other cat parked himself in front of Milton and immediately fell asleep on his right foot. "I've always been suspicious of overly friendly cats," Milton said.

"They aren't cats-‹they're cogs," called a disembodied voice from inside the neighbor's door. The door opened all the way and we finally got our first clear view of our neighbor. She was a tiny pale girl with long red hair that hung in corkscrews. She was pretty in that way that batik, waifish fashion models are pretty. She wasn't gorgeous, but her hair, her skin, and all the colors that she wore would definitely cause you to take a second glance as you walked by. "Beanie, Gizmo, get back in here and leave them alone!" The cats ignored her magnificently.

"What's a cog? A cat-dog?"

"Exactly, they exhibit qualities of both cats and dogs. Like cats they will ignore you if it suits their needs, but like dogs they crave constant affection and attention. Cogs," she repeated for emphasis. She walked over and picked them up, slinging the sleepy cats over her shoulders. She shoved them back inside and shut the door, their indignant cries clearly audible through the glass. "I'm sorry they bothered you."

"Oh, that's okay," I said, "We both like cats. We had a cat once, but she ran away."

"Or somebody found her and kept her," Milton threw in.

"That blows," the girl said. We were all quiet for a while, then she laughed and said, "Maybe I should introduce myself. I'm Hannah." She stuck her hand out to me and I shook it.

"Išm Ellen and this is Milton." She turned and shook his hand, too.

"Well, I'm glad to have met you both. I really am. Are you two doing anything for dinner next Wednesday, because I'm having a few people over for dinner, and I'd like the two of you to come over, get acquainted, do the neighbor thing."

I looked at Milton and he shook his head as if to say that we had no outstanding obligations, so we agreed to go.

"Great," Hannah said. "I'll get back to you with details. I hope I don't seem like I'm running off, but I need to be at work in twenty minutes. See you later," she said as she ran inside.

Later that week we saw Hannah again, with a tall, dopey looking guy whom she introduced to us as Georgie, her ex-boyfriend. We were all at the Inwood, an art house movie theater in Dallas. Afterwards we all went to a Cappuccino bar, where Milton and I stood out like sore thumbs. I was the only woman there in Keds and Milton was the only person of either gender with his shirt tucked in. Milton looked around at some of the more daringly dressed and began to tell Hannah and Georgie about Virginia.

"Jesus, she disappeared and no one has found her?" Georgie asked, with some distress.

"Yeah," Milton said. "She was a strange one all right." He seemed pleased that his story had left an impact. Despite our apparel differences, the four of us got along quite well. Georgie invited us to an art show/keg party where you needed an invitation to get in. Although Georgie and Hannah were no longer dating, it was nice to have another couple to do things with, so we went, again feeling out of place. It was obvious to me that if I was going to hang out with Georgie and Hannah at their haunts, I was going to have to invest in some black clothes and some clunky lace-up shoes.

Wednesday night we went to her dinner party, and although we were expecting to meet more of Hannah's friends, we were the only people there. "Georgie forgot to give the other people their invitations," Hannah explained, as Georgie shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "Oh well, what do you expect from me." Georgie complimented me on my clothes, telling me that I looked "very Gothic Marlo Thomas." Milton hadn't said anything about my new clothes. He was always content with the way I looked, no matter what I wore. It was nice to have somebody comment upon it, because I was afraid that I looked stupid. Milton looked the way that he always looked, not feeling the pressure to fit in that I felt. Georgie might have looked like a doofus, but he could cook some of the most amazing food. We ate a paprika chicken dish with fresh steamed rice. He made all sorts of unique vegetables, the one I remember best being an almost painfully-hot spinach dish with lamb in it. After dinner, we looked around Hannah's apartment, as Georgie served us peach bread that he had made himself. As we looked around, I thought that Hannah's apartment was one of the most unique I had ever seen. Georgie had decorated everything for her, recovering her furniture in bright forest green upholstery and sewing matching curtains for her. He had also painted a green and periwinkle baroque flower border around her ceilings.