When the Cat's Away

by Molly Fitz

  A photo of a sad-looking puppy hugging an equally forlorn kitten stared up from the side of the clear plastic.

  Thoughts of Loki living out of that dumpster tugged at my heartstrings. Maybe he and my three-legged cat could someday be best friends, too. I didn't have any cash, but Aunt Corliss did. She wouldn't mind if I borrowed a couple of dollars.

  I reached into the bag inside my purse in a way that I hoped wasn't conspicuous and pulled out a dollar bill. When I looked at the money in my hand, however, instead of a one dollar bill, there were a couple of extra zeroes and Benjamin Franklin's face smiling up at me like the cat who ate the canary.

  "Oh. My. Glitter," I whispered. "What have I done?"

  The teen tapped the jar and cleared his throat. "Uh, ma'am?"

  Thrusting the money back into my purse, I said, "Sorry! Dog's waiting in the car. The cat, too. Gotta get them home. I can donate online, though. Bye, now!"

  It was all I could do to grab everything I had purchased and rush to the pickup without looking like I had robbed the place blind. Everything fit behind the seat, and I slid behind the wheel and locked the doors. It was only then that I opened the sample-sized packets of treats with shaky hands.

  "Pray tell, what on earth is wrong with you?" Basil grumbled.

  "Nothing. Eat your treats. I have to call Aunt Corliss." I touched the screen on my phone and it stayed black. So much for the full charge on the battery.

  I lightly banged my forehead against the steering wheel a few times before the man's warning echoed in my mind. "I have eyes everywhere."

  Warmth blossomed at my side and I looked down to see Loki snuggled against me. "What's wrong?" I asked him.

  "Before you went into that store, you felt like sunshine. But now you feel like the way it does before it rains. I want to make you happy so your face doesn't rain."

  "Oh, you are the sweetest thing!" The dog's childlike adorableness was impossible to ignore. Is this why parents went so ga-ga over their kids? Because my heart was melting into a big puddle of rainbows and unicorns. "Basil, isn't he sweet?"

  "Oh, yes. He is. Totally. Bless his heart, and all of that." The cat began grooming his inner thigh as if the puppy's presence didn't bother him at all—which, of course, meant that it did.

  I made a mental note to pay extra attention to Basil once we were home, but first, we had to get back to Mulberry Mountain. After turning the key in the ignition, I reached over Loki to turn the radio on and increase the volume.

  "Homeward bound," I sang along with Simon and Garfunkel, Loki howling away at my side. And when I got to the line about the love waiting, I changed it to, "where my aunt is waiting with supper for me."

  Chapter Six

  Basil sat in the cardboard box and bellyached the entire way home. As much as Loki's lovable personality made me reconsider my decision not to have children before age thirty, Basil's snarkiness reminded me that adorable children grow up to be angsty teenagers.

  In a stroke of good fortune, I recalled most of the route home from memory, only having to stop twice to check the paper map. It did not take us back through the odd little town, unfortunately.

  "Wow! This is where you live? It's a lot bigger than the metal trash box!" Loki bounced in the truck's passenger seat as I pulled into the driveway.

  Basil stretched. "Yes. This is our home. Do remember that when you get the urge to lift your leg and—"

  Anticipating where my rude cat's comment was headed, I cut him off, "All right! Who's ready for supper? I know I am famished."

  I managed to get both pets and everything I'd bought at the pet store from the truck to the house in two quick trips. My purse hung from my shoulder the entire time. The knowledge of what rested inside weighed it down as if there were heavy gold and silver coins inside and not bank-wrapped stacks of hundred dollar bills.

  On the third run to the truck, I retrieved my phone and the magical mocha latte, as I'd come to think of it. When I entered the front door of the house for the last time, I locked it behind me. Then I went around to check the locks on the other doors and windows on the first-floor level, too. "Aunt Corliss? We're home! Where are you? I have a surprise to show you! And a few questions to ask."

  Instead of my aunt's voice, the only thing to return my greeting was silence. Loki was wriggling about in his bed the way that dogs do before finding the perfect napping position. Basil glared at me from his nearly-full food bowl.

  "What's wrong?" I asked my cat.

  "Did you forget to feed me?"

  "Oh, for the love of ginseng. Here." I added a quarter-scoop of food to his bowl. "Are you happy now?"

  Basil replied by diving into the food and munching happily, and I plugged my phone into the charger in the living room before setting about looking for my aunt.

  Although I searched through every nook and cranny of the old house, she was nowhere to be found. The stove in the kitchen was stone cold, which meant she hadn't cooked supper. The most disturbing thing of all, however, was the unlocked door to her workroom.

  From the time I came to live with her at the tender age of nine, Aunt Corliss had few rules. The primary one was that if she wasn't in her workroom, then the door was to remain locked at all times. A quick peek inside her sanctuary revealed that everything looked normal, or as normal as I recalled from the last time I was in here. This morning, that would have brought me great comfort. After the day I'd had, I wasn't sure what to make of it.

  I set the coffee cup containing the latte on the counter inside the workroom. Hopefully, Aunt Corliss could figure out what ingredient in the drink gave Basil and Loki the ability to talk. The thought I had pushed from my mind for the duration of the little road trip finally surfaced. What would have happened if I had taken a sip of the enchanted coffee.

  I returned to the living room where Loki's puppy snores added a calming ambiance. The whole way home, I wondered how I was going to explain talking pets to my aunt. I never imagined she wouldn't be there to greet me.

  When pacing failed to relieve my nervous energy, I sank onto the loveseat and pulled out my phone. It was time to call in some reinforcements.

  But as I scrolled through the scant amount of contacts I had who knew Aunt Corliss, my hopes dwindled. My best friend Maribelle was on vacation somewhere in Maine. Members of the knitting group would be headed to bed by now, seeing as how they all got up with the chickens, too. Only one person remained—Jackson Jones, my high school sweetheart who I dated most of the way through college.

  I swallowed down my reluctance and made the call before holding the phone to my ear. Relief surged through me when a voice on the other end exclaimed, "Zipper! What up buttercup?"

  "Jones, if I've asked you once, then I've asked you a million times, please—"

  "Don't call you Zipper. I know. So what can I do you for?" It came out sounding like "whut ken I dooey fur." Jones spent a year in Nashville where he hoped to get a record deal. The only thing he got was an accent that made him sound even more like a Georgia hillbilly—not to be confused with hill folk, who were some of my favorite people, but I digress.

  "Aunt Corliss is missing."

  "Ha! You mean like the time she went on a quest for those magical mushrooms?"

  "It's not like that at all!" I took a deep breath and let it out nice and slow to steel my nerves.

  "Then why don't you tell me what it's like."

  "Jones, she missed supper."

  "Oh dang. This is serious. Are you at the house now?" All traces of embellishment in his accent disappeared, and he once again sounded like the guy I nearly married.

  "Yeah, I'm here with the pets."

  "Pets? Never mind. You can tell me when I get there. I'm on my way."

  A click signaled the end of the call. Did I want to see my ex-boyfriend who I had actively avoided since graduating from college? Absolutely not, but I didn't have a choice.

  "My, my, my," Basil said as he walked into the room. "So, I take it that Hades has frozen over, afte
r all?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "You said you'd only let Jones back into this house if Hades froze over. You're letting him back in, so I merely assumed…" the cat trailed off. He leapt to the back of the sofa in one fluid motion and yawned. "It will be nice to let him know what I really think about him, after all this time."

  Oh my glitter. What if Jones could hear the animals speaking like humans, too? He'd think I was crazy. After all, magic was the whole reason we broke up in the first place.

  "Basil, I need you and Loki to be on your absolute best behavior when Jones gets here."

  "There's no question that I will comply, but you're the one who named your hound of chaos Loki."

  A vehicle pulled up outside, and through the window I saw Jones step out of it. The sound of his car door slamming shut woke Loki who started crying like a toddler who didn't get to finish his nap.

  I left my purse on the sofa and knelt to comfort the dog. "Loki, if you're super quiet and don't talk at all, I'll give you more puppy pizza treats."

  "D-d-do you promise?" he said with a dramatic sniffle that was worthy of a daytime television award.

  "Yes, I promise."

  Before any of the three of us could say another word, the front door rattled. Jones gave a few hard knocks and yelled, "Open up, Zip! It's me, Jones!"

  Chapter Seven

  I crossed the room, disengaged the locks, and opened the door. "I know who you are. I saw you drive up. Hurry and get in here." I stood aside to allow him entrance into the house. The moment he crossed the threshold, I slammed and locked the door behind him.

  "What the devil is wrong with you, girl?" Jones put one hand on the waistband of his jeans and cocked his hips to one side in a poor mimic of Elvis. From the time I first met Jones, he had been obsessed with The King of Rock and Roll. In fact, the first time he proposed to me was at the gates of Graceland.

  But this was no time for a walk down memory lane. "Aunt Corliss is missing."

  "So you said. Hey, when did you get a dog?"

  "I found him on my way to Harmony Ridge, and his owner gave him to me."

  "Okay," Jones dragged the word into twice as many syllables as it should have had. "What else happened?"

  I rubbed the back of my neck. "How much do you want to know?"

  Jones straightened and crossed his arms over his chest. "Tell me everything."

  "Everything?" I gulped.

  "Yes, Zip. Everything."

  "Even if it's magical?"

  Jones ran a hand through his thick, blonde hair, and the memory of how it felt made my palm tingle a bit. "Fine. Yeah. Even if it's magical."

  "You might as well sit down. It's quite a tale."

  Jones took the rocker by the potbelly stove and I sat on the couch. Loki wasted no time settling next to me, his chin on my knee. The way his body wriggled told me how badly he wanted to use his newfound voice. I leaned down and whispered, "You're being such a good boy. Not too much longer." I rubbed the back of his head between his ears, and he sighed in a way that sent his tongue lolling from one side of his mouth.

  "Zip? Are you going to tell me what's going on, or are you going to talk to your dog all evening? After all, I dropped everything to come over here. What if I'd had plans?"

  If you didn't have plans, then how could you have dropped everything to come over here? is what I wanted to snap. Jones was right, though. He was one of the few people who I could rely on to drop everything and rush over in an emergency, even after everything that had happened between us.

  "Sorry. It all started this morning. Aunt Corliss asked me to take a delivery to Harmony Ridge." I recounted all the major details which avoided me having to tell him that my pets could talk. "And that's how I arrived here to an empty house with ten times more money than I should've had. If I'm being honest, it's kind of freaking me out."

  "Zip, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. What if that was the correct amount of money you were supposed to pick up?"

  "If that's the case, then what was in that package I delivered? Stolen diamonds? Drugs? Microchips full of government secrets?" The more suggestions my mind conjured up, the higher my voice rose until I shrieked, "What have I done?"

  "Zip, calm the heck down. Obviously, we have to find your aunt so she can answer your questions. Now, you say there wasn't anything out of place in her workroom?"

  Before I could answer, the pane of glass in the front window shattered. Basil yowled and jumped into my lap. One of his paws, claws out, swiped Loki across the forehead.

  The promise of his new favorite treats forgotten, my new dog whined, "Basil, you're so rude! Why did you do a bad thing? I was nice to you all day!"

  "Oh, poor wee lamb. What are you going to do? Tell her?" Basil rolled his eyes and jerked his head toward me.

  "I am not a poor wee lamb! I'm a dog!" Loki dragged the final syllable into a pitiful howl.

  "Enough!" I clapped my hands together once to get the animals' attention. "If you two don't knock it off, I'm going back to the pet store and getting you separate crates."

  The room went silent, and I realized Jones was standing before the broken window. He held a large rock in one hand and a piece of paper in the other.

  "What are you looking at?" Basil asked him.

  Jones's hand went limp and lost its grip on the rock, which fell to the living room rug with a thud. "Zip? I'm dreaming all this, right? Tell me your pets are not talking."

  "Okay. My pets aren't talking. Is anyone outside?" I peered around Jones in time to see a black SUV speeding away from the house. Was that the same one that was headed up the mountain this morning?

  "Yes, we are talking! We talked all the way back home. Don't you remember, Zip? Why did you say we aren't talking?" Loki looked up at me with a quite literal puppy-eyed gaze.

  "Yes, sweetie. I remember. I was only joking around with Jones."

  "It's not a very funny joke," Jones grouched.

  Loki sniffled. "No, it was not very funny at all."

  A weird noise drew my attention to the floor where Basil lay on his back. Before I could ask him if he was okay, I realized that my cat was quite literally rolling on the floor laughing. Under any other circumstances, I might have joined him in a giggle or two at the expense of my ex. That kind of mischief would have to wait—a wait that would hopefully be over sooner than later.

  I scooped the cat up and held him to make sure he wouldn't roll in any of the broken glass.

  "What does the note say?" I asked.

  "But, Zip, what the, I mean, sheesh! Animals can't talk!"

  Ignoring the elephant in the room, I urged, "Please, Jones, accept for once that magic is real! My pets can talk. It happened after they drank some coffee."

  "What kind of coffee?" Jones swayed a little.

  "Does it matter? It was a mocha latte."

  "Do you still have it?"

  "Yes. It's in my aunt's workroom," I replied. From the way his nose wrinkled, I could tell what he planned to ask next. "And no, you can't take a sip to see how it might affect you. Now either read the note or hand it to me so I can read it myself."

  He held the note at arm's length, tilted his head, and read aloud, "If you want to see your aunt again, bring the money to this address. Tell no one. Come alone."

  Chapter Eight

  "Oh, for the love of ginseng. Someone must have followed me here from Harmony Ridge."

  "Great work, Nancy Drew. Now you have to find out if it's the Ghost of Captain Cutler, the Snow Ghost, or the Ghost Clown."

  "First of all, those ghosts are all from Scooby Doo, not Nancy Drew. And secondly, hand over that address. Basil and I are going to rescue Aunt Corliss. You need to stay here with Loki. Please board up that window and clean up the glass while you wait for us to get home."

  "But the note says to tell no one." Jones ran a hand through his hair again. This time, it had zero effect on me.

  With more snark than I'd intended, I shot back, "That's cute, Jones. If I f
ollowed instructions, we'd be engaged by now."

  "That's hurtful, little mama."

  "And my name's still not little mama." Repeating the offending term, with or without the Elvis impersonation, was worse than hearing it roll like melted butter off the man's silver tongue. I grabbed my purse, which still held the sack full of money, and scowled at him. "If you have nothing helpful to say, then I'm going to get Aunt Corliss and bring her home."

  "By yourself?"

  "No, she's not going by herself. She's taking me," Basil replied as he leaped from my arms and pounced across the room to wait by the front door. The cat's gray fur made him look like little more than a shadow in the dim light of evening.

  From the couch, Loki bounced and whined, "I want to go, too!"

  "Sorry, Loki. You have to stay here this time."

  "But why? It's not fair!"

  None of this is fair, I wanted to reply. If the dog had the personality of a toddler, then I'd have to treat him as such. "Loki, I need you to help Jones."

  "He doesn't need my help."

  "Yes he does." I shot my ex a look that implored him to agree with me.

  The dog's fur wrinkled over one eye, as if he raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

  Jones glanced from me to the dog before an expression of comprehension crossed his features. "Oh, yeah, I do need your help!"

  "What do you need from me? I'm a dog." Loki sniffled and shot me another puppy-eyed gaze.

  I hope Aunt Corliss can conjure up an elixir to help me resist that, I thought. Out loud, I said, "You need to help him protect the house in case the bad man comes back."

  Loki jumped to all fours, and his ears perked up. "Oh, yeah! I can do that! I will guard this house even good-er than when I guarded the big metal trash box!"

  "Exactly! That's a good boy, Loki."

  Jones raised an eyebrow, almost in perfect mimic of the dog. "Do I want to know about the big metal trash box?"

  "I promise, I'll tell you the full story when I get back," I said, my voice low. That is, if my canine chatterbox doesn't tell the story first. Turning my attention back to the dog, I cautioned, "Loki, you stay on the couch until Jones sweeps up all this glass. Basil and I will be back before you know it."