“She was the new kid in town, skinny and shy, with a pair of John Lennon spectacles always half-falling off the end of her nose. I'll admit she wasn't exactly promising material. This one would be a pushover to win. But to make something of her… to Make this family… that would be a different story. However, I always did thrive on challenges. "Mom," Janine called the first time I allowed her to see me, shivering on the back porch, "there's a black cat…" But I was gone. In the first few encounters..., it was important to keep the mystery going. The next time, I stayed a little bit longer. After that, I almost allowed her to touch me. And then I came to within a whisker's breadth of the saucer of milk she was offering before diving back into the bushes as if something had startled me. The more elusive I was, the more determined she became to "tame" me. "We don't need a cat," I heard her father snap one evening. He was always banished to the back porch for his evening smoke, by himself, and it was a good time for either Janine or her mother to get him alone and ask him for things.MoreLessRead More Read Less
User Reviews: