“You’re coming home with me,” Siobhan announces, bringing Leslie reluctantly back to the present. She holds up a hand to stem Leslie’s incipient protest. “I know you, Les. You have been OCD’ing over John since the cops told you what happened. You probably hadn’t eaten since then until I showed up. You’re brooding.” Siobhan brushes her red curls out of her eyes, but they just fall back into place. “It’s not healthy for you, and you love the Terrible Trio. They’ll cheer you up.”
“I can’t leave Josephine,” Leslie protests. Josephine meows her agreement. She hates being separated from her human for any appreciable amount of time—meaning more that twenty-four hours.
“Bring her with. You know she loves the Terrible Trio and the Beastie Boys, too.” The Terrible Trio consists of two boys and a girl, ages ten, eight-and-a-half, and seven-and-a-half. The Beastie Boys are brother cats, one a gray tabby, and one a ginger with streaks of white, and both completely besotted with Josephine. It’s funny to watch a six-pound girl cat dominate two sixteen pound former tom cats.
“Oh, all right.” Leslie doesn’t even bother to put up a token protest because she doesn’t actually want to be at home alone with her memories of John. She has spent most of her time in her computer room because that’s the room in which he had spent the least amount of time. They had converted one of the other bedrooms into his office, and that’s the room Leslie has so far refused to enter. She had tried, but his smell was everywhere—and she had fled the room, crying, with Josephine hot on her heels.
Leslie goes up to her room to throw together a duffle bag. She doesn’t know how long she’ll be staying at Siobhan’s, but it doesn’t really matter as they live in the same neighborhood, only two streets apart. If she forgets anything, she can just walk back home to get it—or borrow it from Siobhan. They are approximately the same size, though Leslie has more boob than does Siobhan. Siobhan, on the other hand, had twice the junk in the trunk than had been afforded Leslie. Still, since neither of them wear very tight clothing, they are able to borrow each other’s wardrobe with little problem.
“Meow!” Josephine lets out a tiny meow, her tail drooping. Leslie’s heart smites her because she knows Josephine is missing John, too. Leslie had explained to Josephine what had happened to John, and while Josephine had nodded her understanding, she still didn’t seem to quite grasp the concept of ‘never coming back’.
If she remains very still, the pain is almost tolerable. She cannot move a limb, however, as even the slightest twitch sets off a shockwave that travels throughout her entire body. Periodically, she touches the ring on the third finger of her right hand. How long has it been since she received the news? She glances at the calendar in front of her and sees that it’s October 9th. Then, she glances at the grandfather clock and notices that it’s 2:37 p.m. and twenty-three seconds. That means it’s been one day, fourteen hours, thirty-two minutes, and eight seconds since the police had first knocked on her door.