by Patricia Fry
“Huh?” Margaret moaned. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. I think I need help. Get up, would you?”
“Help? Why? Is it the baby? Are you in labor, Vannie?”
“No. It’s Rags.” She hesitated. “Or not.” Savannah pulled on her aunt’s arm. “Come with me. I want you to tell me whether I’m going crazy or not.”
“Yeah, you’re crazy,” Margaret said. “Now, go back to bed, will ya?”
“No. I think I saw Rags. Come and take a look. Please,” she asked, tears of frustration filling her eyes.
Margaret studied her niece for a moment before saying, “Oh, all right. You saw your cat? Where?”
“I think I just let him in; then he disappeared.”
Margaret peered suspiciously at Savannah, but followed dutifully behind her.
“I saw him right there,” she said, pointing to a spot in the living room.
“Rags?” Margaret called. “Kitty-kitty. Are you here, boy?”
“What’s all the hollering about?” Gladys asked from the hallway.
“Oh, she thinks she saw Rags,” Margaret complained.
When Gladys looked at her daughter, Savannah shrank back a little and explained, “I think he came back, but how can that be? I saw him, but then he disappeared.”
As the three women tried to make sense of what Savannah was telling them, they heard a small voice shout, “My kitty! My kitty!”
“Lily, what are you doing out of bed, sweetheart?” Savannah cooed, scooping up the toddler and snuggling with her.
“How could she sleep with all the noise?” Gladys reasoned.
“Look, Mommy,” Lily insisted, “my kitty!”
The women turned in the direction the child pointed. Margaret was first to speak. “Oh, my God.” She stepped back a few paces. “It is him. How…? What…?” She reached out and grabbed Savannah’s arm. “What’s going on?”
“That looks like your cat, all right,” Gladys said. “Do you suppose someone dropped him off?” She lowered her brow. “But how did he get in here?”
“I might have let him in,” Savannah confessed. “I opened the front door a while ago, but I sure didn’t see him come in.”
“How did he get here, is what I want to know?” Margaret said. “…I mean to this house from wherever he was taken…”
Savannah shook her head slowly. “Exactly! No one has this address except maybe the police, and they wouldn’t just drop him off like that; they’d knock on the door or call us.” She turned to face the others and said quietly, “Maybe he ran away from the catnapper.” She put Lily down on the sofa and moved toward the cat. “Let me take a look at you, Rags,” she said, picking him up and carrying him into a more well-lighted area.
“Is it him?” Margaret asked. “Or is he an imposter?”
“It’s him. See his scar? And look at his paw pads. They seem sort of roughed up. And there are burrs in his pantaloons.”
Gladys lowered her brow. “Pantaloons?”
“Yeah,” Savannah said, chuckling. “The cute fluff of fur on his backside.” She held the cat close. “Oh my gosh, do you think he escaped the catnapper and found his way back here all by himself?”
“Oh, now, that’s a bit far-fetched, don’t you think so?” Margaret asked. “Even for Rags.”
“I’ve read about cats who traveled great distances,” Gladys said. “Some even found their way to a home their family had moved to and where they’d never been before. It’s uncanny what a cat can do.”
Margaret and Savannah both stared at Gladys, who was by then sitting on the sofa cradling Lily in her arms. “When did you learn so much about cats?” Margaret asked.
“Since I got Darby. Like I told you, we watch TV shows about cats and I check out things on the Internet that help me be a better cat mom.”
“I need to call Rob,” Savannah said excitedly.
“This late?” Margaret asked.
Savannah headed to her room to retrieve her phone. “We agreed we’d call no matter what time it was.” When she returned, she looked down at her phone and said, “Oh! Bless his heart; I have a text from John. He says Jayden can’t sleep and that means he and his wife can’t sleep. He wonders if we have any news about Rags.”
She used her cell phone to take a picture of Rags, then sent it with a message to the Thachers. “He just came home. Must have been a long walk, he seems tired and has sore paw pads.”
After she called Rob, she went to the kitchen to make sure there was food and water for Rags, then she suggested they all go back to bed. “We have another signing tomorrow, you know. And Rob thinks that with all the publicity, we’re going to be slammed with customers and lookiloos.”
She looked down at the cat. “He’ll probably sleep right through it all. Poor guy.”
****
The following afternoon Savannah and Margaret had been greeting children and their parents, grandparents, and teachers at a large library for about ninety minutes when Rob approached. “Ready for a break?” He looked at Rags. “Did he ever wake up to greet any of his guests?”
Savannah ran her hand over the cat’s fur. “Just Jayden.”
“It was a breeze getting his paw-tograph, today,” Margaret said, laughing. “We’d just lift his paw, stick it in the nontoxic inky stuff, and put the book page against it. He didn’t even wake up half the time. But yeah, he did want to visit with Jayden.”
“Look!” Savannah yelped.
“What?” Margaret and Rob both asked.
Savannah stood and headed toward the front door. “Watch him, will you, Auntie? Rob, come with me!”
“What?” he hissed as he tried to keep up with her.
She pointed. “That woman! The big one wearing the full-length purple wrap thing. I think she’s the one who took Rags.”
Rob immediately hastened his pace. When they reached the parking lot and he saw the woman trying to unlock the door of an older model car, he rushed up to her. “Excuse me, ma’am.” He heard the lock disengage. She opened the door and started to slip into the car. “No you don’t,” he said, pushing the door shut.
“What do you want?” she asked, nervously looking around. “Who are you?”
“I think you know who I am,” Savannah said, approaching her. Savannah squinted at her and pointed a finger. “You took my cat!”
The woman looked down, allowing her hair to fall over her face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Take off that mask,” Savannah ordered. When the woman didn’t comply, she repeated, “Take it off!”
“But I…it’s…I must…” she stammered.
At that, Savannah brazenly reached up, carefully took hold of the mask, and pulled it down under the woman’s chin. She gasped. “Well, if it isn’t Marvelle.” She glared at the woman and shouted, “You tried to take my cat from me at the gas station! And then you actually kidnapped him yesterday.”
“Yeah, and maybe you planned to do it again today,” Rob said, grabbing the woman’s purse.
“Hey, what are you doing?” she screeched. “I’ll scream.”
“Go ahead, if you want to be arrested,” Rob bluffed. “’Cause I’ll have you arrested in a hot minute.” When Marvelle quieted down, he opened her purse and pulled out a pair of kitchen shears. “Now this is a strange thing for a woman to carry in her purse, isn’t it, Savannah?”
She nodded.
Rob snarled at the woman, “Is this what you used to cut the cat’s leash?”
“No, I was…um…cutting roses this morning. I guess I…um…stuck them in my purse.”
Just then Margaret appeared with Rags on his leash beside her. She was about to approach Savannah and Rob when she almost lost her balance. “Rags!” she shouted, when he began pulling her toward the group. “I guess he missed you,” Margaret said to Savannah when they drew near.
But it wasn’t Savannah that Rags was interested in, and Savannah was p
retty sure what he had in mind. However, before he could instigate his little plan, she grabbed the cat and held him tightly in her arms.
“What’s wrong with him?” Margaret asked. “He’s growling.”
Savannah stared at Marvelle. “He doesn’t seem to like this woman, Auntie.”
“Oh, I don’t think that’s true, is it, Mr. Cat?” Marvelle crooned. She reached out to touch Rags and he lashed out at her, causing her to back away.
“Now get in the car and get out of here,” Rob said. “Don’t show up at any of Rags’s book signings again.” As a postscript, he added, “And don’t bother these folks or the cat again or we will have you arrested.”
The woman opened the car door, quickly stepped in, and started to close it, when Margaret stopped her. “I’d like to know something. Where do you live that this cat was able to find his way home? Or did you drop him off someplace?”
When Marvelle tried to close the door again, Rob threatened, “Hey, I could still call the cops. Answer the question.”
Marvelle scowled. “I live in the Gardens Apartments on Aspen Way. But I don’t know why you need to know that. I didn’t take your cat.”
“Yeah, right,” Rob said sarcastically.
“Where do you people live?” Marvelle wanted to know.
“You think they’re going to tell you that?” Rob asked, laughing.
Savannah buried her face in Rags’s fur. “My cat had to walk a good five miles to find his way home.” She teared up. “He could have been killed.”
At that, Margaret let the car door go, Marvelle slammed it, and drove off in a hurry.
“Unless,” Margaret said.
Savannah lowered her brow. “Unless what?”
“I’m saying he might not have walked all that way. He might have taken a bus like he did that one other time or he hitched a ride with someone.”
Rob found that particularly amusing. He roughed up Rags’s fur. “Man, you’re a kick, cat.”
****
“Ahhh, a day off,” Savannah said the following morning over a late, leisurely breakfast. “I’m ready to relax and just play with my baby. You’re probably ready for a break from Lily, aren’t you, Mom?”
Gladys smiled. “I have to say, she does wear me out, but I don’t want to miss a moment with her. She’s so precious and smart. Vannie, do you realize how smart she is?”
“Well, yeah, she seems smart to us, but I don’t have other children to compare her with. She sure is a sponge—seems to always be surprising us with something new she’s learned. Do you know what she said yesterday?”
“No, what?” Gladys asked.
Margaret waited for the answer as well.
“She picked up her dolly, held her close, and said, ‘Gammy love. Gammy love.”
“Oh, how precious,” Gladys said. “That’s what I say to her all the time, ‘Grammy loves you’.” She put her hands gently on Lily’s cheeks. “I sure do love you, you adorable child.”
Margaret smiled down at Lily, then said, “Well, we have another long drive to look forward to in a few days.”
Savannah smirked playfully. “You mean, I have another long drive.”
“Hey, I don’t mind driving. I keep offering. Let me drive some on the way back,”
Margaret insisted.
Savannah smiled. “We’ll see.”
“Yeah, you’d rather drive and leave me to entertain your child and your cat,” Margaret huffed.
Savannah sat up straight and put her hands on her hips. “That’s not true, Auntie, and you know it.”
Gladys shook her head at the banter between her daughter and her sister. “Well, I sure don’t mind entertaining Lilliana. And I don’t mind driving. I can help with the driving.”
“Are you packed, Mom?” Savannah asked.
“I think so. Packing is sure a problem, isn’t it? Especially when you’re going from one climate to another.”
“Tell us about it,” Savannah complained. “Auntie and I had to pack one suitcase for summer-like weather and another for deep winter.”
“That would be hard,” Gladys agreed. She took a sip of her coffee, then changed the subject: “Vannie, do you consider your book tour a success?”
“According to Rob, it’s been a huge success. The publicity around Rags’s disappearance evidently helped attract people.”
Margaret agreed. “Yeah, you should have seen all the people taking selfies with Rags yesterday—people of all ages, with and without kids.”
Savannah chuckled. “Rob says Rags is going to become an Internet sensation and a household name. And he’s beyond thrilled with the book sales.” She giggled. “He’s also trying to figure out what makes Rags do the things he does. He’s actually tracing his five-mile trek from the catnapper’s house. He wants to know how Rags found his way here. Did he walk the entire way using some sort of built-in GPS system? Did he hitch a ride with someone who happened to be driving out this way? Rob is practically obsessed with finding out how Rags made the journey.”
“Really? How does he expect to do that?” Margaret wondered. “Ask the cat?”
“No. He has Cheryl and some other people talking to folks who live and work between there and here, hoping to put together a map of Rags’s meanderings. If Rob gets enough information, he wants to hire someone to write it up as a true story and market it around the holidays.”
“Holy cow!” Margaret exclaimed. “Retracing a cat’s steps would be a lot of work with probably a lot of dead ends.”
“Sounds interesting to me,” Gladys said. “His story might end up on one of the cat shows Darby and I watch.” She looked at Savannah. “So how many books does Rob think you sold this week?”
“Auntie, what did he say, nine hundred and thirty or something?”
“Yeah, something like that. Enough to pay our expenses.”
Savannah lifted Lily to her lap. “What expenses? Mom’s not charging us room and board, are you, Mom?”
“So it’s pure profit to spend on our Eastern trip,” Margaret cheered. She frowned. “Although we won’t get it for another few months. That’s an odd way to do business. We work to sell the books, then we don’t get our cut until they send out quarterly checks.”
“That’s the way of the publishing world,” Savannah quipped. “I’ll accept the royalties whenever they show up.”
“Good attitude, Vannie,” Gladys said. “I mean, what are your choices?”
“Exactly,” Savannah agreed. She picked up her phone off the table and looked at it. “It’s a text from Jayden’s dad. After reading it, she reported, “He says that Jayden saw his doctor first thing this morning and the doctor is most interested in pursuing more tests on his thyroid. Evidently the doctor recently read a report about some of the little-known symptoms related to a thyroid problem and he thinks it might be relevant in Jayden’s case. He was going to discuss it with Jayden’s parents during their next visit.” Savannah chuckled. “I guess the doctor was surprised when John brought it up first and the doctor wondered if he had read the same report.” She giggled. “John says he decided not to tell the doctor that it was a cat who brought it to his attention.”
Gladys shook her head. “I wonder how the doctors missed it.”
“And the cat noticed it,” Savannah added.
“Well, we don’t know if that is the problem yet,” Margaret pointed out. “Let’s not celebrate for Jayden too soon.” She started to chuckle. “But if the issue is with the thyroid and if you and Michael want some extra money, you could probably rent your cat out to the medical field as a diagnostic tool.”
“And create a freak of nature?” Savannah complained.
“You already have a freak of nature,” Margaret said glibly.
Savannah tapped her phone screen again. “Oh, a text from Michael.”
“What does he say?” Margaret asked. “Are they ready to meet us in Frisco?”
Savannah was quiet for a moment
. “He wants to know who MJ Gleason is. He said she left a message on the answering machine saying she plans to sue me.”
Gladys frowned. “Who’s that?”
Savannah rolled her eyes. “Gads, everyone’s sue-happy these days. Who knows?”
“I’ll bet I know,” Margaret said defiantly. “That woman who took Rags.”
“What? Why would she be suing me? She’s the one who stole my cat.” Savannah looked at the screen again. “Oh, wait, there’s more. Michael said the woman claims that while Rags visited her home he clawed a screen, climbed her velvet drapes, knocked a valuable antique off the mantle, and clawed her so badly that she had to have a tetanus shot. She’s claiming damages of two-thousand dollars.”
Margaret harrumphed. “What a crock.”
Savannah smiled. “I couldn’t have said it better myself. What is she, delusional?”
“I guess she wants to be arrested.” Margaret looked at Savannah. “So what are you going to do?”
“Maybe sic Rob on her. In the meantime, I’d like to just enjoy my day and look forward to our visit in the East later this week.”
Margaret looked impishly at Savannah. “I have an idea.”
“Uh-oh,” Gladys said, narrowing her eyes at her sister. “If I were you, Vannie, I’d run the other way.”
Savannah stared suspiciously at her aunt. “I know what you mean, Mom.”
Margaret thinned her lips and looked askance. “Okay, I won’t tell you my great idea.”
After a few moments, Savannah couldn’t help herself. She had to ask, “Okay, Auntie, what?”