Chapter 5. The Rufus Maneuver, Revisited
Bill Maxwell crouched down, with his hand inside the box of biscuits.
"Now, listen up, boys and girls, no more than three each," Bill ordered, passing out the biscuit rations, in preparation for this latest trial run of the Rufus Maneuver.
Bill stood up as the mice fed milk bones to the red haired pup.
"I normally don't linger in front of a strange man's house..." the woman began.
"Well, I bet you don't take cans of tuna fish from them either!" Bill smiled at the woman, who all of a sudden looked uncomfortable standing on the front lawn dressed like a pussycat vixen.A Feline Femme Fatale.
"I feel like a fool," she confessed, grabbing at her tail with one hand, holding onto canned fish in the other. Bill realized, to his delight, that she was not the vixen she pretended to be. Instead, she was suddenly insecure, standing in leotards and long gloves in front of an attractive man.
"Are you kidding?" Bill asked, inspecting her in her costume. "You look...uh...you look..."
"Ridiculous?"
"Trust me, sweetheart, that's not what I was going to say."
She looked back at the agent, and handed the tuna back to him.
"Nah, you keep it."
She giggled at the thought, then laughed again.
"I don't have anywhere to put it?"
"No pockets?"
"Couldn't even squeeze in a set of keys..."
Bill smiled, appreciatively, then turned to watch as Rufus bounced around in front of the pair of mice that towered over him. Bill glanced back and forth between the kids and the woman in black, hoping that she could be convinced to accept a ride home tonight.
As the mice scurried on the lawn, the pussycat took possession of their baskets of candy. As other children approached, they gathered around Rufus and his rodent regiment. Every once in a while, when one of the pirates, witches or robots demanded a treat, the cat secretly dipped her black paw into one of her nephews' baskets, stole a sweet, then under the cover of darkness, secretly placed it in Bill's hand. She decided that she enjoyed watching him as he awkwardly passed them out. And each time they conducted the stealth maneuver, they exchanged playful, knowing smiles.