Ghost Cat - Thelma's Dilemma (4 page)

Sarah got the flashlight out of the drawer
and turned it on so that the light hit the red stone on the ring.
She waited a minute, but nothing happened. The poem made no sense
to her. She put the flashlight and poem to the side and took out
some of the documents.

Sarah went through them, but did not see
anything that would be of interest to anyone today.
That I can
tell.
The deed to the house was there. Gertie did not mean for
them to inherit the house, of that Sarah was sure. “That really
would make no sense.” Sarah said out loud. Jim walked into the
kitchen. “Talking to yourself again, Sarah?” He smiled.

“I suppose. What do you make of this poem?”
Sarah asked, handing the yellowed paper to her husband.

“Strange. I don’t know anything about rings
or Rubies, except that there was a Sunrise Ruby that was supposed
to be the world’s most expensive. But don’t ask me where I heard
that from.”

“I heard something about a Liberty Bell ruby
that was stole from a jewelry store in Delaware a few years ago
that no one ever found. Big ruby, over four pounds.” Sarah
said.

“I heard something about that myself, the
ruby was shaped like the Liberty Bell and that is why they called
it that. Did they ever catch the thief?” Jim asked.

”Apparently, more than one thief, but they
never recovered the ruby.”

“Do, you think that Gertie and Don robbed
that jewelry store and took off with the Ruby and then made this
ring out of it?” Jim said, teasing Sarah.

“When I was reading the poem, I was
thinking, trying to figure out where the rocks part of it came
from. I wonder if rocks meant diamonds, real rocks, or like a
prison.”

“Prison?” Jim asked. “Why?”

“I don’t know, maybe thinking of Alcatraz.
Isn’t that prison on some island on rocks or something?” Sarah
asked.

“I guess we both know and don’t know more
about Rubies than we think we do. Ruby is a birthstone color too,
isn’t it? I think it is January, or February?”

Sarah had to think for a moment. “No, I
think Ruby is supposed to be for July birthdays and Garnet, which
is a deeper red, is for January. “

“What month was Gertie born in?” Jim
asked.

Sarah looked at the death notice that she
had printed out. “I still don’t know. It mentions that Gertie was
one hundred and three years old, but not the month she was born.
She was cremated, so there is no grave marker to check. I really
don’t know what to do now.”

“What do you mean? Just look through the
papers to see if Don might need something, like the deed to the
house you mentioned you found. Other than that, what is there to be
done? The ring could be a birthstone or just a pretty ring that
Gertie liked or that someone gave her. I mean, with all the dust on
that trunk, it did not look as if it was something that Gertie had
ever worn, not in several years anyway.” Jim reasoned.

“I just wish I knew why Gertie wanted us to
have this trunk and what item in it was supposed to be more
important than the rest.”

“What are we supposed to do with it even if
we knew? Who was Gertie’s best friend? Do you know who she was
closest to?” Jim asked.

“I don’t know. I imagine the bulk of her
friends would have passed on by now, I mean anyone who could answer
the questions we have.”

Why don’t you make a list of questions and
then call Don to tell him about the deed being in the trunk and ask
him what is what? I wouldn’t count on getting many straight answers
from him though.”

“No? Why is that?” Sarah asked. “Don is
seventy-seven and even in passing conversations you can tell that
he does not have full mental capacity. Come to think of it, I would
get started on that list sooner than later.” Jim suggested.

“One thought that I have, Jim, is that we
have only been back in Michigan for not quite a year. I wonder when
Gertie told Don that she wanted us to have the trunk. I mean, I
wonder if that makes any difference, us not living next door to her
anymore. We didn’t make it known that we were moving back here
until pretty much right before we left.”

“Another question for Don, but why would
that make a difference?” Jim said. “We hadn’t really seen a lot of
Gertie right before we left, who knows what she was thinking. It is
not like we were all that close to her. I mean, we didn’t even know
that Don wasn’t her son.”

“I don’t know. I guess you are right. I’ll
go through all the rest of this and make sure there is not a bank
security box key somewhere in it, or a treasure map, or anything at
all else like that. It is a shame the trunk fell off onto the
expressway and got that hole in the side. You can tell how
beautiful it would be if cleaned up. We could have used it as a
coffee table or just as a conversation piece.”

“It already is a conversation piece.” Jim
laughed.

Thelma had been sleeping by the fireplace.
She was dreaming of her home in Enchanted. Her beautiful thatched
roof house, her friends Caramel, Ace, and Zippy who were miniature
ponies. She licked her lips as she tasted the wonderful chocolates
from Thelma’s Chocolate Shop in her dream.

Thelma opened her eyes and found the house
dark. She looked at the clock on the table and saw that it was
after midnight. Thelma stretched and spun around and the blue mist
appeared and she was soon back in her regular, human, form. She
started to head to the downstairs bathroom. The kitty litter box
was a necessary evil when the family was home, but whenever she
found herself alone, or times like now, when the family was asleep,
she would sneak into the bathroom to use the facilities.

Thelma was just thinking of stopping in the
kitchen to grab something to drink first, when the figure of
someone at the kitchen table stopped her in her tracks. Sarah was
sitting there with her head down and there were papers spread out
all over the table. Thelma took a quick look at the door to the
basement to gage how many steps she had to take to reach it and
what was the probability of her success. Sarah looked as if she
were sound asleep and Thelma was already in human form, so she made
a quite dash to the basement door.

Finishing her personal business, Thelma
twirled and turned back into Gertie the cat. She jumped on the
table and started to read whatever these papers were that had
Sarah’s attention so much that she fell asleep at the table instead
of in her comfortable bed.

Thelma could see the name Gertie, but
Sarah’s hand was covering Gertie’s last name. One paper that Thelma
was able to see clearly was the poem about the shine of red on your
finger. Thelma then noticed a ring laying on the table that had a
red stone. This meant nothing to Thelma, but reading through the
rest of the poem, something about the rocks made her ears perk up
and the cat hair on her neck as well.

Soon the rocks will not let you pass.
That sounded a lot like the way to Enchanted to Thelma. Actually,
it was the only way. Enchanted was a special place and only special
people found their way there. You could not find it on your own,
but you had to be guided there, unbeknown to you. An exit off the
expressway would open up at just the right time, when needed to
guide you to Enchanted.

Thelma thought about how a snow storm had
redirected Sebastian and his sister Isabel there, and the boy Max
and how Thelma and her sister Luna had connected them as a family
until Max’s mother could heal from a car accident and reclaim him.
She thought about Catherine and Cody, mother and son, who needed a
break in life and found themselves on the expressway during that
awful tornado. Special circumstances only. Once the human’s vehicle
would take the exit and drive a few miles, they would find
themselves in the village of Enchanted.

No one left Enchanted, well, mostly no one.
Max and his mother had a destiny that required their departure, but
that was all prearranged. The exit off the expressway was not
always there. You would never find it on any regular map. Nor would
you ever find the village of Enchanted on one either.

Thelma and her sister Luna had left when
they were small children. They had gone to stay with their aunt.
AUNT GERTIE!
Thelma had not even thought of Aunt Gertie in
over seventy years. But it wasn’t that her aunt and the woman who
had died had the same first name. True, that made Thelma tense up,
but it was remembering how Aunt Gertie had brought Luna and Thelma
back home to Enchanted that had Thelma in such a state. Thelma
started to turn around to jump off the table, but then quickly
turned back to take another look at the ring. She had to check this
out while she could, before Sarah woke up.

Thelma was in such a panic that soon a blue
mist started to form and Thelma’s backside popped out into human
form. Thelma screamed, but of course it came out as a very loud
“YOWL.”

Sarah raised her head, but her eyes were
still closed. Thelma jumped off of the table, causing a lot of the
papers to fall to the floor. She then ran as fast as she could,
which wasn’t all that fast given the fact that her big butt was
bouncing behind the little cat form. Thelma was able to make it all
the way to the couch and squeezed behind it where she was able to
assume full cat form before Sarah was awake enough to yawn and
stand up.

Thelma knew that she had to get another look
at the papers on the table. A much longer look. Sarah had picked up
the ones that fell on the floor and had placed them back on the
table. Thelma had been so shaken and had to exert so much energy to
make her get away before Sarah saw her that Thelma was worn out.
There would be no more detective work tonight.

Thelma felt herself being picked up and she
opened one eye. Suzanne was carrying her over to the couch. Cooper
was there looking at Thelma and Suzanne. It took Thelma a moment or
two to get her senses together enough to remember the events of
several hours ago.

As soon as Sarah and the girls left the
house, Thelma jumped up into the window to make sure that Jim’s car
was also gone. Then she ran around in circles and a heavier than
usual amount of blue mist appeared. Cooper sniffed, sneezed, and
trotted off to his food bowl.

Thelma knew that she did not have a lot of
time, she was on a mission. She ran to the kitchen and was annoyed
to see that there was no more coffee left in the coffee pot this
morning
. Sarah probably drank it all just trying to wake up, I
know how she feels.

Thelma opened the refrigerator and pulled
out a can of pop since she was thirsty. She sat down at the table
and immediately searched for the one paper that she was sure had
Gertie’s last name on it. The one she had seen earlier this
morning. There it was, Gertie Enchanted. AUNT GERTIE!

Thelma knew then that she was there for a
reason. She would just have to figure out what that reason was and
how she was going to return home. Thelma quickly made herself some
toast and then noticed the journal that had been on the table under
the papers. Thelma picked it up. The cover had a drawing of a
rather large hill and a lake. Thelma was instantly homesick.

Cooper growled ‘
Momma’
and ran and
jumped on Thelma. Then Thelma heard the car door shut. Sarah was
home! Thelma quickly drank the contents of the can she had gotten
out of the refrigerator and then turned herself back into Gertie
the cat, quickly grabbing the journal and hiding it behind the
couch just as the garage door opened.

“Sorry your breakfast is late you two, I
didn’t get much sleep last night.” Sarah said, pouring out cat food
in the cat dish and dog food in Cooper’s. She made another pot of
coffee and drank a cup while watching the morning news on the
television.

Thelma wished Sarah would find a reason to go
out again so that she could get a good look at the journal, make
herself something more to eat, and perhaps have time to get on the
computer. Sarah washed clothes, but was never gone long enough for
Thelma to accomplish any of those goals.

It wasn’t long before Thelma found herself in
the very embarrassing situation of having gas, and a lot of it.
Each time that Thelma would pass gas, blue mist would appear.
Thelma hid behind the couch and twice now when Sarah heard her,
Cooper barked and went over to Sarah to be petted. “Cooper, what
have you gotten into that you are tooting like that?” Sarah smiled
down at Cooper. Cooper looked sufficiently chastised that Sarah
didn’t even consider that the noise was not being made by her
little puppy.

As soon as Sarah left to get the girls from
school, Thelma changed forms and grabbed the journal to read as
much of it as she could. She thought about taking it downstairs to
hide it and she still might later on, but for now she wanted to
read as quickly as she could. She did notice that the can of pop
that she had drank earlier was on the counter and that it was, in
fact, a can of beer.
No wonder I am a living fog horn this
morning!

A map fell out of the journal and Thelma
looked at it, seeing the place off of the expressway where she had
crawled into the trunk. Now she knew that was not by accident. Nor
was it an accident that she had been separated from Luna and Hugo
as they were going into the Enchanted Woods. Thelma knew exactly
where to go back to, but did not know how she was going to get
there, or for what purpose she was here now.

She skimmed through some of the pages in the
journal. Apparently, she had first met Don when she had met his
father. Don’s mother had died and his father was raising him alone.
Gertie had fallen for the father but did not want him to know that
she had special powers. Gertie spoke lovingly of him in her
journal.

Cooper barked and Thelma jumped.
Darn! I
didn’t even have time to get anything else to eat!