by Patricia Fry
“Oh, I want to see,” Holly said, moving behind the chair and peering down over Aggie’s shoulder. Savannah joined her. “Oh goodness, he was handsome, indeed,” Holly agreed.
Savannah looked at Keith and Michael. “You two don’t look a lot like him. Maybe it’s the moustache.”
“Yeah, he loved his moustache. He had one for most of his adult life. I have only a few pictures of him without it.” She thumbed through the book. “Here’s one. He shaved it off when he lost a bet, but it didn’t take him long to grow it back.” She looked from Michael to Keith. “So now who does he look like, I mean without the moustache?”
“A little like Jess,” Michael said.
Keith agreed.
“And here are some pictures of the four of us—your grandfather, me, and our two sons.” She looked at Keith. “Your father and your uncle.” She then focused on Michael. “Can you tell which is which?”
Michael squirmed a little uncomfortably and looked at Keith. “Well,” he started.
“It may not be who you think it is,” she said, using a mysterious tone.
“Well…um…” Keith hesitated, “the man we met this morning—Brandt—says he’s our father.”
Aggie shook her head. “I don’t believe it. I’ve always thought it was Scott. I mean, you’re the spitting image!” She looked at Jess. “And you don’t look a lot like him.” She became thoughtful. “Scott was fiercely in love with your mother. And I got the impression that she felt the same about him.” She waved her hand in the air. “I know, I know, Brandt tells a different story, but I consider myself a pretty darn good judge of character and I spent quite a bit of time with your mother. Boys,” she said, “I believe without a doubt that my Scott, who died much too young, was your father.” She shook her head sadly. “If only he had lived to raise you—both of you together.” She choked back a rush of emotion and reached a hand out to each of the men. “I’m just so glad you found each other. It is wonderful to see you together.”
“How did he die?” Keith asked quietly. “Mr…um…Brandt said it was an ice-fishing accident.”
Aggie became quiet for a moment, then said, “I can only hope to God it was.” She looked Keith in the eyes. “There was only a brief investigation and Brandt was the only witness.” Her voice trailed off.
“So he drowned?” Michael asked.
“We don’t know for sure.” Aggie closed the book and sat up straighter in her chair. She smiled at the children who were playing with the new toys she’d bought them. “You know what? This has been such a lovely day. Let’s not end it with talk of loss and suspicions, shall we?” Suddenly, she pointed and began to laugh. “Oh, look at Ragsdale.”
When the others gazed in the cat’s direction, they burst out laughing, for he seemed to be trying to conquer the kitty hammock. They watched as he put one foot in the middle of the hammock, then another. When it moved, he stepped back. After a few moments, he decided to try something else and he leaped onto the hammock with all fours, only to jump off on the other side. After a few more tries, Rags managed to get all four feet on the hammock. Everyone cheered as he stood on it wobbling a little, trying to maintain his balance.
“Lie down,” Adam said. “Rags, lie down.”
As if he understood, Rags promptly folded his legs underneath himself and lay down on his stomach.
“Yay!” Adam and Cassie shouted.
The others applauded the cat’s success.
“Want to swing?” Adam asked, moving the hammock back and forth gently. Within a few minutes, Rags had rolled over onto his back and was enjoying the ride.
Savannah chuckled. “We’ll have to get him one of those.”
“Yeah,” Michael said, “I’d like one, too. That looks comfortable.”
It wasn’t long before everyone was saying their goodbyes.
“You know what,” Aggie said, wiping tears from her face, “I have nothing holding me here—well, except for a lot of friends and you, Jess. I just might get me a place in Colorado and another one in California so I can spend time with my family.”
“That would be wonderful,” Savannah said. “Although, we have a house large enough that you can stay with us, if you want to. You don’t have to buy a house or rent one.”
“Heck,” Aggie said, “I’m too dang independent to do that. I need my privacy, you know. I love you all, but I have a life!” she announced. She smiled brightly. “And I will see you all tomorrow at the library. Jess said he’ll pick up me and some of my friends and bring us over. So we’ll meet again before you leave. When are you going back to your homes?”
“Monday,” Holly said.
Aggie stood quietly for a moment before saying, “Thank you all again for making this a day to remember.” She glanced at the faces before her and added, “I just love you all.”
Chapter 10
The following morning there were two additional people at the breakfast table in the condo, as Max and Margaret had arrived the evening before from Baltimore.
“So who’s coming to Rags’s signing?” Michael asked.
Everyone responded with enthusiasm.
“What time do we need to be ready?” Holly asked.
“My aunt and I should be there by around eleven fifteen. It starts at noon.”
“So Max and Maggie will go with you?” Holly asked. When Savannah nodded, she said, “Gladys, why don’t you and Lily ride with us? I think we can make room. Then we don’t have to rush the little ones.”
Michael agreed. “Sounds good. We can take Adam and Cassie.”
“Yeah,” Adam said, “I want to help Rags do his paw-tographs, don’t you, Cassie?”
She nodded.
“Okay, as long as you’re ready when your aunt and uncle are ready to go,” Holly warned her daughter. “No dillydallying today.”
****
The book signing started promptly and was well attended. Aggie and Jess were there with a carload of her friends. Rob had shipped books to the library for them to sell as a fund-raiser and most of Aggie’s friends bought copies. Several of them took selfies with Rags, as well. Holly bought books to take back to Cassie’s school library.
Around twelve forty-five, Rags began to get restless and Savannah asked the librarian if she could take a break with the cat. She walked him outside for a moment and gave him water and a couple of his treats, then led him to a quiet area where they joined Gladys, Holly, Aggie, and the toddlers. “Where are the others?” she asked.
Holly pointed. “I think the guys are looking for books on local history. Our husbands thought they might learn more about their heritage.”
“The children were reading dinosaur books when I checked on them a few minutes ago,” Gladys said. She chuckled. “I think Max and Maggie wore themselves out in Baltimore and Philadelphia. They’re relaxing near the fireplace.”
Suddenly, they heard a woman raise her voice. “I just have to find it. I’m leaving tomorrow morning and they won’t let me on the plane without it—it’s an international flight, you know.”
Savannah looked up and saw that the woman was probably in her late thirties and well dressed, but frazzled and upset.
A young man, presumably a volunteer, said, “It’s a big library, ma’am. I don’t know where I’d start looking for it. How do you know it’s even here?”
“I’ve looked everywhere else; it just has to be here. I was here earlier checking out books. I also brought some books back. Maybe it fell into the book drop.”
When the youthful volunteer didn’t seem to be able to help, the woman let out a deep sigh and asked, “May I speak to the librarian?”
It took several minutes for the librarian to appear. When she did, she seemed preoccupied. She asked rather curtly, “What is it I can help you with?”
The distraught woman took a deep breath and explained, “I’m adopting a child from abroad, and I leave in the morning to bring him back to the states, but I’ve lost my passport som
eplace and I think maybe it’s here…I mean in the library. Could you please take a look in the book drop?”
After thinking about it for a moment, the librarian agreed. When she left the room, the woman glanced around and spotted Rags. For a moment she seemed to relax. Her face softened and she smiled. “Can I pet him?” she asked.
“Sure.” Savannah motioned to an empty chair next to her. Then, reaching a hand out, she said, “I’m Savannah. This is Rags.” She glanced at the other women and noticed they were all involved with the children at the moment.
The woman shook hands with Savannah. “I’m Kathleen Yount.” She pushed her thick, straight brown hair off her face. “I must look awful. I’m so upset. I’m on my way to pick up my adopted child abroad and I’ve lost my passport.” She closed her eyes. “I cannot believe this.” Opening her eyes, she asked, “Do you think the universe is trying to tell me something?”
“Oh…um…gosh, who knows?” When Rags reached up toward Savannah with his paws, she lifted the cat onto her lap and Kathleen immediately began petting him.
“What a nice cat,” she said. “He reminds me of one I had when I was in college. How I loved that cat. Sylvie was her name.” She chuckled.” I found her as a kitten in the warehouse district and named him Sylvester, thinking it was a boy. But the vet set me straight and she became Sylvia—Sylvie for short.” She continued to stroke Rags. “She seemed to have super powers.”
“Super powers?” Savannah repeated, laughing.
“Yeah, there was something about her—she understood my moods. She’d stay close when I was upset and seemed to offer comfort when I was stressing over finals. I’m sure she actually understood some of my words.” She looked into Rags’s eyes and asked him, “Do you understand things? Do you have super powers?” She frowned and looked around the room. “What’s he doing in the library, anyway? Is he some sort of service animal?”
“He’s doing a book signing,” Savannah said matter-of-factly. “He stars in a series of children’s books.”
“So that’s why the library’s so crowded today. I wondered what was going on.” She focused on Rags and crooned, “So all this hullabaloo is because of you? How nice.”
“Yes, I guess so. We’re just taking a break. He tends to get kind of keyed up around kids.”
“Ma’am,” the librarian said quietly upon approaching Kathleen, “we didn’t find it in the book drop. I’m sorry.”
At that, the woman began to cry. She apologized to Savannah. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do,” she wailed.
“Are you sure you had your passport when you were here earlier?”
“Positive. I’d just finished packing and I put it into my purse to make sure I had it. Then I gathered up some books I needed to return and brought them here.”
Savannah looked around. “Where else did you go?”
“Right back home.”
“I mean while you were here in the library.”
“To the book drop, then to the children’s section over there. I wanted to get a couple of books for Leon to read on the way home.” Her face lit up. “He’s half American and someone has taught him to read and speak English.”
“How old is he?” she asked.
“Eight.”
Savannah pointed, “So you were choosing books from over there? Why don’t we go take a look? Maybe the passport dropped out of your purse.”
The woman let out a sigh. “Well, I don’t think so, but yeah, let’s go look.”
As they approached the area, Savannah heard someone call her name. “Hi, Savannah.”
“Hi, Aunt Savannah.”
“Oh, hi Adam, Cassie. What are you guys up to?”
“Just looking at books about weather—trying to find out why it’s so cold and snowy here and why we get so much sunshine in California.”
“Interesting topic,” Savannah said.
“Yeah, Aunt Holly told us about these books.”
“Can Rags read with us?” Cassie asked.
Savannah thought for a moment, then said, “Okay. Adam, you’re in charge. Do not let go of the leash.”
“We know,” he complained, taking the leash in his hand.
Savannah turned to the woman. “So where were you looking for books?”
“Here, mostly,” Kathleen said. “And on the other side.” She pointed. “I sat at that table where your children are for a few minutes. That’s it.”
Savannah pulled up a chair and sat down in front of the bookshelf Kathleen had indicated. “Let’s pull some of the books out and look in them and behind them, shall we?”
“You have time to do that? Aren’t you supposed to be signing books?” Kathleen asked.
“Yeah, I have a few minutes. Hey, maybe the children will help.”
“Help with what?” Adam asked.
“This is Mrs. Yount,” Savannah said. She put one hand on Adam’s arm. “This is Adam and his cousin, Cassie.” Addressing the children again, she said, “Mrs. Yount is looking for her passport. Do you kids want to help us? It may be inside a book, behind the books on the shelf, or maybe under one of the shelves.” When the children sat staring, Savannah explained, “She’s flying to another country tomorrow to pick up a little boy who needs a home and she can’t go without her passport. It’s really, really important.”
“What does it look like?” Cassie asked.
“It’s dark blue,” Kathleen explained, “and it’s small—like a very small book.”
As the two older children searched the area for the passport, they noticed Gladys and Holly approaching with the two little girls, who each had a toy in their hand. “Hey, where’d they get those toys?” Cassie asked, running to them.
Bethany pointed. “In that toy box.”
“Cool,” Adam said.
“Toy ’izzard,” Lily chirped.
Adam stopped and looked at the toy she had in her hand. “It’s not a lizard, it’s a dinosaur,” he told her. He leaned closer to the toddler. “Can you say dinosaur?”
“Dinosaur,” she repeated almost perfectly.
Adam smiled, then joined Cassie at the toy box. As he peered inside, Rags reached up with his front paws and looked into the box, as well. Before Adam could stop him, the cat jumped in and began digging around among the toys.
“No, you don’t,” Michael said, when he joined the children. He quickly retrieved Rags. “Those toys are for the kids.”
“Yeah, the human ones, not the furry ones,” Keith quipped, reaching out and ruffling the cat’s fur before Michael lowered him to the floor.
“Look, Cassie,” Adam said, “Here’s a shelf with puzzles and board games. Want to do a puzzle?”
“Okay,” she said, scrutinizing their puzzle choices.
But before choosing one, Adam remembered their mission. “Cassie, we’d better go help find that pass-thing first.”
“Yeah, we better,” Cassie said, starting to follow him back to where Savannah and Kathleen were.
“Come on, Rags,” Adam said, pulling on the leash. “Dad, why is he just sitting there like that?” he asked.
“I’ll give him a push,” Cassie said, running up behind Rags. “He won’t move,” she complained. She dropped to her knees and that’s when she noticed it. “He’s sitting on something. What is that, Rags?” She asked, pushing him again and tugging on an edge of the item.
“What’s the problem?” Keith asked the children.
Adam explained, “I want Rags to come with me to where Savannah is.”
Cassie added. “I can’t get him to move and he’s sitting on something. I want to see what he’s sitting on.”
Keith chuckled. “Never a dull moment, huh?” He picked up Rags and petted him for a few moments before handing him to Adam. “Try carrying him,” he suggested. “You might get where you’re going faster that way.”
“Thanks, Uncle Keith,” Adam said. “Come on, Cassie.”
But Cassie hadn’t heard him.
“Adam, I think this is what that lady’s looking for. It’s a small book. It has a picture in here of her.”
“Oh, that might be it. Let’s show it to her,” he suggested, taking the lead with Rags in his arms. “Hey, Savannah,” he called as they drew closer.
“Shhh, buddy, it’s a library, remember?”
“Sorry,” he said, “but Rags found something.”
“That’s nice,” she mumbled while continuing to thumb through a stack of books. “Want to help us here? We have a lot of books to go through.”
“But look at what we found, Savannah,” he insisted.
“Yeah, it’s a little book with her picture in it,” Cassie explained.
Savannah quickly turned to face the children. When she saw what Cassie held in her hand, she asked, “Where did you find it?”
“My passport!” Kathleen exclaimed. She took it from Cassie, looked inside, then held it to her chest and let out a sigh of relief. “Thank God. Where did you kids find it?”
“It wasn’t us,” Cassie said. When the women waited to hear more, the child added, “I think Rags found it in that toy box over there, then he sat on it and wouldn’t get up. Dad helped us get it from him. Is it yours?”
“It sure is, honey. You’re a lifesaver. Thank you so very much.” She picked up her purse and zipped the passport inside a compartment. She then took out her wallet and pulled some cash out of it. “You deserve a reward.”
“Oh, that’s not necessary,” Savannah said.
“Oh, yes it is,” Kathleen insisted. “I stupidly lost it and they found it; they deserve a reward.”
Savannah bit her lower lip. “We’d rather you use it for something special for your new son, wouldn’t we, kids?”
Adam faltered a little before saying, “Yeah, I guess.”
Cassie nodded.
“Well, I’ll surely tell Leon all about you two—and how special you and your cat are.”
