Free Cat's Cradle by William W. Johnstone

whenever possible.”
    The Garretts knew it wasn’t the food that kept Mike as far as decently possible from his parents’ home. He did not get along with mother and father. Mike was as common as an old shoe. His parents, both of them, were relatively newly rich, and they, as the saying goes, liked to put on the dog. Mike’s only passion in life—other than girls and food, not necessarily in that order-was archaeology, and he was brilliant on the subject. But his parents would not hear of Mike majoring in that. Hideous thing! Grubbing about in the dirt like a common laborer. That just wouldn’t do for their son. What would the neighbors think?
    The neighbors thought the Pearsons were obnoxious and obvious now. The neighbors would have applauded Mike’s choice of vocation.
    So Mike’s parents insisted in Mike majoring in business and then going into the family business. Consequently, Mike’s grades were just barely above passing. He said he was getting his own degree in his chosen field by reading everything on the subject he could get his hands on. When he came into his inheritance, then he would major in what he wanted to.
    “No word about that poor Eddie Brown?” Vonne asked.
    “Nothing,” Dan said. “But if he’s alive, it’ll be a miracle.”
    “The manhunt over, Dad?” Carl asked.
    “Pretty much so. Most of the troopers and extra FBI people have left.”
    “Eddie Brown,” Vonne said. “What did I once hear about him?”
    Dan knew. He kept his mouth shut.
    “Oh, yes! Wasn’t he the one who insisted he saw something strange when lost in Eden Mountain?” Vonne asked.
    “I believe so,” Dan said, conscious of young eyes on him.
    “What did he see?” Carl asked.
    Carrie wasn’t paying any attention. All this stuff bored her.
    “A young girl and a cat. Both asleep. He tried to wake them, but couldn’t,” Dan said. “I just recalled that,” he added.
    Nobody listening believed him.
    The young men exchanged glances.
    Dan caught the looks and said, “You two know something I might need to know?”
    Carrie stood and asked to be excused. “After you help me clear the table and do the dishes,” Vonne sat her back down.
    No argument from Carrie. The kids did as they were told, when they were told to do it. Vonne and Dan had instilled their values in the young people, and stuck with that teaching regardless of what other parents did.
    Dan and the boys helped clear the table and stack the dishes, then went outside to sit on the front porch. There, under Carl’s prodding, Mike told Dan all he could recall about the strange religion and the stories about twins being born, sisters, a human female, and a female cat.
    “And these stories have persisted all these thousands of years?” Dan asked.
    “Yes, sir,” Mike said. “There probably is some modicum of truth in them. By that I mean a group of people who did worship cats thousands of years ago. But like so many myths, they’ve been embellished considerably down through the years.”
    “And they were supposed to have supernatural powers?” Dan asked.
    “Yes. And . . .” He paused.
    “Something?” Dan asked.
    “I’m trying to recall it, Mr. Garrett. Ah! Yes. The cat people were supposedly somehow aligned with the devil. Do you want me to see if I can find more about this group, sir?”
    “Can you do it without jeopardizing your grades?”
    Mike’s laughter rang merrily in the night. “Mr. Garrett, my grades are the least of my worries. Ah!” he said, holding up one finger and narrowing his eyes conspiratorially. “Now I get it. You’re thinking these crazies might have found out about the old religion and are practicing it here, right?”
    That wasn’t what Dan thought at all, only what he wanted Mike to believe, and the young man bought it. “That’s it, Mike. Will you help me? On the QT, of course.”
    “Our lips are sealed, Sheriff,” Mike said, punching Carl in the ribs. “Right, my good fellow?”
    Carl sighed.
    * * *
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