Cocoa Tales

Episode 6

She was seated at the window sill staring out into the woods in a rare moment Caroline Banter wasn’t looking over her, Carrie Gerald watching the forest quietly hoping for a deer or a squirrel.

"If you’re so worried about this hitman," Resin Gerald said to her husband, "why are you always hanging around open windows?"

"Because that’s not how the Sandman operates," Monty replied, his head in his hands at his desk.

"Have you even tried to call Winchester?" Resin was pacing around the office as Carrie continued spying the trees for a Sasquatch or a chipmunk. She’d’ve even settled for a rattlesnake at that point.

"Of course, I’ve tried calling him," Monty replied. "When the President of the United States doesn’t want to be reached, he can’t be reached." As if speaking of the phone caused it to ring, they both fell silent when the phone rang.

"Think he has the office bugged?" Resin asked.

Monty shrugged and replied, "Probably." He picked up the phone and said, "Yes?" He rolled his eyes and sighed. "Thank you, Shasta, but we won’t be needing to replace the signs on Mt. Gerald, so don’t offer again." Monty slammed the receiver on its base.

"Ole’ man Shasta giving you grief?"

"Think he knows about the hit?"

"I doubt it," Resin said, shaking her head, but her tone said it was wishful thinking.

...a mountain lion, a bald eagle, a raccoon, anything at all entered their property, Carrie Gerald was ready to see it.

Cocoa waved her head around, her eyes rolling around behind her lids. A fire burned slowly in the rock fireplace above her as Harold sat reading a book. She had fallen silent for the moment, but rolled around on her back, purring loudly.

He wasn’t in the room, but his voice was loud in Cocoa’s ears: "Cocoa Tael! You have fallen into a human trap!"

"Mmm," Cocoa said, "you never told me, Mandrake, that human traps could be so delicious, or so much fun."

Harold glanced above his book, and turned to a notepad. He wrote the word "Mandrake" with a question mark next to it.

Falling to her side, she let her paws swim in the catnip Harold had spread around her, the smell of salmon still strong in her nostrils.

"They have tools," came another voice in Cocoa’s head, "they are not weak. Do not let your hostility make you complacent, Cocoa Tael."

"No," Cocoa said with a grimace. "I don’t want to talk to you right now. Send back Mandrake the Magician."

Harold appended his note with "Magician" and set the pen down.

"I’m not sending back Mandrake," the new voice said. "I’m here to help you, Cocoa, because they found me."

"No, no, they didn’t," Cocoa said in her psychedelic fugue state. "They couldn’t. Not you."

"They could, they did, and they’ve gotten you, Cocoa. On your first day out. You couldn’t survive one day on your own, Cocoa Tael, and now FRAG has you."

"No!" Cocoa yelled. "FRAG doesn’t have me!"

Harold set his book down. The rising aggression would draw her out. The catnip wouldn’t have an effect much longer. He took a drink from his beer.

"Don’t leave me," Cocoa shouted. "Don’t leave me here, Nibbles!"

Flinging her body across the carpet, she struck the rock of the fireplace and spun in the air, landing on all fours. She was looking around the living room with quick jerks, then found Harold. He was staring at her, the color draining from his face.