MOONLIGHT

Edwin awoke to a familiar warmth suddenly pressing against his back and a sound of purring. His first groggy feeling was comfortable happiness until his mind cleared further and he realized there was no safe way that she could be there. He sat up suddenly. "Nicolle?!" Something sprang away from the bed and made unhappy noises down near the floor. "Sorry, my mistake, Sheba." It had only been the big housecat that ruled the little B&B he was staying in, his latest hideout.

It was still necessary to remain alert and on the move until the WorldNet campaign completed creating the desired effects and Edwin and the kits were no longer wanted criminals. Miss Peterson’s network of “independent-minded subscribers to self-sufficiency” had been moving him between safehouses and keeping him under surveillance. Sheba, he realized, had surreptitiously followed him into his room when he'd returned from the bathroom at the end of the hallway. He rose, crossed the room, let Sheba out into the hallway and returned to bed.

He'd begun dreaming of that familiar warmth again when his Factotum began beeping to alert him of the time. He rose again, silenced it, slipped into his robe, and went to the window. He peeped through the curtains and looked about outside carefully from his second-floor vantage point. Satisfied, he parted the curtains slightly and moonlight washed over the floor near his feet. He pressed his thumb to the lockpad, the window seal released, and he pushed the twin window frames outward. Then he sat on the floor and looked up at the full moon. Factotum began beeping again. "I'm up," he said and it became quiet. It was the appointed time.

Nicolle normally didn't care to be outside at night, and the little band of hideaways usually stayed indoors at night in order to attract as little attention as possible if anyone should scan the area with infrared sensors. Not to mention the desire to not surprise certain little nocturnal wanderers of the woods. But this was special, and she and Walter and David, the Carlson's boy, had walked to the top of the ridge where the trees thinned out along its rocky ridgeline.

As they approached a clear space Walter said, "We'll wait for you here" and Nicolle went on alone a little further until she found a huge rock to sit on. There she waited until her little Kronos buzzed her wrist three times. Then she turned her face upward to regard the moon, knowing Edwin was doing the same at that very moment.

"What's she doing now, Walter?"

"She's watching the moon at the same time her Edwin is watching it from somewhere. It’s something people used to do when they were far apart but wanted to share a moment. Marilyn came up with it. She read about it in one of her romance novels."

"She misses him a lot. I hear her sometimes at night. She says his name in her sleep."

"Yeah, being apart from him this long without any contact has been tough for her. That time I went into town for a few things Sandra hadn't stocked up, I sent a message to Edwin through her friends to do this tonight. I'd heard her, too."

"Do you think they're in love?"

"I don't know. Maybe they don't know, either. But they're certainly very close to each other."

David looked off toward where Nicolle sat looking upward and after a moment said softly, "I love my Molly."

"If you can love someone, it's possible that you can fall in love, too."

They stood quietly, thinking their own thoughts. Nicolle's tiny Kronos buzzed her again, telling her the arranged ten minutes were up but she believed Edwin wouldn't stop right away, so she lingered five minutes more before she kissed her paws and held them up toward the moon.

Walter had been mostly watching everywhere but in her direction, alert for any night creatures that might be curious about these three, so it was David who finally said, "She's starting back this way."

"All right. Now… don't talk to her about this unless she brings it up first. Let her have her own thoughts for a while."

"Sure, I get it."

So, the three returned to the cabin in silence.

The next morning, David was pleased to recall that she had not called out for Edwin all that night.

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Part 15 / 25

SPYING

On some of Nicolle's turns outside, she secretly wandered farther than usual or advisable, making her way down the steep hillside and through the woods to an overlook she had discovered where, lying among the trees and boulders, she could see the lake yet remain hidden from even a careful observer. She was going there again.

She approached her chosen spot and then, when still below a line of sight to the lake, she dropped to all fours and crawled for a distance before wriggling on her belly into her preferred hiding place. The breeze was favorable so she heard the sounds from the lake seemingly closer and clearer than at other times. She raised the tiny binos to her eyes and allowed them focus and stabilize. She pressed for zoom. And there they were again, the tiny humans, running and playing, adults teaching them to swim or just watching protectively. Some of them she even recognized from earlier observations.

She watched for as long as she dared, listening to the faint, distant happy noises. If the others noticed she was missing, there would be concern and she might be forbidden to come here again. When she finally lowered the binos, she closed her eyes and imagined tiny catgirls making those sounds, running and playing and herself teaching them games and laughing with them. But when she opened her eyes again, the reality remained that she and her kind had been made sterile. For her, there would never be her own children.

As she walked slowly back to the cabin, she wondered why she kept tormenting herself by returning to watch and to dream.

Next: Part 16 / 25, “Pillowtalk - Choices”