Kate P.

It's eight o'clock in the morning and young Kate Pierson is goofing around between two glass panes. Know where she ended up? Owner of Kate's Lazy Meadow Motel, in Mt. Tremper, NY. That actually sounds perfect to me. In my pre-adolescent mind, I think of how cool it would be to own a business, especially a hotel in the Catskills. I hope Kate is enjoying her coffee right now, and is sunk half-deep in a dogeared Dave Robicheaux novel. Maybe she's got a lover again, finally.

She's a local gal, an aging hippie woodworker who does antique furniture repair. She'll pick Kate up at six tonight & they'll go to dinner at Dot's, then the drive-in. She'll make no reference to Kate's past. And Kate won't ask too many questions about hers. They'll just sit and enjoy the moment, the togetherness of it all, and the snow will be piled all around them in sometimes pristine, sometimes begrimed piles.