Page 54 of Forget Me

Soon, our antics attracted the attention of a little boy with thick glasses. He tucked a picture book under his arm.

“What’s your cat’s name?” he asked.

“His name is Roger.”

“Like a pirate? Jolly Roger?”

I held the kitten up to look into his eyes, then turned him toward the kid. “He looks like a pirate to me.”

The kid laughed. Then he held out his hand to Roger, who butted his head into the kid’s palm. He stroked the kitten’s head. “He’s not a very tough pirate.”

“I guess when you’re as cute as he is, you don’t need to be tough to steal someone’s booty.”

Mimi snorted, but I kept a straight face. “Want to sit with me and read to him?”

“Yeah, okay.”

He sat next to me on the cushion and crossed his legs. Gently, I placed Roger in his lap. After his feather chasing, the kitten seemed content to curl up with his head on the kid’s thigh.

The kid cracked open the book and paused. “Ah, I have dyslexia. That means I’m not a very fast reader.”

“That’s okay,” I said. “I’m not so fast myself. And I need these.” I pulled my glasses out of my pocket. I’d needed them for reading since I turned thirty. I put them on and grinned at the kid. Mine weren’t as thick as his, but we had this thing in common. He beamed back at me.

Mimi sucked in a breath beside me. Ugh, I’d forgotten about needing to pull out my reading glasses. My tía called them ugly. I glanced over at Mimi to make sure she hadn’t seen me put them on, but she had. In fact, she was staring at me, her mouth open like she’d seen a ghost.

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