Jane heard the kettle singing in the kitchen and turning off the stove, she set about absent mindedly making a cup of tea. It was early afternoon and the weather was frightful. The view from the living room window was deceptively beautiful. The sky was crystal blue, clear with marshmallow white clouds dotting the sky. The landscape was awash in the gentle beiges of winter grass that fill the high deserts this time of year. There were still patches of dark green visible from the juniper trees and Ponderosa pines that dotted the landscape. The temperature outside though was a might be too chilly for Jane who was used to the eighty degree range that persisted for much of the year.
Tea made, Jane wandered into the living room and curled up in her favorite chair. The smell of sweet mint tea filled the room. Jane set the mug of tea down and picked up the book she had been intending to read and the intriguing letter she had received in the mail this afternoon. It was from a law firm in England. She was curious about what the contents of the letter could possibly be but that curiosity did not outweigh the desire to finish her book. She still had a couple of hundred pages to go and she was too involved in the lives of the characters to stop reading now just for the sake of some letter.
Several hours later, in the fading afternoon sunlight, Jane slowly closed her book. She absently set the book aside, holding her old and well read bookmark in her hand. The tears were slowly drying, clearly the book had moved Jane. After a couple of minutes, Jane peered down and spied the letter peaking out from underneath the now completed book.
“Might as well see what’s in the letter,” she thought to herself.
Taking the letter, Jane was once again bemused by the heavy weight of the paper and the hand addressed envelope. It was so rare these days to receive mail addressed by hand that Jane took extra care in opening the letter. Removing the tri-folded cream letter, Jane’s interest was definitely increasing.
Jane’s solid black cat, George, picked that precise moment to jump into her lap. The letter went tumbling to the floor and Jane laughed. “I get it George. You feel neglected. You do realize that cats are supposedly independent creatures that never beg for attention, don’t you?”
In response, George purred loudly and continued to butt his head against Jane’s hand demanding to be petted. For ten minutes, the only sound that could be heard in the living room was George’s contented purring. And just as suddenly as he had appeared, George jumped down and disappeared from view. Jane shook her head as she smiled at his retreating form.
Bending over, she picked up the letter from where it had fallen on the floor. As she did so, her stomach grumbled loudly in protest clearly it was later than she thought. Jane set the letter down once again and retreated to the kitchen. Upon entering the kitchen, the first thing Jane noticed was that George had been busy. Somehow the mischievous cat had gotten into the cabinet and located the paper liners for muffins and cupcakes. George was quite the athlete when it came to hunting down and killing his favorite nemesis, paper liners. Jane laughed out loud, it was the only logical thing to do as she cleaned up the mess.
“Be careful George, someday I’ll stop buying them and switch to silicone pans instead.” George growled at Jane and promptly stalked from the kitchen. Jane shook her head, “It’s like he understands what I’m saying.”
Order was restored fairly quickly and Jane set about throwing together dinner for herself. Roast beef sandwich with crumbled blue cheese would go nicely with a glass of wine.
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