you satisfied now?” he demanded. But Tibbles Two simply tucked his front paws into his furry chest and closed his eyes. Jim went over and picked up the Tarot card that the cat had brought him. The figure was still standing in the snow, still waiting. The stars were still shining in the black sky above its head.
He went to his bookshelf and took down one of his battered Morocco-bound encyclopedias, the ones that his father had given him when he graduated. He looked up astronomy and found pages and pages of star maps, constellations and clusters, to see if he could find any configuration of stars which matched the pattern on the card. Maybe it had some significance, maybe it didn’t, but most background details in the Tarot had some symbolic meaning, whether they were distant castles or lobsters swimming in rivers or figures with their faces turned away.
The afternoon sun slowly swiveled around the apartment as he turned the pages of the encyclopedia sideways and diagonally and upside-down. The pattern of stars on the card was so distinctive that he couldn’t believe it wasn’t a real constellation. Yet he couldn’t match it anywhere. And everynow and then he would find himself stopping his search to think about Ray, his hands burning with cold, going through agonies that it was almost impossible for anybody else to imagine.
He gave up looking for star patterns. He went to the fridge and stared into it, to see if there was anything else that he wanted to eat. He closed the door again and went back into the living-room. Tibbles Two had opened her eyes now and was staring at him fixedly.
“Who sent you?” asked Jim, sitting down beside her. “I don’t believe you came here by accident, no way.”
Tibbles Two jumped off the couch and up on to the chair where Jim had been sitting while he was looking through the star constellations. She hesitated for a second, and then she jumped up on to the table. Her paw caught the encyclopedia, which was resting on the very edge, and it toppled over.
“Hey!” said Jim, and lunged forward to catch it. But it didn’t fall instantly. He had never seen anything fall like this before. It dropped to the floor in slow-motion, as if the afternoon air were as thick as treacle, and as it fell its pages flicked over, page after page, almost as if somebody were thumbing through it.
It fell only an inch beyond his outstretched fingers. It was like something out of a dream. It hit the floor and bounced on its spine, and then it slowly settled on to the carpet, with its pages wide open. Tibbles Two had already jumped off the table by now, and made her way to the other side of the room, where she turned and watched Jim with that same supercilious look in her eyes.
Jim picked the book from the floor. It had fallen open at a page about the signs of the Zodiac, and the movement of stars and planets. On the right hand side of the page was an illustration of the northern sky on the night of 16 June 1816. With one or two minor exceptions, thepattern of the stars was identical to the stars depicted in the Tarot card.
The caption read: The star-pattern which presaged the ‘year without a summer’ .
Jim said, “What is this? Some kind of joke?”
Tibbles Two gave a low, soft mewl. Jim glanced at her but didn’t say anything. He was beginning to think that she wasn’t a cat at all, but a human spirit which had been reincarnated as a cat.
“You should give me a clue, you know that?” he told her. “You should tell me who you are. Then I can give you some of the things you liked when you were a person. A drop of bourbon in your milk, maybe? Or low-cal cat food? You should tell me. After all, you can bring me Tarot cards, and you can open encyclopedias to the relevant page. What’s to stop you from telling me your name?”
But Tibbles Two remained inscrutable, and started to descend into a deep, larynx-rattling sleep.
Jim laid the encyclopedia back on the table, took his glasses out of
He went to his bookshelf and took down one of his battered Morocco-bound encyclopedias, the ones that his father had given him when he graduated. He looked up astronomy and found pages and pages of star maps, constellations and clusters, to see if he could find any configuration of stars which matched the pattern on the card. Maybe it had some significance, maybe it didn’t, but most background details in the Tarot had some symbolic meaning, whether they were distant castles or lobsters swimming in rivers or figures with their faces turned away.
The afternoon sun slowly swiveled around the apartment as he turned the pages of the encyclopedia sideways and diagonally and upside-down. The pattern of stars on the card was so distinctive that he couldn’t believe it wasn’t a real constellation. Yet he couldn’t match it anywhere. And everynow and then he would find himself stopping his search to think about Ray, his hands burning with cold, going through agonies that it was almost impossible for anybody else to imagine.
He gave up looking for star patterns. He went to the fridge and stared into it, to see if there was anything else that he wanted to eat. He closed the door again and went back into the living-room. Tibbles Two had opened her eyes now and was staring at him fixedly.
“Who sent you?” asked Jim, sitting down beside her. “I don’t believe you came here by accident, no way.”
Tibbles Two jumped off the couch and up on to the chair where Jim had been sitting while he was looking through the star constellations. She hesitated for a second, and then she jumped up on to the table. Her paw caught the encyclopedia, which was resting on the very edge, and it toppled over.
“Hey!” said Jim, and lunged forward to catch it. But it didn’t fall instantly. He had never seen anything fall like this before. It dropped to the floor in slow-motion, as if the afternoon air were as thick as treacle, and as it fell its pages flicked over, page after page, almost as if somebody were thumbing through it.
It fell only an inch beyond his outstretched fingers. It was like something out of a dream. It hit the floor and bounced on its spine, and then it slowly settled on to the carpet, with its pages wide open. Tibbles Two had already jumped off the table by now, and made her way to the other side of the room, where she turned and watched Jim with that same supercilious look in her eyes.
Jim picked the book from the floor. It had fallen open at a page about the signs of the Zodiac, and the movement of stars and planets. On the right hand side of the page was an illustration of the northern sky on the night of 16 June 1816. With one or two minor exceptions, thepattern of the stars was identical to the stars depicted in the Tarot card.
The caption read: The star-pattern which presaged the ‘year without a summer’ .
Jim said, “What is this? Some kind of joke?”
Tibbles Two gave a low, soft mewl. Jim glanced at her but didn’t say anything. He was beginning to think that she wasn’t a cat at all, but a human spirit which had been reincarnated as a cat.
“You should give me a clue, you know that?” he told her. “You should tell me who you are. Then I can give you some of the things you liked when you were a person. A drop of bourbon in your milk, maybe? Or low-cal cat food? You should tell me. After all, you can bring me Tarot cards, and you can open encyclopedias to the relevant page. What’s to stop you from telling me your name?”
But Tibbles Two remained inscrutable, and started to descend into a deep, larynx-rattling sleep.
Jim laid the encyclopedia back on the table, took his glasses out of
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