The Year the Cat Saved Christmas - a novella Read Online Free PDF

thought you said you checked the
backyard."
    Her hackles rose a little higher. "I did
check the backyard."
    "So what's that by the swing set?"
    "Snow."
    "Look again."
    "I see lots of snow and a blot of brown near
the--" She stopped. "Oh God! Do you think--?"
    He didn't answer but the set of his jaw
confirmed her worst suspicions as they started across the yard.
    "You look," she said, stopping a few feet
away. "I'm too scared."
    Their eyes met and he nodded. He was scared
too and for a moment her heart went out to him. It wasn't often
these days when they found themselves in sync. She remembered how
it used to be when they thought and acted like one person instead
of two very separate individuals. But that was a very long time
ago.
    David bent down and reached under the snow
while Jill squeezed her eyes shut. "I thought you said it went
missing."
    "Sebastian isn't an 'it.'"
    "I'm talking about my backpack."
    "For the last time, David, I don't know where
--" She opened her eyes. "You found your backpack!"
    He shook snow off the old leather bag. "Not
funny, Jill."
    "You don't think I--"
    The look on his face spoke volumes.
    "David!" Her voice bristled with outrage.
"Believe it or not, I buried my last backpack sometime around first
grade."
    He was inspecting the wet leather. "What the
hell? There are tooth marks on this thing!"
    "Don't even think it," she warned. "You're on
thin ice as it is."
    He pushed the backpack toward her. "What do
you call those scratches?"
    "I call them tooth marks." She pushed the bag
back toward David. "Don't you remember: Sebastian came home in that
bag."
    Her tone softened despite herself as more
memories pushed into her heart. "The twins spent a lot of time in
there too, come to think of it." She could still see their tiny
faces peeking out from the backpack as their daddy proudly walked
down Main Street with his kids. She'd been so happy, so filled with
joy, in those days that she'd wanted to reach out and stop time.
She should have. She should have found a way to hold those perfect
days close because they were gone now and they would never come
again.
     
     

 
    Chapter Three

    "The thing to do is blitz the neighborhood,"
David said as Jill fastened her seatbelt. "Let people know
Sebastian's out there."
    "I called everyone," she said. "No one has
seen him today."
    "You got hold of everyone?" He tried not to
sound skeptical.
    "All but the Reillys. They're spending the
holidays in Aspen."
    "Their store is doing that well?" He
remembered when Mitch and Katie had taken a second mortgage on
their home to help finance their kitchenware shop at the mall. He'd
never known a couple better suited to carving their own path in
business. Or in life, for that matter. In some ways they reminded
him of himself and Jill before they drifted apart.
    "The Reillys are a great team," Jill said as
he backed the Porsche down the driveway. "They set a goal and they
achieved it."
    "Most new ventures fail," he pointed out.
"They're not out of the woods yet."
    She looked at him, an odd expression on her
face. "Kind of like marriage, wouldn't you say?"
    "That isn't what I meant."
    "Are you sure?"
    "No," he said after a moment. "I'm not." He'd
found himself speaking in metaphors a lot lately, as if he needed
words to cushion him from harsh reality.
    He hadn't needed anything to cushion him from
reality in the old days. Reality had suited him down to the
ground.
     
     
    #
     
     
    Then
     
    The store clerk looked at David and let out a
loud, exasperated sigh. "I can set my clock by you college boys.
Come eight o'clock on Christmas Eve you're banging on my door,
looking to buy anything that isn't nailed down." He shook his head
sadly. "Where's your brain, boy? It's not like Christmas snuck up
on you."
    David knew what the guy was thinking, that he
was some thoughtless yuppie- type, racing in for a last minute
present for a girl he barely knew.
    "Listen," he said, leaning across the
counter, "Christmas didn't sneak up on me, it