Ghost Cat - Thelma's Dilemma (5 page)

Suzanne and Riley came into the house and
threw their book bags onto the couch. A couple of papers flew out
of Suzanne’s book bag and landed behind the couch. Thelma quickly
picked them up with her teeth and dropped them in front of the
couch. It wouldn’t do to have Suzanne or anyone else look behind
the couch, they might see where Thelma had hidden the journal.

Sarah made the girls tuna fish sandwiches
and put a bag of corn chips on the table. Thelma’s mouth was
watering and she was feeling very cranky. Her muscles hurt and she
had a lot of investigating to do and could not do anything as long
as everyone was home and awake. She also wanted to dig deeper into
her aunt’s journal.

Sarah helped the girls with their homework
and then took the papers out of the desk to look at them more. She
wrote a few things down and then, notebook in hand, walked into the
kitchen and picked up the phone.

“Don? Hello, this is Sarah Gaunter. How are
you holding up since Gertie passed?” Sarah talked for a while,
consulting her notes. Thelma tried to listen, but it was hard to
understand a one way conversation and Suzanne had put the TV on to
watch cartoons. Suzanne had Thelma squashed in-between a pillow and
her stuffed rabbit, Mr. Pickles, on her lap.

Suzanne finally let Thelma go when she got
up to let Cooper outside. Thelma was tempted to run out behind him.
Although the weather had been horrible when she had first got
there, it hadn’t snowed again since that night. It was still very
cold and windy, but the sun was shining and the fresh air felt good
when the door opened.

What Thelma really wanted was some of that
coffee. Back in Enchanted, Thelma’s Chocolate Shop sold chocolate
coffee and Thelma was very much missing that sweet, hot goodness
now. She wanted to figure out this mystery and get back home and
not have to be in cat form again.

It was bad enough that she stayed in cat
form in her own house when Catherine and Cody were there, but that
was for a purpose. They had called her Twinkle then and by the time
Luna, Hugo and Thelma would return to the village in the spring,
she was certain that Catherine and Cody will have found their own
place to live on the other side of the hill and Thelma could
‘return from Europe’ where Luna had told people her sister was.

With Catherine working at the Chocolate Shop
and her little boy Cody in school, Thelma’s time spent in cat form
was minimal during the day. Sebastian, the man who had come to
Enchanted with his sister Isabel, was kept so busy that he never
had reason to come into Thelma’s house, he and his sister had their
own lodging behind the big house. Of course, that too was
temporary. Everything in Enchanted was being carried out for very
specific reasons.

And I always knew what they were
.
Thelma thought. She wondered if her sister Luna knew of this
mission, or if she were still looking for her.

Thelma felt cranky. She was used to being in
control and she did not like having to walk on all fours, although
she was grateful that she could move much quicker that way. She
walked into the kitchen and jumped first on the table and then on
the counter. She stood before the coffee pot and threw a hissy fit.
“MEOW, YOWL!!!”

Sarah walked into the kitchen. “My goodness,
Gertie, what is the matter with you? That is a coffee pot, it won’t
hurt you.” Sarah then opened a packet of kitty treats and gave one
to Thelma. Thelma quickly batted it onto the floor where Cooper sat
watching the exchange. Cooper ate it and Thelma tried again,
meowing at the coffee pot.

All she got for her trouble was a trip back
to the living room. “NO!” Thelma said. Sarah turned Thelma around
so that they were face to face. “Gertie, did you just tell me
‘No’?”

Thelma did her best to look sad and she said
very quietly “meow”. The phone rang and Sarah went to answer it,
first putting Thelma down onto the couch.
I have to be more
careful.

When Jim came home from work he lit a fire.
Thelma decided to take a nap before the fireplace. The warmth of
the flames felt very good to her. She hated to be cold. It was the
very reason why she, Luna and Hugo never stuck around in Enchanted
during the worse of the winter months. They had always had their
plans in full swing so that they could leave before the winter
came.

Thelma had placed a real white cat into her
house before taking off with her sister and brother in law. Cody
would never know the difference. Of course, in Enchanted Thelma had
plenty of help, here she would have to think of another way for
Gertie the white cat to disappear when Thelma did. She did not want
the little girl, Suzanne, to cry thinking she ran away or got hit
by a car.

Thelma woke up when Sarah announced that
dinner was ready. It was the best time for her to gain information.
Thelma joined Cooper under the family table. Her ears were straight
up and she was ready to listen for anything that might give her a
clue. She did not have to wait long. “I called Don today.” Sarah
told her family.

“Oh? He doing O.K.?” This from Jim.

“Says he is. I had several questions for him
and I was able to get a lot of information out of him, although I
didn’t want to bombard him with too much, I tried to keep it
simple.” Sarah explained.

“So what did you learn from him that we
didn’t already know?” Jim asked, as he filled his plate with roast
beef and broccoli.

“Don said that Gertie and his father were
close, but never married. They were in love and when his father,
his name was John, when John went off to fight in the war, he left
Don with Gertie.”

“Well, that explains the ‘Guardian’ part of
Gertie’s death notice, although it seems silly to mention that now,
at Don’s age.” Jim said.

“Didn’t John’s father come to pick him back
up after he got out of the war?” Riley asked as she reached for
more mashed potatoes.

“Don said he never saw his father again.
Apparently, he was lost somewhere overseas and never made it back
to Gertie and Don. Gertie just continued to raise Don and,
according to Don, Gertie never gave up hope that John would return
to them. Even long after Don did.”

“That is a sad story, mommy.” Suzanne
said.

“Yes, it is sad, but it is also a good
story, because Don had Gertie to love him and take care of him.
Someone else might not have continued to keep a little boy. I don’t
know how old Don had been then, but he couldn’t have been all that
old.”

“Did you ask him about the ring?” Riley
asked her mother.

“I did, and he said he did not know anything
about the ring or anything else that was in the trunk. I asked him
when Gertie had told him to make sure he gave us the trunk and he
said it was only about a year ago.” Sarah said.

“I wonder if that was after she found out
that we were moving back here? I guess we still do not know. Not
that I can see that making any difference anyway.” Jim said. “Did
he say anything else interesting?”

Sarah looked very uncomfortable and seemed
to be chewing her roast beef for an excessive amount of times.

“Sarah?” Jim asked, narrowing his eyes at
his wife. “What are you not telling me?”

“Only that, well, we already knew that
Gertie had been cremated. But apparently she wanted her ashes to be
taken to a specific area. She was very adamant about that,
according to Don.”

“Yeah, and…?”

“And, well, Don said that Gertie wanted us
to be the ones to spread her ashes there where she wants to
be.”

“What? Why didn’t Don mention this before we
left the memorial? More to the point, why us? Don’t you find that
to be just a tad bit of a big imposition, Sarah? “

“I guess it did sound strange to me as well,
but what could I say? He kinda blind sighted me with that bit of
news.”

“Where is it that Gertie wants her ashes to
be taken to?” Jim said, more loudly than he intended to.

“He said it was closer to here than to
Gertie’s house. I don’t know why he didn’t tell us before. He is
getting up there in age.”

“What did you tell him, Sarah?”

Sarah again attacked her dinner with
gusto.

“Let me guess, you told him that we would be
perfectly happy to do his bidding and take the ashes and dispose of
them for him. Come to think of it, why hadn’t he called us to ask
himself, why wait for your call? It is not like he knew that you
were going to call him.”

“I did ask him that and he said that at the
time we were in a big hurry to get back home and that he wanted to
get the trunk to give us and since the weather was getting worse by
the minute, he didn’t think of it.” Sarah said.

“He wasn’t thinking of the bad weather or
the time frame, Sarah. You tell me, how much time and effort did
getting that big old heavy trunk down from the attic and securing
it to the top of our van take? Now how much time would it have
taken him to hand us the urn with Gertie’s ashes in it?”

“I know Jim, I know. I did tell him that I
didn’t know when we could come back down there to pick her ashes
up.”

“Can’t he just mail them to us, mom?” Riley
asked.

“I honestly do not even know if that would
be legal, Riley. We would still have to spread them and that would
mean driving at least part way back to Tennessee. I know what you
are thinking Jim, and a part of me is very sorry that I bothered to
call him today myself. But another part of me wants to respect
Gertie’s wishes. She was always so good to us and the girls.”

“I really do not want this hanging over our
heads during the holidays, Sarah, and they are rapidly
approaching.” Jim stated.

“That last time was a freak snow storm, so
soon before winter. I was thinking that we could go before the
holidays, before the bad weather comes and sticks around. It could
be another quick trip like before. It would be the last time we
have to go there and I really feel like it is the right thing to
do. Don, as you said, is not getting any younger either.” Sarah
said, clearing the table.

“Just let it be known to whomever, that we
will not be put in this position when Don dies. Let me think about
this some, Sarah. But not tonight, I had a rough day at work and
don’t need to have anything else to contemplate tonight.”

Thelma was able to eat breakfast and drink
her coffee in peace the next morning when she overheard Sarah
telling Jim that she was going to stay at the school when she took
the girls. Something about helping out with a project and then they
were having a luncheon. Whatever the reason, Thelma was happy
again.

She drank an entire pot of coffee and even
found a chocolate bar that she melted into the pot. It was nowhere
near as good as the chocolate coffee at Thelma’s Chocolate Shop,
but it tasted wonderful to Thelma anyway. She had made herself and
Cooper pancakes and sausage. She had also had time to explore
deeper into her aunt Gertie’s journal. Sarah had been smart of take
the journal when she did, because she could not find the rest of
the papers that were in the trunk. Apparently, Sarah locked them in
a drawer or somewhere.

Thelma had what she needed. Her biggest
problem, as she saw it, had been solved for her. They were going
back to Gertie’s house and this time Thelma planned to be along for
the ride. It had been many decades since Thelma had seen her aunt
Gertie, but she was counting on Gertie wanting her ashes to be
distributed in Enchanted. Not that the others could get there, but
they could get close and that is exactly where Thelma wanted to be.
It was her only chance to get back home.

Now that the major part of her departure had
been planned for her, Thelma decided to relax and try to enjoy her
time here. As long as Suzanne was in school, she couldn’t squeeze
or carry her around. As long as the family had a busy schedule,
Thelma could eat and play on the computer and watch television, a
pastime she had become accustomed to.

Still, just knowing where she was and how
she was going to get back home, did not explain why she was there.
This was Thelma’s dilemma. She had to figure out how to help this
family, or Gertie’s family, or do whatever was expected of her.
Maybe there was something in the journal that would give her a
clue.

Thelma wondered how long this had all been
planned out for her and by whom. She was used to being in on the
planning as well as the direct action. She had done a lot of
thinking and decided that perhaps she should take the ring back
with her. The ring must play a big part in why Gertie had the
Gaunter’s take the trunk.

Thelma knew that everything happens for a
reason and there was a reason she found herself on that expressway
in that snow storm. A reason why she was right there when the trunk
fell off the van and why she crawled into it.

Thelma walked into the garage and took a
long look at the trunk that had brought her there. She tried to
remember if she had ever seen that trunk before at her aunt
Gertie’s house when she and Luna were there, but she could not.

Thelma took the journal out again and sat at
the kitchen table.

The journal touched upon the subject of the
summer that Luna and Thelma had spent with Gertie. It had read
“Ophelia allowed T and L to stay with me several years back for the
summer. It was so good to see the girls. If only they could come
now, I could really use their help with – everything. I have
recently met someone who is very special to me. His name is John
and I have fallen in love. John is a widower and has a small son.
John and his son are of a different nature than I. I am afraid he
would not understand about Ophelia, or anything to do with my
existence.”

Thelma put away the journal and for a moment
thought about her mother, Ophelia and how she missed her. She then
sat down at the computer. She had become quite efficient at finding
different things on the computer that she wanted to know about. She
even brought up a local map of the area where she was now. Feeling
confident, Thelma took Cooper’s leash and put it on him. “Let’s go
for a walk, Cooper, it us supposed to be a beautiful day, we can
use some fresh air.”