Picture Dictionary & Books : Free for English Learner!

"O.K., I guess." We walk along a little ways.

"The job's not bad, but I don't want to be a florist all my life, and I can't see this job will train me for anything else."

That seems pretty true.

It must be tough not getting regular holidays off, too.

"You have to work all day tomorrow?" I ask.

"I open the store up at seven and start working on orders we've already got. I'll get through around three or four."

"Hey, you want to come for dinner? We're not eating till evening."

Tom grins.

"You cooking the dinner? Maybe you better ask your mother."

"It'll be all right with Mom. Look, I'll ask her and come let you know in the store tomorrow, O.K.?"

"Hmm. Well, sure. Thanks. I've got a date with Hilda later in the evening, but she's got to eat with her folks first."

"O.K. See you tomorrow."

"Right."

Mom says it's all right about Tom coming, so I go down and tell him in the morning.

Turns out Mom has asked Kate to have dinner with us, too, which is quite a step.

For Kate, I mean.

I think she would have turned the invitation down, except no one can bear to hurt Mom's feelings.

Kate's been in our house before, of course, but then she just came in to chat or have tea or something.

It wasn't like an invitation.

She comes, and she looks like someone from another world.

I've never seen her in anything but her old skirts and sneakers, so the "good clothes" she's wearing now must have been hanging in a closet twenty years.

The dress and shoes are way out of style, and she's carrying a real old black patent-leather pocketbook.

Usually she just lugs her old cloth shopping bag, mostly full of cat goodies.

Come to think of it, that's it: Kate lives in a world that is just her own and the cats'.

I never saw her trying to fit into the ordinary world before.

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