Ghost Cat - Thelma's Dilemma

by Carol Colbert

  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.”

  Chapter 4

  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?

  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 m
ap, 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.

  Chapter 5

  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 in
to 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!

  Chapter 6

  Suzanne and Riley came into the house and threw their book bags onto the couch. A couple of papers flew out of Suzanne’s book bag and landed behind the couch. Thelma quickly picked them up with her teeth and dropped them in front of the couch. It wouldn’t do to have Suzanne or anyone else look behind the couch, they might see where Thelma had hidden the journal.

  Sarah made the girls tuna fish sandwiches and put a bag of corn chips on the table. Thelma’s mouth was watering and she was feeling very cranky. Her muscles hurt and she had a lot of investigating to do and could not do anything as long as everyone was home and awake. She also wanted to dig deeper into her aunt’s journal.

  Sarah helped the girls with their homework and then took the papers out of the desk to look at them more. She wrote a few things down and then, notebook in hand, walked into the kitchen and picked up the phone.

  “Don? Hello, this is Sarah Gaunter. How are you holding up since Gertie passed?” Sarah talked for a while, consulting her notes. Thelma tried to listen, but it was hard to understand a one way conversation and Suzanne had put the TV on to watch cartoons. Suzanne had Thelma squashed in-between a pillow and her stuffed rabbit, Mr. Pickles, on her lap.