Fighting Like Cat and Dog People...

Ding Dong. It's Kristina. I wanted to run but - Ding Dong - Kristina knew I was home. Heather Mary motioned for me to answer the door, she wanted to talk to - Ding Dong - Kristina. Heather Mary felt she herself needed to prove to me what a - Ding Dong - Kristina was.

I answered the door and there she stood, dressed in her Dairy Queen duds. "Did you find my camera?" She asked. Heather Mary held the camera outside her door, swinging it back and forth. "Oh, Thank God," she cried. "I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached." "It happens," I said. She explained how this behavior is a habit she'd like to fix. Misplacing her keys, leaving her purse behind on the train. "My parents were the same," she laughed. "It was a running joke. Their absent mindedness was a way to excuse their shortcomings, back and forth they would go, "you lose everything, including your hair" my mum would say to papa. And papa would counter, "you're absolutely right, I haven't been able to find your waistline in years." Oh, we would laugh. Geez, I lost my virginity at 12 and everyone called me a slut, but I wasn't, losing things just runs in the family." She laughed. I kept my eyes on the floor. Heather Mary shouted from her room, "So I guess you could say you come from a long line of losers?"

Kristina looked in Heather Mary's direction then back to me. "Coffee?" She asked. But before I could answer, Heather Mary's head shot out her door. "So, any luck with the dog? Kristina shook her head, then back to me, but this time pleading. "Coffee?"

"Do you have any pictures of the little guy, I'd love to see what you've been missing." Kristina smiles and pulls out one of the lost dogs fliers we've been posting all over town. Heather Mary cocks her head, "Oh, I've seen that one, Sweety. I can see them hanging all over the buildings outside my window. I was hoping maybe you had another one, maybe a snapshot of the two of you?" Kristina's face freezes and stares directly at Heather Mary, "I don't, sorry." Heather Mary smiles, "Really? Maybe in your purse, in your wallet? Surely you must carry something with you?" I can see Kristina becoming more and more uncomfortable with the questions, and my guilt for not interfering is exceeded only by my curiosity of what her answers might be. Heather Mary continues the interrogation. "I can't imagine what you must be going through right now. I know when I lost my kittys, all my little kittys, I couldn't move for weeks. Literally. I could not move. Devastated doesn't come close to explain how I felt. Remember Paul-David? Oh, that's right, how could you remember? How could you?"

"Wait a minute," I thought. "Who's on trial here?"

Heather Mary pulls a chair to the door and sits. "I really admire you, girl. To find a place for all that pain, a place strong enough to hold it so you can go off to work and get coffee and have dinner over at a friend's houses and go on about your life like nothing ever happened. Wow, you are something." Kristina nodded her head, "It hasn't been easy." "I'm sure," said Heather Mary. "I just think it's kind of strange to not have any pictures of the pooch with you. I have hundreds and hundred of pictures of my Jingle." Kristina has had enough of what ever is going on and says, "I have tons of pictures at home, Heather Mary. Tons of them, maybe you'd like to come over and see them?" My eyes widen...oh no she didn't! "Not everyone is obsessed with their pet, Sweety. I love and miss Lil'Bit more than I can say, but life goes on. Just because I haven't killed myself doesn't mean I don't love my dog, and just because I don't wear hideous nightshirts with his picture ironed on it doesn't mean I don't miss him." Heather Mary looks at her beloved nightshirt featuring Jingle plastered as big as day on the front. "I have five more in all different colors in my closet," Heather Mary says. "I'm sure you do," sneers Kristina. "You don't have to have a million pictures," she holds up the lost dog flier, "this is the only one that counts. This one might bring him home. We're not all crazy like you, Heather Mary!"

And for a moment, it seemed as though Heather Mary might have been served. She looked at the camera still in her lap, turned it on, and started going through all the pictures again. Heather Mary shook her head and looked directly at Kristina. "I don't think you're crazy like me, not at all. I think you're in a whole different league."

Kristina grabbed the camera and walked out the door. "Are you coming?" She asked. "I'm gonna hang out here, I think," I said. With a slam, she shut the door behind her. I looked at Heather Mary and she did the same.

Women.