Escheatment: Maltese Cat Book Series. Chapter 24 Shopping With The Cat

 

Book 1 in the Maltese Cat Book Series entitled Escheatment continues with new chapters. Enjoy:
Chapters 1 & 2,
Chapters 3 & 4,
Chapters 5 & 6,
Chapters 7 & 8,
Chapters 9 & 10,
Chapter 11,
Chapters 12 & 13.
Chapters 14-16,
Chapter 17,
Chapter 18,
Chapters 19 & 20,
Chapter 21,
Chapters 22 & 23

Chapter 24

Shopping With The Cat

Jimmy Donnegan, Tessa Broderick, Tim McPhail, and Lauren Anders were all together downtown. The women had been shopping while the men bided their time. They had found an upscale coffee shop on Union Square and were sipping their drinks. Somehow, the conversation rolled around to the Maltese Cat.
“So, what’s his favorite pastime?” asked Tessa, expecting to hear ‘polo’, since her husband spent so much time at the ranch with the Cat.
“I suppose it is polo these days, although he still gets to play tennis a bit.”
Lauren spoke up. “If you are including pastimes and not just sports, then the one thing he really enjoys is shopping.”
“Shopping!” Jimmy found that laughable. “The Cat never goes shopping! Wouldn’t be caught dead like me and you, my lad.” Jimmy laughed at Tim.
Lauren replied, “Well, on my first date with him, that’s what we did. His choice, too.”
“What. You dated him? When did I miss that?” was Jimmy’s reaction.
“That was when we first met. I was hoping for something more in those days. I got it, too. Friendship.”
Tessa asked with interest, “So, where did you go shopping? You never told me this.”
“Well, when we decided to go out the first time, he picked me up and said ‘Let’s go spend some money’. I thought that was a great idea. We drove over to the Galleria at Stonestown. Before we could enter the mall, he sees this young boy on the sidewalk in front of the mall with a cardboard sign that read Need money to buy shoes for my sister. Cat goes over to him and asks where his sister is. The boy said she was right around the corner. Cat asks him to get her. A few minutes later the boy comes back with a little girl in hand. Looking down at her feet, she really needed new shoes. Cat says, ‘Let´s take care of that.’ We all go up into the mall and he buys the little girl shoes. He also picks up a few items of clothing for both of them. Then we go over to the Olive Garden and have lunch. When we are outside, Cat asks if there is a grocery store around where they live. The boy says, ‘Albertsons.’ Cat pulls out his wallet and takes two cards out. They were those debit cards you buy just for supermarkets. You know, the kind you can only purchase fresh food and no prepared stuff. No candy or booze. He gives them each one for $100 worth of purchases. Then he tells them goodbye and we drive away.
Best date I’d had for a long time.”
“He did that?” asked Tim.
“Yeah. And did you know he was the one that started those cards with the supermarket chains? Better than the
First Lady’s school lunch program!”
Jimmy laughed out loud. “I’ve known Cat for years, but he can still surprise me.”
Lauren said, “You know, that day Cat quoted a quote that I will always remember. He said, ‘The way we walk with the broken speaks far louder than the way we sit with the great’.”
“Yeah, that sounds just like the Cat,” added Jimmy.” Once he was invited downtown to dine with some politicos at a big, fancy luncheon. He turned it down and instead he and I made a delivery to the soup kitchen.
We ended up eating there. He explained, ‘I’d rather eat crumbs with the bums than eat steaks with the snakes.’
We probably ate better that day than the bigwigs did anyway since the food came from his own restaurant.”
They all smiled and reflected a moment.
Then Tessa said, “So I guess now we are supposed to look for some little street urchin to save?”
“Be benevolent but watch out for your wallet,” said Tim didactically. “The town’s full of Artful Dodgers.”
Lauren smiled. She didn’t tell the group where she ended up on that date.

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Go to: amazon.com/ Escheatment-Maltese-Cat-1