I picked up the cage and the cat shuffled sideways into the side of the cage. I winced but pushed the cage onto a wide, dark oaken table ,carved with lion heads on the feet and in the middle of the structure. There were lots of green coats and lots of blue sweaters creating a sea of smelly, dusty, warm arms and legs. A couple of girls were making faces at each other and the guys had their arms around the girls, listening apparently to the talk . I wriggled my arms through the arms and bodies , wedging myself in and out. What is the world? Several people were looking up and many were looking around in a tense, skittish way. I looked around but all I could see were red socks, red jackets and dust floated in the sunlight.
The guy- what was his name?- turned and looked down. An angry glare was focused on a blond ,joking ,teenager standing with his books close to him . The professor- ? walked over to the teenager and away from the speakers platform. I walked towards him, then changed my mind. ” Good afternoon , I hope that ya’ll have had a good day and that tonight will be fun and relaxing. ” I shouted.

All of a sudden everyone was silent and looking at me. Several heads cocked sideways which would have been comical , except for their expressions. ” I don’t know who you are , but this is off limits to just anyone. ” The heads were bobbing up and down and murmuring abounded. ” I am sorry, but I don’t understand. What is going on and why is there so much anger? ” The girl who had been making faces yelled out. “
WE worked hard to get here and now someone is trying to take away what we have. We were told we could have the place and that there would be peace and security. ” The agreements sounded clear and vibrated off the metal plaques hanging on the wall, some adding their clanging as they bounced.
I had walked down the halls and the short pathway in and there wasn’t anything around. The wind seemed to be mild compared to the air inside. One of the red shirts look at me and shouted , ” Who are you? and why are YOU here? I haven’t seen you around. ”
The way he said it ,made me feel angry. ” I live here! I work here. I was told that ya’ll were upset over here. So what is going on? “
A voice called out. ” She is the one who Professor said wanted to prevent Calico from being here. ” All eyes frowned. ” what do you have against us being here?” I shrugged, smiled and called out. I don’t have a thing against Calico . She was just visiting a bit .” I glanced over at the table but she was gone.
” I don’t have a problem with you being here. I think it rather nice having people around interested in learning. I like to research ,find facts that have been lost or look over. It’s fun to find a story or document that gives a glance into another part of a history.
I pointed at the girl in red to my left ” What do you like to look up? What is your favorite source? ” The girls jerked up and grinned with the frown still on their forehead. “I like to find out about what people wear and why? What is their reason ? ” Another guy called out and said ” Why do people separate themselves and keep their stuff to just who is in their little group? ” The discussion took off from there and the exchange of thoughts, views and puzzled questions floated across the room. Calico just watched as all the bubbles of anger popped and dissolved into a platonic exchange of ideas, puzzles and solutions tossed up.