I must run; Grace and I are due to attempt to clobber Hugh and Joe.
I’ve never had a happier Christmas.
Chapter 7
Karen and Barbara were washing themselves, the day’s dishes, and the week’s laundry. Above them, Joe kept watch. Bushes and then trees had been cut away around the stretch they used for bathing; a predator could not approach without Joe having a clear shot at it. His eyes swung constantly, checking approaches. He wasted no seconds on the Elysian tableau he guarded.
Karen said, “Barbie, this sheet won’t stand another laundering. It’s rags.”
“We need rags.”
“But what will we use for sheets? It’s this soap.” Karen scooped a handful from a bowl on the bank. It was soft and gray and harsh and looked like oatmeal mush. “The stuff eats holes.”
“I’m not fretted about sheets but I dread the day when we are down to our last towel.”
“Which will belong to Mother,” Karen stated. “Our rationing officer will have some excellent reason.”
“Nasty, nasty. Karen, Duke has done a wonderful job.”
“I wasn’t bitching. Duke can’t help it. It’s his friend Eddie.”
“’Eddie?’”
“Edipus Rex, dear.”
Barbara turned away and began rinsing a pair of ragged blue jeans.
Karen said, “You dig me?”
“We all have faults.”
“Sure, everybody but me. Even Daddy has a shortcoming. His neck pains him.”
Barbara looked up. “Is Hugh having trouble with his neck? Perhaps it would help if we massaged it.”
Karen giggled. “Your weakness, sister mine, is that you wouldn’t know a joke if it bit you. Daddy is still-necked and nothing will cure it. He doesn’t have weaknesses and that’s his weakness. Don’t frown. I love Daddy. I admire him. But I’m glad I’m not like him. I’ll take this load up to the thorn bushes. Damn it, why didn’t Daddy stock clothespins? Those thorns are as bad as the soap.”
“Clothespins we can do without. Hugh did an incredible job. Everything from an eight-day clock-”
“Which got busted, right off.”
“-to tools and seeds and books and I don’t know what. Karen! Don’t climb out naked!”
Karen stopped, one foot on the bank. “Nonsense. Old Stone Face won’t look. Humiliating, that’s what it is. I think I’ll yoo-hoo at him.”
“You’ll do no such thing. Joe is being a gentleman under trying circumstances. Don’t make it harder. Let that load wait and we’ll take it all up at once.”
“Okay, okay. I can’t help wondering if he’s human.”
“He is. I can vouch for it.”
“Hmm- Barbie, don’t tell me Saint Joseph made a pass at you?”
“Heavens, no! But he blushes if I squeeze past him in the house.”
“How can you tell?”
“Sort of purple. Karen, Joe is sweet. I wish you had heard him explain about Doc.”
“Explain what?”
“Well, Doc is beginning to accept me. I was holding Doc yesterday and noticed something and said, ‘Joe, Doe is getting terribly fat. Or was he always?’
“That was a time when he blushed. But he answered with sweet seriousness, ‘Barbara, Dr. Livingstone isn’t as much of a boy cat as he thinks he is. Old Doe is more a girl-type cat. That isn’t fat. Uh, you see- Doe is going to have babies.’ He blurted it out. Seemed to think it would upset me. Didn’t of course, but I was astonished.”
“Barbara, you mean you didn’t know that Dr.-Livingstone-I-Presume is a female?”
“How would I know? Everybody calls him ‘he’ and he-she-has a male name.”
“A doctor can be female. Can’t you tell a tomcat?”
“I never thought about it. Doe is pretty fuzzy.”
“Mmm, yes, with a Persian one might not be certain at first glance. But a tomcat’s badges of authority are prominent.”
“Had I noticed, I would have assumed that he had been altered.”
Karen looked shocked. “Don’t let Daddy hear that! He never allows a cat to be spayed or cut. Daddy thinks cats are citizens. However, you’ve surprised me. Kittens, huh?”
“So Joe says.”
“And I didn’t notice.” Karen looked puzzled. “Come to think of it, I haven’t picked him up lately. Just petted him and tried to keep him out of things. Lately it hasn’t been safe to open a drawer; he’s into it. Looking for a place to have kittens of course. I should have twigged.”