Portraits revealed through your current reading position.
The big orange tomcat from Carl's old apartment building — Donut's outdoor nemesis, glimpsed asleep and safe in a what-if room.
Gravy Boat is the large orange tomcat once owned by Carl's neighbor Marjory Williams in their Earth apartment building — the cat formerly called Ferdinand, who used to sit in the cat tree outside and harass Princess Donut, much to Miss Beatrice's annoyance. In the L'Engle Building's what-if apartment 231, Carl and Donut find a redecorated version of a first-floor unit where Marjory and her friend Alicia sit with X'd-out eyes while Gravy Boat snores peacefully at the top of a scratched cat tree — his eyes, like all dogs' and living pets', not crossed out. The scene quietly dramatizes Marjory's real-world plight: her abusive ex 'Bill,' who drained her bank account, broke her face, nearly killed her cat, and now violates a restraining order — the trouble that once brought police to Carl's building three days running.
Carl connects it to something the previous-floor NPC Ferdinand had told him about a man named Bill. A small, aching Earth-memory folded into the AI's simulation, ending on the odd detail that this timeline's Marjory even has a bag of Donut's special-order Royal Canin cat food.
A large orange tomcat with a swishing tail, curled asleep and snoring at the top of a scratched cat tree.
Carl's old neighbor's orange tomcat and Donut's outdoor nemesis, glimpsed safe in a what-if apartment.
Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings: