Chapter 3: Harvey

I was walking past a group of Batman villains that were just about to pose for a big group picture. I stopped for just a second to watch when a tiny black hand equipped with shiny silver claws pulled me by my cane into the picture. I put on my best quizzical expression and looked right at the camera. It took a few minutes for all the flashes in my eyes to clear before I saw her up close.

She was wearing the Catwoman costume from the Tim Burton movie. It was really well made and she looked as if she was poured into it. I kept trying not to stare but her eyes kept pulling me back to her. She was only about 5’4 and had curves in all the right places. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect shape for a woman. She grabbed my cane again and pulled me off to the side out of the view of other people.

“What’s green and handsome and hasn’t told me his name?” she shouted over the noise. I scrunched up my face and replied “Edward Nigma?” and smiled. I wasn’t used to a girl who was so forward. She laughed and started to walk away. “What should I call you? Kitten?” I asked playfully. “Selina” was all I caught as she disappeared into the mass of people. I was instantly entranced by her. I was never that smooth with girls or did I like bossy seeming women but she was something else. I watched her disappear into the crowd.

I spent the next two hours roaming the floor trying to find her again. The whole time I was roaming I was perfecting a cat-based riddle I heard when I was a kid. I repeated it over and over again under my breath so that when I saw her I wouldn’t mess it up. Then, there she was. She was surrounded by three other girls all in costume. They were sitting on the floor waiting for a panel on cosplay makeup when I walked up and sat down next to her and pulled out a comic. I started flipping through the pages as appealingly as I could muster. I just waited and flipped. Finally, she gave in.

“Umm Mr. Riddler can I help you with something?” she said in a mock sexy voice. Without turning to her I said. “If you can answer one riddle I will leave and never come back.” She turned her head like a kitten “Who says that’s what I want?” the panic building inside me was reaching critical mass. “Well is that what you want?”

“I like to play with my food before I eat it,” she said even more sexily. I swallowed hard and said, “What’s a cat’s favorite color?” She was silent and I could see her face out of the corner of my eye. I kept turning pages and not reading. “Salmon?” she replied unsurely. I let a laugh escape on accident. “Was I right?” she pawed at my arm eagerly. “I’m afraid not Kitty Cat,” I said suavely “You’re officially stuck with me. I’ve been thinking about getting a cat for a long time now.”

She let out a low growl. “Meow! I’m more of an outside cat and I don’t think you could handle me.”

We both laughed and kept talking. She told me she was from a town called Bremerton but was looking to move to Seattle but couldn’t find work. She had just gotten out of art school but didn’t know how to turn that into a job. I laughed at all her jokes and she mine. She told me her favorite comic book character was Batgirl and I tested her for about an hour with trivia questions about Barbara Gordon. She was way more solid than I had expected and her answers were thoughtful and amazing. She told me that she was way more in love with science fiction than comics and for some reason that made me feel even better about her.

With every new word she spoke, I was being pulled closer and closer to her. She was mesmerizing in every way I was not used to. She broke through all my many layers of defenses without even trying. We probably would have kept talking for hours but the door behind us opened suddenly and everyone started shuffling inside. Probably just in time too, her friends were starting to stare daggers at me. We both got to our feet and stood awkwardly for a second before she asked “What was the answer to your riddle?” I leaned in and whispered “Purrrple” rolling my r’s as best as I could. She laughed really hard and then placed her black lips on mine. A nuclear bomb could have gone off and I wouldn’t have noticed. She pulled away and vanished into the room behind us. I stood there for a few minutes in shock suddenly realizing I don’t even know her name.