Phenomenal Nonsense
He'd heard something cat-like last night, and again early this morning. It was a scratching, whining sound he associated with something inanimate, a branch on branch or the whistle of a tongue of wind around the corner of the house, an inanimate sound, a whistle through one of those invisible cracks in a window or door. Definitely not human, not even animal, although animal had first occurred to him. As he thought it through, he realized that his conclusion was based on clear sensory evidence and a rational deduction, he would explain to Muriel--wherever she was--already out of bed and doing . . . something. She'd be worried. "It's nothing," he would calmly explain. "Wind on the shingles, air escaping somewhere." "Escaping from what?" she would ask. Of course she would. Always the joker, the wit, the teaser, the sceptic. Well, he would feign disgust or at least, disinterest as he h...
