Putting the Mellon family's ball behind him, Henry stopped worrying about the trouble in Massachusetts. With the Arden Family out of power and stripped of most of its resources, there was little it could do beyond resorting to underhanded schemes.
Having finally sent off Black Widow, who had been watching his every move, Henry at last had time to return to his considerable backlog of research. The only complication was that the two little girls had started their summer vacation. To keep an eye on the two minors, Katharine Hepburn had abandoned her hands-off approach and now took them wherever she went.
Their favorite activity lately was still walking the tiger in Central Park. Since Kitty's prejudice against mutants showed no signs of fading, only Katharine Hepburn and Skye competed for the chance to hold the tiger's chain.
When it came time to play Frisbee, though, every time Skye threw the metal disc for Kitty to chase, Lorna seized the opportunity to get back at Kitty for refusing to get close to her. Whenever "Tabby Cat" lunged to catch the Frisbee in her teeth, Lorna used her mutant power to move it away, leaving Kitty snapping at empty air.
Watching them, Henry honestly couldn't decide which one was being petty: "Tabby Cat," who wanted to take a detour whenever she saw a mutant, or Lorna, who insisted on playing with Kitty despite being shunned.
Sometimes Katharine Hepburn had Henry bring his easel and painting supplies along, and sometimes she didn't. Today, she sat on the grass beside Henry, both of them beneath the shade of a tree.
The summer sun was harsh even in New York, with its relatively high latitude. Still, compared with the heat waves that would regularly send temperatures soaring to 40°C around Europe's Mediterranean coast in