The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare

14

Saturday, November twenty-third. "Cloudy skies and another three inches of snow," the weatherman was predicting. Nevertheless, the sun was shining, and Pickax was shimmering under the blanket of white that had descended on Thursday. Snow stayed white in Pickax.

When Qwilleran went to the main house to prepare the cats' breakfast, Mrs. Fulgrove and Mr. O'Dell were on the job. "Nice day for a wedding," he remarked.

"Sure, now, when it comes to marryin', the divil take the weather," said the houseman. "When I wedded herself, the heavens thundered an' the dogs howled an' the birds fell dead in the road, but for forty-five year we lived together with nary an angry word between us. An' when she went, God rest her soul, she went sudden with nary a pain or tear."

Mrs. Cobb was nervous. With no meals to prepare and no rum-raisin squares to bake, she puttered aimlessly about the house, waiting for her hair appointment. The cats were restless, too, sensing an upheaval of some kind. They prowled ceaselessly, and Koko talked to himself with private yows and iks and occasionally shoved a book off the shelf. Qwilleran was glad to escape. At two o'clock he was scheduled to interview Sarah Woolsmith.

The ninety-five-year-old farm woman was a long-term resident at the senior care facility adjoining the Pickax Hospital, two modem buildings that seemed out of place in a city of imitation castles and fortresses.

The matron at the reception desk was expecting Qwilleran. "Mrs. Woolsmith is waiting for you in the reading room," she said. "You'll have the place all to yourselves, but please limit your visit to fifteen minutes; she tires easily. She's looking forward to the interview. Not many people want to listen to elderly folks talk about the old days."

In the reading room he found a frail little woman with nervous hands, sitting in a wheelchair and clutching her shawl. She was accompanied by the volunteer who had wheeled her down from her bedroom.

"Sarah, dear, this is Mr. Qwilleran," the volunteer said slowly and clearly. "He's going to have a nice visit with you." In an aside she whispered, "She's ninety-five and has almost all her own teeth, but her eyesight is not good. She's a dear soul, and we all love her. I'll sit near the door and tell you when the time is up."

"Where are my teeth?" Mrs. Woolsmith demanded in shrill alarm.

"Your partial is in your mouth, dear, and you look lovely in your new shawl." She squeezed the old lady's arm affectionately.

Wasting no time on preliminaries, Qwilleran said, "Would you tell me what it was like to live on a farm when you were young, Mrs. Woolsmith? I'm going to turn on this tape recorder." He held up the machine for her to see, but she looked blankly in several directions.

The following interview was later transcribed:

Question: Were you born in Moose County?

I don't know why you want to talk to me. I never did anything but live on a farm and raise a family. I had my name in the paper once when I had a burglar.

What kind of farming did you do?

It was in the paper — about the burglar — and I tore it out. It's in my purse. Where's my purse? Take it out and read it. You can read it to me. I like to hear it.

Sarah Woolsmith, 65, of Squunk Corners was sitting alone and knitting a sweater in her living room last Thursday at 11:00 p.m., when a man with a handkerchief over his face burst in and said, "Give me all your money. I need it bad." She gave him $18.73 from her purse, and he fled on foot, leaving her unharmed but surprised.

I used to knit in them days. We had seven children, John and me, five of them boys. Two killed in the war. John died in the big storm of '37. Went to bring in the cows and froze to death. Fifteen cows froze and all the chickens. Winters was bad in them days. I have a 'lectric blanket. Do you have a 'lectric blanket? When I was a young girl we slep' under a pile of quilts, my sisters and me. Mornings we looked up to see the frost on the ceiling. It was pretty, all sparkly. There was ice in the pitcher when we washed our face. Sometimes we caught cold. Ma rubbed skunk oil and goose grease on our chests. We didn't like it. (Laughs.) My brother shot wild rabbits, but I could chase 'em and catch 'em. Pa was proud of me. Pa didn't have a horse. He hitched Ma to the plow, and they tilled the land. I didn't go to school. I helped Ma in the kitchen. Once she was sick and I had to feed sixteen men. I was only this big. Harvesttime, it was. They was all neighbors. Neighbors helped neighbors in them days.

Did you ever have time for...

Us womenfolks, we scrubbed clothes in a washtub and made our own soap. I made vinegar and butter. We stuffed pillows with chicken feathers. We had lots of those! (Laughs.) Once a week we took the wagon to town and got the mail and bought a penny stick of horehound candy. I married John and we had a big farm. Cows, horses, pigs, chickens. We hired neighbor boys for huskin' and shellin'. Nickel an hour. The whitetails came and ate our com. Once the grasshoppers came and ate everything. They ate the wash on the line. (Laughs.) The neighbor boys worked twelve hours a day, huskin' and shellin'.

What do you remember about...

Never locked our doors. Neighbor could walk in and borrow a cup of sugar. It was a neighbor boy took my money. I knowed who he was, but I didn't tell the constable. I knowed his voice. Worked on our farm sometimes.

Why didn't you tell the constable?

His name was Basil. I felt sorry for him. His father was in prison. Killed a man.

Was that the Whittlestaff family?

I peeked out the window when he took my money. It was moonlight. I saw him runnin' across our potato field. I knowed where he was headin' for. The freight train stopped at Watertown to take on water. You could hear the whistle two miles away. Boys used to jump the freight trains and run away. One boy fell on the tracks and was killed. I never went on a train.

End of interview.

The volunteer interrupted Mrs. Woolsmith's monologue. "Time's up, dear. Say goodbye now, and we'll go upstairs for our nap."

The old lady put forth a thin trembling hand, and Qwilleran grasped it warmly in both of his, marveling that such fragile hands had once scrubbed clothes, milked cows, and hoed potatoes.

The volunteer followed him into the hallway. "Sarah remembers everything seventy-five years ago," she said, "but she doesn't remember recent events. By the way, I'm Irma Hasselrich."

"Are you related to the attorney for the Klingenschoen Fund?"

"That's my father. He was prosecutor when Zack Whittlestaff was convicted of killing Titus Goodwinter. Zack's boy, who robbed Sarah and ran away, came back years later and repaid the eighteen dollars and seventy-three cents, but she doesn't remember. He sends her chocolates every Christmas, too. He turned out to be quite a successful man. Changed his name, of course. If I had a name like Basil Whittlestaff, I'd change it, too," she laughed. "He sells used cars and runs a garage. He's ornery, but he does good work."

Qwilleran went home to dress for the wedding. He was not anticipating the occasion with any pleasure. He had been best man for Arch Riker twenty-five years before, when he was young and crazy and not always sober. On that occasion he had fumbled the ring, causing the groom to drop it and causing two hundred guests to titter.

And now he was going to be best man for Basil Whittlestaff. When Hixie called him Mr. Chopstick, she was not far off base.

At five o' clock the November dusk had painted the snowy whiteness of Pickax a misty blue. At the K mansion the draperies were drawn, crystal chandeliers were alight, and Mr. O'Dell had started a festive blaze in the drawing room fireplace.

The tall case clock in the foyer bonged five times. Mr. O'Dell dropped a cassette in the player, and the solemn chords of a Bach organ prelude resounded through the house. In the drawing room the magistrate was stationed in front of the fireplace. The bridegroom and his best man waited in the foyer. There was a moment of suspense, and then the bride and her attendant appeared on the balcony above and started their dignified descent.

Mrs. Cobb, usually seen in a smock or pantsuit or baggy jumper, was almost stunning in her pink suede suit. Susan Exbridge always looked stunning.

By the time the wedding party lined up in front of the magistrate, he was red faced from the heat behind him. Flanking him on the hearth were two indignant Siamese whose territory in front of the fire was being usurped by a stranger.

Qwilleran felt uneasy; Hackpole fidgeted nervously; and the magistrate mopped his forehead before commencing the brief ritual: "We are gathered together to join together this man and this woman..."

Despite the tranquil beauty of the setting, the atmosphere was tense.

"If any person can show just cause why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak or forever hold his peace."

"Yow!" said Koko.

Hackpole frowned; the two women giggled; and Qwilleran felt a mixed reaction of amusement and apprehension.

Herbert took Iris to be his wedded wife, and Iris took Herbert to be her wedded husband. Then it was time for the ring.

This was Qwilleran' s moment. The ring was in his pocket, and he fumbled for it. Wrong pocket. Ah! He found the ring. And then he disgraced himself again. The wedding ring flipped out of his hand and rolled across the rug.

Yum Yum was after it in a flash. The resident thief of the Klingenschoen mansion, attracted by anything shiny and gold, batted her small treasure under the Chinese desk with Qwilleran in mad pursuit. Just as the trophy was within his reach, she chased it into the foyer-batting it with one paw, darting after it, batting with the other. She was pushing the ring under an Anatolian rug when the best man finally intercepted it.

At record speed the perspiring magistrate concluded the ceremony. "I pronounce you man and wife." Hackpole gave his bride an embarrassed kiss, and the rest was hugs, handshakes, congratulations, and best wishes.

The buoyant notes of Schubert piano music fitted the occasion, and Mrs. Fulgrove and Mr. O'Dell appeared with trays of champagne and hors d'oeuvres. Qwilleran, with crossed fingers and a glass of white grape juice, proposed a toast to the future happiness of the newlyweds.

The moment of celebration was brief. The magistrate gulped his champagne and left in a hurry, and the new Mrs. Hackpole coaxed her husband into the dining room to see the wild-game carvings on the massive German sideboard.

"I hope she'll be happy," Qwilleran said to Susan Ex- bridge, "Unfortunately I upheld my reputation as the worst 'best man' in nuptial history."

"But Koko did nobly as best cat," she said. "His well-timed declaration broke the tension."

The Hackpoles returned from their brief sight-seeing and expressed a desire to leave, the groom jingling his car keys and pushing his bride toward the back door.

"Wait a minute," Qwilleran said, "Give me your keys, and I'll bring your car to the front door, We're not throwing rice, but you ought to leave in style."

"But we have two cars," Hackpole objected. "Hers is in the garage."

"Pick it up tomorrow, No one ever heard of a bride and groom leaving in separate vehicles."

Qwilleran and Susan watched them drive away to the bridal suite in the New Pickax Hotel, "Well, there they go," he said, "for better or worse."

Susan accepted his invitation to dine at Stephanie's, where shaded candles glowed on tables draped to the floor, and soft colors and soft music created a romantic ambience, It was the night before the Messiah oratorio, and they discussed the plans for the gala reception at the museum following the performance.

"The Fitch twins are going to do videotapes," Susan said, Qwilleran nodded his approval. "My friends Down Below refuse to believe the cultural activities in this remote county."

"I consider that we're the Luxembourg of the northeast central United States," Susan said with a dramatic flourish of her expressive hands. "And let me tell you about the surprise we've planned for the Messiah audience. Do you know why it's traditional to stand during the 'Hallelujah' chorus?"

"I've heard that the English king was so impressed when he heard it for the first time that he rose to his feet, and when the king stands, everyone stands. Isn't that the legend?"

"That's right! Around 1742. Well, King George the Second will attend the performance tomorrow night, with the entire royal court in eighteenth-century regalia. Our theater group is staging it... You ought to join the Pickax Thespians, Qwill. You have a good voice and a good presence. We could do Bell, Book and Candle, and Koko could play Pyewacket."

"I doubt whether he'd want to playa cat," Qwilleran said. "He's an insufferable snob. He'd rather play the title role in Richard the Third, I'm afraid."

Dinner with Susan was a pleasant sequel to a wedding he had found distressing. He gave her an armful of pink roses to take home, and she gave him a theatrical kiss. Temporarily he forgot his regret at losing a live-in housekeeper and his disapproval of her choice of husband. He forgot until he made his nightly house check before retiring to his apartment.

A slim volume lay on the library rug. It was a copy of Othello, and the best-known quotation came to Qwilleran's mind: "Then must you speak of one who loved not wisely but too well."

As he carried the Siamese across the yard in the wicker hamper, he remembered another line, and his moustache bristled. "Kill me tomorrow; let me live tonight."