Ghost Cat - Thelma's Dilemma (12 page)

Thelma hung up and
noticed that Ophelia was already in the shower. She noticed an
extra hotel room key card on the table and placed it behind the
drape where she and Ophelia had just hidden.

“
Hurry up, I
want to take a hot shower too!” Thelma said. Thelma was in the
shower when Ophelia heard a voice outside of their door. “Room
Service.” She opened the door and said thank you to the young man
and scribbled something on the bill that he handed her. She poured
herself a cup of coffee and had drank three of them before she
yelled to Thelma to hurry up and eat before Adela came
back.

The two
cousins shared the meals with each other and drank every drop of
both the coffee and the cream. They then pushed the cart with the
dirty dishes on it down the hallway and hurried back to the room.
They were just closing the door when they heard the ding sound of
the elevator indicating that someone was getting on or off on their
floor. The
y turned quickly
back into felines and ran behind the drapes.

Mrs. Johnson walked
into the room and burped loudly. She then changed into her pajamas
and laid on the bed and was snoring within minutes.

“I am tired too,
Ophelia. Do you know if Mrs. Johnson is a light sleeper or a heavy
one? It wouldn’t do for her to wake up in the middle of the night
and catch us here. I wish we knew what time they were all planning
to leave in the morning. What if we wake up and they are already
gone?”

“
Mrs. Johnson
is a pretty heavy sleeper, but she sometimes gets up a few times a
night to use the bathroom. I have an idea.” Ophelia said. She
trotted over to the nightstand and with her paw knocked Mrs.
Johnson’s glasses off and then dragged them behind the chair. She
then ran back and jumped up to turn on the side light in the
bathroom so Mrs. Johnson could find her way in if she woke up
during the night.

“
Good
thinking, she can’t leave without her glasses and won’t be able to
see us either. At the same time, we will be able to hear her
stumbling around in the morning looking for her glasses, so she
will be our alarm clock. I would imagine that Jim wants to get as
early of a start as possible, especially after all of the stops and
delays today.” Thelma said.

“
True, only
they will all be extremely exhausted by now, remember Jim had work
and the girls had school this morning, so they have been up several
hours past any of their bedtimes already. I am just glad we got in
a hot shower and an excellent warm meal. We might not get as lucky
as far as eating tomorrow.” Ophelia said.

“Good night,
Ophelia.”

“Night, Thelma.”

Things went
pretty smoothly during the night. Mrs. Johnson did not notice
Thelma or Ophelia and they were able to get a good night’s sleep
and still wake up before Adela did
. They were able to put her glasses back on the night stand
before she noticed they had been missing.

Mrs. Johnson was
just finishing dressing and putting her shoes on when the phone
rang. “Hello? Oh, hello Jim. Yes, I know they serve free breakfast
buffet downstairs, yes, I am ready. Should I have my suitcase
ready, or will we be checking out after we eat? Oh, that is fine, I
will leave to meet you downstairs now then. Good bye.”

Adela took her
purse and room key and left the room. Thelma and Ophelia were full
form before she got to the elevator. They took turns in the
bathroom and then Ophelia asked how they were going to get
something to eat.

“
Easy, follow
me.” Thelma said as she picked up the spare room key and walked out
the door.
To anyone who saw
them they looked like a normal older lady walking with her younger
friend. They found the breakfast buffet and made quick work of
getting their coffee and cream and loading up their plates. The
Gaunter’s were already there eating their breakfast and Thelma and
Ophelia were close enough to hear their conversation.

“
I’ll give
Don
ald a call after we eat and
have been on the road a while. No offense to anyone, but we are
going to get there well before dark today so that means limited
stopping.”

“That means you,
Suzanne!” Riley told her sister.

“That means all of
us.” Sarah told them.

“Including me.” Mrs.
Johnson said.

“We are all in
agreement then.” Jim said, pouring maple syrup onto Suzanne’s
pancakes.

“It hardly seems
real that today will be the day that I get to see Don again.” Mrs.
Johnson noted. “It has been so very long.” Sarah smiled at her, she
was always a sucker for a good love story.

“
Well, it is
early enough that we can have a good breakfast and then be on our
way and be there by late this afternoon sometime
you said, Jim?”

“That’s the
plan.”

Suzanne had been
looking at Thelma and Ophelia intently. Sarah noticed and whispered
to her daughter “It is not nice to stare at people, Suzanne.”

“But they have hair
all over their clothes.” Suzanne whispered back.

“We have some hairs
on our clothes as well, Suzanne, from Cooper, now hurry and finish
your breakfast and stop being rude.”

Thelma and Ophelia
had just finished eating and were all set to dash back to Mrs.
Johnson’s room before she got there when they were stopped in their
tracks.

“Hello, my name is
Suzanne.” The little girl said, smiling up at Thelma and Ophelia.
“Hello, Suzanne, have a beautiful day.” Thelma said, hoping to
discourage the child from further conversation. It did not work.
“We have a black and white dog named Cooper. He has to stay in the
room on account of dogs are not allowed in the breakfast room. Your
dog must be all white.”

“Good morning,
excuse us, Suzanne, we have to get going now.” Jim said, walking up
to Suzanne. Thelma and Ophelia smiled and then walked quickly to
the elevator. When they reached their floor they pushed all the
buttons for all of the remaining floors to give them more time to
get back and ready to go.

Mrs. Johnson
had already repacked the items she had taken out the night before
so they were safe in that regard. She came into the room, went to
the bathroom and then zipped the suitcase up just as Sarah knocked
on the door and Jim carried the suitcase for Adela.

They were
checking out at the front desk when the clerk
told Sarah that they had charges for Mrs.
Johnson’s room that they had neglected to pay. “I don’t believe so,
I made no calls and never did turn the television on.” Adela
said.

The clerk
showed her the bill for two dinners and Mrs. Johnson said there
must be a mistake, she was only one person and seafood did not
agree with her. Jim carried the suitcase out to the van and secured
it to the roof again and then the tarp. It took a few extra
minutes, but finally
Sarah and
Mrs. Johnson were able to convince the front desk clerk that there
had been some error on their part and they were able to look up the
dinner bill that was paid around the same time the night before by
Mr. Gaunter for five meals.

Once the vehicle was
back on the expressway, Thelma said “Now watch this and learn.” She
then picked up a thin piece of string and was able to pull it just
a little bit, but enough to unzip the suitcase zipper and have them
crawl through it. Then they unzipped it a bit more in case they
wanted to crawl back in quickly or got cold again.

“
I wondered
what you were doing with that dental floss in the middle of the
night.” Ophelia said.
“That is
quite clever!”

“One episode of us
not having enough air to breath was enough for me!” Thelma said,
remembering how long it took before Mrs. Johnson unzipped the
suitcase when they arrived.

Jim announced that
they were almost to Gertie’s house. Sarah looked at Mrs. Johnson
and said “Are you alright, Adela? Any butterflies yet?”

“
I am fine,
very anxious to see Don, though.”

Jim and Sarah
both said a silent prayer that it would be a happy event for Donald
as well as for Adela. Neither Sarah nor Jim counted much on
Donald’s memory enough to feel safe about this. Adela had insisted
they not tell Don ahead of time that she was coming with them. She
said she wanted him to have the surprise of his life. For his part,
Jim was hoping that all would go so well with the two of them that
Mrs. Johnson would just stay there in Tennessee with Don and they
could have a restful, do as they damn well felt like, trip back to
Michigan. However, he was smart enough not to count on that
actually happening.

Adela checked her
hair in the van’s mirror and refreshed her make up. “All set” she
announced.

They walked to
the door and rang the bell. It took a few minutes before
Don
ald opened the door. “Hello
Gaunter’s, hope you had a good trip.” He said, “Come in out of the
cold. Oh, you brought your dog too, I see:” He said, petting Cooper
on the head.

“
We brought
someone else as well.” Sarah said, smiling widely and
stepping
to one side so that
Donald could see Adela.

“Hello, you rotten
son of a bitch!” She said.

Sarah’s mouth flew
open, Riley’s eyes got big, Suzanne laughed out loud and Jim bent
his head down.

Donald was
also taken aback. “Why did you bring that woman to my house?” He
barked.

Jim knew that
it was probably up to him to say something, anything, but for the
life of him he could not come up with one single word that would
mean anything at the moment. Sarah recovered
first.

“Don, this is Adela
Johnson, you two knew each other quite well when you were much
younger.”

“I know that!”
Donald spat out. He then turned sideways and picked up the urn that
had been sitting on a little table by the door. “Here! I gave you
the directions on the phone.” He then slammed the door shut.

As if on cue, it
started to snow, hard.

They all
walked down the long sidewalk back to the van and got
inside.
Jim then opened the
van door and let Cooper out, hoping that Cooper would to do his
business on Don’s lawn. Cooper did not disappoint.

“
What the hell
was that all about?” Jim said, to no one in particular. He waited
for Cooper to jump back into the van and then he started the car
and drove a couple of blocks and pulled into a gas station and
turned off the ignition. Sarah was the first one to speak
then.

“Adela, why did you
want to come all of this way just to act like that? I thought you
wanted to reunite with the love of your life.” She said.

“
Love of my
life? The man was so attached to the apron strings of his step
mommy, not even a real step mommy, just some old lady who kept him
around hoping his father would come back. He didn’t have time for
me or anyone else. Good ridden to bad garbage!”

“
You played
us.” Sarah said. “You played on our feelings to get your revenge on
Don
ald.”

“Yeah, well, sorry
about that.”

Jim spoke up. “What
now? Are you going to stay here in Tennessee or go back home?”

“Oh, I am going back
home, Snowball is there waiting for me and she is worth a hundred
thousand Dons.” Mrs. Johnson said.

Jim filled the gas
tank, had Suzanne and Riley use the restroom and then he got back
into the car and studied the map of where he was supposed to take
the urn. Sarah asked everyone if they wanted chips or some other
snack because they were not planning to stop for lunch. She felt as
used and angry as her husband did, more even since she was the one
who forced him into this trip, as well as the last one.

When Mrs. Johnson
went inside the gas station to use the rest room Jim said “We
should take off and just leave her old ass here!”

“I swear I would not
blame you if you did.” Sarah said.

“NO! Mommy, Daddy,
you can’t do that!” Suzanne screamed.

“Do it!” Riley
yelled.

“No one is leaving
anyone anywhere.” Jim said. But that is it for accommodating Mrs.
Johnson on this trip. To think that we have to live right next door
to her too. You know this won’t be the last time she tries to use
us.” Jim said.

“
Perhaps not,
but it will be the last time she gets away with it.” Sarah said,
sitting in the front seat next to her husband. “To think we even
paid for her room!”

They could tell from
the look on Mrs. Johnson’s face when she got back to the van that
she expected Sarah to move to the way back seat again. Sarah did
not budge. It took a little while for Adela to crawl back to the
way back seat, but she had the good sense not to fuss about it.
Cooper looked at her and then jumped over the seat to sit
in-between Suzanne and Riley.

The snow kept coming
down harder and no one was talking in the van. The radio was not
even on. It was hard for Jim to see where they were going at times,
but he was more than determined to do what was expected of him and
get his family back home, safely, as well as quickly.

Thelma and
Ophelia tried peeking out of the tarp, but the snow and wind were
whipping their fur and making their eyes sting. They knew that the
urn was in the van, but did not hear anything that went on at
Don
ald’s house. Not that they
cared, for they each felt very lucky that they did not have to find
a way to sneak into yet another hotel room that night. There was
not one among the group that was not ready to have this little
adventure of theirs end.