Flash!  And there I was, at some inhumane, God-forsaken,
much-too-early hour of the morning.  It was dark and I was
tired and my bed wasn't anywhere around.  On top of all this,
there was a massive chorus of deeply irritating crickets
singing away like a cathedral choir.

  "I hope this is important, Kitten.  Have you any idea what
time it is back home?"


  "Oh, Cruz, I've met this wonderful new guy!"  She
pronounced the word 'wonderful' as if it was her favoritest
word in the entire world.

  "That's it?  You made me come halfway across the cosmos to
tell me you've found a new beau?"  If my tone of voice
sounded irritated, she didn't even notice.  Matter of fact,
she didn't seem to notice anything I'd said.

  "He's sooo handsome," she verily glided on air, a dreamy
glaze over her eyes, "and he's sooo nice!"

  "You realize I have to meet an ambassador tomorrow to try
and explain that I didn't mean to blow his house up?"

  "Well, I didn't just now meet him, he's actually been in
the pride for as long as I can remember.  It's just that...
I've never noticed him before."  A silly smile formed on her
face as she glided away on a cloud of giddy bliss.

  "Hello?  Is anyone there?"  I waved my hand in front of
her face, but the stars in her eyes sparkled on, wholly
undisturbed.  "Earth to Kitten, annoyed mercenary speaking.
Do you read me?"  A dreamy giggle was my only answer.


  "He's nice and polite and charming and handsome and nice
and polite and charming."  She smiled a smile that lit up
the night.

  Unconsciously, a smile formed on my face too, and the
crummy cloud over my head quickly dissipated.  Blast it all,
it's just not possible to stay annoyed when one's favorite
little Kitten is swooning from love-sickness.  "Is that so?"

  "Yes, he's just perfect!"  She floated around me in her
billowy cloud of happiness.  "He's handsome and strong and
smart and witty and funny."

  "Okay, stop it, you're making me sick."

  "He reminds me of you."

  "Really?  Tell me more about him."


  "And his eyes... ooh, his eyes are sooo romantic."

  "Optically well-endowed, is he?  Anything else?"

  "Like what?"  She seemed surprised that there could be
anything else superlative that she might have missed.

  "Like, does he like you?"

  "Oooh, that's the funny part!"  She laughed a silly giggle.
"I think he's liked me all along.  All this time.  And I
hadn't noticed.  Isn't that wonderful?"

  "Yeah."  Naline had been all kinds of bummed after she had
broken things off with Phil and her father had kicked him out
of the pride.  She needed a new person to befriend and share
things with and fall in love forever with.  For my part, I
was thrilled that she'd found him.  "What's his name?"


  "You tell me," she responded with a playful smile.

  "We still want anemonemity?"

  My answer was an affirmative, indicated by the vigorous
up-and-down shaking of her head.  Man, this love sickness was
serious stuff, she wasn't even thinking straight.

  "Okay.  How about 'Robespierre'?"

  She shook her head 'no.'

  "Manganoothres Upbesplaar?"


  More negative head shaking.  "Shorter."

  "Nick?"

  "Yeah..." she mulled it over for a couple of seconds, "I
like that.  Yeah, Nick."  She giggled and smiled and skipped
a few steps.  "Nick.  Yeah."  She was quite pleased with
herself, I think.

  "Okay, so how exactly do you unmistakably know this Nick
guy likes you?"  She looked at me as if I was lamentably
slow-witted.  "What?  Did he tell you?"

  "As a matter of fact, y..." she couldn't finish the word.
She stood there, mouth hanging open, as if I'd hit her
'pause' button.  "Well, not in so many words, but I could
tell."

  "Oh," I crossed my arms and returned her 'lamentably slow-
witted' look right back at her, "could you?"


  "Yes I could.  He's been really nice to me and he's given
me lots and lots of compliments," I think she was trying to
reassure herself more than she was trying to convince me,
"and I've asked around and everybody thinks that he likes
me."  She nodded her head as if to say 'so there!'

  "Hey," I laughed and rubbed her chin just the way she liked
it, "I'm just ruffling your feathers, Kitten.  I'm sure he's
irresistibly love-stricken.  I bet you're everything he ever
thinks about, morning, noon and night and late night at
ungodly hours of the morning when sensible people are asleep
and not wandering about the savanna like insomniac
rhinoceroses.

  "Yeah, I bet he is."  If she caught my small tweak, she
didn't let on.

  "I mean, how could he not fall irrevocably in love with a
stunning kitten like you?"  Oops, that last comment must
have pushed the elevator of her cloud of happiness another
level up, because she became even more giddy and silly.
Great, this meant another half hour of hearing how great
Nick was and how much she liked him.

  But you know what?  I didn't mind, because, hey, she was
my little Kitten.

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