by Patricia Fry
Gwen looked up at her, then buried her face in Rags’s fur. “No. No, I can’t. I have something I have to do tonight. And it’s going to happen soon. As soon as that bus gets here. What time is it?” she asked.
“Seven thirty-five.”
“Ten minutes!” she said.
“What happens in ten minutes?” Savannah asked.
“The bus driver and all those people who killed Barry will die. I don’t care how many.” She spoke slowly and deliberately: “They will all die.”
Savannah felt her heart skip a beat. “What are you talking about, Gwen?”
By then, Arthur had lowered a window in the car and he and Michael could hear most of the women’s conversation. Savannah knew this and said, “Tell me what’s going on, Gwen. What do you plan to do?”
“Kill those people like they killed Barry,” she said. She looked down at Rags, who continued to sit on her lap in her embrace. “But you’d better get out of here and take him with you. I do not want Ragsdale hurt.” She looked at Savannah. “I have always loved him. I wanted him from the beginning. Did you know that? Of all the cats I took care of, this is the cat I always wanted.”
Savannah chuckled in an attempt to lighten the mood. “I know. You were constantly trying to talk me into giving him to you. You thought he was cool. But he’s a real handful. You should be glad I didn’t give in.”
“He made me happy,” Gwen said. “He reminded me of a cat I had as a child.” She smiled. “His name was Mickey. Such a nice cat. He’s the one who turned me into a cat advocate.” She shook her head, “Advocate, shmadvocate. I’m nothing now—not without Barry,” she wailed.
“I hear you’re a marine biologist,” Savannah said brightly.
Gwen stared at her for a moment, then looked down at the cat. “No. I just tell people that when I’m on the beach watching out for the seabirds and mammals.” She looked at Savannah. “How’d you know that, anyway?”
“Well, you talked to my husband today,” Savannah explained.
Bewildered, Gwen asked, “Where?”
When Savannah sensed that her friend wasn’t thinking very clearly—that she may even have taken some sort of drug, she shrugged and said, “Oh, that’s not important.” She asked more gently, “Do you have a cat, Gwen?”
“No, I gave her away. I had Jessie, but I gave her away. I didn’t want her to get hurt in the…” She looked up the street. “Savannah. You need to take Rags and get out of here. There’s going to be a bad accident in just a few minutes.” She pushed Rags toward Savannah. “Go now. Both of you.” She leaned over, kissed Rags, and started to cry.
“No, Gwen. Rags wants you to go with us. Come on. Come with us and we’ll get you a nice meal and some clean clothes. I think what you need is a fresh start. Come on. Won’t you come with Rags?”
“With Rags?” Gwen asked quietly. She looked down at the cat.
“Yes, you can hold him in the car, where we’ll all be safe from the…um…accident.”
Gwen looked up the street again, then down at Rags, who stared into her eyes. “Savannah, you’re right. He wants me to come with him, doesn’t he?” When she heard something in the distance, she lurched forward a little. “It’s the bus!” she exclaimed. “I should do what I need to do. I’ve been planning this for a long time. It’s the end, Savannah. I need to come to the end.”
“New plan,” Savannah said, taking Gwen’s arm. “You’re coming with Rags and me.”
Gwen stood up, but was reluctant to walk with Savannah. When she saw the car door standing open, she demanded, “Who’s that? Who’s in there?”
“My husband and our friend, Arthur Spence.”
“Arthur?” Gwen said. “Arthur Spence?” she asked, looking into the car. “He helps cats, doesn’t he?”
“Yes, he does. Come on,” Savannah urged. “Get in the car, and you can meet Arthur.”
“Yes,” Arthur said from inside the car. “Let us take you to my home, where you can stay until you’re back on your feet.”
“What?” Gwen said. “I’m on my feet. What are you talking about?”
Arthur looked down the street and saw the bus moving nearer and nearer. “Come on, Gwen,” he said. “Step in, and let’s go with a new plan—a plan of hope.”
“Hope?” she squinted at Arthur. “Hope? Did Barry send you? He talked about hope the last time I ever saw him. He said…” she started to cry.
“Let’s get out of the way of the bus, shall we, Gwen?” Arthur suggested.
The woman looked at the bus, then at Arthur, and said, “Yes, hope. That’s what I want, and that’s what Barry wants for me.” She took one more look at the bus, then slid into the backseat of the car with Savannah and Rags.
****
The following morning Savannah was enjoying a sweet moment with her children and all three cats on the large enclosed patio. Teddy was particularly excited about Glori, and followed her as she checked out her surroundings. He played peek-a-boo with her in the pampas grass, and spent a good deal of time giggling at her antics.
Savannah smiled as Lily tried to show her little brother how to pet Glori gently, but the cat was more interested in exploring than being petted.
The mood was interrupted by a soft voice. “Savannah.”
“Oh, good morning, Gwen. How are you?” Before the woman could respond, Savannah invited, “Come sit here with us. It’s such a beautiful morning.”
“Thank you,” Gwen said, choosing a nearby chair. She chuckled. “Your kids are so cute.” She pointed at Teddy. “What’s he doing?”
“Getting to know our new cat.”
“The calico?” Gwen asked. “She’s a beauty.”
“Yes, we just adopted her here in the city. She was rescued from that awful hoarding situation a few months ago.” When Gwen looked at her blankly, she asked, “Didn’t you hear about that?”
Gwen shook her head and stared at the cat.
Savannah chuckled. “That’s why we’re here this weekend. Rags and I were in a play to raise money for the cats.” She winced. “Some of them were in pretty bad shape.”
“Oh,” Gwen said. “I didn’t hear about that.” She rested her head in her hand. “I guess I’ve been out of touch.”
Savannah smiled at her friend and asked quietly, “So how do you feel this morning?”
Gwen brightened just a little. “More human than I’ve felt in months. What happened last night, anyway?”
“Well, Sarah called…”
Gwen slumped in her chair. “Oh Sarah. She’s such a good friend, and I’ve let her down.”
“Now, I wouldn’t say that,” Savannah countered.
“Did she call you about me? She’s always nagging me, but I know she’s only trying to help. I’m kind of a mess these days.” Gwen looked at Savannah. “Why did she call?”
“Yes, it was about you. She’s been worried sick. She said she was afraid of what you might do, and she told us where you were.”
Gwen was stunned for a moment. Sounding panicked, she asked, “I didn’t…um…I mean, what did I do last night? Oh no, did I…?”
“Nothing. We brought you here and you ate a good meal, had a shower, and went to bed.”
“So it was a dream? God, I hope it was a dream. I sure don’t want to hurt innocent people.”
Savannah checked on the children, who were still playing nearby, and asked, “What did you dream, Gwen?”
She looked down at her hands in her lap, glanced around, and said, “I dreamed what I intended, but I’m awfully glad you stopped me from doing it.”
“What, Gwen? Do you want to talk about it? Would that be helpful?”
Gwen sat with her thoughts for a moment, then said, “You knew that I was engaged, right?”
Savannah nodded.
“Barry was a wonderful man. We had such a great future planned, until…”
“What happened, Gwen?”
Her face contorted, she said, “No one on that bus helped him. They didn’t cal
l for help, they didn’t give him CPR. They did nothing. Nothing, Savannah!” she shouted, sobs coming to the surface. “They left him to die alone in the back of the bus without anyone to comfort him or even to help him. I’ve been miserable since then. I just haven’t been able to cope. My dreams were shattered, and I became a grieving basket case. I walked away from the cat shelter, and my only focus became getting even. I spent all of my time and energy trying to figure out how to do it—how to get revenge. I thought that if I could somehow avenge Barry’s death, all of my problems and grieving would end.”
“How would you have done that, Gwen? Why here in this city?”
She took a deep breath. “He came to San Francisco on business, and decided to take the bus from the hotel to a meeting across town. Why he chose the bus rather than a cab, I don’t know.” She took a couple of quick breaths. “He had called me earlier that night and told me of his plans. I never heard from him or saw him again, but I found out what happened.” She sobbed. “I was absolutely crushed, Savannah, and I figured the only way I could heal from the crushing grief was to get revenge—to somehow right the wrong that took his life.”
When Gwen paused, Savannah asked, “And how were you going to do that, Gwen?”
I didn’t know. I just became more and more angry, to the point that I really couldn’t function. I know that. I knew I was behaving in a destructive way, but I didn’t care. My life was over—or at least that’s what it felt like to me. Sarah…” she shook her head. “Poor Sarah, she stood by me and she tried to help, but she had no idea what I was feeling. I had no desire to go back to the cat shelter, to maintain a home, to go on with my life. I was numb—dead inside. I had no fear of dying, in fact that’s what I wanted.” She looked up at Savannah. “And I wanted revenge.”
“That’s what you hoped to accomplish last night on that bus you were waiting for?” Savannah asked cautiously.
She nodded. “Yes, I have a knife in my bag, you know, and some Mace.”
“I know,” Savannah said quietly. When Gwen seemed puzzled, she said, “We wanted to wash your clothes last night so you’d have something clean to wear this morning. We found them.”
As if she hadn’t heard Savannah, Gwen said, “Last night I dreamed that I did it. I got on the bus. Once I was in the back of the bus and the driver wasn’t looking, I sprayed everyone I could get to with the Mace, then I stabbed them.” She became more agitated. “I used that knife over and over and over until I got my revenge.” Gwen broke down again.
Savannah looked at her children and noticed they were not paying any attention. She moved closer to Gwen and rubbed her back. She spoke softly, “Are you feeling better now?” Gwen continued to sob quietly into her hands until Savannah said, “Gwen.”
The woman lifted her head, wiped at her eyes with her shirtsleeves, and nodded. “I really do believe I feel better. I’m mostly glad it was a dream and that you stopped me from doing it for real. Truly, I don’t want to hurt anyone. Intellectually, I know it would not have been revenge at all.”
“And you’d be spending the rest of your life in prison,” Savannah reminded her.
Gwen waved that comment away. “Oh, that doesn’t matter.”
Just then Arthur approached. “Out enjoying our morning sun, are you?” he asked.
“Yes,” Savannah said, gazing toward where her children played, then checking to see where each of the cats were. “It’s lovely out here. Come join us,” she invited. She looked at Gwen, “you don’t mind do you?”
“No,’ she said, standing, “I’ll just go…
“Please stay,” Arthur said. “I’d like to talk to you.”
“I already told Savannah what’s going on with me. I’m not of a mind to repeat it,” Gwen asserted.
“And I’m not of a mind to ask you to,” Arthur said, smiling. “I’m just wondering how you are today.”
“Much better, thank you. I appreciate your hospitality.” She tilted her head and asked, “You’re the one who lives here, right?”
Arthur nodded.
“Well, I’ll be going now. Thank you again for the hot meal, the shower, and a good night’s sleep.”
“Please wait,” Arthur said.
When Rags wandered up to Gwen and put his paws on her knees, she smiled. “Hi, Ragsdale. Want a lap?” She sat back down. “I sure wouldn’t mind sharing.”
“Ragsdale,” Arthur said. “I rarely hear him called that, but that is his name, isn’t it? That gives him a more regal quality, doesn’t it?”
The women laughed and Savannah said, “Yes, more so than Rags…”
“Or Ragsie,” Gwen said. “I remember you calling him Ragsie.” She lifted him onto her lap. “No,” she said, sitting up straighter, “he deserves a more noble name. He’s a unique and…well, regal cat.” She hugged him, then allowed him to curl up on her lap. She smiled down at him.
Savannah said, “Gwen, you told me last night that you always wanted Rags. I didn’t know that.”
“Yes, he’s just such a rare personality.”
“That he is,” Arthur said. “Have you read the book Savannah wrote about him?” When Gwen stared at him blankly, he chuckled. “You’ll probably have a very different view of him once you’ve read it.”
“You’re in it,” Savannah said, grinning.
“Me?” Gwen asked.
“Yes, it’s his memoirs…or…um…meowmoirs, and you are part of his past.”
“Oh, cool. I didn’t know about that. I have to admit I’ve been out of touch…”
“Yes, it seems so,” Arthur said, “from some of the things you told us last night.”
Gwen became defensive. “Like what?”
“Water under the bridge. What I’m interested in, if you don’t mind my asking, is what’s next for you?” When Gwen seemed reluctant or unable to respond, Arthur said, “As I understand it, you ran quite a wonderful cat shelter in Los Angeles.”
“Oh, Savannah told you that?”
“No,” he said. “You did. You talked about it with a great deal of pride and joy last night. You don’t remember that?”
“I barely remember getting up this morning,” Gwen said. “In fact, I need pills to get me going, and I can’t find them this morning. Do you know where I put them?”
Arthur glanced at Savannah before saying, “We’re keeping them safe for you. It seems that last night you may have taken too many and that worried us. You are much more clear-headed this morning. I’m glad to see that.”
Defensively, Gwen said, “Well, I want those pills back. Those are my pills. My property.”
“Okay,” Arthur said. “Can we have a little talk first?”
“I’m not sure.” She moved to get up, but Rags wasn’t about to leave her lap, and she evidently didn’t have the heart to move him. So she settled down and petted him without looking at Arthur.
“So what’s next for you, Gwen?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“How about if I help you with that next step?” he offered.
“You? How? Why would you want to do that, anyway?” she asked suspiciously.
“From what little I know of you, it appears you have a lot to give. You’re a woman who’s passionate about cats, right?”
“I used to be,” Gwen said, petting Rags.
“I don’t think that kind of passion leaves us when we get sad or angry, do you?” When Gwen didn’t respond, Arthur said, “We found kitty kibbles in your pack.”
“What were you doing, trying to rob me?” she blurted. She frowned. “Oh, I didn’t mean that. I’m sorry. Savannah told me you took my clothes to wash. I appreciate having clean clothes to wear. Thank you.” She ran her hand over Rags’s fur. “I feed the cats I see on the streets. There are so many of them.”
“Have you been to a cat shelter lately?” Arthur asked.
Gwen shook her head.
“There’s one not too far from where we found you last night. Vivian and her husband take in some of the most n
eedy and damaged cats in the city.” When Glori walked up to Gwen, he said, “This delightful calico is Glori. She came from an awful hoarding situation. Savannah and Michael found her at the shelter yesterday.”
Gwen reached out and petted Glori’s plush fur. “She’s beautiful. You’re beautiful, Glori.”
“She may not be able to hear you,” Arthur said, “but she does love the touch.”
“She’s deaf?” Gwen asked, concerned.
“Yes, we think so,” Arthur said. “Would you like to visit the shelter and meet some of the cats there?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said, nervously. “I need to…um…I should…”
“I think you left all of your shoulds and need-tos behind when you decided to become angry, Gwen. Isn’t that right?”
“What do you know about it?” she snapped. “Do you think you could go on living if something were to happen to a beloved one? My heart has been ripped out, I tell you, and I’ve been left to suffer.”
Arthur nodded. “I do know, Gwen; Savannah can tell you. But this isn’t about me. It’s about you. It’s all you and it’s all about you. Would you like to go with me to the shelter and visit the cats? I’m just asking you to do it this once. That’s all.”
Just then Arthur’s phone rang. He looked at the screen, excused himself, and walked away to take the call.
“Who the hell does he think he is?” Gwen hissed when he left.
Savannah said, “He’s Arthur Spence, the young man who…”
“That’s Arthur Spence?” Gwen gasped, looking at him as he spoke on the phone with his back to them. “My fiancé adored that man.”
“Barry knew Arthur?” Savannah asked.
“Just about him. Evidently he knew someone who knows Mr. Spence.” She leaned forward. “He’s the one who was burned. His little sister died, right?”
Savannah nodded.
“And his poor excuse for a mother locked him away in the basement of her mansion for most of his life, hiding him from even her husband. They’re both in prison now, I think. That’s him? That’s Arthur Spence?” Gwen asked, disbelieving. “He looks wonderful.”
