this heatwave

Coco is crying to be let back out immediately after grabbing her bite to eat. It is an unusual break with what is now a long-established routine. Has she grown tired of it all of a sudden?
It is true that one would expect to be coming out of this heatwave soon. It has been a long time. Monk is thinking that we may be just one good storm from breaking it, from which point we begin our slow roll-out into autumn. That is the hope anyway. You cannot really count on the weather these days. Just about anything can happen.

Pi pets Coco, soothing her, "I'm not so sure we shouldn't let them out, at least until noon. I swear I can smell a hint of autumn in the air already."

Daimon chuckles, "Wishful thinking! The Devil is still vacationing in Texas, and I'm not sure that he is ever going to leave. He may be settling in for good."

Monk says, "If I let the cats out, there is no guarantee I will be able to get them back. Hell, I still have to get Sammy inside."

Nina Zero

This is the moment when our protagonist begins her transition to become the noir heroine Nina Zero. She has escaped Frick and Frack, for now, but she is still on the lam.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

A Motel 6 has a vacancy sign lit on Sunset Boulevard. I check in, paid forty-six US dollars cash for a ground-floor single toward the back. A sixty-something desk clerk with a disheveled stare and dark armpits told me to sign my name in the registration book. I blanked. He repeated I should sign my name. I couldn’t sign my full name, Mary Alice Baker. Nina was the first name that came to me, because it was exotic, foreign sounding. I could imagine a terrorist named Nina. The sum total of my life to date would be my last name. I signed myself in as Nina Zero.

-- “Shooting Elvis” by Robert M. Eversz

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Cats

Monk has noticed that, this summer, inside the house, the cats have preferred to choose their separate spots and doze much of the day alone. He feels a little sad about that. It was always sweet when they would lie together. Does it bespeaks a realized maturity, with Cocoa and Sammy having finally shed the last of their feline childhood and adolescence?

Daimon says, "It is rather unnatural, isn't it? The life of these cats."

Monk says, "You mean the spaying and neutering."

Daimon says, "Exactly. They should be bound up in the cycle of mating and having new litters. Instead, the just eat and sleep, maybe prowl around a bit, but it is a sort of castrated life, isn't it?"

Monk says, "I suppose so. But I remember the feral cats we fed and watched over. Although they did seem to be more ... energized and vital, they did not seem all that happy when they left kittenhood behind them. If we had not fixed these cats, I doubt that they would still be alive. I'm inclined to think that life is just not a very happy proposition, and that they really are better off this way."

Is the air-conditioner going out on us?

Monk is starting to get worried. "Is it just me, or is it just our hottest day yet, or is the air-conditioner going out on us?"

Daimon says, "Well, you were in the middle of a serious wank. That could be part of it."

Pi says, "What was that phone call?"

Monk says, "It was Pop, telling me that Kay was coming over and to be sure that the door is open for her. Funny, in his solicitude toward her, he also saved me some potential embarrassment. And I am glad that I didn't get more sweaty anyway. The heat and this air-conditioner is really starting to worry me." Then he says to Daimon, "And for the record: the indoor temperature reading is higher than it has been throughout this heat wave. It really is hot."

Kay

Kay is here, breaking her long absence. She just told Pop that she left her cane in her truck, and he goes out to get it for her, walking with his own cane.

"Thunder!"

Pi claps her hands, "Thunder!"

Monk says, "And I thought the forecasters were full of shit. Of course, we haven't got a drop of actual, real rain yet, but I admit, just coming this close is kind of exciting. And it is nicely overcast. Let's hope for the best."