Susie was sitting in her favourite chair, reading the latest book on Dr.John Dee, 16th Century philosopher, necromancer, and foreteller of the future. She found him a fascinating character and loved that one of his specialities had been creating instruments for exploration.
Miss Moshe was looking out the window, wondering when Eric was going to come home. Occasionally she would sit down and lick her coat, sometimes walk over to Susie and rub up against her legs. But then she would go back to the window and keep looking for Eric. "He should be here by now!" she thought.
The smell of wild mushroom risotto was getting stronger in the living room by the minute. Both Miss Moshe and Susie began to grow restless.
Mooosheee, come here pretty girl" Susie put her book down and called to the striking calico cat at the window, "aren't you getting hungry my little baby?"
"I'm starving"Miss Moshe replied in her "inner dialog", "oh, gosh, I wish you could hear me!"
Come sit on my lap. Eric and Jan will be here soon. We'll be eating dinner and you're going to have the best leftovers ever!"
"I hope so, those old crunchy things in my dish are getting pretty old. Why in the heck do they make them in the shape of fish??? They sure don't taste like fish!" Miss Moshe said as she jumped gracefully onto Susie's lap.
"You're such a smart cat....really, sometimes it's as if you speak English", Susie said, praising Moshe for sitting on her lap.
"Duh! It's a good thing I love you so much",said Moshe."If only I could teach you to LISTEN with your mind."
"You funny little cat, sometimes I could swear you are trying to talk to me. Silly! Well, maybe we should check on the Risotto...what do you think kitty?"
"I think you should give me a great big heaping plate of risotto so I can check it out for you!"Miss Moshe commented.
Just then the phone rang.
"That must be Eric. If he's hanging about the Museum again.....seven two two five one one one?"
"Susie, I have some bad news for you..."
"Eric?"
"Eric is OK...but...well...you need to get down here to the Museum, Susie. Eric is.....uh....sort of tied up at the moment..."
"What do you mean, "tied up"? Is he OK?"
"Yeah, he's fine. But he is....uh.....stuck...sort of..."
"Stuck? Stuck in what? What do you mean "stuck"?"
"It's a long story, Susie. But, really, we need your help...and well..you might want to bring along someone strong, too."
"This sounds serious.....someone strong? What is Eric stuck in?"
"Well, he is stuck in the African Gallery ... one of the displays slipped loose. He's OK, but it will take a few of us to get him out." Ian was beginning to run out of ideas for what to tell Susie next.
"Alright then, but 'someone strong'. . ."
"Yeah, ring my neighbor, the guy upstars, Ken. . .Ken Thomas...he's probably in the book. Can you ring him up? I need to check on Eric."
"By the way, Ian, is Jan there with you and Eric?"
"Jan ... Jan who?"
"You know, Jan Webb, arts mavis . . . she was meeting Eric at the Museum after work. She should be there."
"Well, I haven't seen her...but look here, you'd beter ring my neighbor and get down here as fast as you can."
"Right."
Susie hung up the phone and went to the kitchen. She turned the oven off, removed her apron and hung it on a hook on the side of the cooker.
"Moooosheeee...Moosheeee...oh, there you are. I've got to go out, little one, Eric is in some kind of trouble at the Museum. Probably got his head stuck in an earthen pot trying to read an inscription or something. Now you just stay here and watch the flat for awhile. I won't be long, baby."
"Yeah, right. Like I'm going to stay here and be tortured by the smell of this wild mushroom risotto cooling off, while you go playing at the Museum!"
"Good kitty. Here, you can lick this spoon while mama is out."
"Lick this spoon! Well, OK. But this won't take long."
Susie rang up Ken, who was watching a football match and waiting for his partner, Jeannette, to come home from her theatre group meeting. Ken whinged just a bit about going out ... but agreed he could leave Jeannette a note and set the VCR to record the rest of the match. He said he would meet Susie at the Museum.
Susie put on her coat and went to the front door without noticing that Moshe was waiting behind the coat rack . . . and got out the door behind Susie before the door closed.
Moshe hid in the shadows and waited until Susie had cleared the first floor landing, then followed her out. When Susie got to the carpark, Moshe got a bit closer, and as Susie got into the car, slipped into the back, snuggling down on the floor mat behind the driver's seat.
Moshe slipped out just as carefully upon their arrival at the Museum and followed Susie up the steps of the old Museum. Ken was already waiting by the front door.
"Hi there!" You must be Susie." Ken said as Susie approached. "Eric showed me your photo once."
"You know Eric then?"
"Oh,sure. We went to a football match once ...Ian and Eric and me...I think you were at your mother's that weekend."
"Oh, that's right...I remember Eric mentioned you and your friend Jeannette. Well, I'm glad you could come down here. Eric is apparently in real trouble."
"Glad to help." Ken said "Say, is that your cat?"
"My cat?"
Miss Moshe was hiding in the folds of Susie's full-length rain coat.
"Oh, oh dear...Miss Moshe...how did you get here? You shouldn't be here little one."
"Well, you didn't seriously think you were going to have all the fun, did you?"Miss Moshe said, as she rubbed against Susie's ankles.
"Well, OK, if you're going to be like that! Com'on, let's go in."
"I've just been banging on the door for about three minutes. I don't know if they can hear us", Ken said.
"Well, then maybe they'll hear THIS", Susie said, a bit impatiently, while she removed one of her shoes and then began banging on the front door. Inside, Ian, Kozo, Moto and the two Xuptils had just discovered the courage to answer the door....
Chapter 5
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