Ghost Cat - Thelma's Dilemma (6 page)

One walk around the block reminded Thelma
that her old bones were not made for cold weather.
I wish I had
borrowed one of Sarah’s coats before I came outside.
Still, the
walk did her good and Cooper as well. They both had been cooped up
in the house all week.

When Thelma and Cooper turned the corner to
the Gaunter’s house, Thelma froze. Sarah’s van was in the driveway.
Thelma was caught out in the open in her regular form and was only
four houses from the Gaunter’s.

Thelma went in between two houses and spun
herself around and created the blue mist and was once again in cat
form. She could only hope that none of the neighbors were home and
witnessed her transformation. She picked up Cooper’s leash in her
cat teeth and started to walk them both towards the house.

Sarah came out of the front door holding a
large box. She locked the front door and then quickly got into the
van and took off again. Thelma and Cooper looked at each other.
Now what?
They went to the front and then around to the back
door.
How are we going to get back into the house now?
It
was a nice day, but it was still cold. They had walked out of the
front door, but now it was locked. There were no windows opened, it
was too cold.

An hour had gone by and although Cooper was
still having fun running around the yard, Thelma was just plain
cold and angry with herself for getting them into this situation.
Enough is enough!
Thelma thought and she started to turn
around to start her transformation back to human form.

“Oh you poor babies, did you get locked out
of the house?” This from a woman Thelma had not seen approaching
them, a lady she had never seen before. She immediately stopped in
her tracks.

“Meow.”

“Come here, Cooper, I’ll take you two back
to my house until Sarah gets back home, it is too cold to be out
here this long.” The lady said, picking Thelma up and then walking
over to pick up Cooper’s leash.

The lady took them back to her house, which
was right next door to the Gaunter’s house. Thelma felt the warmth
immediately and in spite of herself she purred. The lady picked up
the phone and made a call.

“Hello, this is Mrs. Johnson from next door.
I found Cooper and a white cat outside of your back door. They were
very cold and appeared to have been outside a long time. Just
wanted you to know that they are here at my house and safe. I will
be home all night so no rush in coming to get them. Snowball will
have someone to play with. Bye.”

Mrs. Johnson gave Thelma and Cooper bowls of
warm milk. Cooper stayed at Mrs. Johnson’s feet and Thelma went to
lay on Mrs. Johnson’s couch. Just as Thelma closed her eyes to take
a nap, she sensed a presence close to her and she opened her
eyes.

Sitting on a chair across from the couch was
another cat. This cat was staring at Thelma as if trying to decide
who or what she was and why she was in her master’s home. Thelma
did not want to deal with the cat right now so she started to close
her eyes again to sleep.

The other cat, who was also white,
apparently was too curious to let it go. She walked up to Thelma
and nudged her with her nose. Thelma was in no mood so she took a
quick look to make sure Mrs. Johnson wasn’t close by, and then she
hissed at the other cat.

“Who the hell are you?”

Thelma’s head jerked up and she starred into
the eyes of the other cat.
Did that cat just talk to me?
Thelma pretended to ignore the other cat. The other cat jumped back
up on the chair she had been sitting on and continued to watch
Thelma very carefully.

She is looking at me as if she is trying to
read my mind.

“There you are, Snowball!” Said Mrs.
Johnson. “We have company for this afternoon. This is Cooper and
his friend from next door.”

Thelma was certain that she saw Snowball
have an immediate reaction to Mrs. Johnson’s words. She fully
understood the words. Thelma decided to keep a safe distance from
this feline until she could figure things out. Thelma’s instincts
were on high alert, something was not quite as it should be here.
She was grateful for the warm milk and warmer house, but no longer
felt like taking a nap.

Mrs. Johnson was singing to herself as she
took a load of clothes downstairs to wash. Cooper wandered into the
living room to see what Thelma was up to. When he walked into the
room, Snowball jumped down from the chair and batted Cooper in his
head with her paw.

Before Cooper could react, Thelma was
in-between Cooper and Snowball and this time she didn’t care who
was around. She hissed loudly at the other cat and arched her back
to show she meant business. Cooper whined and walked back into the
kitchen and went down the stairs to find Mrs. Johnson.

“I’m going to get you and your little dog
too!” Snowball said, quoting the witch from The Wizard of Oz. As
she turned to jump back up onto the chair.

In her normal life, Thelma would not have
understood the pop culture reference, but she had been watching a
lot of television at the Gaunter’s house and had just watched that
movie with Suzanne not more than a week ago.

“If you don’t mind a house dropped on your
ass!” Thelma spit out. Snowball froze and turned around slowly and
took a good long look at this neighbor intruder.

“You have no clue who you are messing with.”
Snowball hissed back at Thelma. “Nor do you.” Thelma answered back.
The two cats started to circle each other just as Cooper and Mrs.
Johnson appeared in the doorway.

“Oh my, can’t have this.” Mrs. Johnson
picked Snowball up and took her to the bedroom and shut here in
there. Snowball was sure she noticed a smirk on the new cat’s face.
“You stay in there, Snowball, just until Sarah or someone picks up
Cooper and the white cat. Be a good girl, now.”

Thelma knew that there were others that
could take on the form of an animal other than herself. Caramel and
Ace, the miniature ponies in Enchanted could, although Zippy could
not. She was actually disappointed that Mrs. Johnson had split them
up now that she knew that Snowball could talk. She wondered how
much power the other cat possessed.

Thelma did not have time to find out because
Mrs. Johnson plopped herself down on the chair and watched
television until the doorbell rang a couple of hours later. It was
Sarah at the door.

“Mrs. Johnson, thank you so much for taking
in Gertie and Cooper! I ran home right before lunchtime to pick up
something I had forgotten to take to the girl’s school and I never
saw them run out. It is so cold outside too, I am going to have to
be much more careful from now on.” Sarah said picking up Thelma and
putting Cooper’s leash back on.

“They were good as gold, I enjoyed the
company.” Mrs. Johnson said. “They gave me something different to
think about and someone to talk to today. It gets boring here all
alone, well, with just me and Snowball.”

“How did the two cats get on?” Sarah
inquired. “They were a bit playful, they were fine.”

Sarah took Cooper and Thelma back to their
house and started to make dinner. She fed them extra treats. “I am
so sorry you two were out in the cold, I didn’t see you when I was
here earlier.”

Thelma had trouble sleeping that night. She
kept thinking about Snowball. It was a shame that she was so
hostile, it would be nice to have someone to talk to and confer
with.

Sarah told Jim about Cooper and Thelma’s
adventure over dinner. “I feel so bad, I never saw them get out of
the house. I was so upset about forgetting the chicken for the
luncheon at school that I didn’t think about anything but getting
back to the school in time. “

“Well, the good news is that Gertie didn’t
run away, she stayed right with Cooper, so that is good to know.
They seem like real pals,” Jim said. “By the way, I am thinking
maybe the week after next we can run down to Tennessee and get
Gertie’s ashes, just a quick trip. Do you think your friends John
and Jennifer could look after the girls? The animals should be OK
for just those two days, or maybe Mrs. Johnson could let Cooper out
once or twice a day, what do you think?”

“I really hate to leave the girls, but I
also hate to drag them back down there and for such a sad occasion
again. We don’t know where those ashes are supposed to go, what if
they are going on the other side of the state from her house? Or a
different state even, we just don’t know what will come up once we
get there.” Sarah said.

“Then we dump them on the road and come back
home, who would know?” Jim said. All three of the females at the
table stopped eating and looked at him.

“Daddy, gross!” Suzanne said.

“You are weird.” This from Riley.

“Jim!” yelled Sarah.

“I didn’t mean it, you guys, and I swear I
even heard Gertie meow her disapproval. O.K., it wasn’t funny. But
otherwise is that O.K. with you if we go in about a week?”

“I wish we could just go right away and get
it over with, the weather is going to turn bad for the coming
winter any day again now.” Sarah said.

“I can’t just take off work again so soon.
Things at JAMICO are not going as well as they could be.” Jim
mentioned.

Sarah looked up with a worried expression on
her face, but her husband just smiled at her, so she let it go for
the time being.

“Why can’t Mr. Pickles, Riley and I go with
you this time?” Suzanne said.

“You have school. Noting is settled, we will
work it out and probably won’t know exactly what we are doing until
the last minute knowing us. I guess I should get busy and finish
going through all of the papers from the trunk so we don’t miss a
thing that would have to have us going on another trip there yet
again.” Sarah said.

“That, my dear, will not happen.” Her
husband proclaimed as he put another pork chop on his plate. “In
fact, Gertie might just have to wait until spring if we get another
early snow storm here or along the way. That is a heck of a long
drive even in good weather.”

Thelma was watching and listening. She was
also counting the pork chops, her mouth was watering. She had never
gotten as hungry before as she had been since coming there. But
then too, she had very little to occupy her time and mind with
other than food and Sarah was a very good cook.

“I think I will bake a pie tomorrow to take
to Mrs. Johnson as a thank you for rescuing Cooper and Gertie. She
mentioned that she is lonely over there. She must be in her
mid-seventies. I feel sorry for her, she is a very nice woman.”

Thelma’s ears perked up both at the mention
of pie and of the possibility of going back into Mrs. Johnson’s
house. She would like another crack at that Snowball.
Her name
should be Fireball.

“One thing I don’t understand.” Sarah said
“I mean besides Gertie and Cooper getting out without me seeing
them. Cooper had his leash with him.”

“Maybe Mrs. Johnson put one on him.” Riley
said.

“No, it was definitely Cooper’s leash. Oh
well. Another one of life’s little mysteries.”

“When you bake the pie tomorrow, are you
going to make one for us too?” Suzanne asked. “Of course. How about
a nice pumpkin pie?”

They all heard the sounds of a little tummy
growling and they laughed. “Gertie wants a pie too, mommy.”

The next morning Gertie had time to heat up
some left over scalloped potatoes in the microwave and have two
cups of coffee. She knew her time was limited, but she also figured
that Sarah would probably go to the grocery store to get the
ingredients for the pies since Thelma didn’t see any pumpkins in
the house.

Cooper and Thelma had a system worked out
where he would bark when he saw one of the family members returning
home. Cooper could not speak, other than saying Momma, but he was
very smart and was loyal to Thelma. Thelma figured it had something
to do with all the bacon and other breakfast foods she would treat
him to when she got the time and chance to make breakfast
herself.

She took a very quick shower and even after
clearing away the dishes, Sarah hadn’t come back yet.

Thelma noticed a can of beer in the
refrigerator and although she liked the taste of it, she did not
want to go through that whole flatulence thing again. Cooper could
take the blame for the noise and probably smell, but the blue mist
would be hard to explain away.

Thelma had been adding items to the shopping
list that Sarah kept on the refrigerator and that every family
member could write what they needed or were out of. She had to make
sure they had enough coffee and bacon and other goodies so that
what she ate when they were gone would continue to not be noticed.
She liked the bread that the family ate, but wondered why Sarah
didn’t make her own bread.

Pouring her third cup of coffee, Thelma
opened the journal to read more entries. Gertie seemed to write in
a form of short hand on some pages. Thelma figured out that T and L
probably meant Thelma and Luna and J was for John. What she
couldn’t figure out was what O was for. Her mother’s name was
Ophelia, but, if she was reading the journal entries correctly,
they told of a defiance and of disrespect and that would not fit
her mother. Gertie did speak also of a love for O.

Thelma’s eyes got big when she saw a
notation saying “I hid the ring in the trunk so O would not take
it. As long as she does not have it, I know she is more likely to
return home. I never should have told her of its powers.”

The ring has powers!
Thelma jumped up
and tossed the journal behind the couch and then started towards
the bedroom to look for the ring. Just then Cooper started to bark.
Darn it!

Sarah came into the kitchen and saw Cooper
and Gertie sitting there waiting for her. She was carrying bags,
but no pumpkin. Sarah emptied the contents of the grocery bags onto
the table and then turned to preheat the oven. “I see you two have
your chops up for goodies, so I’d better get going on them.” Sarah
smiled.