"Oooh," Naline rolled on her back and stretched her little
kitten paws in the air.  Her great big bellyful of food made
it look like she'd swallowed a cannonball, "I ate too much!"

  She had.  And so had I.  We had emptied the cooler full of
food and now we were laying in the shade, getting sleepy in
the warm afternoon.  We had sampled meats and cold cuts and
steaks and birds and fishes and such until we had eaten more
than any living creature ought to be allowed to.

  "It's good for you."

  "Everybody in the pride is going to wonder where I got all
this food."

  "Eh, just tell them you caught a rhinoceros."

  "I can't tell them that," she giggled at the thought,
"they'd never believe it."


  "Okay, tell them you found a recently expired herd of
elephants and got to eating them all."

  "Noo, then they'll want to know where it is so we can all
share it."

  "This is harder than I thought.  Just tell them you have a
friend mercenary that flashes in from parts unknown every so
often and stuffs you full of food."

  We both glanced at each other.  "Naah," we shook our heads
together with a smile.

  "Why don't you just charm them?  All's you got to do is
bat your long eyelashes and look coy and innocent..."

  "Like this?"  She tilted her head just so and flashed her
big green eyes, making the single most innocent face
imaginable.  You might have caught her breaking into your
house, stealing your valuable stuff and carrying it all out
your front door while she set fire to everything else.  But
when she made that face, you would have found it impossible
to believe that she had had anything at all in the world to
do with it.


  "Yeah, that one."  It was uncanny how innocent she could
look.  "You know, Kitten, it's a good thing you haven't gone
into crime."

  "Why's that?"  She responded with a silly grin.

  "Because you could commit any single unimaginably awful
crime, and whenever they came to arrest you, all you'd have
to do is make that face and they'd let you go."

  "Really?"

  "Yeh."  Hmm, it perhaps would be better to put a little
disclaimer at this point.  "But you wouldn't, right?"

  "Do what?"  She made her innocent face again.


  "That.  That face you just made.  To charm people and make
them do your bidding and get out of trouble."

  "Maybe."

  "Maybe you better not.  Or I'll show up and tell them how
you really aren't as nice and cute and innocent as they
think."

  "They wouldn't believe you."

  "Well, then I'd have to somehow convince you aren't as
wonderful and graceful as they make you out to be."  A bright
idea occurred to me.  "Maybe I'll tell them about that time
when you stepped in the ostrich doo-doo."

  "Nooo," she flipped right up and gave me a pleading look,
"you wouldn't"


  "Yes I would."  She looked positively horrified.  "And then
I'd tell them about that other time when it was
raining..."

  "No!  Don't tell them that story!"  If there's anything
that little girls Naline's age can't stand is to be
embarrassed.  Who had the advantage now, Kitten?  Scratch one
up for 'ol Cruz.

  "Or maybe..." Which dreadfully shameful story could I bring
up next?

  "Not the one with the giraffe!"  She had guessed it.

  "Well, I hadn't thought about that one, but thanks for
suggesting it."  That got her.

  She scrambled up from where she was laying and jumped on my
chest.  "You won't!"  She examined my expression, trying to
read my intentions.  "You wouldn't!"


  "Hmm, well, it is a very good story.  Then when the giraffe
said..." I chuckled a bit, bobbing her up and down on my
ribcage.

  "If you ever tell anyone that story, I'll be very mad at
you and never be your friend again."  There was more pleading
than indignation in her voice.

  "Let me think about it."  I rolled my eyes around for a
while and pretended to be in deep mental deliberation.  You
know, it's great fun to mess with kid's minds.  It's one of
my favorite hobbies.  And Naline's is the most fun mind to
mess with.  I let her stew for a little while longer until
she seemed like she wouldn't be able to maintain her sanity
any longer.  "Oh, okay, I won't ever tell."

  "Promise?"

  "Kitten, you know you're my favorite little lioness and
that I'd never ever do anything to embarrass you."  She
didn't seem at all certain of that fact.  "I think you're
the nicest, kindest, most wonderfully friendly kitten I've
ever met."

  "Really?"


  "Yeh.  Really."  I'd gotten her a little riled up, and this
was going to take somewhat more finessing to get her all
settled again.  "I mean it."  She still looked a bit
doubtful.

  "Hey, how could I ever say anything bad about you?  You're
smart, quick on your feet, and sharp as a thistle."

  "What's a thistle?"

  "It's a carnivorous plant that eats really cute lionesses
for breakfast."

  A small grin broke through.  "It is not."

  "See, that's what I'm talking about.  Smart, cute, and
intelligent to boot."  She tried not to show how pleased she
was, but it was leaking out really badly.  "Won't you smile
for me?"


  She attempted to hold it in, but was being less and less
successful with each passing second.  "Please?"

  Finally, she couldn't contain herself any longer and let
free a bright cheerful smile that probably had all the boy
lions drooling after her.  Mission accomplished.

  "Say, would you mind?"  I nodded off to the side, "I can't
breathe."  She gently stepped off me and curled up into a big
furry ball, purring happily beside me.  If I had been able
to, I would have purred too.  I mean, how could I not be
happy?  I had my best kitten friend beside me, we'd eaten
tons of great chow, and now we had the whole remainder of the
day to nap and chat and rest in the shade.  What more could I
ask for?

  I sighed deeply and looked up into the sky.  Specks of
sunlight flickered through the leafy canopy overhead, forming
a shining, living picture of green and gold.  A gentle wind
rustled in the trees, filling the air with just the kind of
whispering murmur that makes you relaxed and happy all over,
inside and out.

  "Say, how's your parents?  Your mom, your dad?"

  "They're okay.  Same as always."


  "Brother, sister?"  Naline had been part of a litter of
three.  Or so she had told me.

  "Well, he's finally beginning to grow a decent mane.  My
sister's learning how to hunt, but she's not as good as me."
I sensed the pride in that last statement.

  "Say," I rolled over to my side so I could get a good
gander at Naline, "how's Phil?"

  Phil, by the way, was Naline's beau.  Or he was, last time
I saw her.  He had been so for a while.  Come to think of it,
the first time I ever heard about Phil was back in the jungle
when Naline and I first met.

  Incidentally, Phil wasn't his real name, but a pseudonym.
Naline was kinda shy about telling me, a then total stranger,
the name of her then love interest.  So to protect his
anemonemity, as Naline had put it, we agreed to call him
Phil.  The name had stuck, and we called him Phil whenever
we talked about him.  Hey, I respect people's anemones.

  "Oh, he's fine."


  "Has he realized yet that he's the luckiest lion in the
savanna for having you as a friend?"  Back then she'd
complained that he was real nice in private, but real un-
nice when in public.  I'd told Naline it was just a stage he
was going through, and that he would change with time.

  "Yeah, I guess."

  "What, doesn't he still like you?"

  "Yeh."  I'd heard that tone of voice before.  It had always
come from disappointed girls that weren't too happy with the
guys they were with.

  "Hey," I gently touched her chin with my finger and slowly
turned her head so I could look at her straight in the eye,
"don't tell me he's still not over that silly stage."

  I had told Naline that acting mean towards girls was just
a temporary stage of life that all boys went through.  That
is unless... hmm.  A troubling thought intruded in my mind.
There were some young guys that didn't mistreat girls because
they thought they were yucky.  There were some guys that
mistreated girls just because they were jerks.


  "No, not yet"

  "Hey, don't let it bother you.  I'm sure he'll get over it
real quick and then treasure you forever like a rare and
precious jewel."

  "What's a jewel?"

  I gently tapped the tip of her nose.  "It's you."

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