Ghost Cat - Thelma's Dilemma (9 page)

Jim let Cooper run around the back yard for
a while, gave him his breakfast and put fresh water into the bowls
before writing a note to Sarah and leaving for the day.

He was not even to the end of their street
before Thelma was pouring herself a large mug of coffee with a lot
of cream in it and eating a piece of pumpkin bread, giving Cooper a
big chunk for himself.

Thelma knew that it would be awhile before
Sarah and the girls would get out of bed, but she also knew that
she could not be one hundred percent sure about that either. She
took her coffee to the downstairs bathroom, took a quick shower,
went back upstairs to get another cup of coffee and the journal,
and went back downstairs to the basement.

Thelma was deep into the reading of the
journal when she heard an alarm go off. She thought it was still
too early for Sarah and the girls to get up, but then she
remembered that Sarah had promised to take the girls out for
breakfast. Thelma quickly drank the rest of her coffee and turned
herself back into cat form.

When Thelma got to the top of the basement
stairs, she saw Sarah in the kitchen, reading the note Jim had left
her. Thelma had seen Jim write it, but she didn’t care enough to
read what he had written, she had been too intent on getting to the
coffee as soon as she could.

Sarah poured herself a cup of coffee and
then walked into the girl’s room to wake them up. She then sat down
at the kitchen table to wait for them to get dressed.

“This sounded like a better idea last night
than it sounds like this morning.” Riley said, coming into the
kitchen still half asleep.

Suzanne ran into the kitchen holding her
stuffed toy. “Me and Mr. Pickles are ready to go eat, mom!”

Riley noticed the paper on the table. “Dad
left you a note?”

“Yes, we had a discussion last night and I
guess this is his way of making up for it, although, I don’t know
why he only made enough coffee for one cup, not even.” Sarah
said.

“We will make it work, don’t worry, enjoy
the coffee, love Jim.” Suzanne read from the note. “Make what work,
mommy?

“I’ll tell you in the car, make sure you
bring your book bags with you, I’ll be dropping you off at school
after breakfast.” Sarah told them.

“Can we go to I-Hop?” Riley asked. “You got
it!” Sarah said.

Thelma made herself and Cooper French toast
and bacon and she made herself another pot of coffee. She went to
the computer and keyed in Gertie’s address, which she got from
Sarah’s address book on the desk. She found the route between there
and where she was now. The only problem that Thelma could determine
was getting herself and Ophelia into Jim’s vehicle when they went
back to Tennessee. They had to be there, they could do nothing from
here, especially if someone were given the task of pet sitting
them.

Thelma really wanted to go next door and
talk to Ophelia, but as she had told Thelma, Mrs. Johnson rarely
went anywhere. Thelma inspected the trunk again and found nothing
new of interest there. She was successful in finding the red ring.
Sarah had placed it into a jewelry box that was sitting on her
bedroom dresser.

Thelma thought about it, then placed the
ring back into the jewelry box.
As long as I know where to come
to get it before we leave, it makes more sense not to take it now.
If Sarah notices it missing, there would be a big search, that
won’t do.

Thelma wished that she could let Ophelia
read her mother’s journal, but she just did not see how she could
make that happen. It was imperative that Sarah read the journal
before their trip.

Gertie had made it very clear in the journal
how she wanted her ashes to be taken to the Kentucky/Tennessee
border. She actually gave the
latitude, longitude and elevation. Thelma knew that Jim would
have to have time to determine the exact spot. Thelma did not want
to rely on Don’s memory of what Gertie might have told
him.

The
other problem which was also
bothering Thelma, was the ring. If Sarah read that the ring had
powers, she would certainly not want to part with it until she
found out what they were. She might even take it back to Gertie’s
house with them to ask someone there about it.

Thelma knew
that Sarah had already seen the page with the poem about the ring,
but she also knew that Sarah had not finished reading the
journal,
mostly because of
Thelma hiding it, but also because she has been busy and apparently
forgotten about it.

Thelma carefully
inspected the pages that held the sentences about the ring and it
having power. The other side of that page was mostly about how much
she had loved John. Thelma very carefully took that page out of the
journal. Sarah could not read what was not there.

Although there
were references about Gertie being ‘different’ than John and about
how he would never understand her life, there were no clear cut
words stating exactly what she meant. Thelma read those parts over
several times, trying to put her mindset in the human way of
reading and understanding. She finally was satisfied that no
secretes would be learned by Sarah reading her journal. Gertie had
been very careful.

Thelma jumped when
the phone rang. She quickly logged off of the computer and went to
stand by the kitchen to hear if someone would leave a message. If
it were the vet asking for a reschedule of Sarah taking Thelma in
for shots, she would answer it and make quick work of that
notion.

“
Hello Sarah,
this is Adela Johnson, your neighbor. I was just wondering if you
would have time to help me out today. It should not take long, but
I would love to go to the mall and get some new pajamas for our
trip.
I don’t drive that way
myself anymore because I would have to get onto the expressway and
I am not comfortable with driving so fast. If you are too busy, I
understand. Please let me know, thanks, bye.”

Cooper barked and
Thelma did not even take time to look out the window. She spun
herself and was Gertie the cat again. She was glad that she had
turned off the computer and washed up the breakfast dishes she had
used earlier.

Sarah came in the
back door, keeping it open so Cooper could run outside. She petted
Gertie on the head and then noticed the red light blinking on her
phone. Sarah listened to the message and then microwaved herself a
cup of tea and took out several pumpkin cookies. She gave one to
Gertie, which Gertie devoured quickly, and then she sat down at the
table to drink her tea and have her cookies. After a few minutes,
she let Cooper back into the house.

“Well, Cooper, it
looks like Jim was right – Mrs. Johnson does sound like she is
planning to be gone longer than we wanted to be gone for. Adela, I
will have to let Jim know that I do know Mrs. Johnson’s first name.
I guess I’d better get to it.”

Sarah went to the
bathroom and then called her neighbor. “Good morning, Adela. I have
some time now if you would like to go to the mall. No, it is not
necessary that you treat me to lunch, I am happy to help you. Well,
we will see, are you ready to go right now? Yes, I spoke with Jim
about the trip. Well, we haven’t figured out an exact day or time
yet, but we will. Yes, we will give you plenty of notice before we
leave. Come over now and we will go.”

“My goodness that
woman is chatty. This will really be a long trip with her in the
car.” She told Cooper.

To Sarah’s chagrin
and to Thelma’s delight, Mrs. Johnson appeared at the door holding
Snowball.

“I thought we could
let the two cats visit with each other while we are gone. Snowball
is not used to being left alone.” Mrs. Johnson said, putting the
cat on the floor.

Sarah did not
know what to say about that, so she said nothing. “Let’s go
then.”

If anyone would have
been driving by the house they might have noticed a heavy cloud of
blue smoke. Thelma and Ophelia stood face to face in Sarah’s
kitchen.

“Coffee?” Offered
Thelma. “Oh my God, YES!” Ophelia said. “What else do you
have?”

Thelma got out the
cookies, pumpkin bread and as a special treat, made Ophelia an
omelet with bacon. “This is heaven!” Ophelia purred, even though
she was in human form. Thelma also made sure to give Cooper a few
more cookies. “I am just glad that Sarah bakes in bulk!” Thelma
said.

Thelma got Gertie’s
journal and showed her the page she had torn out so that Sarah
would not see it. Ophelia also wanted to see the trunk and whatever
was in it. She especially lingered over one of the quilts that
Sarah had at the end of her bed now.

“I remember when my
mom made this.” She said. “Tell me all about Enchanted.”

“I promise I will,
but I think time would be best spent now planning how we are going
to be able to be in the van when the rest of them go back.” Gertie
said.

“
Could I
please take a shower first? I tried jumping into the bathtub when
Mrs. Johnson was done bathing a few times, but the old lady always
catches me and then shuts the bathroom door.” Ophelia
said.

“I think we have
time, use the bathroom downstairs, less chance of someone noticing
that the tub is wet. Don’t take too long. I will clean up these
dishes while you are doing that.”

“Thank you a million
times!” Ophelia said, running down the stairs to the basement.

Thelma used her time
wisely. She printed out the exact location of the phantom exit
using something the computer called Google Earth. She had two other
copies and put one of them into the journal, folded up many times,
trying to make the paper appear old. She finished up in the kitchen
and did some serious thinking before she became impatient for
Ophelia to come back upstairs.

Thelma went to the
basement and spoke through the bathroom door asking Ophelia if she
were done yet. Ophelia said she was and opened the door, standing
there in a big bath towel.

“What on earth is
that smell?” Thelma asked.

“Something called
Summer Rain, it was in that bottle over there. It smelled so good I
used it on my hair and in the bath.

“You can’t be
smelling like that when they get back home. There would be no
explanation for it. “Thelma told her much younger cousin.

Ophelia turned
and knocked the bottle over, letting what was left of the contents
run onto the floor. “Now there is!” She laughed. Put that towel in
the hamper and let’s get back upstairs. Cooper is very good about
barking to let me know when someone is on their way in, but what if
he takes a nap and does not hear them.’

“
I can hear
that garage door open all the way in Mrs. Johnson’s kitchen.”
Ophelia said, only getting to the second to the last word of her
sentence before Cooper started to bark.

Ophelia started to
spin, hitting Thelma in the face with the towel, which she
neglected to take off before spinning.

When Thelma and
Ophelia ran into the kitchen, they were both surprised to see Jim
standing there instead of Sarah and Mrs. Johnson.

“
Is that you,
Snowball? How did you get over here?” Jim said, and then noticed
the still red light on the answering machine
indicating a message that Sarah did not delete. Jim
listened and groaned.

He made himself a
sandwich and grabbed a can of beer out of the refrigerator. Thelma
licked her lips.

Jim picked up
the phone and dialed. “Hey, Bob, this is Jim. I know this is short
notice, but would you be able to run over here to let the dog out
and to make sure the cats do not tear up the house?” Jim listened
and then said “We are planning to leave as soon as the girls get
out of school, actually. Well, I took several days off of work, but
I am determined not to use them all up on this trip. Sarah and I
got stuck having to deal with Gertie’s ashes and….Oh, Barbara told
you? Yeah, well, what do you think? Yeah, two cats, one is the
neighbor’s pet, she is going with us, that is a story for the ages,
tell you about it when we get back, you won’t believe it! Oh, I
forgot about that, and John and Jennifer are going with you? No,
than is O.K., I knew this was a long shot since its short, or make
that no, notice. We will figure out something. Tell Barb we send
our best. Bye.”

Thelma and
Ophelia looked at each other in panic
. Leaving right after the girls get out of
school?
Jim went to the
bathroom and Thelma ran into the living room and dragged out
Gertie’s journal with the new map in it. She put it right by the
kitchen chair that Jim had been sitting in. She had to make sure
that he saw it, and saw it now!

Instead of walking
over to the kitchen table where he had been before his trip to the
bathroom, Jim instead went to the computer and turned it on. Thelma
and Ophelia did not know what to do.

Thank Goodness
that Cooper did. He picked up the journal carefully in his teeth
and took it over to the computer and plopped it right into Jim’s
lap. “Whoa, Cooper, what is this?” Jim said, right before he took
it and sat it down next to the computer screen. He then got back up
and came into the kitchen to retrieve his beer.
Before going back to the computer he went to the
kitchen and cut himself another slice of pie.

Gertie made a
mad dash and jumped onto the computer table, knocking the journal
onto the keyboard. Jim scolded the cat and was about to push the
notebook aside again, when he saw the map sticking out of it. “Hey,
this is just what I need, thanks Gertie!” He then got up, not
taking the journal and he walked into the bedroom.