Thursday, July 5th 2007

Cape Neddick, The Yorks, Maine

Early that morning, Alexis woke slowly. She yawned and then stretched, laying there feeling so glad that it was Saturday and she didn't have any responsibilities. The day was hers. She'd just finished her most recent novel and sent it off to her publisher yesterday. It was a period piece, a romantic story set in the Old West, called 'Honky Tonk Woman.'

Her last book titled "Sweet and Savage Desire' had been on the N.Y. Times best seller list for six months and had been a huge success and was still selling. Alexis wrote escapism stuff to be sure, but it was GOOD escapism. For her latest novel she had received a $25k advance, which was not too shabby.

And hell, she thought, she had always wanted to do this, only the modeling thing had gotten in the way, but she hadn't done too bad at that either.

As she lay there she thought about the strange dream she had experienced last night. It had seemed SO real. Why on earth though, would she dream something like that? Dreaming of some beautiful naked woman in her bedroom. But was it a dream?

Then she said, out loud, "Idiot! Of course it was a dream!" She sat up in bed and swung her long legs over and climbed out. Looking around her room she didn't see anything out of the ordinary and brushing it off to just another occasional weird dream she walked into the bathroom to do her toilette.

She went over to the vanity and stared at herself briefly in the mirror. For having her sleep interrupted last night, she looked great this morning. No dark smudges under her eyes. In fact her eyes were sparkling and then she stopped and looked closer. Alexis had blue-green eyes, but was it a trick of the light perhaps? It looked as though she had some flecks of violet here and there in her pupils. How odd, she'd never noticed that before. But after a second, not overly worried, remembering that she'd heard that sometimes people's eye color changed as they got older, she started her shower, and adjusting the temperature, stepped into the stall....

[Thalia felt a myriad of feelings and emotions being a part of her host. She had already felt the woman's mild fear when she'd thought about the dream, and again when she had looked into the mirror but now the woman was happily singing in the shower. It had given Thalia a bit of a start when her host had noticed her eye color was different. Thalia's own eyes were a blue violet and her Mother had not said anything about her host's eye color changing. Perhaps she should signal Kronos tonight and ask if this was anything to be concerned about.]

Alexis finished, then toweled herself off and got out her hair dryer and started drying her hair. She was planning on going over to see her friend Ronnie today. They were going to hang out, though they didn't have any specific plans as of yet.

Her hair finally dry,she brushed it and grabbed a blue bandana beanie hat from the vanity drawer placing it over her head, then padded naked in the bedroom.

She pulled on a brief g-string and a pair of tan colored mid thigh baggy shorts and a simple halter top.

Walking back into the bathroom Alexis grabbed her makeup bag. She stared at herself in the mirror and couldn't believe how good she looked. Must be the new vitamins that were kicking in as she had started taking them a couple of months ago. She didn't really need much makeup she felt, but put on a little lip gloss over her full rosy lips and adding some mascara, she put the cosmetics away then and headed downstairs.

She lived in a house that had been left to her when her Uncle Ned had passed away only five months ago. At that time she was living in a loft apartment in New York and it had sufficed for what she needed it for, which was a base for doing her modeling assignments on the East coast. She was also writing at that time as well, having written two books previously and had started on this latest book. But when the lawyer read her Uncle's will and told her that she now owned a ten room estate in Cape Neddick Maine and after a period of grieving over losing a favorite Uncle, she ultimately was curious about the place. Her intent at that time was most likely to sell it.

However after viewing the property she fell in love with it. It would be perfect for when she would be writing full time. It wasn't smack dab against nosy, noisy neighbors, it was pretty quiet and had a lot of nature and scenery, the ocean, flower gardens and wildlife which she loved. And realizing it was really close to her friend's Ronnie's house pretty much cinched it. The estate came with 1 acre of land with 187 ft of ocean front. A sandy beach that was enclosed by rocky cliffs backed up against the ocean. It had four bedrooms, three baths, living room, dining room, kitchen, exercise room, library, family room, servants quarters as well. It also had a gorgeous English garden and fantastic ocean views from many of the windows in the house.

Her cats loved it here as well. Even though her loft apartment was large and spacious there wasn't as many hiding places as this huge house and they all had adapted quite well.

Picking up her cell phone she stuffed it in her bag and walked downstairs. She saw her cook and housekeeper, Marie at the foot of the stairs and the woman announced that she had made breakfast.

She entered the kitchen and found scrambled eggs and bacon sitting in serving dishes along with toast, and various fresh fruit. She was fairly hungry this morning and piled a little of the eggs and bacon on her plate, adding some of the fruit finally. Pouring herself a cup of coffee she settled down to eat.

Just then a large tortoiseshell cat jumped up on the island. "Moody! Get down you nasty boy!" she said swatting at him but he was faster and jumped off and raced out of the room, running into his offspring in the process.

Nymphadora Tonks, a long haired calico, the result of Moody's and Hedwig's mating, immediately jumped on his sire, but he wasn't having any of it and hissing, he stalked off with his tail held high.

"What's the matter Tonks?" Alexis asked. "Your daddy doesn't want to play today?' Tonks was a one year old calico long haired breed, a mixture of her parents which were Angora from Hedwig and purebred Maine Coon from Moody. Alexis had named all three of her cats after the characters in one of her favorite fiction series, Harry Potter. She had read all the books, seen all of the movies that had been made and was a big fan.

Tonks jumped up on her lap then. "You want some bacon?" Alexis asked holding it out to her, but Tonks turned her head away disinterested. Alexis kissed her furry head and then set her on the floor and finished eating.

Afterwards she told Marie she would be out for a few hours and grabbed her bag, heading out to her car. Before she climbed inside the small silver Porsche her eye caught a large moving truck which passed by on the road and turned into the driveway of the estate that joined the South side of her property. So the house is finally going to have someone living in it, she thought.

A few weeks ago, she had spied someone through the trees which separated the properties and had walked over to investigate. It turned out it was a realtor who had told her he was showing it to a client. He didn't tell her who though and she didn't see anyone else, assuming they were still inside inspecting the house.The place was truly something, she remembered. Quite a bit larger than her own property.

Getting in her car, she removed her cell phone from her bag texting her friend Ronnie that she was on her way.

Ronnie was a gorgeous blue eyed blond that had moved to the area a year and a half before Alexis had moved here. She did part time modeling as well and the rest of her work was spent doing photography assignments for the local newspaper. She was Alexandria's best friend. They'd met at a modeling shoot in New York several months ago and had become fast friends finding they had a lot in common. Ronnie lived two miles away on the same road. She had bought a nice sized estate that also faced the coast which she shared with her current boyfriend, guitarist Jimmy Angelo who was on tour right now with his band Van James.

As Alexis pulled into the driveway, she saw that Ronnie was outside her front door waiting for her. She pulled up and honked as the blond smiled and waved...

Thursday, June 21st 2007

The Hamptons Long Island New York

Two weeks prior in a slightly more southerly part of the East Coast, at 9 a.m. that morning, a well built blond haired man had just woken and staggered out of bed.

He walked into the bathroom and stared into the mirror with blood shot eyes. Feeling his stomach flip flopping, he felt like puking. He had a hangover and just like the last one which was a couple of nights ago it was in the class belonging to 'the proverbial hangover from hell' and it was his own fucking fault the man thought.

"Jesus, I may die before I see fifty," he said out loud to nobody in particular.

He waited until the nausea passed and then turning the shower on he adjusted the temperature to cold and quickly stepped in yelling a profanity as the cold water hit his rather warmed skin. Shivering, he forced himself to stay under the spray as long as he could. Then after a couple of minutes he adjusted the temp making it warm and soaped his body and hair up. Rinsing off, he shut off the water and stepped out. As he grabbed a towel to dry himself he looked in the mirror again. Well at least he looked clean and his skin looked healthier. He grabbed his electric shaver and then changing his mind, set the shaver back in the holder. What the fuck did he care anyway? It wasn't like he was going to be doing a photo shoot. He quickly splashed a little cologne on simply because he liked the smell, but his stomach flip flopped again. Taking deep breaths he willed the nausea away. Next he dried his hair and afterwards walked back into the bedroom, dressing quickly in bermuda shorts and a T shirt, and lastly put on a pair of thong sandals.

Ten minutes later he went downstairs and into the family room, heading for the bar. He mixed up a little hair of the dog, which was what he had drank last night, until he'd passed out. It was whiskey, water and a mixer. Commonly known as a highball.

Taking his drink he sat down on the sofa and lit up a cigarette, then flicked on the t.v., muting the volume. He grabbed his cell phone then and located the contact for his friend and guitarist.

Ryan Sanders answered saying "Hello Bon. Finally decided to pick up the phone, huh?" Rye had left a couple of messages which Bon hadn't returned.

Bon said, "Hey man, listen I'm sorry about the other night, but I was really out of it."

"So tell me something I don't know," Rye said. "That's becoming a normal state for you of late."

Rye thought back to two nights ago, when Bon had been in California. He had been staying with him briefly and during a drinking binge one night had lost it, and had attempted to punch his lights out. What had brought that on, was simply because Rye had stated that Bon needed a good woman to help him get his act back together. Bon had said rather nastily, "I'll never find another woman good enough as Diana, asshole!"

Rye couldn't stop himself even if he'd hadn't been drinking, though he realized later he might have phrased it differently. He was so fed up with who Bon had become. Lately he was an utter prick and it kept getting worse.

But not thinking clearly he'd said, "Fuck you man! Diana was the one that asked YOU for the divorce. She gave up on you so she could shack up with her new lover. So much for your good woman!"

Bon slowly turned red and stood up and drunkenly walked over the six feet or so to Rye and balled his fist and went to punch him, but Rye was less drunk than Bon and managed to duck, which caused Bon to lose his balance and fall to the floor. He turned over on his back then, moaning and seconds later passed out.

The next morning, when Rye had gotten up he'd found that Bon had went back to New York already. This was the first time they'd spoken since.

Rye said, "But I'm sorry too man. I was out of line with that remark about your ex-wife."

"No you weren't," Bon disagreed. You basically told the truth, while I was too much of a dick to want to admit it."

Bon sighed and then Rye said, "Look, I know these last 6 months have been rough on you what with your divorce from Di becoming final and all. Believe me, I know how fucking lonely it can be," Rye said. "I went through the same thing with my divorce from Lavie, so I know where you're coming from." He got quiet for a moment, then continued saying, "But don't you think it's time you came back to the land of the living and started hanging with your friends again? Maybe even started dating women as well? Not to mention working with me. We haven't written anything man for seven months now," Rye complained.

Bon channel surfed while Rye talked and eventually stopped it on VH1. They had one of their specials on called, "100 Sexiest Female Celebs."

They had just made it to number one in the countdown. Bon stared as they revealed the woman, who once again reigned in the top spot. He stared at the babe who set his blood on fire, a secret crush of his, yet since the divorce he'd not thought about her much nor any woman for that matter, but looking at her now he felt inflamed with desire, as he had been too long without sex. He realized the attraction for her had never died, had just been put on hold by his pain and depression. He felt his package react watching her posing in skimpy clothes and bathing suits and then afterwards she talked about her latest book that was soon to be released.

Alexandria Isabella Grey turned then and gave a sexy smile to the cameras thanking the viewers for the honor of making her number one again. Her green-blue cat shaped eyes stared into his.

Bon said softly, "You're welcome." He had even voted online anonymously several months ago but he never admitted that to anyone but Rye.

"What for?" Rye asked.

"Huh?" Bon asked.

"You said, you're welcome. What for?"

Shit, Bon thought.. he'd almost forgotten about Rye.

"Ya know Rye, you're right," Bon said, "You're right about everything. I think it's time I moved on. I need your help man," Bon said.

"Yeah? So spill it," his guitarist said.

"I'd like to get away for awhile. Rent a house somewhere. This house here on Long Island is only a vacation home anyway so I am going to need new digs," Bon finished. "There are just too many memories here, ya know?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," Rye said. "So what do you want me to do? I'm not exactly your friendly neighborhood real estate agent."

"Yeah, I know," Bon said. There was a slight pause and then he asked, "Where does Alexandria Grey live?"

"Why?" Rye asked, suspecting the reason.

"I just want to know," Bon said. "Doesn't she live in New England?

"What does she have to do with you finding a place?" Rye asked him.

"Rye! Will you please stop answering my question with a question!" Bon said, his tone a bit annoyed. "Do you know where she lives?"

"Okay, okay," Rye said. "Yeah, I heard she lives in Maine on the coast. Now do you mind telling me what the hell that has to do with you getting a new place?"

"Nothing," Bon said evasively. "She just happened to be on a show on T.V. a minute ago and I was curious, that's all."

Rye knew that wasn't all, as Bon innocently proclaimed. There was more to it that he wasn't telling him, but he chose not to beleaguer the point.

Instead he said, "Well what part of the country are you thinking of moving to?"

Bon said, "Well it still has to be on the East coast because of the kids, but I was thinking possibly somewhere in New England." He waited for Rye's imminent outburst.

But Rye just said, "Ohh... New England. What's in New England? Besides Alexandria Grey of course," he said giving him a hard time.

"Isn't that enough?" Bon asked. "In any case, once my realtor finds me something, I'd like your to go with me as I'd like your opinion."

Rye said no problem, and shortly thereafter the call ended.

Afterwards Bon sat there thinking. He knew of course he hadn't made much of an attempt to hide the truth for wanting to move to New England from Rye and it didn't bother him. He had no secrets from his closest buddy and it had been like that for over twenty years. Bon needed a change anyway, and it wasn't too far away from his children, actually a little over about an hour by plane.

He then picked up his phone and finding the contact for his realtor, he pressed the send button.....

Three days later Rye had just got off the phone from talking to Dane the keyboardist for Bon Vincent, when it rang again. He picked it up and said, seeing Bon's name on his caller ID, "Hey bud! I was just talking about you! Dane called. He said he's glad to hear you're doing better and said he'd be calling you later today, man."

Bon had hardly seen anything of Dane or Tek (their drummer) since his divorce and felt ashamed. It would be good to talk to Dane and he said, "I look forward to his phone call, thanks for delivering the message." He paused and said, "Listen I have some news. I just got back from my realtor's office. He found me the perfect place near Portland Maine. How about going with me to check it out?"

Rye said, "Maine hmm? That's A.G. territory!" he quipped.

"Don't start Rye," Bon warned him.

Rye chuckled and said, "Okay...sure man, I'm game. Umm...let me call the airport though and see when the next flight leaves to New York and I'll get back to you with my E.T.A."

A half hour later Rye phoned Bon and told him a flight left in two hours and he would have to hurry to make it. He should arrive in LaGuardia by 7 pm that night.

That evening, Bon left Long Island by Helicopter as it headed for the airport. After meeting Rye's plane the men then took the copter back to Bon's Long Island home. Rye would be staying with Bon for a few days and his first thought as he saw Bon standing in the airport was that he looked a bit better. More like his old self, Rye thought and he felt very encouraged to see that he appeared to be coming around now.

Later on, as they both sat out on the terrace staring at the moon glimmering off the ocean and each drinking a glass of wine, Rye said, "So where is this house exactly?"

"It's in a place called Cape Neddick," Bon replied. "The house is located in a section called "The Yorks, which has towering cliffs at the edge of the ocean."

"Sounds like something out of "Wuthering Heights," Rye said laughing shortly.

"Yeah, I can't wait to see it," Bon said. "The funny part is when I met with my agent and he looked through his available properties list, he said at first that he had no coastal homes available per my specifications. Most of what he had were too small. But at the last minute he found one piece of property only it was for sale. He called the buyers and told them who was interested in renting it, and apparently the buyers having had no luck selling it for the five months it'd been on the market said they'd be willing to rent it out for at least six months."

"The hand of Fate to be sure," Rye said and Bon agreed....

***

In Titania after Thalia had disappeared through the portal, Eos and Kronos returned to his study. On several blocks they watched some of the scenes unfolding on earth.

They also watched and listened when Bon had the conversation with his friend telling him about his realtor finding the house at the last moment.

Eos said, "That was very clever of you Kronos. How did you manage to rid the house of its former occupants?"

"Simple," Kronos replied. "I appeared one night, several months ago dressed as you see me now, holding my hourglass and the owners were convinced they had seen a ghost and within the month had moved out and put the house up for sale."

"But you did that five months before Thalia had even been chosen for the mission. How did you...?" Then she stopped. "But of course, how silly of me. You control time and can see future events as well as the past. You saw that the mortal was going to look for another house and you simply went back in time to five months prior so that you could influence the owners to leave, thereby leaving the house unoccupied the whole time Alexandria had lived next door." She smiled at Kronos's nod. "But what if someone else had purchased it?" she asked the time keeper.

"I knew that wouldn't be the case, having saw the outcome in the future," Kronos told her. "My guess is that the rumors got around that the owners claimed they saw a ghost in the house, therefore stopping any potential buyers dead in their tracks, if you'll excuse the pun," Kronos answered, smiling.

"Nice work," Eos said...

***

Early the next morning, both men once again boarded the copter which took them to JFK Int'l Airport. Their flight would take only a little over an hour to make it to Portland and as they boarded Jet Blue, the men found their seats and strapped themselves in.

An hour and fifteen minutes later the jet landed in Portland Maine. The limo was waiting and the two men climbed in as the driver headed towards Cape Neddick, which was about 40 miles South of the city.

After forty minutes of travel, they located the house. Bon immediately liked the look of it and thought to himself it might be a keeper as the limo drove up and around the circular drive.

Rye said, "So this is it. Nice man, definitely nice!"

The realtor drove up a minute later and he showed them inside. The house had 16 rooms, with 7 bedrooms, two which were masters, five bathrooms, living room, dining room, family room, study, library, kitchen, a pool, an exercise workout room and a full finished basement. It was completely furnished and the kitchen had dishes cookware, utensils, everything necessary to make it serviceable. The estate sat on 2 acres of ocean front land.

After viewing the interior as well as the immediate outside, they all stood on the terrace and Bon told his realtor he needed to talk to his friend for a moment. He and Rye walked across the lawn and headed for the cliffs. As they made it to the edge, they both stared out at the expanse of the Atlantic ocean.

After a moment Bon turned and said, "Well I like it, it has pretty much everything I was looking for, how about you?"

"Hey as long as you like it then I'm happy," Rye answered. "I'm not the one who will be living here, but it's a great place I have to admit."

"Yeah and the rent is a mere $10k per month," Bon told him.

"Cool!" Rye exclaimed. "It must be so cheap because of the fact it's up here in Maine."

"Yeah," Bon replied, "Either that or the house is haunted and my agent just didn't tell me!" Both men chuckled.

They turned then and started walking to the northernmost edge of the estate. There were a few trees and shrubs separating the property from the neighbor's house. He was just about to step between two large fir trees having caught a glimpse of his neighbor's contemporary brown shingled house when suddenly he stopped, staring.

Rye who had been following him and had glanced away for a second, bumped into him and said, "Oh sorry man!" He walked around Bon and then turned his head to see what Bon was staring at and said, "Oh yeah".....

Even from this distance of about 100 yards, he could see that the woman who was walking across the expanse of lawn towards the cliffs was stunning. Long dark hair to her butt blew around and she was wearing short shorts and a bikini top. Her long legs were golden and tanned.

"Damn!" Rye said. "Wished I had a pair of binoculars!"

"Me too," Bon agreed.

Then suddenly the woman looked up and both Rye and Bon stepped back behind a tree. Peeking around they saw her change direction and was heading their way.

Bon motioned to Rye to follow him and he walked towards a small gardener's shed, which was a few yards away. They opened the door and entered. The shed was full of bags of dirt and shelves that held broken flower pots, a riding mower and gardening tools. It was dimly lit inside, the only light coming from the side window. They stood there and looked out, waiting...

Soon a woman emerged from between the trees looking towards the terrace. Bon's heart started thudding almost painfully as he recognized her at last.

Rye said softly, "Well fuck me... It's Alexis Grey in all her glory!"

Just then their realtor came walking across the lawn and greeted her, saying "Can I help you Miss?"

"Hi," she said shaking the man's hand. "I'm Alexandria Grey and I live next door. Are you renting the property?" Rye and Bon could hear her fairly easily, as the window was open slightly.

The realtor introduced himself and handed her his card and said no, a client of his was, but did not reveal who his client was, Bon noticed feeling pleased.

Alexis waited giving the man a chance to tell her who but he just smiled and said he was sure his client would enjoy having a beautiful woman as his neighbor. She thanked him and then said she had to go. She just wanted to be sure, as she knew the house had been empty for several months, that there wasn't anything going on that shouldn't be.

She smiled at him brilliantly as the man smiled back and all three of them watched her disappear again between the trees.

Bon looked at Rye and breathed, "Alexandria Grey lives next door. Amazing..."

"So you didn't know that huh?" Rye asked him.

"How in the hell could I know that?" Bon asked him with a frown. "I found out she lived in Maine but could find no other information on exactly where. Of all places she could live, it turns out it's right next door to where I'll be living," he said.

Must be fate," he concluded with a smile.

They both left the shed then and Bon told his realtor, he was interested and would sign the necessary paperwork. They headed back inside the estate and the agent said he would contact the owner and have him draw the lease up. He would FedEx the lease and the house keys to Bon's Long Island home he told him. Bon wrote out a check then for two months rent plus last months in advance.

Then he and Rye climbed back into the limo and headed back towards the airport....

Thursday, July 5th

Cape Neddick, Maine

At 11:00 a.m. the movers unloaded the last of Bon's boxes and belongings and as he stood looking around at all the cartons, he suddenly heard a car horn.

He walked outside the front door and saw that Rye had returned in Bon's SUV. Bon had his Toyota transferred here the night before by truck and it was sitting in the driveway when Rye and he had arrived this morning from New York. Rye was planning on staying with him for a few days and since there was no food in the house had offered to run to a fast food place and pick up some grub.

He handed Bon a McDonald's sack. "Here's the food," he said and then grabbed the holder containing two cokes and they went back inside.

The men walked by the huge pile of boxes and went outside to the terrace. They sat at an umbrella table and began to eat.

"So have you seen anything of your sexy Alexi?" Rye asked him in between bites.

"Nope, not even a toe," Bon said sounding a bit disappointed. He popped a french fry into his mouth and slurped down his coke.

"Well, I'm sure she'll turn up sooner or later," Rye consoled him, taking a huge bite of his cheeseburger.

After they'd finished they went inside again to start unpacking Bon's stuff.

Bon had only packed a few of his mementos. Antiques, pictures and personal effects but brought a ton of clothes and shoes, towels, bedclothes, sheets and other necessities. Most all of his other things he'd put in storage after he'd left the estate in New York, which his wife had kept. Though right now, his ex-wife was living with her new beau in his penthouse in New York as their daughter Susan was attending college. Bon kept their penthouse as well but had decided to put it up for sale. He'd also got the Long Island home in the divorce settlement which he had no plans to sell as it was really a vacation home. He had hired a woman recently, a 50 year old Swedish housekeeper-cook named Fran Jorgenson who lived in the area. Although she could speak English good enough she alternated sometimes between English and Swedish and had a strong accent which was quaint in Bon's opinion. Fran would be working on a day to day basis, with her hours being from 9 until 6pm.

Not long after the men started, a black modest sized Ford pulled into the driveway and parked. It was his housekeeper, a slim pale blond haired woman of medium height.

Climbing out of her car she said, "Good Morgan Herr Johnson!" Fran always referred to him by his last name of Johnson rather than Vincent.

As the men greeted her, they went inside and Bon took her on a tour of the house.

The middle aged woman was excited when Bon asked her if the kitchen would suffice and she answered, "Ja, ja, very good size!"

Fran set about helping them put away the remainder of Bon's things.

Two hours later and the trio were finished. The house looked wonderful now that all of the boxes were gone and Fran then left telling the men she had to go to the market to buy groceries, as the house had not a speck of food.

Bon and Rye at that point took off then to visit a local liquor store to purchase some liquor, beer, wine and other soft drinks, to stock the bar in the family room with.

Alexis pulled her Porsche inside her driveway and pressing her remote drove into the garage. Entering the house from the garage she went upstairs to her bedroom and into the bathroom where she took a brief refreshing shower. It was quite humid and warm out today and her and Ronnie had spent the day lounging around and in Ronnie's pool. She reeked of chlorine. Drying herself off, she dried her hair and redressed.

Walking downstairs Alexis went outside to the terrace and then turned her head and stared over at the house next door. Music was playing, loud rock music.

She stood still listening, trying to identify the song, but didn't know it or the artist. In any case she didn't mind so much when people played loud music in the day time hours as long as it wasn't at night when she was trying to sleep or work on a book.

She saw her cat Moody come racing out of the garden then onto the terrace. Following him was Tonks. Tonks had something in her mouth.

"What you got Nymphadora?" she asked the calico cat, waiting. Tonks stopped and looked up at her. Then she slowly walked the six feet towards Alexis and dropped what she had been holding in her tiny mouth right onto Alexis' foot. It was a field mouse.

Suddenly it moved as Alexis let loose an ear-splitting scream, kicking it off her foot.

Abruptly there was dead silence, as the music suddenly stopped.

Alexis said, 'Tonks you naughty girl you!" Tonks cringed and then slunk away. Alexis felt immediately ashamed as she realized her little calico had hunted and finding dinner had brought it home to her mistress. And how had Alexis repaid her? By yelling at her.

"Tonks! Wait, baby, c'mere," she cajoled, but Tonks stung to the quick, kept going and disappeared into the garden. Moody laid there curled up in a corner of the terrace, seemingly bored with the whole scene. He raised his head then, staring at Alexis with his large amber eyes, as if to say, 'Nice going, human.'

Then he got up and went inside the house via the cat door. A second later Hedwig, Alexis' white Angora came out of the small door and looking around suddenly spied the mouse lying a few feet from her mistress.

She started trotting towards it fully interested but Alexis said, 'Oh no you don't Hedwig," and picked the cat up and took her back into the kitchen. She opened her cats favorite tuna and placed it in the large dish in the corner. Then she grabbed a paper towel and went back outside and carefully picked up the small rodent which was now very dead and quickly disposed of it into the trash. She then looked back over at her neighbor's. She was dying to know who the hell was living there.

[Thalia well aware that her host was very curious as to who her neighbors were, very subtly put forth the thought ...cookies....]

Alexis thought she should make them some cookies. She could take them over as a welcome to the neighborhood kind of thing. Chocolate chip might do. Her chocolate chip cookies were to die for. Deciding she went back inside to tell Marie she would be baking...

[Thalia smiled mentally. She was pleased her first suggestion had worked