“You didn’t think it was a little much?” Kristi kept hiking up to the third floor. She didn’t have a lot of time. She’d taken over part of Ezma’s shift at the Bard’s Board from twelve-thirty until six and now she had less than forty-five minutes to get to her night class.

“I think it was imaginative, and interesting, and so much cooler than a musty old professor in a tweed jacket with suede patches on the elbows up at the podium lecturing while we, all bored out of our minds, flipped through pages of a textbook written in the eighties.”

“Like that was going to happen.”

“Hey, I just admire the guy for bringing some life, or, well, maybe death into the classroom!” Animated, Mai hauled her basket and followed Kristi upstairs. As Kristi entered her apartment, Mai was on her heels and through the door. She set her laundry basket on a table near the kitchen alcove as if she and Kristi were best friends now.

Houdini, who ventured from his favorite hiding spot when he felt Kristi wasn’t looking, jumped from the windowsill to the daybed, then quickly slunk into the small space he’d made his home.

“Friendly,” Mai observed dryly. “So what’s with the cat? I thought pets were a definite no-no.”

“He’s not a pet. Just a stray I can’t seem to get rid of.”

Mai glanced to the area in front of the bifold doors hiding the kitchen. There upon a small mat was a pet dish that held food and water, one Kristi had picked up at the local grocery market when she’d been buying coffee, milk, peanut butter, bread, and half a dozen tins of cat food. “You’re feeding it. Mrs. Calloway will freak.”

“She can come and catch him then. I don’t even have a litter box.”

Mai wrinkled her pert little nose. “Then…how…where?”

“He’s toilet trained.”

“What?” She whipped her head around toward the doorway leading to the closet-sized bathroom. A beat passed as Kristi took off her coat. Mai caught her faint smile. “Oh, you’re kidding.”

“I leave the window open a crack and he slips through, outside onto the roof. It’s amazing how small a space he can get through, but so far, no accidents.”

“You’re not trying very hard to get rid of him,” Mai observed, and Kristi shrugged. “So he goes on the roof?”

“I think he climbs down the magnolia tree.”

“I won’t tell…but if Mrs. Calloway sees him, there’ll be hell to pay.” Mai’s almond-shaped eyes took in the room, just as she had the last time she’d visited. It was almost as if Mai were looking for something, or trying to memorize every nook and cranny of Kristi’s private space.

“If she sees Houdini, I’ll deal with it then,” Kristi said.

“Houdini?” Mai repeated. “You named it?”