Lilian Jackson Braun - Cat 17 Who Blew The Whistle

All five of them sat around the large square coffee table, where Qwilleran had placed three small bowls of Kabibbles. There was also a copy of that day's Moose County Something. Fran commented on the in-depth coverage of the scandal, and Qwilleran gloated over the journalistic feat, while Elizabeth listened politely. She was known to have a high I.Q. and an interest in esoteric subjects, as well as a sizable trust fund, but she had no idea what was happening in the world. She avoided reading newspapers, finding them too depressing.

After a few minutes the host steered the conversation to her realm of interest. He said, "I hear you're working on costumes for the play. What do you have in mind for the fairies?"

"We call them greenies," she replied, "and the assumption is that they come from outer space. We know, of course, that extraterrestrials have been visiting our planet for thousands of years."

"I see," he said. "For our production they'll wear green leotards and tights, green wigs, and green makeup. We have to get parental approval for the young people to wear green makeup. The effect will be surreal, and Fran is coaching them in body movements that will make them appear amiable and slightly comic."

"How about the king and queen of the... greenies? Oberon and Titania usually wear something regal."

"They'll have glitter: green foil jumpsuits with swirling capes of some gossamer material - and fantastic headdresses. I really love this play," she said with eyes dancing.

Qwilleran remembered how dull her eyes had been when he first met her on the island.

Moose County - or Derek - had a salutary effect. "Do you have a favorite character? If you were to play a role, what would you choose?"

He expected her to choose Titania in green foil. Her reply was prompt. "Hermia."

"Yow!" said Koko, whose ears were receiving the conversation even while his nose was tracking the Kabibbles.

"I can relate to her parent problem," Elizabeth explained, "although in my case it was my mother who insisted on ordering my life."

Fran said, "We'd have the greenies arriving in a spacecraft, if it were feasible, but we don't have the stage machinery. Larry thinks they should appear in puffs of stage smoke. Pickax audiences love stage smoke. But I'd like to see something more high-tech. Elizabeth has an idea, but I can't figure out the logistics. Tell Qwill about your pyramids, Elizabeth."

She turned to Qwilleran. "Do you know about pyramid power?"

"I've read about it - quite a long time ago."

"It's nothing new. It dates back thousands of years, and my father really believed in it. He had little pyramids built for my brothers and me, and we were supposed to sit in them to make wonderful things happen. I thought it was magic, but my mother said it was subversive. She had them destroyed after Father died." Her voice drifted off in a mist of nostalgia and regret.

Fran said, "Wally Toddwhistle can build us a portable see-through pyramid out of poles. For a scene change we'd black out the house briefly, and when the stage lights came on, there'd be a pyramid in the forest. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the poles could be neon tubes?"

Qwilleran questioned whether the audience would understand the magical implications of such a pyramid, and Fran said it would be explained in the playbill.

"How many playgoers read the program notes?" he asked. "Most of them are more interested in the ads for Otto's Tasty Eats and Gippel's Garage. That's been my observation based on preshow chitchat. How does Larry feel about it?"

"He thinks it'll clutter the stage without contributing dramatically, but we haven't given up yet, have we, Elizabeth?"

Qwilleran offered to refresh their drinks, but Fran said it was time to leave. On the way out, she handed him a black felt-tip pen. "Where did you find this?" he asked.

"On the floor near the coffee table." "Yum Yum's at it again! She's an incorrigible cat burglar." He returned the pen to a pewter mug on the telephone table and escorted the women to their car, first putting on his yellow-cap. When they had driven away, he walked around the barn a few times, reluctant to go indoors on this perfect midsummer night. With a little suspension of disbelief one could imagine Puck and the other greenies materializing from the woods in a puff of smoke... A high- pitched yowl from the kitchen window reminded him that he was neglecting his duty.

"Treat!" he announced as he opened the kitchen door.

Yum Yum responded immediately, but... where was Koko? When he failed to report for food, there was cause for alarm. Qwilleran went in search and found him on the large square coffee table - not eating the Kabibbles, not playing with the wooden train whistle, not sniffing the book on the Panama Canal. He was sitting on the Moose County Something with its front-page treatment of the Mudville scandal and two-column photo of the president. It was the same as the portrait hanging in the lobby of the Lumbertown Credit Union.