Friday Night
"Stefie, are you playing with my silver fox stole?" The enquirer continued moving along the row of furs as she awaited the reply. She would occasionally stop and delve between two furs and check that the stole had not been placed under a coat, jacket, or cape. She was about to call out again when a movement brought her about to face a fur clad Stefie, a Stefie clad in a white fox hip length cape and blue jeans.
"No Trina, I have not touched that one lately. In fact I can't recall seeing it at all in the last two weeks, since you went over to Harvey's." Whilst speaking, Stefie's hands were stroking the fur. "I must buy a coat of white fox one day... " a smile "or would it be another reward?"
Katarina's face had blushed at mention of Harvey's name, but it had been missed by Stefie, too interested in the sensations that fingers and palms were encountering from the silky guardhairs of the cape. She went to speak, then thought the better, and returned to seeking out something to wear, muttering softly to herself.
"Now Trina, you keep on with that muttering and I might start to believe that old age is catching up to you... hmmm Alzheimer's even." Laughter filled the room that was now serving as a closet for Katarina, who continued her search, finally stopping before two sable coats.
"Would sable be too much for tonight?" It was a rhetorical question, as Stefie had no idea what the occasion was. Katarina removed a golden sable coat and hung it from a convenient hook, opened it and slide from the cross bar a golden sable stole. "A stole should be sufficient." She replaced the coat and moved passed a still stroking Stefie into her bedroom. The stole was placed on the bed, and she walked into the bathroom, closing the door fractionally then turning back. "Stefie, do me a favour and check that the silver fox stole isn't in there. I could be losing it, but I would have sworn that I had brought it home from Harvey's." The door closed before Stefie could reply. Stefie smiled at the closed door and moved back into the other room.
So began a slow movement down the row of fur. The room was 12 foot by 15 foot, and at one time had been the main bedroom of the house, but that had been many years ago, before Stefie's birth. The furs were along the longer wall and then along the wall opposite the doorway until they reached the narrow floor to ceiling window, now filled with a frosted pane. The rail set at six foot from the ground so that the tips of even Katarina's longest stole would not touch the floor unless on purpose. On the opposite wall, non-fur items all neatly spaced along the racks with her shoes sitting at an angle of forty-five degrees to the floor. Stefie loved entering this room and now that an inspection was required, it was a task that would not be taken lightly. Every coat, jacket, stole, cape, stroller was stroked, opened, moved, brushed against and finally checked to ensure it wasn't harbouring the recalcitrant silver fox stole. After forty minutes, the stole had failed to reveal its presence.
Stefie left the room and sat down on the corner of the bed, waiting for Katarina to reappear. The door opened almost at the same instant, and Katarina's appearance drew a long whistle of appreciation.
"Harvey is going to get a nice surprise tonight." Katarina smiled, eyes bright, pirouetted and then walked slowly across to the bed, where she lifted the stole and draped it over her naked shoulders. Stefie's smile increased in intensity as Katarina went to the cheval mirror and inspected her reflection. "Yep, if he hasn't put the hard word on you before, he sure will tonight, or else he is as I have long suspected."
"And what have you long suspected, Stefan?" She was facing him, and had taken the tip of the stole and was stroking it over her hand, smiling wickedly.
"That Harvey is as bent as a hairpin." Katarina's face hardened suddenly.
"Do you really think Harvey is gay?" The laugh was not meant to please. "Stefan, you poor misguided fool, he is just as straight as you." She turned and gazed at her reflection, "You are straight, aren't you?"
"MOTHER!" Stefan's reply brooked no argument. He sat upon the bed, and glared at her. Not even a smile could change his expression, his hands falling to his sides. She approached the bed, flicked out the tip of the stole so it brushed his face and then sat down beside him.
"See, hon, sometimes one shouldn't presume." She stroked his cheek tenderly, and the anger dissipated. "Believe me when I say that Harvey is not gay. Far from it. He sometimes makes your father look like a wimp." At mention of his father, Stefan turned and looked at his mother. Her face had suddenly aged and a semblance of a tear had formed. Before it could gather momentum, she wiped her eyes, faced Stefan, kissed him on his cheek, her arms holding him close, and the white fox stirring her as had the sable before it. She released him and rose. "Now, just what do you intend to do with your Friday night?"
"Stay at home and "he stopped and smiled, "try not to stain any clothing."
"So I can expect to see you when I get home?"
"Not going to stay overnight?"
"Stefie, you have been home for three weeks and we have hardly talked, what with you running about catching up with your friends. I am surprised that you are not going out tonight though. Anything wrong?"
"No Trina, I just feel like a quiet night at home. I still have a bag I have to unpack. Europe was fun, but I suppose I should think about work. Tom Morgan's offer is still good, and I have decided that Albany is a nice place to start off my high-flying legal career." He rose. "Means I don't have to worry about finding a place to live in New York, and that is a definite blessing in disguise." His mother smiled, rose, and started for the hallway.
"I think you'll still make the odd trip to New York, though my dear." She looked at her watch, "Seven Fifteen. Where is that man?" Another peek on his cheek and she disappeared down the hall. He heard the doorbell, and seconds late the sound of the door opening and then closing. Left to his own devices, he again returned to the closet, and whiled away a pleasurable hour or so.
His mother did have a very impressive fur collection, one that had started when she was just eighteen. Thirty-five years on, and Steve (for that was his name, Steven Jonathon Viduka, his mother refusing or maybe honouring him by calling him Stefie after his great grandfather, could not remember a year when she had not added to the collection.
In his childhood, it was a common trip to go to New York in January for the post-Christmas sales. He remembered sitting quietly in the fur salon as the furrier and Katarina talked about various furs and what the future held. Now, what his future held was a career with Morgan Associates; a start there in the New Year, and maybe a finish like his father's, as senior partner. These and many other thoughts went through his mind as he moved along the furs. The white fox cape had been replaced on its hanger and he felt the chill of the night. He left the furs and made his way to the kitchen, sort out the coffee and brewed one.
Shivering slightly, he walked briskly back to his room, coffeemug in hand. He stopped at the doorway and looked about it, thinking back to the first time he had entered this room after his father's death. It had been then he had decided that the Law was what he wanted. The sight of the bookcase filled with law books and publications had caused the decision, and that bookcase resembled the clutter of a busy man as it did now. The room was much changed however.
