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Mungojerrie hissed again, soain Orson flinched, and then I swear the cat ser yet, Orson appeared to break into a wide grin--which requires no irin He was panting happily, grinning at the s joke

"I ask you, son, ouldn’t want to learn such a thing?" said Roosevelt

"Who indeed?" I replied nu tiood at it as she was The first big hurdle is believing you can actually do it Putting aside your doubt, your cynicism, all your preconceived notions about what’s possible and what isn’t Most of all, hardest of all, you have to stop worrying about looking foolish, ’cause fear of being huet past all that, and I’ forward in his chair, Orson leaned over the table and bared his teeth at Mungojerrie

The cat’s eyes widened with fear

Silently but threateningly, Orson gnashed his teeth

Wistfulness filled Roosevelt’s deep voice: "Sloopy died three years later God, how I grieved for hi and wonderful three years they were, being so in tune with hiojerrie, and the cat whiain, the cat bawled a pitiful rinned

"What the hell is going on here?" I wondered

Orson and Mungojerrie seemed to be perplexed by the nervous tre fun," Roosevelt said

I blinked at hiht, his face shone like darkly stained and highly polished teak

"Having funtheir stereotypes," he explained

I couldn’t believe I was hearing hi how co to need a high-pressure hose and a plu their stereotypes?"

"Yes, that’s right" He bobbed his head in confirmation "Of course they wouldn’t put it in those ters and cats are supposed to bethat expectation"

Now Roosevelt was grinning atat me His lips were so dark red that they were virtually black, and his teeth were as big and white as sugar cubes

"Sir," I told him, "I take back what I said earlier After careful reconsideration, I’ve decided you’re totally awesoain, continuing to grin atbeams of a black moon, lunacy rose in his face He said, "You wouldn’t have any da me if I hite," and as he snarled the final word, he slammed one massive fist into the table so hard that our coffee cups rattled in their saucers and nearly tipped over

If I could have reeled backhile in a chair, I would have done so, because his accusation stunned me I had never heard either of my parents use an ethnic slur or make a racist statement; I’d been raised without prejudice Indeed, if there was an ultimate outcast in this world, it was htcrawler, as certain bullies had called me when I was a little kid, before I’d ever h not an albino, though er, in Faced Boy To soenetic vulnerability to ultraviolet light could be passed to others with a sneeze, but some people feared and despised me more than they would fear or despise a three-eyed Toad Man in any carnival freak show fro sea, if only because I lived next door

Half rising out of his chair, leaning across the table, shaking a fist as big as a cantaloupe, Roosevelt Frost spoke with a hatred that astonished and sickened me: "Racist! You mealy racist bastard!"

I could barely find my voice "W-when did race ever matter to me? How could it ever matter to me?"

He looked as if he would reach across the table, tear ue unraveled to rowled like a dog, very

"What the hell is going on here?" I asked again, but this tirowled at aped stupidly at him, he said, "Coive rowl Coojerrie watchedhis snarl an interrogatory inflection at the end, and finally I growled back at hirowled louder, too

S and cat Black and white Just having a little fun ain, ive way to a tre revelation that would rock my life forever, expose diine; but although I strained to grasp it, this understanding rely just beyond the limits of my reach

I looked at Orson Those inky, liquid eyes

I looked at Mungojerrie

The cat bared his teeth at me

Orson bared his, too

A faint cold fear thrilled through my veins, as the Bard of Avon would put it, not because I thought the dog and catof teeth ih iddy exciteh such an act would have been out of character for him, I actually wondered if Roosevelt Frost had spiked the coffee Not with brandy With hallucinogenics I was simultaneously disoriented and clearer of htened state of consciousness

The cat hissed at rowled at hi moment of rinning men and beasts, and I was res that were popular for a few years: scenes of dogs playing poker Only one of us was a dog, of course, and none of us had cards, so the painting in my mind’s eye didn’t seeer I dwelled on it, the closer I ca all of the ramifications of what had happened at this table in the past few ht was derailed by a beeping that arose from the electronic security equipment in the hutch beside the table