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It was a hot and humid day in Boone. Niles had ordered a large glass of sweet tea from the cafe.

Outside there were sets of tables and chairs under an awning. Niles took a seat in one of the chairs. It was a stiff metal, still cool in the shade. It turned his sweaty fur to ice. The lady had offered to serve him inside, but he had refused. He wanted to take in the town's scenery. He was so used to the city.

The lady brought out a glass cup full of sweet tea. She set the glass in front of him along with a bowl of lemon wedges and a straw.

She told him that the lemons were very tart. He laughed. Niles said that he liked tea like that, and he meant it.

He asked her if there were any places he should visit. She told him there was an old antique shop near the church. Both were large and brick and right next to the town's entrance. Niles remembered. He remembered them exactly.

He smiled and thanked her, and she went back inside.

Niles squeezed the juice of three large lemon wedges into the glass and dropped them in. Then he added a fourth for good luck. He unwrapped the straw from its paper and stuck it into the glass. It crunched against the ice cubes as he stirred it.

Niles closed his eyes and brought the straw up to his lips. He was not fancy but he knew what he liked, and he wanted to like this. He took a long sip. It tasted good. Cool and sweet and just the right amount of tartness. It wet his throat and chilled his stomach. He opened his eyes. He had wanted to order coffee, but the lady had told him not to. He was glad he had taken her advice.

Niles had accepted the job in Kansas City. It wasn't anything big. They had offered two dollars an hour less than what he was getting in St. Louis, but Niles figured it was a start. He could have negotiated with them. He could have, but he didn't.

Niles leaned back against the chair. The river was just beyond the ridge. He could see the shiny surface from here and hear its gentle bubbling. It was a small river. It wasn't the Missouri, he knew that. That was further downriver. All rivers meet the Missouri eventually.

Boone was a very green town. Wild grasses grew everywhere, and the trees were large and healthy. Niles had never seen trees so large before. He had noticed them while looking for a drink. He had noticed a post office and a general store. Other shops. He told himself that he would take the lady's advice again before he left.

Niles drank his tea. It was very good. Already it was half-empty.

From the corner of his eye, Niles saw movement along the table. It was a caterpillar. He watched it for a few minutes. He watched it move and wiggle along the table's surface with its stubby head bobbing one way then the other.

He stretched out a paw, and the caterpillar crawled atop him. Its legs were hairy. They tickled his fur, and Niles giggled. He pet the caterpillar gently with a finger.

"What are you doing on the table, little guy? You aren't gonna find food here."

Niles laughed. He stood up and carried the caterpillar toward the nearby grasses. He stooped down low. Carefully he plucked the caterpillar from his paw and placed it on a long blade of grass.

The caterpillar looked around. Its body was a pale green that blended into the grass.

"There you go, little guy."

The caterpillar was moving now. It was edging along the grass. Niles stood up and nodded.

In a month's time the caterpillar's belly would be full, and it would find a nice place here in Boone. Yes. It would find a nice place, and it would grow and it would change. It would grow up big and strong and beautiful. Yes, Niles thought. He had done good today.

Niles walked back to his chair and sat down. He took another long drink and sighed happily. He scratched behind his ears. His paw scratched the back of his head then his neck and then his shoulders. It felt good to scratch. It felt as if he hadn't scratched in a long time.

As he scratched he noticed a little boy playing across the road.

He was a young boy. Probably not even six or seven. He was running through the long grass with a bath towel tied around his neck. The boy was making whooshing sounds as his towel fluttered behind him. The blades of grass wiggled as he flew past. Dirt matted the boy's fur, but he was laughing.

Niles watched. He was happy that the boy was happy.

The father came around the corner. The father saw the boy and crouched down and spread his arms wide.

"Hey, Kiddo! What are you doing out here with that towel? Don't you know your mom's gonna kill me?"

The boy didn't care. He ran into his father's arms, and the father lifted the boy into the air, and they both laughed as they ran through the grass together.

Niles took another sip from his tea. Suddenly he stopped. There was something hard in Niles's throat. He coughed and set the glass on the table.

He raised his paw up to his mouth and spit the thing out. He had swallowed a lemon seed. Niles stared down at the seed for a long time. He closed his paw around the seed and tossed it out into the grass.

Niles turned back toward the table and took another sip of the tea. It was too sour now.

He stood from the table and grabbed the glass. Inside he set the glass on the counter and thanked the lady and dropped a few dollars from his wallet into the tip jar. The lady looked at the glass and then at him. She smiled. He smiled back.

Niles went out the door and grabbed his keys from one pocket and put his wallet in his other pocket. It would be another couple hours before he reached Kansas City. He wanted to get there before dark.

He unlocked his car and opened the door. It squeaked as it opened. Niles hopped inside and the car squeaked again. He closed the door.

He looked at himself in the rearview mirror. He smoothed his fur and rubbed his eyes red. In the back seat was his favorite pair of blue jeans. He had wanted to bring others, but he'd left those behind. Those along with the other things.

Niles pushed the key into the ignition and turned. The car coughed to life. He put the car into reverse and placed his paw on the passenger seat and turned his head backward. Slowly he pulled out of the cafe. The road was very rough and gravelly.

He spun the wheel and put the car into drive. He looked toward the road ahead of him. The boy and his father were gone.

Niles eased forward and carefully pressed on the pedal. The car rolled heavily down the road. It was hot and very humid in the car. Niles was beginning to sweat again. He rolled the windows down, but he knew it wouldn't help.

The radio was playing. It was his favorite station. For years he'd struggled to find a station that played good alternative. Many played country or pop or gospel, but so few played alternative.

His station didn't play a lot of the good stuff, but it played it enough. On rare days it played the good stuff often, and that made Niles very happy. He would sing and dance in his car. He wouldn't care.

Today, though, he shut the radio off.

He was out of Boone now. The town was behind him. The interstate was coming up.

There was no traffic at the intersection, but Niles flashed his blinkers and yielded. A few seconds later he turned onto the on-ramp and accelerated down toward the highway.