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into the left side of my brain whispered, you will not remember to do that, and you know it . She was right, of course, so I grabbed a pen and an old grocery receipt from the depths of my tote-bag-cum-purse and wrote myself a note. I looked across the table. Tom’s lip was twitching. “What?”
    He laughed. “Nothing.”
    â€œNot nothing.”
    â€œOkay, so you’re going to stick that note in your bag and find it six months from now.”
    â€œAm not.” He’s right, that’s exactly what I’ll do. “I’m sticking it in my change purse where I’ll be sure to see it.”
    â€œWhy don’t you write yourself a note on your phone?”
    I just rolled my eyes. I’d be sure to forget about it there.
    I told him about the pond and woods near Alberta’s house, and told him what Alberta had said about condos. “I wonder if that’s Rasmussen’s development.” We also talked briefly about Alberta’s attempts to help the feral cats in her neighborhood, and about the kittens and how quickly Jay had done his job. I told Tom how the little calico seemed to put a spell on Hutchinson.
    â€œBoy, he’s like a new man since he met Jay and Leo, huh?”
    By the time we left, the temperature had dropped and the wind had picked up enough to make the misty air prickly against my cheeks.
    â€œWant to come over and play?” asked Tom as we fastened our seatbelts.
    â€œPlay what?” I turned around and stuck my hand into one of two large dog crates Tom kept in the back. Jay pushed the top of his head into my fingers.
    â€œBackgammon?”
    â€œI dunno … Doesn’t sound very exciting.”
    â€œStrip backgammon?”
    I hadn’t planned to be away for the night, and I don’t like to leave Leo alone that long, so I made a counter offer. “How about my house? We can pick Drake up on the way.”
    â€œPerfect.” Tom leaned over and kissed me, then turned to Jay. “Kittens all safe. Good job, my man! You’re a hero again.”
    â€œHard to believe that jerk Charles would give anything away.” I was thinking again about his donation to the university. “You should have seen the way he humiliated his wife tonight. It was odd, though,” I said, remembering how differently Louise carried herself when she came back out to the studio. “She was like a changed person the second time I saw her.” I told him about the shift from bouffant wig to gamine-look pixie. “She was completely submissive, cringing almost, and then twenty minutes later she was almost defiant.”
    â€œHunh.”
    â€œDon’t you think that’s weird?”
    â€œProbably.” He paused, then spoke again. “Maybe she had a pharmacological intervention in the meantime.” Tom’s professional interest in the cultural uses of plant-based products popped up at the oddest times and I half expected him to speculate on what exotic botanicals Louise kept in her cookie jar.
    I started to say something, but let it go. I love Tom, but I found myself wishing I had Goldie or Peg or one of my other women friends to talk to. Even Alberta. We weren’t exactly friends, but she had seen the events of the evening and she knew the Rasmussens at least a little. She might have had another take on Louise’s transformation.
    Tom changed the subject. “Why don’t you call Goldie when we get home.”
    He’s doing it again , whispered a voice in my head. Stop reading my mind.
    â€œIt’s not that late. We could have some hot chocolate. I haven’t seen her in ages.” Tom and Goldie had some sort of strange anthropologist-to-shaman connection that I didn’t fully understand.
    â€œI don’t think I have any milk.”
    He pulled into his driveway and turned off the engine. “Be right back.”
    I undid my seatbelt and turned toward Jay, letting my fingers slide through