Free Ghost Cat - Thelma's Dilemma by Carol Colbert Page A

come to find
her, but he never did. Mrs. Johnson said that Snowball, her cat,
came to Michigan with her. She lost touch with the man she loves
after that. Jim, it is the strangest thing, but the man she loves
is Don Ellis.”
    It took Jim a few beats to register exactly
what his wife just said. He had been enjoying the wine and warmth
from his wife and the fire. It finally dawned on him. “Gertie’s
son, Don?”
    “Don, the boy Gertie helped raise, yes.”
    Jim thought about that for a little bit.
“And all that just came up in your conversation over a piece of
pumpkin pie?”
    “We were having pie and coffee, but it came
up when Mrs. Johnson asked me about Gertie. What made us decide to
get a pet cat? When I mentioned Gertie’s name, Mrs. Johnson said
that she had been in love with a man whose father loved a woman
named Gertie.”
    “It is not such a common name now, but isn’t
‘Gertrude’ one of those old style names like Dorothy or Helen or
Prudence or something? That really is a big coincidence. So, she
didn’t know that Gertie had died?”
    “No, I never mentioned it to her when we
left. I had just told her that we were leaving town for a couple of
days so she could keep an eye on the house for us.”
    “Good thing she moved to Michigan then, she
would have had a heck of a long wait if she would have hung around
there waiting for Don to leave Gertie I guess. But wait, Don didn’t
actually live with Gertie did he? I mean, I would see him over
there cutting the grass or whatever, but he had his own place. Oh
well, that would have been when they were much younger anyway, I
suppose.”
    Sarah looked at her husband. “Come to think
of it, no, she said that her cat, Snowball, came with her from
Tennessee. Snowball looks like more of a kitten to me than an old
cat. Gertie looks much older than Snowball does.”
    Thelma’s tail beat the carpet a few times
hearing that.
    “Cats only live like what – twenty-twenty
five years? I don’t know, we always had dogs, but Mrs. Johnson is
in her eighties, isn’t she?” Jim asked.
    “No, she is in her seventies. But you are
right about the cat, maybe Mrs. Johnson’s mind is starting to go. I
feel sorry for her, Jim. This might be her one and only chance to
reunite with Don.”
    “What might?”
    “Hum?”
    “You said this might be her one and only
chance to reunite with Don. Sarah, you didn’t tell her that she
could go with us back to Tennessee, did you?”
    “It might have come up.”
    “Why would you do that? You don’t even know
Mrs. Johnson that well, what is her first name? I bet you do not
even know. How do we know what kind of relationship she had with
Don Ellis? There is a chance that it might not even be the same Don
Ellis, or even that she remembers the name correctly. What if he
does not even remember her? His mind does not seem to be all that
sharp. Darn it, Sarah!”
    “I just got caught up in the moment, Jim.
You would have too, she was actually crying when she was talking
about Don and how much she loved him.”
    “I’m about to cry myself!” Jim said, anger
in his voice.
    “How much trouble can one more person in the
van be, Jim?”
    “I’ll tell you how much trouble. This won’t
be the quick there and back trip that we were planning, Sarah. At
the very least with the kids and weather being good, packing food
in the car and not stopping except for gas, that is still well over
nine hour drive one way. Mrs. Johnson is in her eighties,
seventies, whatever. You can’t expect her to just sit there, and in
the backseat of a van yet, if she can even get her old self into
the backseat of the van, for all of those hours. She will need to
stop several times. We will have to spend the night in a hotel at
lease for one, maybe two or three nights, and that is extra time
and expense and Lord only knows what we are supposed to do with
Gertie’s ashes! I was only kidding about dumping them off
somewhere, but with Mrs. Johnson with us, even that