“Thanks.”
It was in a saucepan, and I took it up in my room and set it on the bureau, and laid my shaving stuff out. I went down and out to the car, and took a seat in it so I could see the road and the bathroom window, both. The Greek was singing. It came to me I better take note what the song was. It was Mother Machree. He sang it once, and then sang it over again. I looked in the kitchen. She was still there.
A truck and a trailer swung around the bend. I fingered the horn. Sometimes those truckmen stopped for something to eat, and they were the kind that would beat on the door till you opened up. But they went on. A couple more cars went by. They didn’t stop. I looked in the kitchen again, and she wasn’t there. A light went on in the bedroom.
Then, all of a sudden, I saw something move, back by the porch. I almost hit the horn, but then I saw it was a cat. It was just a gray cat, but it shook me up. A cat was the last thing I wanted to see then. I couldn’t see it for a minute, and then there it was again, smelling around the stepladder. I didn’t want to blow the horn, because it wasn’t anything but a cat, but I didn’t want it around that stepladder. I got out of the car, went back there, and shooed it away.
I got halfway back to the car, when it came back, and started up the ladder. I shooed it away again, and ran it clear back to the shacks. I started back to the car, and then stood there for a little bit, looking to see if it was coming back. A state cop came around the bend. He saw me standing there, cut his motor, and came wheeling in, before I could move. When he stopped he was between me and the car. I couldn’t blow the horn.
“Taking it easy?”
“Just came out to put the car away.”
“That your car?”
“Belongs to this guy I work for.”
“O.K. Just checking up.”