrils."Do you get the Weather Channel?"

                "Yes."

                "Every blip is treated as though it's the beginning of some millennial trend. First there's a warming trend. Then it's El Nino followed by La Nina. Seventeen-year cycles more or less. How can anyone predict a trend? We haven't kept accurate records long enough."

                "I wonder about that, too."

                The milk warmed in the saucepan. Harry poured some cold milk for the kitties and gave Tucker a treat. When the temperature in the milk reached perfection, just before boiling, she poured the milk over the powdered cocoa, stirred it, grabbed a can of whipped cream out of the refrigerator, and spritzed a mound on top. Then she lifted an orange out of the fruit basket and skimmed a thin strip of orange peel. She placed that on top of the whipped cream, setting the concoction before Lottie.

                "How pretty it looks."

                "Give it a minute, still hot." Harry, with her extra-large mug of chocolate, sat down opposite her.

                "I like the glaze on your mugs. They're almost big enough to be soup bowls."

                "Bought them in the kitchen shop in Middleburg."

                "Such a beautiful town. I wonder for how long." Lottie dipped her spoon into the whipped cream."M-m-m." She grew serious again."Washington encroaches. The big cities will swallow the entire East Coast in our lifetime."

                "God, I hope not."

                "West Coast, too." Lottie pressed on with her pessimistic conviction."Everyone goes to the city then leaves the city and for whatever reason they all want to live in the beautiful countryside, which they immediately desecrate. If we were smart we'd restore passenger train service. Spur lines. Would cut the pollution by half if not more. Trains pollute eight times less than airplanes and four times less than cars. And you can read the paper while you commute. I can't read the

                paper while I drive. In fact, I can't do anything when I drive except drive. I'm so worried about someone slamming into me or jumping the meridian. You can't trust anyone these days."

                "I suppose." Harry wondered how long it would take Lottie to reach the point of her impromptu visit.

                Lottie fiddled with her cigarette pack, which she'd dropped into her lap. She couldn't light up until after the hot chocolate, much as she wanted to-wouldn't be proper to smoke and eat simultaneously.

                "We've heard about the weather and urban sprawl." Pewter licked the milk off her lips."What's next?"

                As if in response to the gray cat, Lottie propped her right elbow on the table. It wasn't perfect etiquette but under the circumstances she thought Harry wouldn't mind. One can be too proper."You know, Harry, that my position at the university requires a lot of socializing. I enjoy it. I enjoy meeting people and cultivating relationships. And," she quickly tacked on, "not all those relationships will result in major gifts to the university. Big Mim will never write us a check. Her money goes to her alma mater and I appreciate that. After all, when she was young the university was males only. Her son attended Cornell. So as I said not all of my socializing revolves around donations."

                "That's nice to know." Harry drank half of her hot chocolate. She hadn't realized she was thirsty.

                "I'm a people person." Lottie smiled.

                "You'd have to be to be good at your job." Harry smiled back at her, wondering if she should heat more milk.

                "I meet all kinds of people and I have to get along with all kinds of people. But mostly what I do is woo the wealthy. They are more alike than different." She drained her cup.

                "I'm going to have some more."

                "Oh, I couldn't."