Excerpt of Grey Matters by Clea Simon

The apparition remained silent, but its speaking eyes saw
far. Green eyes, cool as emeralds, stared into her own,
summoning images of the sea beyond the borders. Of the
forest, far away. Of a key to secrets lost. Of another,
gone before
. . .
‘Why don’t you just say something?’ Dulcie Schwartz sighed
and slumped back against the wall. ‘Anything?’

It was no use. The plump black and white kitten sitting
opposite her looked up with wide green eyes. ‘Kitten?’ The
green eyes blinked, and that was it.

With another, larger sigh, Dulcie pulled herself to her
feet. Just this morning, she had been sure something was
going to happen. A third-year grad student, she’d had
sections to teach and hadn’t been able to stick around. But
all day, through Dickens and Poe, she’d been thinking.
Waiting for the moment she could run home. And an hour ago,
she’d broken away, postponed a tutorial with three students
who didn’t seem to care much anyway, and thrown herself on
to the floor to be at eye level with the tiny tuxedoe’d
beast. The kitten had stared at her with such
concentration, she’d felt certain they were going to have a
breakthrough. Then, nothing.

‘That’s fine, then. Play dumb.’ Sliding a full book bag on
to her shoulder she gave the small feline a parting
look. ‘But don’t think this is the last of it.’

Buttoning the heavy wool duffle coat she’d dug out of
storage only two weeks before, Dulcie clumped down the
stairs to the apartment’s front door. If she’d looked up as
she fished her keys from her pocket, she might have seen
the kitten tilt its head as if listening to something in
the silent flat. She might have seen the tiny cat jump up
and hurry to the head of the stairs, the better to view
Dulcie’s red-brown curls disappearing through the door’s
small window. If Dulcie had glanced back just then, she
might have seen the kitten’s small pink mouth open in a
soft ‘mew.’