The weather has been brutal this last month. When it’s not hovering near zero, but reaches the low twenties, it snows for days. As I said in my last post, Fred my ghost along with his newest pal, Jasper, the long-haired yellow cat ghost have entertained themselves by sliding down the icicles that form and then let go on our roofs. For the past several days, it’s been cloudy and cold, so the ice hasn’t been melting.

“It’s been quiet around here lately.” Marley our grey striped rescue sat on my lap getting his dose of warmth and petting, but when I spoke, he looked up at me in surprise. Surprise in a cat is communicated by a tip of the head to one side. In Marley’s case, it is accompanied by kneading, but then, Marley kneads even in his sleep.

He yawned, followed by, “You didn’t know, Mom? Fred and Jasper left a few days ago to visit Fred’s relatives haunting a large Victorian in Cooperstown.”

“How did they get there?” The question slipped out of my mouth before I realized how stupid I was to question how a ghost and his buddy could move from one place to another without means of transportation.

“They said they were going to hop on the County Bus day before yesterday.” Marley looked up at me with big round eyes to see if I bought that story.

“But the bus didn’t run that day. It was cancelled because of the storm. You don’t think they walked, do you?”

Marley go up on all four feet, stood on tiptoes and stretched, then after circling around several times on my lap resettled himself in the same position.

“So they walked, or whatever ghosts do when they want to move. Flew, teleported, did a mind meld with a passing car, I don’t care. I’m just glad to get Jasper out of my hair. What this house doesn’t need is another feline even if it’s one that left this earth years ago.” Marley licked his lips and put his head on his front paws. Soon I could hear him snoring.

“Did you hear that, honey?” I asked my husband who was reading his Kindle.

“Did you say something?” His tone of voice said he wasn’t happy I’d interrupted his book.

“Marley said Fred and Jasper left day before yesterday in that awful storm.”

He laid his Kindle on the couch beside him and turned his attention to me.

“I can’t really believe you think Marley talks.”

“Well, he talks with Fred and Jasper. You still believe they exist, don’t you?

“After all the tricks Fred played on us, I have to believe this house is inhabited by a ghost, and his jokes assure me he’d take on a cat as a companion.”

“I hope you’re not saying that having a cat is something only a ghost would do. We have Marley and you love him, don’t you?”

At the word “love,” Marley raised his head and looked intensely across the room at hubby.

My husband smiled at him and nodded. “Of course. He’s my buddy.”

Assured that everyone who counted in the house adored him, Marley lowered his head and once more took up snoring, but not before he said, “Fred said there will be a surprise when he and Jasper return. Whatever it is, Jasper didn’t seem pleased.”

The next day, the weather turned warmer (a heat wave of at least twenty-five degrees) and the ice once again began to melt and descend noisily from our roofs. Along with it, I heard laughter. Fred had obviously returned from his visit bringing Jasper with him, and the two of them were merrily sliding down into the gutters where they perched until the large icicles let go and plummeted to the ground. At the end of the front porch roof I was certain I spied another figure. I went outside to get a better look at it and peered upward toward the edge of the roof. I was hit with a mouthful of snow and a chirp of laughter.

Fred,” I yelled. “Stop that.” I retreated into the house.

Marley sat in the middle of the living room. “Aren’t you going to do something about that?”

“About the snow? I yelled at Fred, but what sway do I have over a ghost and his furry companion?

“Companions,” Marley said.

“What are you talking about?”

Marley jumped onto the back of the couch and hissed. Outside the window, I saw the ghostly outline of another cat, this one a small calico.

“Jasper brought her back from his visit. Meet Alice. She’s a girl. A girl cat.” Marley growled and turned his back, giving Alice a good view of his butt, a gesture he used only when he was overly annoyed. Alice batted at him through the window, then whirled, jumped onto the roof and joined Fred and Japer as they boarded the next icicle plunging downward.

“She’s going to be a handful, Mom.” Marley ran up the stairs to his favorite don’t-bother-me place, under a plushy on an old rattan stair in t he second bedroom. I shook my head. The boy was royally pissed.