The Class Menagerie

other women joined her in the doorway. Then there were shrieks of greeting and a lot of really insincere hugging and complimenting. But there was also some genuine warmth in their greetings and Jane felt herself just a little jealous of this kind of old-fashioned camaraderie between old friends. Most of these women had grown up together in the days before people routinely moved every couple of years. Some had probably been friends, or at least acquaintances, for the first half of their lives. After the first round of greetings had died down, Shelley introduced Jane. “This is my neighbor, Jane Jeffry, who is helping Edgar and me. Jane, this is Mimi Soong.“
    Jane shook hands with the elegant Chinese woman. “It’s very nice of you to get involved in this,“ Mimi said. “She must really have something on you,“ she added with a lovely smile.
    “And this is Debbie Poole, but you might as well know her as Pooky,“ Shelley added. There was a note of warning in her voice that was nearly frantic.
    Jane could see why. Shelley and Crispy had both mentioned how astoundingly beautiful Pooky was, but Pooky in the flesh was a mess. Her skin was leathery and so wrinkled that it looked like a bizarre medical condition. Here and there it pulled as if she’d had plastic surgery in somebody’s basement as an experiment. Her hair was bleached to the point of fragility. It looked as if it would shatter if touched. She was excruciatingly thin and almost painfully well-dressed. Jane suspected most of her clothes still had their sale tags lurking nearby.
    “How do you do, Pooky,“ Jane said heartily. Even though Jane had never seen the woman before, she found her appearance very nearly shocking. The others were frankly dumbfounded and were now standing in a rough semicircle studying Pooky with silent horror and a good deal of genuine sadness.
    Poor woman , Jane thought. “Crispy has brought enough luggage to stay a year and a half. Or maybe she’s opening a dress shop,“ she said firmly to the group. “I’m afraid we’re all going to have to pitch in and help carry it.“
    As she’d hoped, that broke the spell. There was a babble of embarrassed conversation as Jane opened the back door of her station wagon and started handing out bag after matched bag. Jane and Mimi Soong ended up with the last pieces. Hector had appeared and was daintily exploring the interior of Jane’s station wagon.
    “You handled that very well,“ Mimi said.
    “I felt so sorry for her. Everybody staring.“
    “She’d been telling Shelley and me about it when you arrived,“ Mimi said, hanging back so she wouldn’t be overheard. “She had some kind of treatment. It was supposed to preserve her youthful looks forever. You wouldn’t think any body’d be stupid enough to buy that, but she was. Brains aren’t her long suit. It went horribly wrong, as you can see, and apparently she won a big lawsuit against the outfit that did it to her. But the money couldn’t restore her looks. It’s a pity. She really was beautiful. And like many beautiful people, she didn’t develop any backup. Brains or personality or anything.“
    “That’s terrible. Poor thing.“
    Mimi laughed. “You’ll get over being so sad about it when you’ve been around her a while. She’s quite irritating. Her voice alone will glue your heart back together. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be saying that. She’s really a thoroughly nice woman. I can carry another bag. Give me that hatbox-shaped thing.“
    Jane stared into the back of the station wagon. “My God, I haven’t seen a hatbox since the last time I played in my grandmother’s attic.“
    “Attic...“ Mimi said. “I think that’s the operative word. By the time this is over, you’re going to feel like you’ve spent the week in somebody else’s attic. Does it look to you like that cat is getting ready to drive your car away?“ Hector was standing with his front feet on the steering wheel, peering over the dashboard. His Godiva-chocolate ears were flattened to his head as if he were ready to have a crash helmet fitted.

- 5 -

    Jane left them to their greetings and went home— after gently putting Hector out of the car. She shoved him in the front door for good measure, to be sure she didn’t run over him. She was off duty until three, when she had to return and help Edgar with dinner preparations. It wasn’t that he needed her, but she saw it as an opportunity to get to watch a really good cook in