“Why not stop her?”
“I moved the barrel.”
“She used a chair.”
“Moved the chair.”
“She used the recycling bin.”
Caleb looked at Lumi.
The cat sat beside Nora’s shoe.
“So you gave up.”
“I prefer negotiated freedom.”
Caleb handed Nora a package.
“Sign.”
She did.
Then asked:
“Emily says Lumi led you to Samuel.”
“Yes.”
Nora’s expression changed.
“She’s always watched that alley.”
“Why?”
“Everything happens back here.”
Nora gestured.
“Delivery people.”
“Restaurant workers taking breaks.”
“Residents walking dogs.”
“Samuel cuts through here on his way home from Cooper Market.”
“She knows everybody’s routines.”
Caleb looked down at Lumi.
The cat rubbed against his boot.
Nora continued.
“Yesterday she came inside around three-thirty.”
“She was restless.”
“Wouldn’t eat.”
“Then disappeared again.”
“Next thing I know, Emily calls me.”
Caleb asked:
“You know Samuel?”
“A little.”
“He buys mystery novels.”
“Always used.”
“Never hardcovers.”
“Complains if they cost more than six dollars.”
“That sounds like him.”
Nora smiled.
“He lost his wife last year.”
Caleb looked toward the alley.
“That recent?”
“Fourteen months.”
“His daughter checks on him constantly.”
“He pretends she doesn’t need to.”
Nora paused.
“Grief makes some people cling to everyone.”
“Samuel went the opposite direction.”
Lumi walked toward the alley entrance.
Stopped.
Looked back.
Caleb pointed.
“No.”
Nora laughed.
“She likes you.”
“She delayed my route thirty-seven minutes.”
“That’s affection.”
The following Saturday, Caleb returned without a package.
Sofia came with him.
The official reason was coffee from June’s bakery.
The real reason had white paws and green eyes.
Sofia spotted Lumi beneath the bookstore window.
“That’s her?”
“Yes.”
Lumi saw them.
Walked directly toward Caleb.
Then sat.
Sofia whispered:
“She’s smaller than I thought.”
“Don’t tell her.”
Sofia crouched.
“Hi, Lumi.”
Lumi approached slowly.
Sniffed her fingers.
Then rubbed once against her hand.
Sofia’s entire face lit up.
“Oh.”
Caleb recognized that expression.
It was the same one he had seen when Sofia was five and held a rabbit for the first time.
Nora appeared from the bookstore.
“You brought reinforcements.”
“My daughter.”
“Sofia.”
Sofia looked up.
“You know my name?”
“Your father told me.”
Caleb frowned.
“When?”
Nora smiled.
“Yesterday.”
He had forgotten.
They stayed almost an hour.
June brought pastries.
Nora told Sofia how she found Lumi two years earlier.
The cat had appeared outside the bookstore during a thunderstorm.
Thin.
Dirty.
Pregnant.
Nora and a local rescue organization trapped her safely.
Three kittens were born in Nora’s upstairs apartment.
All adopted.
Lumi stayed.
“She chose you,” Sofia said.
Nora looked down.
“I think we negotiated.”
Lumi jumped onto a chair.
Nora continued.
“She was never supposed to be an outdoor cat.”
“But she spent the first year of her life surviving outside.”
“She never lost the habit of checking things.”
“Checking what?”
“Everything.”
The alley.
Doors.
Windows.
People.
If a regular customer sat in the courtyard, Lumi investigated.
If June failed to open the bakery on time, Lumi waited near the back door.
If the garbage truck came on a different day, Lumi watched from the stairs.
Nora said:
“I think she notices patterns.”
Caleb thought about Samuel on the ground.
“That makes sense.”
Later that afternoon, Emily arrived.
She brought Samuel.
He walked slowly with a cane.