Transcendental Friendship

This morning, shortly after I awoke, I rose, opened the French doors in our bedroom to let in light and fresh air, and came back to bed with my laptop and my Chaucer to start the day with a little light work. It was a beautiful morning, sunny and cool with a light breeze. Before I could open the book and find my place in the Pardoner's Tale, there were two black forms looking out the door.

We have cats—sisters—and two of them are black with green eyes, almost perfectly matched in size, color, and shape. One must know what to look for to tell them apart, and even then a fairly close examination is necessary. They sat side-by-side, like two soot-blackened fireplace dogs, staring through the screen door. To my eyes they didn't interact with one another at all. Each was engaged in her own observation of the morning activity outside. Occasionally, however, their languid, independent leaning and head bobbing would become rapid and perfectly synchronized whole-body choreography, as if they were a pair of well-timed animatronics in a Disney ride. It didn't take much inferential skill to determine the cause of this. This coordination was occasioned by the flight of birds and butterflies across their field of observation.

I called my wife's attention to this little demonstration of sisterly accord and she propped herself up on her pillow and watched them with a smile. I continued to work on my reading, dreading the long day of grading that awaited me, especially in light of the two final papers I needed to begin for my own coursework. She, I knew, was thinking about the shopping she was planning to do this morning. Shortly, I finished the Pardoner's Prologue and, rather than begin the tale proper, I silently decided it was time to get up and get moving. As I leaned forward and placed my left foot on the floor, Laura performed the exact same movement, but with her right foot touching the floor at the same time, a rapid and perfectly synchronized whole-body choreography, as if we were a pair of well-timed animatronics in a Disney ride.