by Fry,Patricia
“Or remembers something,” Savannah said, watching as Rags sat down and cocked his head. “What is it, Rags?” she said quietly.
Suddenly he stood and began trotting through the brush.
She held tightly to the leash. “Darn, Rags, this stuff’s thick. Ewww, and dusty.” She sneezed.
Let me take him,” Craig said, reaching for the leash and moving ahead of Savannah.
“My pleasure,” she said, sneezing again.
Suddenly Craig stopped abruptly and motioned for Savannah to do the same. He stepped out again, moving more slowly as Rags led the way.
Savannah could hear something in the brush. I hope Rags knows what he’s doing, she thought. That could be anything moving around in the bushes—a snake, bear, coyote—but Rags doesn’t seem concerned. He’s pretty much on a mission there. Does he know something we don’t know?
Without warning, Craig stopped again. The cat continued to pull, however, and the detective held tightly to Rags’s leash. He placed one finger against his lips in a shushing gesture toward Savannah, then took a breath and followed Rags several feet farther before stopping. “Well, hello. How are you this morning? I’m Craig.”
Before she could see who he was talking to, Savannah heard a gravelly voice. “Hi, kitty-cat. You came back to visit, did you? And you brought people. I told you we don’t want no people here. Maybe you should scat. Scat, kitty-cat!”
Overcome with curiosity, Savannah edged closer to Craig eager to see who the voice belonged to and a little wary, at the same time. Suddenly she gasped. Oh my gosh, what’s she doing out here like this? she thought upon seeing the wrinkled old woman sitting in a worn and faded canvas chair, poking a fork at three slices of spam in a pan over a small camp stove.
“I knew we should have ate it cold,” the woman grumbled. She glanced at Craig, her gray hair straggling alongside her weathered face. “You smelt it, didn’t ya? That’s what brought ya.” She looked at Craig, then Savannah. “Or did the cat show ya the way? He’s been here before, ya know.”
“Yes, I figured he had,” Craig said.
While Craig chatted awkwardly with the woman, Savannah looked around the campsite. It’s well-outfitted and well-hidden. What’s inside the shelter there? I guess that’s her sleeping quarters. Someone must have helped her set this up; she’s so crippled, I’m sure she couldn’t have done it herself. Suddenly Savannah realized the woman wasn’t alone. She could see a form on a cot under the canvas shelter.
“Turn him loose,” the woman insisted. “The cat knows his way around our camp. Let him be,” she said, waving her fork in Craig’s direction.
He looked at Savannah and she nodded. “Just leave the leash on,” she muttered.
They watched as Rags headed for the shelter and jumped up on the bed. Then they heard another voice—a man’s voice. “Smokey, you’ve returned.” The form on the bed sat up and Savannah could see a hand reach out and pet Rags.
“Hello,” Craig called, moving slowly toward the man.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Craig Sledge. And you must be…”
“Leo Kittleman,” he said, swinging his legs over the side of the cot and offering Craig his hand. “Where’d you get my buddy Smokey?”
“The cat brung those two here, Leo,” the woman said.
“Well, how nice. It’s always nice to have company.”
“Are you okay, sir?” Craig asked.
“Me?” Leo said. “Never better. Especially since my buddy came back. He’s my buddy, you know.”
“Mr. Kittleman, do you know where you live, sir?”
“Well, I live right here now, with Alice. I used to live…” he thought for a moment, then motioned absentmindedly with one hand, “…in a house over there somewhere. I forget where.” He shook his head. “My girls will surely be wondering where I am. They don’t know I moved to this house.” Deeper worry lines formed when he said, “And Bridget. Who’s going to feed Bridget her breakfast?” He started to edge off the bed. “I’d better find the girls and tell them to feed Bridget.”
“Leo, now you’ve tried that before,” Alice scolded. “You know you can’t recall how to get back to that house. You’re safer here with me.”
“I guess you’re right, Alice. I just don’t want to worry my girls.” He smiled. “They’ll probably give Bridget her breakfast.”
Craig studied Alice, then focused on Leo. “Mr. Kittleman, everyone in town is worried about you. You’ve been gone for a week now and people have been out looking for you. I guess Rags…uh…Smokey…was the only one who knew where you were, and he brought us to you this morning. I’d like to get someone out here to take you home.”
“Before I’ve had my breakfast?” he asked.
Craig looked from Savannah to Leo. “Well, I guess there’s no harm in you having your breakfast first.” He studied the man as he moved to a second canvas chair that had been patched in a few places. “Mr. Kittleman, you look to be in good shape.”
“Oh yes, Alice takes very good care of me. I live like royalty here.” He slapped a military-style cap on his head and looked inquisitively at Craig. “People have been looking for me?”
“Yes,” Savannah said. “And they’ve held a vigil for you—hundreds of people came together to pray for your safe return. You’ve touched a lot of people in this community, Mr. Kittleman. You’re well-loved.”
“Oh,” he said, his eyes welling up. “I do have some special and wonderful friends, but I didn’t know I had that many.” He looked at Craig, then at Savannah. “So I have to go home? You’ll take me to my home…to see my girls and Bridget?” He appeared grim for a moment and said, “Shorty’s gone. Shorty isn’t waiting for me anymore.”
“Yes,” Craig said. “We’ll take you to your home.”
“Can Alice come? She needs a home.”
“Oh stop it, Leo. I don’t need nothin’ of the sort. I live here and I like livin’ here. You’re not puttin’ me in no regular house nowhere nohow.”
Leo displayed a faint grin and said quietly, “She’s a bit stubborn. She’s not all that well anymore and shouldn’t be living out here like this.” He leaned toward Craig. “She thinks she’s been helping me. Well, I can tell you, it’s the other way around. She’s the one who needs help. I straightened up the place, built the shelter, found the camp stove someone had abandoned…and brought the extra mattress from over yonder.” He looked around the camp. “It’s a good time for her to leave here and live a more normal life. Can you help her to do that?”
“We’ll do our best,” Craig said. “There are people who work with the homeless. I’m sure they can help her find suitable housing. Do you know if she has kin?”
“Yeah, there’s Jesse.” He looked around, his brow furrowed. “Where is Jesse, anyway?” He continued, “She talks about a nephew sometimes. But she doesn’t know where he is. Maybe I can help her find him, if only she’d let me.”
“Or you can mind yer own beeswax,” Alice said. “Just go on home with these folks, Leo and leave me be, will ya? I’m not long for this earth anyway, and I want to go in peace. Here’s where I find my peace, among nature and all her bounty.”
“How long have you lived out here?” Savannah asked.
Alice squinted up at her. “Here? Dern near a dozen winters, save those when the water ran too wide and I had to skedaddle to higher ground. Since they changed the flow of the river, it don’t happen much no more. Used to live out near the craggy hills, but, there was too many people there you couldn’t trust…things was gettin’ rough. So we moved down here.”
Craig pointed to a couple of tree stumps. “Okay if we sit?”
“Suit yerself,” Alice said, stabbing a piece of the Spam with her fork and reaching it across to Leo.
He took it gingerly with his fingers. “Hot,” he said, dropping it into his lap.
“Take an orange,” Alice told him. “That’s the last of them. They was good while
they lasted.”
“Sure were,” Leo said, leaving the Spam in his lap and peeling one of the oranges.
Easing down onto one stump and gesturing toward another for Savannah, Craig asked, “So Alice, how do you get your supplies?”
“If you mean how do I pay for them, that’s private. To get them here, I walk to the ninety-nine-cent store over yonder with my shopping basket there.” She pointed at a small basket on wheels. “I can get all kinds of food and other stuff for next to nothin’.”
“Ninety-nine-cent store?” Craig questioned.
“It’s on First and Lemonwood,” Savannah explained.
He stared at Alice. “That’s nearly a mile from here, isn’t it?”
“If you say so,” she muttered. She squinted at him from under her heavy brows. “I might look old, but I kin walk a mighty piece, right Leo?”
“That’s right, Alice,” he said, smiling. “That’s where I met her, you know—at the dollar store…”
“Ninety-nine-cents!” she shouted. “The dollar store’s too pricey for my likin’. Why, if I buy ten things, that’s a whole nother dime I’d be spendin’ that I don’t need to spend.” She leaned toward Craig and Savannah. “Besides, they put higher prices on some things. Did ya know that?” She tightened her lips and nodded. “Yessir, some things cost more than a dollar. Not at the ninety-nine-cent store. You can count on everything costin’ the same, no matter what.”
“So you met her at that store?” Savannah asked Leo.
“Yes, and I helped her bring her things back here…”
“No, no, Leo. That ain’t true.”
“It’s not?” he asked, looking confused.
“Well, only partly.”
“I remember falling coming down that hill and getting cut,” he said, lifting his pants leg to reveal a makeshift bandage of cloth wrapped with string around his ankle, and pointing to a smaller wrapping around one elbow. “Alice fixed me up and invited me to rest here for a few days. We take turns sleeping on the cot and the mattresses.” He smiled. “It was my turn on the cot last night.”
Alice nodded. “Yes, that part’s all true. Ceptin’ he’d been here for a few days before he fell.”
Leo took a bite of his Spam, then picked a piece off and offered it to Rags, who sat at his feet.
“Oh, I don’t think he should have that,” Savannah said.
Alice snapped, “And why not? He’s probably hungry like he was t’other day. They ate beanie weenies and tortillas. Didn’t even mind them cold and raw.” She leaned toward Craig. “We don’t cook much around here—don’t want to be noticed, you see.”
Savannah and Craig exchanged looks, then Craig leaned forward toward Leo. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I’d like to have someone check you out, Leo, so we can determine the best way to take you out of here.”
“I can walk,” he insisted.
Craig thought for a moment, then said, “I’d rather not take any chances. Let’s request an evaluation.” When he wasn’t able to get a signal on his phone, he walked up the trail a short distance and made a couple of calls. The second one was to Leo’s niece.
“Is this Kathryn?”
“Yes.”
“This is Detective Craig Sledge. We have good news—we’ve located your uncle. He’s okay. Has just a few scrapes and scratches and seems to be a little confused at times.”
“Where? Where did you find him?”
He cleared his throat. “In a homeless camp. An elderly woman has been taking care of him and…” he chuckled. “…and he’s been taking care of her.”
“Leave it to my uncle,” she said, laughing. She added, “We’ve noticed Uncle Leo getting more and more forgetful lately. Now with this happening, I imagine it’s time to find another living situation for him. My sister wants to take him in and I think that would be a good solution if only we can convince him.”
“It may not be left up to him at this point.”
“I understand,” she said quietly.
Once Craig had finished the calls, he returned to the camp and sat down again. “So when did you find Mr. Kittleman, Alice?”
Savannah looked at the woman. She noticed she wore layers of clothes…maybe everything she owns, she thought. Khaki slacks, at least two pair of socks, sport shoes with run-down soles, a dark-colored print dress, a tee shirt—maybe more than one tee shirt—and a ragged stretched out sweater.
“Dern near a week ago. As he said, I was shoppin’ and when I was on my way back here he saw me and asked where I was goin’—offered to help me with my stuff.”
“Yes, yes, I saw her struggling to get her shopping cart up the curb.” He pointed. “There it is right there—that shopping cart. She had it full of things she’d found and bought.”
“And things people’d give me, too,” she said definitively.
Craig squinted and looked around. “How did you get that cart back in here? We had trouble just walking in with the cat.”
“Where there’s a will, ya know…” Alice said. “And there’s a will. Yes sir, there is. I want to live out here and I need stuff, so I have to know how to get it here, or there’s no chance of me having my way.”
Leo rocked his body back and forth and smiled. “She fixed my cuts,” he said, pulling up his shirt sleeve and one pants leg again to reveal the makeshift bandages. “I tripped and fell and got all cut up. Hey, that was the day the cats visited. That one,” he pointed, “and another one.”
“Yeah,” Alice said, “I had to go out and find cloth to use on his scrapes.” She gestured. “That quiltin’ lady throws scraps away. I bring them here to use as bandages, washing cloths, hair ties, and the sort.”
Suddenly Leo looked around and asked in a panic, “Where’s the other one?”
“Other what?” Craig asked.
“The other cat—the splotchy one…Sugar. I named her Sugar.”
Savannah smiled. “She’s at home. Both cats have homes. They escaped last week, and that’s when they found you and Alice.”
Just then the woman glanced around rather nervously. “Not a good time to be seen,” she called. When she saw that Craig and Savannah were staring at her, she forced a smile and explained, “We have wild things out here that visit us, you know. I don’t want them coming in here and…you know…uh…putting a scare in the cat. Best you critters wait ’til these people’s gone,” she said rather loudly.
“Oh, they won’t hurt Jesse.” Leo gazed off to the left. “Come on, Jesse. Come get your breakfast. It’s okay.”
“No!” Alice demanded. “Stay put, wild thing.” She glared at Craig and Savannah. “These folks’ll be goin’ soon.”
“I’m hungry,” came a muffled voice.
At that, Leo stood and pushed through a clump of brush, returning with a young man who appeared to be in his twenties.
“Dern it, Leo,” Alice said. “You just can’t leave well enough alone, can ya?” She addressed the other man. “Well, come sit.” Then, stabbing the remaining piece of Spam, she handed it to him along with the last orange. “This is a…a…neighbor,” she said to Craig and Savannah. “He lives over yonder—comes to visit sometimes, right, Jesse?”
“Yes, Mama,” he said.
At that, Alice stuttered and stammered, “Jesse, I told ya…uh…haven’t I…I said…now don’t call me that. I’m Alice.”
“Yes, Mama,” he said, finishing the Spam and starting to peel the orange.
About twenty minutes later they heard someone shout, “Detective!”
“Paramedics?” Craig asked.
“Yeah. Where are you?”
Craig stood as tall as he could and was still unable to see over the brush. He looked around and found an old broomstick. As the others watched, he tied his handkerchief to one end, then waved it in the air, shouting, “Can you see the flag? Just follow the trail in this direction.”
It wasn’t long before a young man and a woman, both dressed in dark-blue uniforms, ap
peared. He carried a small first-responder bag. “Hello, I’m Derek. This is Sonya.” He looked around. “So who’s the patient?”
“Hi,” Craig said. The others nodded. Craig gestured toward Leo. “I’d like you to examine this gentleman and see if he’s fit to walk out of here, or should we get some other means of transport for him?”
Derek walked toward Leo, Sonya trailing behind. “Hello, sir,” he said, removing a stethoscope from his bag and looping the ear pieces around his neck. “How are you feeling, sir?” he asked, lifting Leo’s sleeve in preparation for the blood-pressure cuff. “Oh, looks like you met with an accident,” he observed when he noticed the crude bandage on his arm. Derek looked into the older man’s face and smiled widely. “Oh my goodness! Mr. Kittleman, is that you?” Before Leo could answer, Derek said, “Everyone’s been looking for you.” He glanced around at the others before focusing on his patient. “Why, I took my kids out all over town last night, hoping to find you, and here you are. Oh, this is great! Everyone was so afraid for you. Are you all right, Mr. Kittleman?”
“Yeah, I think so. I don’t know why you were all so worried. I knew I was okay here with Alice.”
Derek glanced at the woman before asking Leo, “Do you remember me, Mr. Kittleman? You helped me pass math and science. In fact, you are the reason I chose this career. I’ve been a paramedic now for three years and it’s all because of you, Mr. Kittleman. You’re my inspiration. In fact, I’m studying to become an RN.”
“Really? I…I don’t exactly recall that, Derek. But I do remember you.” He laughed. “You were quite a rascal in your teens. Didn’t want to study. Oh, you had a brain; you just didn’t want to use it. But boy, did you take to science once we finally got you interested.”
“So you do remember. Yes, you were a miracle worker, that’s for sure. You knew how to get me interested. Your methods were way more successful than old Mr. Benson’s.”
Leo chuckled. “All I did was show you how fun it can be.”
“And how interesting,” Derek added.