Ghost Cat - Thelma's Dilemma (3 page)

The telephone rang and it startled Thelma.
The only place that had telephones in Enchanted was the hotel, and
that only connected the rooms there and the front desk. The village
had a system of bells set up where they rang at certain intervals,
like the one which signaled that school was over for the day.
Telephones were not forbidden in Enchanted, they just didn’t see a
big need for them.

Thelma listened as the telephone machine
talked. “This is Rosanna from Dr. Roger’s office calling in regards
to an appointment for your cat, Gertie that you called about.”

Thelma picked up the phone “Yes, about that
cat, we are going out of town and have found a new home for the
little darling, so we won’t be needing your services after all, but
thank you for calling.” Thelma told the woman on the phone.

“Thank you for letting us know, Mrs.
Gaunter, Cooper looks like he is up to date on all of his shots
too. Call us if you have a change of plans for your new cat. Have a
good day.” The lady from Dr. Roger’s office said.

“You too, dear.” Thelma said and then hung
up. “One problem down. Thelma studied the phone and noticed the
telephone number on it. She dialed and when the answering device
recording came on immediately she said “This is Dr. Roger’s office
calling for Mrs. Gaunter. We will be closed for the next two weeks,
please give us a call after that time. Thank you.” She then hung
up. “That should work.” Thelma said to Cooper.

Thelma watched the television until she saw
the van pulling into the drive way. She turned off the television
and then spun around several times, the blue mist appearing and
once again Thelma was in kitty cat form.

Sarah came into the house carrying
groceries. She smiled when she saw that Thelma and Cooper were
there to meet her at the door. “Hello you two, looks like you
haven’t been fighting, that is a good start.” Sarah then opened one
of the bags she was carrying and tossed a treat to each of them.
When Sarah turned her head Thelma kicked the treat she was given
over to Cooper. Cooper apparently didn’t care that the treat was
for cats, he gobbled it up in one bite.

Sarah put away the groceries and then walked
over to the computer. Thelma jumped up to sit next to her on the
desk. Sarah put her back onto the floor, but Thelma just jumped up
again. “Gertie, you want to help me search?” Sarah said. Sarah
clicked on several websites and Thelma sat there watching. She was
very interested in the computer.

The phone rang and Sarah got up to answer it.
She was talking to her husband when Thelma heard her say “I was
just on the computer and there was an accident right there where we
lost the trunk that night. Yes, right on the Kentucky/Tennessee
border. Looked like a bad accident too. They should do something
about that stretch of road, the way the rocks jut out like they do.
What time will you be home for dinner? O.K. hon, see you
later.”

That conversation caught Thelma’s attention.
She studied the computer screen and right there in plain sight was
the area where Thelma had entered the expressway. Thelma stared at
the image and then moved closer to the screen for a closer look.
She always knew that was the area which brought people to Enchanted
who needed her and Luna’s intervention, but now Thelma was
remembering something else.

Two very young girls walking with their
mother over big boulders and being told to watch out for falling
rocks. Thelma could not remember why they were there, just that
they walked a very long way. They had not been afraid, they walked
with a purpose, their mother knowing where they were headed even
though the two little girls did not.

“Grrrr, momma!” Thelma looked over at the
puppy, wondering why he would talk in front of his humans. “Good,
Cooper, I have to teach you some more words. How about Daddy?
Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.” Sarah said to the little dog who just tilted
his head and looked at her and said nothing.

Sarah sat back down at the computer and
Thelma swiped her paw over the screen. “You like that picture,
Gertie? It is very pretty, but sad about those cars being
wrecked.”

“Meow” Thelma answered. Sarah smiled at
Thelma and petted her head, “It is almost as if you can understand
me, sweetheart.” “Meow” Thelma answered.

Sarah clicked on other webpages that had
mostly recipes so Thelma jumped down and went back to the fireplace
to lay down and think. She had been watching Sarah very carefully
how to work the computer and she was anxious to try it out for
herself, but would have to wait until she was alone in the house
again. She wished Cooper could talk to her, he could be a lot of
help if he could. Unfortunately, not all animals could communicate
that way with others.

Sarah left for a few minutes to pick up her
daughters from school. Thelma knew that she would be back soon, so
she stayed in cat form and sat in the window. Suzanne and Riley ran
through the door. Riley went right to the refrigerator and Suzanne
came for Thelma.

“Hi Gertie!” Suzanne said, squeezing Thelma
too tightly. “I missed you, did you miss me?”

Sarah set out a glass of milk and a plate of
cookies for the girls to enjoy. “How much homework do you have
tonight?” She asked them. Both girls mumbled something that Sarah
could not understand.

“Let’s put it this way, if we can get done
with all of your homework in time, maybe we will have more time
before daddy gets home to go through the rest of the stuff in the
trunk.”

That had the girls scrambling for their book
bags. Thelma watched from the couch in the living room. She didn’t
have much interest in the trunk, it had served its purpose in
keeping her warm, but she had nothing else to do, so she figured
she would follow them out to the garage and check it out as
well.

After the homework was done and checked,
Suzanne said “Can we look in the trunk now?” “Finish putting away
your homework and then we can look.” Their mother said. “What if
there is another cat in there?” Suzanne asked. “If there is, can we
keep that one too?”

“If there is another cat in there, it would
be dead by now, dummy.” Riley told her sister. Suzanne went and
picked up Thelma. “I am so glad we found you and you were not
dead.” Suzanne said, carrying Thelma out to the garage.

They waited patiently while their mother
took items out one by one. “This trunk is bigger than I thought it
was.” Sarah said. She pulled out a journal, but did not open it.
She saw something shinny and picked it up. It was a ruby ring.
“This is beautiful.” Sarah said, holding it up for the girls to
see.

“Can I have it?” Riley asked immediately,
before Suzanne could call dibs. “I think I will keep this one for
myself. We don’t know how old it is, but I am guessing it has to be
pretty old to be in the trunk.” Sarah pulled out a large envelope
full of papers and documents. She put them aside to go through at a
later date. In a separate envelope was a picture of Gertie with two
little girls who both looked to be under six years old. “I wonder
who those little girls are.” Sarah thought out loud. “Far as I ever
knew, Don was her only child.

Tucked in the corner of the trunk were
pieces of cloth and a few aprons, and a few more pictures. “I still
don’t understand why Gertie wanted us to have this trunk.” Sarah
said. It is going to take time to go through all of those papers. I
hope there isn’t anything in here that Don will need.”

Riley said. “Could be, but then again, why
us? Why not leave everything to Don?”

“Did Don ever have a wife or kids, mom?”
Suzanne asked. “Good question, Suzanne. As far as I know, he never
married. But we only knew them about six years, I really could not
say with any certainty anything about Don, or really about Gertie
either, except that she was a loving woman and a real fun
character.”

Sarah and Riley scooted the trunk to the
corner of the garage and Sarah carried the envelopes and pictures
into the house. “Dad will be home soon, I should get started on
dinner.” Sarah said, placing the paperwork into the desk in the
den.

Riley went to her bedroom and Suzanne turned
on the television. Sarah was in the kitchen starting dinner. Thelma
jumped on the desk and tried to see what sort of documents there
were there. Not that she cared all that much but she was bored
since Suzanne had cartoons on the television. Thelma swatted an
envelope out of the way. She wanted to look at the pictures, but
when she pushed another envelope out of her way, everything fell on
the floor. Thelma was just about to go through them when little
arms picked her up and carried her to the couch.

“Gertie, you knocked everything on the
floor, silly kitty.” Suzanne said.

Jim came home from work and the family sat
down to a dinner consisting of salad, lasagna and garlic bread.
Thelma’s mouth was watering. She hadn’t had lasagna in a long
time.

“Daddy, we went through the rest of the
stuff in the trunk today.” Riley told her father. “Yeah, but there
wasn’t any more cats in there.” Suzanne added.

“Find anything interesting?” Jim asked.

“Well, Gertie was over one hundred years
old, so everything in the trunk is interesting to me. We did find a
beautiful ruby ring, some pictures and more papers.” Sarah told
Jim.

Thelma’s ears perked up when she heard how
old Gertie had been. “The girls and I were wondering about Gertie’s
son, Don. I don’t think I ever heard that he ever married or had
kids, did you know if he did?” Sarah asked. “I didn’t hear anything
at the memorial service about that, not that I was paying all that
much attention. Wouldn’t Gertie’s death notice mention if he
had?”

“Good point. Gertie was cremated, but there
should be a notice that was posted in their local newspaper. I
think I will check that out. Odd how we lived next to Gertie for
six years and how little we actually knew about her.”

After dinner Sarah went on line to see if
she could locate a death notice for Gertie in her local newspaper.
She found a big write up about how much Gertie meant to her
community and how much she would be missed. Gertie was something of
a local hero. Sarah had known that Gertie baked cookies and made
chocolate candies for local schools, but she had not known that
Gertie had also donated to quite a few charities. Gertie Enchanter
was quite a woman. “Jim, look at this.”

Jim walked over to the computer. “What?”

“It says Beloved Guardian of Don. Guardian?”
“That is strange. Nothing about other children?” Sarah scrolled
down the notice. “No, not even a mention of a former husband.”

“Was Don mentally challenged? I mean, how
can you be a guardian of a full grown man if he isn’t physically or
mentally handicapped?” Jim asked.

“I really don’t know and it’s not like we
could ask anyone else.”

Sarah showed her husband the beautiful ruby
ring that she had found in the trunk. “That ring is quite
impressive. You can tell the jewel is the real deal. Was that the
only piece of jewelry in the trunk?”

“No, there is much more. It is going to take
a while to go through everything that we found in there, but it
should be an interesting project.” Sarah said. “Maybe Don can help
us on anything we find that we need answers for.”

“It might be hard to hear, but Gertie’s son
Don is getting up in age, so there is no telling what he knows or
might remember about her. Whatever you have found in the trunk has
no doubt been there for many years. I can’t think of anything that
would be in there that he would need if he hasn’t needed it up to
this point. That trunk had a lot of dust and cobwebs on it in that
attic.” Jim said.

“Well, not just what he might need or
remember, but if we need answers about anything in that trunk,
Don’s age puts a time limit on us getting answers about any of it.
He might have never even looked in that trunk himself, or he might
know more than he realizes he knows. In any case, it would not hurt
to ask.” Sarah said.

“Make a list of questions, if you come up
with any, when you go through the contents of the trunk. Do you
plan on telling him about the ruby ring?”

“As far as we know there are no children or
grandchildren or great grandchildren to pass that ring down to. Don
himself gave us the trunk and said he did not know what was in it,
only that Gertie wanted us to have it. So, I guess, no, it would do
no good to tell him about the ring. I’ll go through the papers and
make a list of questions, if we have any, when I am sure we haven’t
missed anything. I don’t know what else to do, really.” Sarah said,
looking at the ring on her finger.

“Gertie was a nice woman and all, but she
was a neighbor, not a relative. If there are mysteries connected
with anything, it wouldn’t be our mystery to solve. But I know you
like a good story, so have fun with it. Are you going to have the
ring appraised?” Jim said, leaving the table and picking up the
newspaper.

“Maybe someday, well, I guess for insurance
purposes we should. I want to go through all the jewelry in the
trunk first. Maybe do a little research.”

Sarah washed the dishes and then sat down at
the desk and took out the papers she had found in the trunk. She
unfolded a very old looking paper that had yellowed. Something was
hand written on the page that had faded over the years, but Sarah
was able to make out the words.

The warmth of the sun will show you the
way

To open arms where you will stay

By the shine of the red on your finger

Hurry now, do not linger

Be aware of what you will find

When the stone is allowed to shine

Follow it quickly, for it will not last

Soon the rocks will not let you pass

“The red on your finger.” Sarah said out
loud. She looked again at the ruby ring she had found in the
trunk
. Is this a magic ring? Be aware of what you will find,
when the stone is allowed to shine. Is that a warning? Could the
ring be evil?