Hannah’s 2nd Note: You can make sauces from almost any canned fruit. I’ve used peach, raspberry, and pear. I’ve also served my Lazy Potato Pancakes with rhubarb sauce, but I don’t think you can buy canned rhubarb. If you live in Minnesota, you won’t have to buy it, or make your own, for that matter. I’ve got a whole cupboard full of rhubarb sauce and jam that my customers canned and gave me last summer.

Lisa said she tried pineapple sauce (that’s Herb’s favorite fruit) and it was wonderful. Since she couldn’t find pineapple jam at the Red Owl, she used apple jelly.

Chapter Seven

Hannah was sitting on the rug in the middle of her living room floor when the phone rang. Scraps of paper were scattered all around her in little piles that Moishe assumed were his duty to destroy, and it took her a minute to find the receiver. Once she had, she punched the proper button and answered. “Hi, this is Hannah.”

“Hello, Hannah. It’s Norman.”

Hannah started to grin. As if she wouldn’t recognize Norman’s voice! But it was proper phone etiquette, and she guessed that was important. “Hi, Norman. What’s happening?”

“My electricity’s out, and I’m calling you on my cell phone. I was wondering if you’d let me come over and watch some movies with you. I rented Sabrina.”

“The original? Or the remake?”

“Both. I wanted to compare them. How about it, Hannah? I’m sitting here all alone in the dark.”

“Where’s Cuddles?”

“She’s spending the night at the clinic. There’s a mouse in my office, and when I tried to take her home tonight after work, she wouldn’t let me put her in her carrier.”

“She wouldn’t let you?” Hannah was amused by his choice of words.

“That’s right. She stuck all four legs straight out in different directions so she wouldn’t fit. I could get her front legs in, but not her back legs. And then, when I finally managed to get her to bend her back legs so I could push them in, she pulled out her front legs and I had to start all over again. I’ve put her in her carrier before, and she’s always been very cooperative. I don’t know why it didn’t work this time.”

Hannah laughed. She couldn’t help it. “It didn’t work because you tried to force her and she didn’t want to go. You can’t force a cat. Even a very good-natured cat like Cuddles will fight you every inch of the way.”

“What should I have done then?”

“You should have left enough food and water for the night, locked up the clinic, and driven home without her.”

“And I shouldn’t have tried to put her in the carrier in the first place.”