Part Three, Wherein Our Heroes See Cats

Samantha shuffled through her paper, ruffling it irritably. She looked up at Bill again, and caught him looking. He quickly scrutinized his bill when he saw her squint mean. She did not like it that they had forgotten to check their levels, they were running much too low. Sure, they could have made it the day, it was to be an easy one or so they hoped, but Clyde was paranoid about such things. Believed in UFO’s, secret government agencies, and the Easter bunny, Clyde would only get move nervous and jittery the longer it took them to recharge. And if anything did happen…

“He’ll gloat that he was right for the rest of the century,” she mumbled under her breath.

“What?”

“Ah…I think Billy’s getting ready to leave.”

“Its 9:30, what time is the call coming through?”

“Should be any minute. Here, look I think this is a place we can recharge out in the Northwest burbs as we tail Billy.” She pointed to an ad in the paper where a man pointed at them and a big blurb said that he had the power source for you.

“Looks, kind of sleazy, Sam.”

“You’re the one that wants a recharge so bad; I think we’ll be fine today.” She snapped that off much too quick for her liking. Here is where both Clyde and Samantha stopped talking. Clyde had his mouth half open when he had another bout of prickling scattering up his body. It felt like electric eels swimming inside his skin, or ants with needles for legs trooping around on him. Samantha, on the other hand, gripped the paper awfully hard, not meaning to, mind you, but was compelled to.

“What the…” She blurted this out and then witnessed the event, only it did not go down as Annie had predicted.

Bill Braggs stood in front of the waitress with the check in one hand and his other hand searching for his wallet on his person. He was looking quite embarrassed; Bill went a few shades of red and stammered away. He found his phone by mistake at the same time it rang. This scared Bill, it sent the waitress into another tizzy about him owing her money for his breakfast, and it caused the four cats to launch from under the tables to pounce upon the phone.

“Cats! Where the hell did they come from?” yelled the waitress. Two of the cats knocked the back of Bill’s knee at the same time that another tipped a pitcher of water over, which in turn made him fall on his ass when his foot came and slid through the puddle of water. His cell phone went flying through the air and landed on the counter where there were plates lined up with food. It was still ringing, flashing blue and beating like a heart. The fourth cat leapt up to the counter and set its paw upon it. It hissed at Bill and then flicked the cell phone into the kitchen. The mutual hissing of the fryer answered his phones emphatic need but to no conclusion was it satisfied.

The cats sprung to the front door, which was propped open, with what neither Samantha nor Clyde could tell. The last cat out stopped and glanced back at them. They swore that the cat smiled, turned, and left, the door closed right after them.

As soon as the door enclosed the restaurant again, both Clyde and Samantha could move.
originally writen 8/2/2004 3:52 pm-4:21pm