Chapter 12

THE MINERVA MINK STORY
"Felicia: Ace Detective"

Chapter 12

    Monday Afternoon:

    Baby Felicia watch with advent wonder as another pile of papers flew out into the air and then floated down in a cascade, some rolling, others fluttering till they hit the floor.

    She squealed with delight, clapping her little hands and trying her best to reach out and swat them before they were out of her grasp.

    Her attempt to grab any of the floating papers failed this time, however, she knew more would follow, as they had been for the past hour. Thus, she would wait and hope that the next wave would place a few sheets in her grasp so she could maul them up into wads or rip them into tiny shreds if she wanted.

    I know it’s here Meggie! It’s always been here!”

    Felicia’s patience paid off for another barrage of paper flew over her way and she was able to stick her nails into two of them and draw them up onto the desk where she was sitting.

    “Are you sure Sawyer? Maybe you put it in another room or something?”

    More paper flew over and landed on the floor next to the desk, but Felicia didn’t notice, for she was too busy destroying the two captives already in her custody.

    “No, I’m sure I didn’t take it out of here. There was no reason for me to have moved it.”

    “Well, then it has to be here. Did you look in the file cabinet over there?”

    “Not yet.”

    Sawyer and Meggie, both looking disheveled and more than a little irritated, moved along the boxes of papers and folders to a simple black file cabinet and began to root through it, tossing fistfuls of paper over their shoulders.

    The office where Danny and Sawyer had once done most of their movie star and directing work, had fallen into a bit of disuse. In fact, no one had been into the circular room on the east side of the house for close to two and a half years.

    Boxes upon boxes of old documents, scripts, and movie photo’s were stacked floor to ceiling among two desks, and several filing cabinets. On a desk across from the one Felicia sat on happily chewing on scraps of the paper she caught, was a sad looking PC, a thick blanket of dust covering it. The room resembled a certain acting agency that Sawyer had once worked at.

    “Have you ever thought of cleaning this place up?” Meggie pulled a wad of cobweb out of her hair in disgust.

    “Well, it did cross my mind Meg, but I was rather busy having a baby, remember?” Sawyer said testily, tossing a folder full of receipts over her shoulder.

    “Okay, okay. I remember, sorry.”

    Sawyer rubbed her temples and sighed. “No, I’m sorry Meggie. I didn’t mean to jump on you like that. It’s just, I know that book is in here some place, and I promised Minerva that I would scare her up some possible models.”

    Meggie placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Hey, come on. We’ll find it. And after we’ve found Minerva some prospects, were going to clean this room up. Yuck!”

    “Right.” Sawyer smiled and continued to dig into the cabinet.

    Felicia finished with her papers, pushing the shreds off the desk and onto the floor, turned her attention to a cup full of old pencils, the erasers turned a glossy pink with dry rot.

    She reached out with a little hand and grasped one, tipping the cup over as she did so. She examined the pencil, it was un-sharpened, and then tossed it off the desk. It hit the linoleum floor, bounced and spun end over end. This delighted her, and thus she proceeded to dump the entire cup over the edge.

    They hit the floor with a clatter, and Felicia turned her head to see if her mother had noticed, but Sawyer was busy digging around in the file cabinet and had not heard.

    The pencils gone, the baby turned her attention to a stack of papers under a big glass paper weight.

    This was the scene for the better part of the afternoon, both women digging about in the old office, getting covered with dust, and becoming most annoyed.

    Danny, who while his wife had become very intent on helping Minerva with her new business, had been left in charge of the house work. Not that he minded that very much.

    Middle age had mellowed the once energetic feline, along with a good helping of his eldest daughter Abby, who never seemed to get worked up over anything. They spent a good deal of time together, and it seemed they were also rubbing off on one another a good deal.

    Housework to Danny, was a joy rather than a chore, for in his retirement, he had found that his family and home had become his biggest priority.

    This afternoon found him doing laundry, scanning the kids room and his own for jeans, t-shirts, skirts, trousers, and the more elusive odd sock or forgotten underwear, then tossing them down the laundry shoot into the basement.

    He had recently taken a load of shirts out of the dryer when he happened upon his wife and Meggie, engaged in mortal combat with a locked drawer on a midnight black file cabinet.

    Meggie had found the drawer locked and despite a ring of keys Sawyer said went to all the cabinets in the room, none fit the lock. Thus, removing a pin from her hair, letting it flop down into her face, Meggie was desperately trying to pick the lock, as Sawyer tugged on the handle and rattled the thumb latch.

    Danny, with a powder blue laundry basket in hand poked his head in the big mahogany door to see what all the racket was about.

    “You girls okay in there?”

    “No!” They both shouted in unison, Meggie kicking the cabinet door and groaning.

    He stepped in and sat the basket in one of the office chairs. “What seems to be the problem?”

    “I can’t find my little black address book Danny. The one we use to write down the names and numbers of the people who auditioned for us when were hiring for your movies.

    “We’ve torn this room apart and I can’t find it! This is last place we haven’t checked, so it’s got to be here!” Sawyer pointed to the locked cabinet door and pushed a lock of dusty hair out of her eyes.

    He chuckled a bit and smiled, for he had always thought that Sawyer looked her most attractive when she was flustered. All of her cool, calm, collectiveness stripped away leaving a frustrated, flustered, and amazingly beautiful woman.

    Now, let me get this straight. You can’t find that little black book you use to have in your purse all the time right?”

    She cocked her head and gave him an impatient look. “Yes Danny, that one.”

    Again he smiled and mimicked her stance. “Okay, well, is there any chance that could be it?”

    He pointed toward the desk where Felicia was sitting in her ‘Baby Bungee’ seat and chewing on the corner of a ratty looking black book. She smiled a gummy smile, noticing that all the eyes in the room were on her.

    “Felicia!” Sawyer shouted happily and bounded across the room, scooping up her daughter and giving her a big hug and a kiss.

    “That’s my sweet baby girl! You found mommy’s book! Oh thank you sweetie!”

    Felicia giggled happily and nuzzled her mother, glad as always to have her attention.

    Danny took Felicia from Sawyer and sat her down into the warm laundry in the basket he had brought, wrapping her up in one of his old wool sweaters. “I think this calls for a reward, don’t you honey? A ‘Critter Cookie’ for our little treasure hunter?”

    “Most assuredly.” Sawyer kissed her baby on the forehead and stroked her hair. She cooed and then yawned, feeling sleepy in the bundle of warm clothing.

    Sawyer turned to Meggie and opened the book to it’s mid section. The book was old, and very worn, it’s binding torn and the cover was dog eared.

    With a quick yank, Sawyer ripped the book in half and handed Meggie one side.

    “You take those, and I’ll take these. You can use my cell phone and I’ll take the house phone. Blue outline is for actors and actresses, and yellow outline is for models. Red means they do both. Hit them all anyway, I’m not sure who is still acting and who isn’t.”

    “No problem.” Meggie took her half and headed for the den where the cell phone was. Sawyer cleared a spot on one of the desks, got out a pad and pen, then plugged the old princess phone back into the wall. “Hope the line is still working in here.”

    “It should be. I didn’t shut it off.” Danny said, lifting the basket of clothing, baby and all, and heading out to the kitchen.

    He sat the back down on the table, and observed the Twins making lunch, or rather trying to make lunch. “You two make sure to clean up after yourselves.”

    “Yes daddy.” They said between bites of some kind of peanut butter and fluff sandwiches, with some other substance Danny couldn’t recognize.

    Opening the cupboard over the stove, he produced two boxes of special formula baby cookies and held them over Felicia. “Which would you like madam?”

    Felicia reached out and swatted the tan colored box, that indicated they were ginger snap cookies. “Excellent choice. One ‘Critter Cookie’ coming right up.” He fished one out and held it down for her to get.

    She grasped the square cookie and held it with both hands as she started to gum at it’s corner.

    Placing the box back, he took the basket into the livingroom were Abby was busy reading a new horror novel, sprawled out on the couch.

    “Abby, would you mind watching your sister form me while I finish up the laundry.”

    “Sure dad. No problem.”

    Danny looked down into the basket and Felicia was asleep, her thumb jammed into her mouth and little bits of cookie around her mouth.

    He whipped them away and tucked her into the sweater better. “Sweet dreams little one.”

    *******************

    Monday Night:

    Stephanie watched with mild amusement as her aunt began sorting papers into stacks on the kitchen table.

    Watcha doing Aunt Minerva?”

    Minerva, back in one of her over sized T shirts already turned down for the night, adjusted her tiny glasses that she had perched at the end of her nose. “Just some paperwork that I need to get in order for Wednesday. We are going to have a really busy day tomorrow, and I need to make sure I don’t forget anything.”

    Oh.” Steph popped another handful of french fries from her Happy Meal box into her mouth and happily chewed. “Were gonna see Pa-pa tomorrow, huh!?”

    That’s right.” Minerva took the glasses off and folded them up. “Your Aunt Dee Dee and your Aunt Trudy are going to go with us too.”

    The prospect of getting to see her father put Stephanie in a good mood, and she began to hum and kick her feet from where she sat on Minerva’s overstuffed couch and ate her food.

    “Yup, we have to get up extra early so hurry and stuff your face and get ready for bed.”

    Okay Aunt Nerva.” She took a bite from her burger and casually added, “You think he’s gonna call, huh Aunt Nerva?”

    The older mink leaned on her arm and gave her niece a calculative glance. “It’s hard to say sweetie. I don’t want to jinx myself, but I’ve had yet to not get a call from a guy I set after.”

    “He sure was a hottie huh? Hehehe”

    Minerva’s eyes widened and she did her best to stifle a giggle. “Now, what do little girls know about that? They’re not supposed to be into boys at your age.”

    Stephanie took a big slurp out of her drink and put the wrappers to her dinner back in the Happy Meal box to throw away. “Oh he wasn’t a boy Aunt Minerva, he was a mah-han!” She got up and wiggled her hips from side to side for emphasis.

    Both girls screamed with laughter.

    “Plus he had a cute butt!”

    “Stephanie!” Minerva gasped between giggles.

    “Well he did!” She tossed her empty box in the trash and started for the stair well.

    That’s enough of that young lady. Get your rump up stairs and get ready for bed. I’m going to lock up and be right up. Hehehehe.”

    “K’ay Aunt Minerva!” And she disappeared up the stairs.

    Minerva got her laughter under control and leaned on the upstairs door jamb, brushing her hair a bit with her free hand.

    “John Mink.... He did have a cute butt didn’t he? Hmmm.”

End Of Chapter 12