Karen Anne Golden - The Cats That 03 - The Cats That Told a Fortune (3 page)

“Have you ever thought about going to the university?”  Katherine asked.

“Can’t afford it.  I’m taking this class so I can get a better-paying job in the city.  The plan is to work full-time and go to school part-time.  That’s my goal and I aim to achieve it!”  Michelle said determinedly.

Maybe I should set up a scholarship foundation when I inherit the estate,
Katherine thought. 
Michelle would be my first candidate.

Michelle gathered up her bag and started to leave.  She stopped by the door and said, “Oh, I got your invitation.  It was so cute with your cat wearing the purple cape.  My cat wouldn’t tolerate clothes,” she
laughed.

Katherine beamed, “That was my new Siamese, Abra.  She was one of the two that blessed us with a visit earlier.  She had the cape on for a split second, because her sister Scout hated it and snatched it off her.”

Michelle became serious. “What do you think of Glen?”

“Why do you ask?” Katherine wondered
, getting the part that Michelle was attracted to him.

“I asked him to be my guest at the party.  And he said yes,” Michelle said happily.  She began singing Daft Punk’s song “Get Lucky.”

Katherine said with a wink, “Let’s not get too lucky, because it’s the first date.”

Still singing, Michelle left,
then called through the door, “See you Wednesday for the practice session.”

Katherine sat back in her chair and reflected that her first class was the worst class she’d ever taught.  She was curious about the Sanders family and wanted to ask Jake about them later, at lunch.  She worried about possible repercussions of throwing Barbie out of her class.  She desperately wanted to text her friend in New York, but figured Colleen would be too bummed out about Mario to text back.

As Katherine mounted the stairs to her office, Iris was on the other side of the partially opened door, yowling sweetly.  Katherine grabbed her around the middle and gave her a kiss on top of her head.  “Where are my other kids?” she called, walking to the atrium, but no other cats were present.  “Must be sleeping, right, Miss Siam?”  Katherine’s house phone rang and she put Iris down to answer it.  It was Jake.

“Hey, are you still coming to my class?” he asked.

“Of course, I wouldn’t miss it.”

“Great! 
We’re still going to lunch afterwards, right?”

“
Definitely. I’ll see you later.”  Katherine hung up and immediately went upstairs to freshen up.  Today was the part of Jake’s course on Prohibition where he dressed up like John Dillinger, the notorious Indiana gangster.  She chuckled to herself,
Geez, I hope he doesn’t wear that get-up to lunch!

*
              *              *

Katherine made the trip to the city in record time.  She had a lead foot when it came to the accelerator.  She finally set the cruise control on the new Subaru, lest she find herself doing eighty in a fifty-five MPH zone.  Arriving on campus, she couldn’t find a parking space.  She’d never seen so many cars, so much traffic, and so many students walking about, heading for their classes.  It seemed the parking spaces required a special permit, and
since she didn’t have one, she didn’t relish parking and then having her new car towed.  She tried several parking garages, but each one was full.  Pulling up along a curbed sidewalk, she lowered her window and asked a university cop what to do.  He directed her to the outskirts of the campus to park at the stadium parking lot.  It took a full twenty minutes to walk to the lecture hall where Jake was teaching.  She followed Jake’s scribbled directions, but got lost several times, and lamented that all the brick buildings looked the same.

It was a typical, breezy fall day, so Katherine’s short-cropped hair was standing up on end.  A quick run into the ladies room solved that problem, but by the time she got to the lecture hall, only a few seats were available at the very top, in the nosebleed section.  When she walked in, Jake stood in front of the podium, dressed like Johnny Depp in
Public Enemies
.  His haircut even matched Dillinger’s. Katherine gulped, and managed a smile.  Jake smiled back and winked.  She could feel his eyes watching her as she ascended the steps.  She prayed she wouldn’t trip and go flying into a row, but managed to find one of the last seats available.

The class was packed.  The students were lively.  Katherine could tell everyone thoroughly enjoyed this part of the lecture.  A gaggle of admiring female students sat in several front rows, reminding Katherine of a scene from
Raiders of the Lost Ark
in which Harrison Ford’s character was teaching a class.  But none of the girls had flirty messages written on their eyelids.

When the lecture was finished, Katherine patiently waited for the students to leave,
then walked down the steps.

“What did you think?” Jake beamed happily. 

Katherine had to refrain from running over and giving him a passionate kiss.

“I loved it!  Can I take your picture?” she asked, taking her smartphone out of her pocket.

“Of course,” he said, flashing his handsome Cokenberger smile.

“I want to text it to Colleen. I’ll do that at lunch.”

“Are you ready?” he asked, collecting his lecture notes.  “I’ve got this great Chinese restaurant in mind.  They have an incredible buffet.”

“I’m starving.  Is it far from here?” she asked, still exhausted from the sprint from the stadium parking lot.

“Oh, I’m parked outside the building,” he answered.  “By the way, you parked in the parking garage, right?”

“No, I couldn’t find a spot.”

“So where did you park?”  Jake asked, taking her arm and leading her to the door.

“It’s called the stadium.”

Jake laughed.  “The lower forty?  Okay, we’ll take the Jeep to the restaurant.  Great food, but it isn’t on campus.  I’ll drive you to your Sue-bee afterwards.”

They exited the building and Jake directed Katherine to the blue Jeep Wrangler. 

“I’ve got a faculty sticker,” he chuckled.  “Jump in,” he said, opening the door.

Katherine climbed in and fastened her seat belt.  Jake got in behind the steering wheel.  He started to put the Jeep in gear, but paused and said, “Hey, I forgot to tell you something.”

“What’s that?”

“You were the most beautiful woman in the entire class,” he said, reaching over and kissing her on the cheek.

“Ahhh,” Katherine gushed.

He put the Jeep in gear and eased out into traffic.  “How did your first class go?”

“It was a disaster!” Katherine answered disappointedly.

“What in the world happened?” he asked, gaining speed and putting the Jeep into second gear.

“I had an incident with one of my students, and I had to evict her from the class.”

“You what?” he asked incredulously.  “It’s a community service for crying out loud.  Who was it?”

“Barbie —”

“Oh, no,” he interrupted.
  “Not Barbie Sanders?  She’s in your class?”

“Was,” Katherine said.  “How do you know her?” she asked with a curious side-glance.

“Well, definitely not in the way you’re suggesting,” he laughed.  “Okay, you don’t have to tell me now, but over lunch I want to hear all about it,” he said soothingly.  “But first, you never did tell me how you selected five students from all those applications.”

When Katherine told him about Scout and Abra assisting, he couldn’t stop laughing.  Finally, he said, “Next time you need a better plan.  Who else is in the class?”

“Michelle who works in the library, a guy named Glen Frye, and Wayne’s girlfriend, Leslie.”

“How strange the Siamese picked two people you either know or just met.  Glen Frye is a bit of a Casanova.  He’s the day chef at the Erie Hotel.  I played high school basketball with his older brother. But Barbie Sanders – the massage queen?  Oh, no you didn’t.”

“Luck of the draw.  Jake, I’m nervous about something.”

“What could that be?” Jake said
, pulling into the Chinese restaurant’s crowded parking lot.

“Do you think there’ll be any nasty consequences?  Michelle said Barbie’s dad was a crim.”

“I hope not, sweet pea,” he said affectionately.  “The Sanders and the Cokenbergers, as the locals say, ain’t friends.  But, I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“I notified the fifth candidate – the alternate.  I’m teaching the course to her later this afternoon, so she’ll be able to join the rest of the class on Wednesday for the practice session.”

Jake eased into a parking spot close to the restaurant’s entrance.

Katherine remarked, “Incredible!  What’s with you and finding the closest parking spaces?” 

“Well, I thought you’d want to be closer to great food than if we’d parked at the stadium and taken the bus.”  He chuckled again.

Katherine poked him in the ribs and thought about how fun he was.  And for the first time since leaving campus, she noticed Jake was still in his Dillinger “costume.”  She wondered what the other patrons would think, especially if he brought along the fake
tommy gun.  As it turned out, no one noticed.  He left his prop in the Jeep, along with the famous Dillinger straw hat. 

The food was delicious.  She ate too much.  Jake complained that he did, too.  They skipped dessert, but opened their fortune cookies and read the messages.

Jake said, “I think I got yours.  It says ‘A big fortune will descend upon you this year.’”

Katherine laughed, “Ha! They’re wrong.  Next year!”  She broke her cookie open and read hers
aloud, “The Wheel of Good Fortune is finally turning in your direction.”

“Wow, what are the odds of that?” Jake observed.  “First, Scout picks out the Wheel of Fortune
Tarot card; now this,” Jake said, then hummed the opening bars of the
Twilight Zone
theme.

“I did a Google
search on the meaning of that Tarot card.  I got a headache from the fine print on interpretation.  I’m supposed to have either fate smile down upon me, or there’s an unwelcome change ahead.  That doesn’t make any sense to me.  Thank you very much, Scout, for fang marking it for me,” Katherine grinned. 

Jake paid the bill, left a tip, and said he had a three o’clock, so he drove Katherine back to the stadium and parked next to her Subaru.  He hopped out, rushed over and opened the door for her.  Katherine unfastened her seat belt and slid out.

Jake said, “Thank you for showing up today.  It meant a lot to me.”  Before she had time to answer, he kissed her lightly on the lips. 

Once Katherine was seated in her vehicle, he quipped, “By the way, I like your ‘New York minute’ line. Next time I have to throw out a
student, I’ll be sure to use it.”

Katherine flashed him a smile
, then started her car.

Jake hopped back in his Jeep and took off. 

He’s amazing
, Katherine thought.  Before she left the stadium, she sent a text to Colleen, attaching Jake’s picture.  Colleen immediately texted back, “Uncanny resemblance.” 

Katherine had a few errands to do, but she made it back to Erie by four o’clock.  The fifth student, who would replace Barbie, was coming over at five.  After Katherine fed the cats, she grabbed her jacket off the Eastlake hall tree and went outside to sit on
the front porch swing.  She hadn’t been sitting there long when Margie, who was working next door, spotted her and rushed over.  Margie had won the bid to remodel the yellow brick foursquare next door to the mansion, which had been a speakeasy during Prohibition.  She’d been juggling work between the two houses.

“Hey
, kiddo,” Margie called.  “How did the first day go?”

“It was awful.  Grab a seat and I’ll tell you about it.”

Margie sat down on one of the wicker chairs and said, “It can’t be all that bad?”

“Way bad.  As my Ir
ish friend Colleen would say, ‘Twas a nightmare to behold.’ ”  Katherine proceeded to give Margie the short version of the morning gloom. 

Margie said seriously, “I wonder why the massage queen would want to learn about computers?”

Katherine asked amused, “Does everyone in Erie call her that?  Jake said the same thing.”

Margie laughed.  “I wouldn’t worry about it.  Listen, I’ve got to get back.  I finally got sick of stripping that god-awful flowered wallpaper, so I hired a drywall crew to come in and re-do the walls.”  She started to get up,
then abruptly sat back down. 

Two pickup trucks pulled in front of the pink mansion and parked. 

“Did you hire more workers?” Katherine asked.

“Kiddo, that’s the Sanders bunch,” Margie said nervously.  She yanked out her cell and called Cokey, who was working next door as well.  “Hey, Sugar Pop, I’m
gonna leave my cell on.  I’m on Katz’s front porch.  The Sanders boys just showed up.  Might be trouble.  I’ll explain later.  Tell the guys we might need them over here.  I’ll let you know.”  She placed the phone on her lap.

A man in his fifties with shoulder-length hair and a short-trimmed beard got out of one of the trucks.  He went over to the passenger side and opened the door.  Barbie leaped out.  Four guys clambered out of the truck behind her.