“No,” I lied. It’s not like I was under an all-powerful order to tell the truth.

She took a deep breath, tucked her feet under her and began, “Only thing I can think of to explain. I mean, I shouldn’t like you, I didn’t…maybe don’t. But I do. It’s there. I can’t get around it even if this little voice in the back of my head says I’m wrong and mixed up…I mean beyond the fur and stuff.”

This was the most she’d spoken at once since I let her out. That order to tell the truth really out-did itself. I wasn’t quite sure if I was glad that I’d given it.

“So, even if I order you to tell the truth,” I ventured, “You don’t even know what the truth is?”

“Suppose so…not that it matters. Does it?” The words hit like a flying Superman punch to the chest. Her eyes fell, and those graceful shoulders slumped again.

Weak as I am, I couldn’t take it. “Be happy again!” I blurted the words, and before I could take them back she was on me, as she had been so many times in that short month of halcyon days.