“What are you going to do with us?,” Karin asked angrily. “That depends on your boyfriend here”, he said firmly. “We want our merchandise back!”, he yelled. “I don’t have it”, I said calmly. “I know that!”, he yelled again, “where is it?” “I honestly don’t know”, I said. “Well, I’m going to give you a little time to think about it”, he growled, “then we start talking more seriously. If you want your girlfriend and cats to live, then you better tell me what I want to know.” “Do we at least get something to eat?”, I asked. “You’re my guests right now,” he answered more calmly, dinner will be served in half an hour.” He then left and locked the door again. “What now?, asked Karin quite calmly. “We try to think fast”, I answered, “John will likely want an answer after we eat”. “And what do you plan to tell him?”, she asked almost sarcastically. “I’m not sure yet”, I said, “I really don’t know where the merchandise is hidden.” “You expect me to believe that?”, asked Karin. “I mean, get real,” she added.

Karin’s attitude has certainly changed a lot, but then, we are in a tight spot, people get scared and things change. But right now I still don’t know what to tell John. If we tell him what he wants to know then he will kill us after we lead him to the merchandise. If we don’t tell him, he kills us anyway. Hmm, better to tell him, I guess, and maybe we can escape once we’re at the ghost town. “Hey,” said Karin, “Muffin is meowing a lot.” “Yes, she certainly is,” I said. “How come I can’t understand her?”, asked Karin, almost angry now. “I can’t understand her either,” I said, “how about you Mr. Cat? Meow.=I not understand either, must be different meow dialect I not know. Must get Muffin to teach me that one. “You really think you’ll live through this Mr. Cat?”, asks Karin. She seems quite angry now, that’s very strange. But I guess the pressure is getting to her.

Finally Muffin comes out from under the bed. Meow.=What you do under there? Meow, meow.=I nervous, do stress relief with special meow. Meow.=Oh, you must teach me that one. Meow, meow.=I show you when we get home, it work good, feel better already. Meow.=Human Karin not think we get home, she angry. Meow, meow!=Hey, we get home, you see! Right then one of John’s men came and took us downstairs for our dinner. Wow, what a feast, a fabulous steak dinner! Even the cats were allowed at the table and had their own plates of food. After we had finished desert John asks the same question. “Well,” he said, “are you going to tell me or not?” “Like I said, I really don’t know where the merchandise is hidden, but, the cats know.” “I gave the drugs to them to hide in different places so no one would find it,” I continued. “If you take us back to the ghost town I’ll make sure the cats get it all for you.”

“Including the money?”, asked John. “There wasn’t any money in Harvey’s backpack, only those drugs,” I said. “That’s true,” said Karin, “we looked through everything.” “He could have had it on him,” she added. “That would be just like Harvey, carry it with him to keep it safe,” said John. “Now it’s in the river,” added Karin. “Crazy Harvey!”, yelled John. “Okay, tomorrow we go back to that ghost town, but you better be on the level or you won’t like what will happen!”, yelled John again. We were then escorted back to our room. “Do you have some kind of great plan so we can all escape from John?”, asked Karin sarcastically. “No, I really don’t know what we can do”, I said. “John must be doing okay living in this mansion. I wonder if he needs a PI on his payroll?”, I said, just kind of thinking out loud.

The cat’s ears went straight up when I said that. Meow, meow.=Oh, oh, stress really get him now, we need plan to help him. Meow.=Yep, I agree, but not think chomp, chomp will work this time. Meow, meow.=True, need serious talk with him. We wait till later. We were all tired so decided on going to bed early. After laying there in the recliner pretending to be asleep…hmm, that’s interesting. Muffin and Mr. Cat come over to me. Meow, meow.=We wait for human Karin to sleep so we can talk. “Good thinking Muffin, we have some things to talk about, here’s the plan,” I said, “what do you think?” Meow.=Sound good to me. Meow, meow.=Sound good to me too. “Did you do it Muffin?”, I asked. Meow, meow.=Yep, when I was under bed. “Good,” I said, “then we’re all set for tomorrow.” Meow, meow.=You notice? Muffin points with her tail. Meow.=That kind of strange. “Yes, I agree,” I said.

To Be Continued.

©2020 Steve McLeod.