“Huh?” Justin’s deep-set blue eyes snapped back to focus. “Oh. Sorry. I was just thinking.”
“Thought I smelled something burning in here,” said Loki, washing his whiskers with a paw. “Well? What were you thinking about?”
“It’s going to be interesting tomorrow. I hope you and TigTig will get along with everyone.”
“What makes you think we won’t?”
“TigTig, I think, will do okay, because I think the others will be able to get a rise out of her now and then. You, well, don’t go in with preconceived notions about them,” he warned the cat.
Loki gazed at him. “You dispelled one, about Pook and Saav. I want to see what they’re like. Meows, the gentleman, sounds scary. Does he at least have a sense of humor somewhere?”
“Yes, actually, he does,” Justin smiled. “Joyce told me he’s pretty funny.”
“Then I like him already. Don’t worry. Don’t you think I want to get along with them? They’re like us. It would be stupid not to. Besides, I don’t have to like everything about a being to get along with or respect them. I don’t like everything about you, for one.”
“Gee, don’t be so kind,” said Justin.
“I’m not. Anyway, quit worrying. You’re making me nuts.”
Two hours later, Justin finally fell into a fitful sleep, full of dreams of talking cats and other unusual beings. Loki, who had snuggled by his side to purr him to sleep, carefully got up, making sure not to disturb the human. He slipped off the bed and out of the room, making his way to the other bedroom which was a cozy computer room/office/cat playroom. Justin had custom-built a floor-to-ceiling cat playhouse in one corner for them, built a shelf below the window where Loki and TigTig could read and use their laptops without being observed from below, and on the other walls were Justin’s desk and file cabinet. Bookshelves lined the walls, and in another corner was a small table with objects that could only be described as a prayer altar. Loki loved the room; it was cozy and efficient, and Isis even had a little bed next to the playhouse.
The big black cat jumped up on the shelf, making TigTig look up.
“He’s asleep,” he told her, pawing his laptop open. Justin had pulled the latches out of the tops of them to make them easier for paws to open.
“It’s about time,” she replied, and went back to her book.
Loki was quiet for a moment, thinking.
“Tiggy, what do you think about the other cats?” he finally asked. They hadn’t had a chance to talk about the upcoming meeting privately yet.
TigTig picked her bookmark up carefully with her teeth and placed it in her book, and closed it. She looked thoughtfully at him.
“I’m not really sure. I don’t know them yet,” she said.
“Are you nervous?”
TigTig considered that carefully. “No. Not nervous. Not afraid. I am…perhaps a little curious, you could say. I don’t know what to expect.”
“I don’t either. I guess that’s what bothers me. And those other cats, well, they sound brainy. I don’t think I’ll fit in,” he said.
The tabby regarded the black cat. “Why?”
Loki shrugged. “I’m not into learning anything.”
“So?”
“So, if all they do is sit there and play school all day, I am going to be bored to death.”
“Somehow, I doubt they’ll be doing that. Belle’s a kitten,” TigTig pointed out. “You know how kittens are, they bounce off the walls.”
“Well, you like to learn, with your history classes and your mythology and stuff. I’m not even into that,” Loki argued. “How am I going to get along with them?”
“The same way you get along with me,” she answered, looking at him intently.
“What do you mean by that? I just do my thing. You do yours. What’s that got to do with it?”
“Exactly,” smiled TigTig. “Tomorrow, if they start the school thing and you aren’t interested, just play a game or read one of your books. Remember, they are cats.”
“So? We are too.”
“Right again. We accept Justin the way he is, we’ll accept each other the way we are.”
Loki frowned at her. “Sometimes you’re confusing.”
TigTig smiled at him. “When tomorrow becomes yesterday, it will be a lot less confusing. Take it easy, Loke.”
He watched her return to her book, and he sighed. Isis peeked at him from one of the cubbyholes in the playhouse, and taunted him by swishing her tail and flattening her ears at him. He tore across the room, a black blur, and the two pounced and chased each