Ghost Cat - Thelma's Dilemma

Gertie had left explicit instructions on how
she wanted her send off to the great beyond to go. She was laid out
in a bright red negligee and there was a live band and a catered
meal, all arranged and paid for by Gertie the year before. She
wanted people to celebrate her life, and not dwell on her death.
Living to be one hundred and three years old was reason alone to
celebrate. She had been something of a local celebrity, and not
only because of her advanced age. Her quick wit and strong will had
caused her to butt heads with local politicians and others and the
local newspapers and TV stations were always happy to report on her
triumphs.

Gertie had been a good friend to the Gaunter
family and had watched the girls on occasion when Jim and Sarah had
some event to attend. The Gaunter’s had lived next door to Gertie
for the six years they had lived in Henderson, Tennessee.

Jim had been transferred back to his home
state of Michigan just last year. Although it was only November,
the weather was terrible for travel. Jim and Sarah knew that they
had to come back to pay their final respects to their good friend
and neighbor.

Jim was trying to hurry his family out of
the banquet hall that had hosted a wake after the funeral services.
He was anxious to get home and was not looking forward to the long
drive. It had been a quick trip, they had arrived just the day
prior.

“Where is Suzanne?” Jim asked his older
daughter, Riley.”

“I don’t know, the last time I saw her she
was trying to feed Mr. Pickles. She might be in the bathroom.”

“Go find her will you? Tell her we are
leaving now.”

Riley went in search of her younger sister,
pausing along the way to gather a few pieces of fruit from the food
table. She walked into the bathroom and looked under the stalls,
but she did not see any legs dangling down. She turned to leave
again and then heard Suzanne singing.

“Suzanne! Dad said we are leaving right now!
Hurry up or we will leave you in Tennessee!” Suzanne finished in
record time and came out of the stall and washed her hands, first
laying Mr. Pickles on the sink top. “O.K., O.K., hold your horses!
Are we really going back to the hotel right now?”

“No, we are going back home, but yeah, right
now.” Riley said, finishing the fruit and washing her hands. Riley
then looked at her six year old sister and smiled at her. “Suzanne,
you really were good at the funeral, I am proud of you, you did not
cry even once.”

“Gertie told me once that when she died not
to cry. She said that she is going to a wonderful place where she
will be young again and happy. She has to wait until all of us left
that place where she was sleeping before she could wake up and go
there though.”

Riley did not know what to say to that, she
was just glad that Suzanne was not crying or sad. ‘Yeah, well,
let’s get going before daddy starts to yell.”

Sarah was shaking Don’s hand and trying to
speak loud enough for Gertie’s seventy-seven year old son to hear
her. “We know how much you will miss your mother, Don.” Sarah said.
“We all will. The world was a better place with her in it.”

“Thank you, Sarah, I have something to give
you, but it is back at the house.” Don said.

“Back at the house? I know Jim is anxious to
get back on the road. What is it, exactly?” Sarah inquired, knowing
this news would cause Jim anxiety if it took too long to retrieve
whatever it was that Don had to give them. It was a ten minute
drive from the hall where they were to the house Gertie had called
home. Ten minutes in the opposite direction of northbound I-75.

Jim walked up and held out his hand to Don
and told him that he would always remember Gertie and how much fun
she was. “Don tells me that Gertie left us something and Don would
like us to go back to the house so he can give it to us.” Sarah
said, not daring to look her husband in the eye as she spoke.

“Oh. We have already checked out of the
hotel and are close to the expressway here, Don.” Jim said, unsure
of what to say so that he did not sound ungrateful, but wondering
why Don had not said anything when they were at the house last
night.

“Good, follow me.” Don said, apparently not
hearing the lack of agreement in Jim’s voice.

Don walked over to the Gaunter’s van and
stood by the front passenger door, apparently waiting for Jim to
open it for him. Jim and Sarah exchanged a look. Suzanne, said “Is
Gertie’s son going back to Michigan with us?”

Fourteen year old Riley looked at her mom
for an answer to Suzanne’s question, knowing there was not enough
room in their van for such a long trip with that many people.

“No, Suzanne, we are just going to take Don
back to the house, just for a minute, and then we will be on our
way.” Sarah said.

“Good, because Mr. Pickles needs his space.”
Suzanne stated, hugging her giant stuffed rabbit to her chest.

They pulled up to Gertie’s house and Jim
said “Here you go, O.K. if we wait out here, Don? We really need to
be on our way.”

“I can’t carry it, Jim, you will have to
come in, your wife too and maybe the older girl, it is heavy.” Don
explained.

Sarah and Jim were speechless. They had no
clue what Don was about to give them and how could they refuse if,
indeed, Gertie had meant for them to have it. Whatever ‘it’
was?

Everyone got out of the van, the snow
started coming down harder. They went into the house and Don led
Jim up to the attic. “It is up here.” He said. Jim looked at the
big trunk and could not believe that Don expected them to take this
with them and at the last moment too. “What is in the trunk?” He
asked Don.

“Don’t know, here, I have some rope, let’s
get it anchored to the top of the van. Good thing you didn’t drive
a small vehicle here.” Don laughed. Sarah and Jim struggled with
the trunk until they were able to secure it to the top of the van.
They waved to Don and backed out of the driveway.

“Well, that added another hour to the ride
home, look at this snow, too.” Jim complained. “I don’t remember a
November being this cold and icy, not in several years.”

Sarah actually agreed with her husband on
that point, but decided not to add fuel to the fire, so she didn’t
comment.

The trunk was ornate and very heavy,
although Sarah didn’t know if that was because of the weight of the
wood, or the contents of the big trunk.

Visibility was low on I-75 Northbound. This
had been a difficult trip for the family for a few reasons. First,
the passing of such a grand ole dame as Gertie, but also because
although it was November, the roads were icy and slick. Jim was
having a bit of trouble keeping the family van in its own lane
because of the wind and ice rain.

“Jim, this rain isn’t letting up, do you
think we should stop somewhere and wait it out?” Sarah asked her
husband as she nervously glanced in the back to make sure Riley and
Suzanne were buckled securely in their seat belts.

“Stop where? The exits here are far and few
between. We are driving into the worse of it, so I am not sure if
waiting it out would be the best thing to do at this point. It is
already dark. We won’t be home until well after midnight as it is.
I thought we would have been on the road hours ago.”

“I know, Jim. Gertie certainly knows how to
throw a party, even in death. It reminded me of Mardi gras in New
Orleans.”

“I wonder what is in that trunk that Gertie
left us. Maybe we should have checked it out before we took it.”
Riley said. “Doesn’t having it on the roof of the van make driving
more difficult?”

“Yes, it does, but Don didn’t make that
possible, giving it to us right before we left like he did. I have
to get back to work, Riley, it was easier to just put it on the
roof and go. To have opened it there would have added a lot more
time before we could get on the road, and who knows what is in it.
We couldn’t have just tossed out what we didn’t want to take back
with us in front of her son that would have been rude.”

“I know, you are right.” Sarah said, “And can
you imagine if we did open it and Don would have a comment on each
item in it? Oh no, we did the right thing by accepting it, but also
by putting it on the roof and leaving when we did. I am glad that
we went back though, it was nice to see everyone we left behind
when we moved back home.”

“I was surprised that you told Gerties son
about our ghost house in Michigan.” Jim said, referring to the
house they had rented sight unseen in Southgate when Jim’s company,
JAMICO had promoted him and that promotion had meant that they were
going to live in Michigan again.

A series of events had them running out of
that rental house. Events the average person would find almost
impossible to believe. The Gaunter family now lived in a much
bigger, nicer, ghost free home in Riverview, about ten miles from
where their ghost house had been located.

“Gertie was a real character, Jim. You know
if anyone would believe us, it would have been her, so when Don
asked how we were doing in Michigan. I told him. He didn’t seem
shocked and he didn’t look at me like I had two heads and was
talking in tongues or anything. He even mentioned that Gertie had
had experiences not unlike that herself.”

“Well, if nothing else, it took his mind off
losing his mother for a couple of minutes, I guess. He didn’t look
so well himself, what he is – about seventy five now?”

“Seventy-seven I believe. I think about the
stories he must have of his mom. I wish we would have had time to
talk more about those experiences. I can fully believe that Gertie
would have loved to find herself in the middle of a paranormal
situation, maybe her son could give us insight into that sort of
thing.” Sarah said.

“Who is Perry Normal, mom?” Suzanne asked
from the backseat.

“Suzanne!” Her big sister Riley said, looking
at her. “There you go again! First Harry Potter and now Perry
Normal, you crack me up.”

Suzanne had heard the term ‘poltergeist’ when
she was sitting by her bedroom window and the neighbors were
discussing the new arrivals when they first moved into the ghost
house. Suzanne had somehow interpreted that term as polder-guy and
then Potter Guy – Harry Potter - when they had lived in the haunted
house. If she had been able to pronounce the term correctly, it
might have saved the family some scary moments.

“Paranormal” means something that is out of
the normal. Something that cannot be explained by science.” Jim
offered.

“Like the floor shaking and the windows
blowing out like in that crazy house?” Riley asked. “Yes, exactly
like that.” Jim answered.

“Gertie used to tell me and Suzanne stories
when she would baby-sit us. Some were funny and Gertie talked in
different voices to make the stories seem more real. She never told
us any stories that were too scary though.” Riley said.

“Yeah, nothing like Perry Normal people
pealing people’s faces off or anything.”

“Suzanne!” The other three of the car’s
occupants yelled at the same time.

A large semi-truck pass the van and splashed
a large amount of slush onto their windshield, causing Jim to
swerve. The trunk, which had been secured to the van’s roof,
shifted, causing the van to further skid. The trunk fell off and it
was several seconds after that before Jim managed to regain control
of his steering and guide the van to the side of the expressway
where it would be safe to stop.

“Is everyone O.K?” Sarah said, looking back
at her girls.

“Mr. Pickles bumped his head!” Suzanne
exclaimed, hugging her big stuffed rabbit with the white plastic
face close to her.”

“Everyone O.K. besides Mr. Pickles?” Sarah
asked again. Jim and Riley shook their heads yes and Jim said “We
lost the trunk.”