Cannot Wait to Get to Heaven - Fannie Flagg [109]
“Oh, I don’t know, Macky. What makes her think anything, but you better go over there and talk to her.”
“Have you called Dr. Shaw? Who knows, maybe they did give her the wrong cat.”
“You saw the cat, Macky, didn’t it look like Sonny to you?”
“Yes, but all those orange cats look alike to me, I couldn’t tell one from another.”
Norma felt like a fool but she made the phone call anyway just to be on the safe side.
Dr. Shaw was in the back busy clipping Beverly’s new ferret’s toenails, so Norma spoke to his wife, who worked in the office.
“Abby, it’s Norma, let me ask you a silly question. Did you happen to have more than one orange cat over there the other day?”
“Other than Mrs. Shimfissle’s cat?”
“Yes?”
“Gosh, I don’t think so, why?”
“Oh, she has some crazy idea that the cat Macky picked up yesterday is not her cat.”
“Huh…well, let me check it out and make sure, but I don’t remember and I was here. Hold on…. No, no other orange cats were here.”
“Aunt Elner, I just spoke to Abby. Honey, that had to be Sonny, she said they didn’t have any other orange cats over there.”
“Well, I don’t know what to tell you, but this is not my cat. It’s too bad cats don’t have fingerprints or I could prove it to you once and for all. Like I say, he’s a very nice cat but he’s not my cat.”
“Well, what are you going to do?”
“What can I do, just keep him, I guess. I’ve gotten used to him now. I just hope whoever has Sonny is sweet to him.”
“Ironic,” thought Norma. They had switched cats on her in the past and she had not noticed, and now, when she really did have the right cat, she thought she didn’t. Go figure.
Something’s Wrong
6:30 AM
After the cat incident, they should have been concerned about Aunt Elner, but Macky just laughed, and for the past year Norma had been so busy with her real estate, they had not thought any more about it. However, in early March they suddenly started to notice she wasn’t hearing as well, and she began to be confused about who people were. As the months went by she would often call Norma, Ida, and sometimes would call Macky, Luther. Soon, other little things started to happen. She started forgetting conversations and would call three or four times and repeat the same things over and over, and after a while she started to become confused as to where she was, as though she were back on the farm again. Then a few weeks later, when Macky went over for coffee, he walked into the kitchen and found she had left the stove burner on, but was not in the house. He went next door to Ruby’s, looking for her, but she was not there. He then walked out into the back field behind the house and found her wandering around, lost and confused. When she saw him, she said, “The barn’s gone, I can’t find the barn, and I’ve got to feed the cows.” Macky knew something was wrong. After he told Norma what had happened, she said, “It’s just not safe for her to be alone anymore, Macky. I’m afraid she’s liable to burn the house down. We are going to have to put her out at Happy Acres for her own good, before she hurts herself.” As much as he didn’t want to, he had to agree. The time had come. They had the initial meeting, and as they walked down the hall on a tour of the place, it almost killed Macky. On every door the management had placed a photograph of the person so they could find their room. As he went by he saw face after face of someone who used to be young. It was so sad to think that a woman as bright as Aunt Elner would wind up in a place like this. The room they did pick out for her was one with a nice view, at least. He knew she would like that. As they were driving home, they said nothing for a while, then Macky asked, “Who’s going to tell her?”
Norma thought about it. “I think you should, Macky, she’ll listen to you.”
The next morning he walked up the steps thinking he would rather cut off his own arm than have to tell her what he was going to have to tell her. Fortunately, today was one of her good days and she was perfectly lucid.
He waited until they were sitting out on the back