“Just a year ago. Maybe less. Opossums only live a few years. They have super short lifespans. It’s sad, actually. Usually, they just play dead when they feel threatened or scared, but Chester is so used to people now that he doesn’t bother.”
“A few years?” Now Laney felt bad for the animal. And for Mrs. Johnson. Who she’d never even met.
“Yeah. A few of us who know her have got together and talked about it. After Chester, we think maybe she’d like a rescue cat. One of the super old ones that no one adopts. That’s really sad too. I’ve been thinking about adopting one myself. That’s where I got the idea.”
“Oh. Uh, are you going to take him back?”
“Yeah. Do you want to come?”
Laney wasn’t sure. “Are we going to get invited in for tea and cookies?”
“Probably.” Morgun winked at her. “I can almost guarantee they’ll have either long gray hairs from Mrs. Johnson’s wig in them, or shorter gray possum ones.”
“Well then! How can I refuse?” Laney found herself smiling so wide that her face hurt. She might have even been grinning. Even though grinning wasn’t something she ever did. Just a regular smile, without teeth, was often more than enough for any given situation. She believed anything more was just about redundant. But there she was. Smiling with her teeth showing. And loving it.
Chapter 18
Morgun
After returning Chester to a very happy and relieved Mrs. Johnson, who did indeed offer them tea and cookies, in which they only found two hairs, and almost an hour of pleasant conversation, Morgun led Laney back to her apartment. Mrs. Johnson lived on the top floor, two floors above Morgun’s small one bedroom.
She told herself not to feel weird about letting Laney in. She didn’t want to think about Laney surveying the place and finding it wanting because it didn’t have stainless appliances and hardwood floors, or whatever was in
fashion. Maybe there was something better than stainless. Diamond plate?
Morgun also told herself that it didn’t matter that her furnishings were hand me downs from her parents and classified ads and garage sales. She’d spent money on the dresser in her bedroom, since it was antique and she’d liked it, as well as a brass bed frame, so that it kind of matched the dresser, but the couch, desk, TV stand, even the TV, and the tiny glass and chrome table and chairs set in the far corner of the living room by the kitchen were all very outdated.
Laney walked over to the couch and felt the red afghan with white snowmen on it that Morgun’s mom knitted her for Christmas a few years ago. Morgun used it all year round because she knew it had likely taken her mom years to complete, though she’d never admit it, and also because it was soft and quite warm with its tight stitching.
“This is cool. Did you make it?” Laney asked. “It’s really soft.”
“My mom did.”
“Really? That must have taken forever.”
Morgun smiled and found herself slightly amazed that yet again they seemed to be thinking the same thing at the same time. Was that just coincidence, or did it hint at some deeper sort of connection? Laney was only over because she’d agreed to do Morgun a solid, probably out of some sort of misplaced guilt.
“Uh, the photos.” Morgun pointed at the desk. “I’ll get an extra chair from the table. Or do you just want to go through them? I don’t want to crowd you.”
“No. I’d like you to show them to me.”
“Okay.”
Morgun was nervous, even though she tried to pretend she wasn’t. She just about dropped the chair on her foot when she set it down. The desk chair was nicer, so she let Laney have that. She sat down hard and ran her tongue over her dry lips, trying to unglue them from each other. She’d just drank a whole heaping cup of green tea, liberally flavoured with one mysterious and long gray hair. She shouldn’t have a dry mouth.
She wanted to face-palm her forehead when Laney flipped on her laptop. The thing was as ancient as the rest of her stuff, but it did run the editing software she preferred to work with, so it was good enough for her. Of course, Laney picked up on that.
“Oh. You use the weirdest software. I’ve never even heard of this.”
“That’s because you can buy it for a couple hundred dollars, not a couple thousand.”
“Talk to David. The company buys licences for software if we need them. You could be using the good stuff for free.”
“Really? I’m not sure I’d even know how to use it.”
“What?” Laney gaped. “Didn’t they teach you that in school?”
Wow. Was now the time to admit that she obviously didn’t have the same credentials Laney did? No, it wasn’t. Morgun didn’t feel like getting into it. She wasn’t a photography major. She was a business major, though she’d taken every photography course she could, as well as every computer class she thought would help her. It helped to be experienced with other things like marketing and accounting when running her own business.