Kilts and Catnip

by Zoe Tasia

  Kay shook her head and gripped the doorway as she peered into the unlit store. “Maybe I’ll just come back another day,” she said. “I don’t see anyone here to help us anyway.”

  Just then, we heard a crash from the back of the building and a scratching sound.

  “Mr. McNeil?” I called out. “Is everything okay?”

  The girls had preceded us in and Tate rushed down the candy aisle, collecting several different chocolates which she would, no doubt, insist she had to have.

  Suddenly the light blinked on and off then stayed on. “They must be working on the fuses. They should be in pretty soon,” I said hopefully. I didn’t like it, though. “With his nephew helping out, you would think someone would be here while the other worked on the fuse.”

  “Mom, can I try this?” Tate waved a new candy at me.

  “I guess, Tate. Please don’t go overboard, though. Too much rich food after an illness will make you sick.”

  She hadn’t exactly had an illness, but I didn’t know what to call what happened. Tate skipped back to the counter and unloaded her arms. She was very spontaneous. Jess was taking more time with her selections. Kay wasted no time in finding the foreign foods aisle where the American foods resided and loaded up a basket she found at the door. I picked up a few more things, since we were here, and I was trying not to make as many trips. I heard another crash. It seemed to be coming from the basement. I remembered what was there. The silver and the cage. Uh oh. Surely Conall wasn’t in the middle of some weird sexcapade when the storm messed things up. “Surely not,” I muttered.

  “What?” Kay asked.

  “Oh, nothing. Or I’ll tell you about it later.”

  Jess looked up and rolled her eyes at me, recognizing my code for “not in front of the children.” Tate, blissfully unaware, decided in which order she would eat her sweets. Thuds came from the basement as if several someones were coming up the stairs. The door was shut, but as I watched, the handle bobbed up and down erratically.

  “Mr. McNeil, are you okay?” I asked.

  We froze when we heard a low growl. The door shook as something rammed into it hard.

  Staring at the door, Jess backed up toward me. “Oh, shit!”

  I had never heard her say anything stronger than shards. “Jess!”

  “Sorry, Mom.”

  The door reverberated with another hard bump, and the lever jiggled again, almost turning far enough to open but not quite.

  Tate arranged her candies at the counter. Only a few feet stood between her and the door.

  “Tate, just leave it. I think we should go.”

  “But, Mom! I want to try this new bar!” The candy slid from her fingers and plopped onto the counter top.

  Kay rushed forward and swept the goods into her basket. “Come on, let’s go now!”

  “But what about paying?” Tate gaped at Kay but followed, needing to jog to keep up with Kay’s long strides.

  “We can pay later,” Kay assured her.

  As I held my basket, undecided, I searched for Jess. “Jess!” I called.

  When she crept beside me and brushed my arm, I flinched.

  Jessie’s hand trembled on my shoulder. “Mom?”

  The door flew open with a bang. Two wolves burst from the basement, tumbling over each other in their haste to get out. The smallest jumped on top of the counter. The larger one slinked out from behind it. That wolf, all black except its gray legs and muzzle, bared its teeth. The wolves were huge. Even the small brindled one looked like it outweighed me. I glanced back. Kay and Tate had reached the exit and waited for us. I froze, inanely torn between leaving money on the counter, maybe a note, or just leaving.

  “Becca, Jessie. Come now!”

  The panic in Kay’s voice and Jess’s tug on my arm decided me. The hackles raised on both animals, making them appear even larger. The smaller one sniffed the air then howled. He leapt to the floor, putting him mere feet away from Jess and me. Jessie gasped as I pushed her behind me.

  “Back out slowly,” I whispered as I tried to remember what you were supposed to do around a wild dog.

  My mind went blank. I wanted to run, but I didn’t want my back exposed to them. My eyes darted back and forth at the shelves, hoping to find a broom or something. As I crept back, my hand brushed the items on the shelves.

  “Here, doggie, come here!” Jessie called.

  I turned. Jessie had snuck to the next aisle and torn open a package of tuna. She waved it to get the wolf’s attention.

  “Jessica! Get to the door!” I squeaked, managing not to yell. No freaking out the wolves, Becca.

  I couldn’t see the large one, but said a quick prayer that it found the meat department. The smaller wolf sniffed and weaved around to the aisle where Jess stood. I backed more quickly and sidestepped to reach her just as the wolf did. Jess placed the package in the center of the aisle and backed away.

  “Good doggie—you’re a good doggie. Tuna is way better than icky people,” Jessie crooned.

  The wolf sniffed the fish and then lapped up some. Something bumped my hip. I wheeled around. The other wolf had flanked us. This time I couldn’t contain myself and shrieked. The wolves shied, their claws chattered on the tile as they scrambled back. I swallowed an eep.

  “Go!” I shoved Jessie toward the door where Tate and Kay waited, Tate’s hands gesturing for us to come. I raced after Jess.

  “We tried to get your attention, but we didn’t want to startle the wolf,” Kay said as she threw open the door.

  The girls ran out. Kay and I fled seconds later. Just as I was pulling the door closed, the larger wolf leapt up, hitting it, and slammed it shut. The wolf rested its front paws on the wood and stared through the glass at us with intelligence showing in the dark eyes. Raising its head, it let out a spine-chilling howl.

  “What in the world are wolves doing in the grocery? Do you think Mr. McNeil and Lundy are okay?” I asked.

  Kay’s eyes didn’t meet mine as she played with the strap of her purse. “They’re fine, I think,” she postulated.

  Suspicious, I said, “Those look like the same ones we saw earlier. Kay, what do you know about this?”

  Kay shrugged. “I know that wolves shouldn’t be in the village. And these wolves weren’t acting wolfish.”

  I fished out my phone, but it still had no bars. “Is there any way that they can get out?”

  “I don’t think so. There’s a back door, but surely the grocer keeps it locked. Anyway, wolves can’t open doors.”

  After poking buttons on the phone with no results, I tossed it back into my purse with a grunt. “We can’t just leave. What if someone comes to buy something? They would walk right in on those animals. We need to contact the police or animal control or somebody so they can be captured and taken back to the forest.” Kay and Jess checked their phones with the same results that I had. “Kay, why don’t you walk to the station? We can stay and make sure no one enters.”

  “No, I’ll stay. You take the girls to the station. They look pretty shook up.”

  I studied the girls. Tate didn’t seem to understand the danger we had been in and was excitedly watching the wolves eat the tuna. Jess was proud that she had done something to distract them enough for us to leave. Neither seemed upset. I had the feeling that Kay wanted us away, but I wasn’t going to argue with her.

  “Okay, we’ll be back as soon as we can.”

  “Can’t we stay, Mom?” Tate pleaded.

  “No, honey. I think Kay’s right that it would be better for you two to come with me. Watching them may unnerve them, and I don’t know how strong those wolves are. There’s a possibility that they could break the glass and get out if antagonized.”

  Tate pouted for a few moments but quickly forgot the issue when I let her try one of the new candies she had chosen. Their appetites were ruined so much that she might not even want dinner, considering the sweets she had eaten. With all that sugar, I wasn’t surprised that she skipped ahead of u
s, bursting with energy. While Jessie retold the details of what happened, I kept my responses to noncommittal “Uh, huhs,” my mind busy wrestling with why Kay would want us gone. We reached the station and, in short order, were escorted back to the store by Constable Ian Gow, a ginger who didn’t look old enough to shave. Kay wasn’t in front. And the door was open. “Oh, no!” I was torn between running to check for Kay and staying back in case the wolves were close.

  “Stay here,” the constable said and cautiously moved to the door. He looked in then turned back and smiled at us. “It’s safe!” he called out.

  When we reached the store, we saw Kay with Conall and his nephew cleaning up the tuna and the few items that had been knocked to the floor when the animals ran down the aisles.

  When I reached Kay, I asked, “What happened to the animals?”

  She busied herself with digging in her purse to pay for her items. “Conall and Lundy returned. They had run out to check on Aunt Mornia. I told them about the wolves but, when we investigated, they had vanished. Conall checked and he said the back door was open. He said he must have forgotten about it in his haste to see to his aunt, and the wolves must have left that way.”

  “But how did they get inside in the first place?”

  “Probably the same way.”

  Maybe, but how did they get shut up in the basement?

  Kay went to the counter, paid, and packed up her purchases along with mine.

  “Wait, Kay! You don’t have to pay for ours.”

  “It’s no trouble at all. I don’t know about you, but with all this excitement, I’m anxious to just get home, put my feet up, and have a cuppa.”

  The police talked to Conall while Lundy gave Kay her change.

  Lundy reached for a rag and polished the counter. “Hi, Jessica. I hope you weren’t so scared that you won’t want to come back to the store to shop,” he said.

  “I don’t scare that easily,” Jess said airily. “They may have just been very large dogs. They seemed awfully tame to me. Now you—are you going to be too afraid to come to work because of the scary doggies?”

  I frowned. Jess was being a real pill, and she needed to stop it. She didn’t have to be rude to discourage him.

  Conall’s nephew was rightfully indignant. “They were two wolves and the biggest wolves in the forest, I warrant!” he protested.

  “How would you know? You weren’t even here. Why did both you and your uncle have to go, anyway?” Jess retorted.

  Lundy said nothing and rubbed harder at the spotless countertop.

  I intervened. “They were wolves, Jessica.” I agreed with Jessie, they were acting suspicious, but poking at Lundy wouldn’t get us any answers. I gave her a meaningful look and frowned.

  She rolled her eyes at me. “Fine, I guess they were wolves. It was weird that they would come into a grocer. I could see them trying to get into the butcher shop, but why a grocer?”

  “I guess we’ll never know,” Kay said.

  The constable and Conall finished up and said goodbye to each other.

  When Conall came to the counter, I asked, “How’s your aunt?”

  He scratched his head. “What?”

  Kay cleared her throat. “She’s fine. It was a false alarm.” She tilted her head at Conall. “Right, Conall?”

  His eyebrows raised as some unspoken communique occurred. “Oh, right.” Turning to me, he said, “My mind’s in a muddle. We’ve never had wolves in the store before.”

  My eyes narrowed as I studied the two of them. “Hopefully, they won’t return.”

  “Ready?” Kay asked, bright as a Barbie doll.

  We said goodbye and Kay drove us back to the cottage.

  Chapter 18

  THE KITTEN GREETED us at the door, and Tate cuddled her up as soon as she could.

  I wanted to see if I could tease more information from Kay. “Would you like to join us for some tea?” I asked when she sorted the groceries, leaving my items on the table.

  Kay bundled up her goods and slipped the bag over her wrist. “No thanks. I have a few things I want to get done before I have that cuppa.”

  The lame excuse tasked me. A Scot never turned away tea. “Okay...well, thank you for the ride.” I walked her to the car. “Those wolves—Conall and Lundy, are they like you?” I waited, but Kay didn’t answer. She didn’t even look at me as she busied herself carefully putting her items on the passenger seat. I grabbed her shoulder. When she turned, I asked, “You can shift into a cat. You said you are Cat Sith. Are they Wolf Sith?”

  “Don’t be silly, Becca. There’s no such thing as Wolf Sith.” She absentmindedly said goodbye. I watched her back out.

  When I got back inside, Jess said, “Mom, I think Lundy and Mr. McNeil were lying. What do you think is really going on with those wolves?”

  I patted Jessie’s hand. “I’m not sure. I’ve asked Kay about it but haven’t gotten much in the way of answers. Can you help me with the groceries?”

  Tate wanted to read her book, so I told her she could as long as she helped get dinner ready.

  As we put up the groceries, I tried to broach the subject of Conall’s nephew again. “Jess, you really need to stop baiting the boy. It isn’t nice.” And I’m still not convinced he isn’t some sort of shapeshifter, despite what Kay said. But, surely, if they were dangerous, she’d tell me.

  A can thumped when Jessie slammed it in the pantry. “Well, he isn’t very nice. When we were over at the Samms’, Nessa came over to ride. Her horse is boarded there. She was still upset about the dance, Mom. Lundy really hurt her feelings. Gavin felt bad for her, too.”

  When she came back to the table, I nudged her with my elbow to get her full attention. “Sometimes teenagers are so busy focused on themselves that they say things without thinking. Also, when you live in a small town and you’re around the same people all the time, it can be hard for someone to see another person as a prospective date. That girl and that boy have probably been raised together, almost like siblings.”

  Jessie sighed. “I’m sorry. I guess I should have been nicer. I just talked to Nessa yesterday and it made me so sad, and mad, to see her practically cry over the dummy.”

  “Well, you insulting him and being a snot isn’t going to make him like her.”

  “I suppose not.”

  “He’ll eventually see the young woman she now is and decide to ask her out—or not. Boys tend to mature slower than girls.”

  A gust of air escaped Jessie’s lips as she sat at the table. “If I were her, I would say no, even if he did ask me out, but I bet she would say yes. She just kept saying there must be something wrong with her and asking me what she should do to make him like her. If a boy treated me like that, I wouldn’t be wondering what was wrong with me. There would be something wrong with him, and then I wouldn’t want to go out with him anyway.”

  I sat across from her. “You know, everyone makes mistakes, Jess. As you get older and start dating, I’m sure you’ll mess up along the way.”

  Jess stubbornly shook her head, and I let the conversation go.

  “What were you researching at the library?” I asked as a topic change.

  “Oh, I was thinking about what Mr. Gillie said about the thing that I saw...well, the things, the one that led Tate into the woods and the one that he sent away. I wanted to see if I could find any books to read up on it. I thought there might be something about how to get rid of them.”

  “What did you find out?”

  “Well, I found several books, and the librarian helped me find some others. Most of them are pretty old and some bits are boring. I kinda skipped around with the reading. I haven’t found anything that sounds like either of the things, so I guess I need to just begin at the beginning and read them all. I’ll probably need to check them out again. There’s no way I’ll get through all of them before they need to be returned.”

  “If you want, I can help you.” I knew that, while Jess was quite a capable reader, she really was
n’t fond of it and found reading a chore.

  “Really? I thought you might think it was silly. You know, reading stupid fairy tales.”

  “Learning something new is never silly or stupid. When I was young, I loved fairy tales.”

  “The librarian gave me some adult books and some very old fairy tales. I started with the fairy tales. I thought they would be easy to read since they were written for children, but, Mom, these fairy tales aren’t like the Disney versions. Some of them read more like horror movies.”

  I rubbed my bottom lip as a mélange of childhood memories shuffled through my mind. “She must have pulled out some of the original Brothers Grimm. The tales those films are based on are often very violent.”

  “You’ve read them?”

  “Not all, of course, but some.”

  “Also, some of the books are about Scottish tales and creatures.”

  “Tell you what, we can sit down and pour through it. I’m thinking maybe the library is a good place to study, with internet access going on and off.” I waited and Jess nodded. I knew she would be checking up on it much more frequently than I would. “At least there, we have other references we can use. I’m kind of old school with research. Just about anyone can put something up on the internet that isn’t true.”

  Jess rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it. You still read books.”

  Someone knocked on the door. And it wasn’t Kay’s usually tap, tappity, tap, but an almost tentative rap. We looked at each other, and I shrugged, not having a clue who would be visiting. I rose and opened the door. To my surprise, Greg stood shifting from one foot to the other.

  “Good afternoon, Rebecca. I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

  “No. Jess and I were just putting up some groceries. Come in.” I moved to the right at the same time he moved to the right to walk inside and then, we exchanged grins and both of us moved to the left, doing an odd dance. Jess snorted. I felt my face redden.

  “Mom, I’m going to my room to read some more. Will you be in soon to help?” Her voice raised meaningfully on the word help.