Ghost Cat - Thelma's Dilemma (2 page)

“Heck with that trunk. Jim. The road is so
bad and we don’t even know what was in it.” Sarah said, just
wanting to continue on their way home. The long trip and events of
the last few days had exhausted her.

“Yeah, but what if it is still in the road?
Someone could get killed trying to swerve around that thing if they
even see it in the dark, and the snow will cover it within minutes.
No, we have to go back, if even just to move it off the
expressway.” Jim said.

It was a few more minutes driving before
there was another exit and they were able to leave the expressway
safely. It was another few before they found the entrance going
south. Sarah and the girls were looking across the expressway
trying to see if they could spot the trunk, or, God forbid, an
accident that might have been caused by the large trunk being in
the middle of the road. It was very dark by this time and the snow
was falling heavily so they saw neither.

“Jim, do you remember which exit we were
near when the trunk fell?” Sarah asked. “No, not in this dark.
Really, it was all I could do to keep my eyes on the road ahead of
us, the rocks from the hills and all this sleet, it was hard to see
anything.”

They got back on I-75 Northbound a few exits
down and retraced their original path. “There it is Daddy!” Suzanne
screamed so loud that Riley said “Aww, Suzanne, do you have to be
so loud?”

“You’re loud” Suzanne told her back. “Girls,
knock it off.” Their father said. “I see it too now, thanks
Suzanne.”

“Won’t it be dangerous to stop and get that
trunk back?” Sarah asked her husband.

“Probably, but we are lucky that at this
time of night the traffic is lighter, being a regular week day too.
Besides, we can’t leave that there for someone else to run over or
be distracted by and get into an accident, and we don’t know what
is in it either.”

The sleet was pelting Jim’s face when he got
out of the van to retrieve the trunk. Sarah instructed the girls to
stay put and she got out to help her husband. “Did it break open?”
Sarah asked.

“It is open and there is a hole in the side
of it, let’s just shove these smaller boxes and blankets back in
and get it back on the van before we get hit ourselves.” Jim yelled
over the noise of the expressway and ice rain. It took longer than
it would have if the weather was good, but finally the trunk was
back on top of the van and the family was back on their way
home.

Sarah and the girls fell asleep and Jim
decided that he was going to drive all the way back to Riverview,
only stopping for gas and to check to make sure the big trunk was
still secure.

The Gaunter family got home a little after
eight a.m. the next morning. They were all tired. They stopped and
picked up their pet puppy, Cooper, from friends of theirs who was
watching the little dog while they were away. Sarah said “Just
leave the trunk, we can deal with it later.”

Jim and Sarah took their suitcases out of
the van and the trunk off of the roof of the van. They left the
trunk in the garage while Jim went to work and Sarah and the girls
went inside the house. Later that morning Sarah, Suzanne and Riley
took the van to clean it out and when they got home, Sarah started
to wash the clothes they had taken with them. She didn’t give any
thought to the trunk for most of the day, but when she let Cooper
outside, she decided to look in it.

There were some very nice pieces of jewelry,
probably not real jewels, but they could be. There were two quilts
that looked homemade, old clothes, a few papers, some of which were
beyond ruined by the snow and rain. Sarah took the papers into the
house and the blankets in to wash. It was cold in the garage and
there was no rush in going through the entire contents of the trunk
right now. The trip had worn her out and she knew the girls and Jim
were as tired as she was.

“Were there any toys in there, mommy?”
Suzanne asked.

“Why would Gertie have toys, dummy?” Riley
said. “Gertie was too old for toys.”

“That is not a silly question, Riley, if
there are some toys in there, I imagine they would be almost as old
as Gertie was and might be very interesting or worth a lot of
money. We can go through the rest of the stuff later.” Their mom
said.

Jim got home from work and the family had an
early dinner and a much earlier than usual bedtime.

What the
…… Thelma shook her head,
trying to clear it.
Where am I?
She looked around her and
saw she was surrounded by something yellow. She batted it away from
her face and noticed an opening in something brown that she could
look through. She realized then that she was in some sort of box.
She didn’t have room to stretch or move things around, but she knew
she could breath and that at least was something.

Thelma tried to think back, how she could
have landed herself into such a predicament. The last thing she
remembered was being with Luna, and they were riding on Hugo’s
back. Thelma did not remember how she got separated from her
sister, but she did remember being by the edge of the expressway.
She had been looking for Luna and Hugo when a big truck came by and
splashed her, knocking her over. Then she had seen something big
flying through the air that made her jump out of the way before it
could smash her.

The big box thing.
Now she
remembered, she was cold and wet and did not see any vehicles
stopping to get the big box, so she crawled inside of it and
snuggled to the bottom where the blankets were.
I must have
fallen asleep
. The hole in the box was not big enough for
Thelma to crawl through and she could not stretch to her full
height, which was five feet one inch, while in the box.

Thelma heard footsteps and peeked out of the
box hole. She saw one big brown eye looking at her and then heard a
low growl.
Oh great, a dog.
Then she heard a little girl’s
voice calling “Cooper, where did you go?” The big brown eye trotted
off and Thelma was left alone again.

Thelma started bumping the side of the big
box, trying to knock it over onto its side, or at least to jar the
top of it lose, but no such luck. When she heard the little girl’s
voice again, Thelma decided she had no choice but to make her
presence known. “Meow” she said, loud as she could. The big brown
eye was back and then it was replaced in her view by a big black
nose which was sniffing the contents of the box.

The little girl ran to the box. “What was
that, Cooper? Did you hear what I heard?” Then Thelma heard another
voice, an older female one. “Suzanne, dinner is ready, wash your
hands and sit down at the table.”

“Mommy, there is someone in the trunk.”
Thelma heard louder footsteps so she howled “Meow!” again. This
time she was rewarded with the top of the container she was in
being opened. Thelma found herself being lifted up into a woman’s
arms. “Well look at this, what are you doing in that trunk?”

“Gertie left us a cat! Can we keep it, mom?”
Suzanne begged. Sarah looked at the cat in her arms. “This cat is
filthy, she must have somehow been on that expressway when the
trunk was. Poor thing.”

Sarah and Suzanne took Thelma into the
kitchen and Sarah put some tuna fish into a little dish along with
a bowl of water and then put the dirty white cat down.
Not up to
my usual standards, but this will have to do.
Thelma thought to
herself, eating and drinking all that was before her.

Riley came into the kitchen and saw the new
addition and yelled “Dad, mom and Suzanne have a cat in here!” Jim
walked into the kitchen and looked at the dirty white cat. “Where
did that thing come from?”

That thing? How rude!

“It was in the trunk. It is amazing that it
survived the trip, she must have crawled in after it fell off the
roof. “Sarah said.

“How is that even possible?” Riley asked.
“Maybe Gertie had it in the trunk for us.”

“Gertie’s son would have mentioned if there
were a cat, and he would have never just put it in the trunk.
Besides, remember he told us that he did not know what was in the
trunk. No, this little critter found its way into the trunk all by
itself.” Sarah said.

“Can we keep her, mom?” Suzanne asked
again.

“If she can get along with Cooper, I guess
we will keep her. It does not seem fair to take her to an animal
shelter after all she has gone through in that trunk.”

“I know, we can name her Gertie!” Suzanne
yelled out happily.

Thelma looked around and noticed a fire
place in the living room with a nice fire in it. She went over and
laid down in front of it and left the humans to their discussion.
Her belly was full and the warmth from the fire was very inviting
after the shivering cold of the trunk.
I’ll figure this out
later
. Thelma thought, right before she fell asleep.

Thelma dreamed she was back home at her
house in Enchanted. She was on a massage table and all of her sore
muscles were being kneaded and soothed out of her eighty five year
old body. She awoke with a start when water was splashed on her
head. The little girl was giving her a bath in the sink. Thelma
started to jump down, but decided that the warm water and being
stroked felt good. Thelma purred and was rewarded with more
massaging. She was then put in a fluffy towel and carried to the
couch where the little girl sat down and hugged her.

“Mommy said we could keep you as long as you
don’t fight with Cooper. We don’t know what your name is, so I am
naming you Gertie on account of you being in the trunk that Gertie
gave us when she got dead.” Suzanne explained to her new pet. “I
hope you like your new name and new family. I will take good care
of you, I promise!”

Thelma purred at the name the little girl
had just given her, it brought her comfort somehow. Thelma looked
over and saw that Cooper was watching her very closely. She had not
yet tried to communicate with the puppy one on one because thus far
the humans were always around. She didn’t know how far the van had
driven her from the point where she had crawled into the trunk
because she had been sleeping. She also had no clue to how she was
going to get back home.

Thelma was fascinated with her surroundings.
There were things here that she had never seen in Enchanted. She
laid in Suzanne’s lap and watched the big screen thing they called
a television. She was mesmerized by the images she saw on the
screen and found everything on it very interesting. When she saw a
woman climbing into a vehicle who had on a blue dress and a very
large backside Thelma jumped and meowed. She had thought it was her
sister, Luna.

“What is it, girl? Are you O.K.?” Riley
reached over and petted the cat. “I don’t like that girl either,
her singing sucks sometimes.”

Thelma missed Luna and even missed Hugo,
Luna’s husband. Every year around this time the three of them would
leave Enchanted for the winter. They worked hard all year ensuring
the human inhabitants of Enchanted were all secure and happy. Luna
and Thelma had been riding on Hugo’s back, he was in big buck deer
form then
. I bet Luna turned in her sleep and knocked me off
with that big butt of hers.

Thelma remembered walking through the forest
looking for her sister and Hugo and then coming across the
expressway to the exit that brought their guests. It was a very
special exit, one that was not always visible.

“I have to remember to call Dr. Rogers
tomorrow and get Gertie into the office for a checkup. I want to
make sure she is healthy and is up to date on her shots.” Sarah
said, talking to her husband.

Shots? Oh no- no- no.
Thelma thought.
She looked at Sarah and wanted to hiss at her and let her
displeasure be known, but she thought better of that action. They
might get rid of her if she scratched one of them.

The next morning all of the humans left. The
father left first and then an hour later Suzanne and Riley petted
her and the mother gave her food and water and told her that she
would be back in a couple of hours. Thelma sat on the windowsill
watching the van that had brought her to this house slowly back out
into the street.

Finally!
Cooper watched the new cat
as she jumped down from the window. Thelma stretched and ran in
circles for a moment, blue mist forming around her. Cooper blinked
his eyes when he saw that the cat was now as tall as his people.
Cooper growled at Thelma.

“BOO!” Thelma yelled and then laughed when
she saw Cooper run from the room as if his tail was on fire. She
had watched carefully what the humans did to make the television
work and she turned it on. She then walked into the kitchen and
opened the refrigerator.

Thelma made herself a breakfast of scrambled
eggs, toast, coffee and bacon. She noticed Cooper peeking into the
kitchen after a while. “Come here, Cooper, I won’t hurt you. Are
you hungry?”

Cooper was still afraid, but the smell of
bacon was too good to pass up so he trotted into the kitchen and
sat at Thelma’s feet. Thelma petted him and gave him a piece.

“Can you talk, Cooper? Can you understand me
when I talk?” She asked. Cooper growled, ‘grrrrrrr, momma!” “Oh my.
Well, no, I am not your momma, Cooper. Do you know any other
words?”

Cooper tilted his head and studied Thelma.
He looked as if he very much wanted to communicate with her, but no
more words came out of his mouth. He then ran out of the kitchen
and came back with a toy in his mouth and laid it at Thelma’s feet
as a peace offering.

Thelma picked up the puppy and walked to the
living room and sat on the couch. “I wish you could talk, little
friend. I need to know where I am and how I can get back home where
I belong.” She said.

The man on the television said they were
going to give local weather conditions after the commercial break.
Thelma poured herself another cup of coffee and waited. She watched
closely as the television showed a map of what looked like a big
mitten. She was able to gage where she was and was disheartened to
see how far from home she had traveled.