The Claw

The Introduction

Clare Howard stepped out of his car. The fog was heavy and the night air crisp. What an unusual combination, he thought.

The lights around the house were on and he could see the one over the sign in book, in the entry way. Everything was normal tonight. Clare had stepped out to buy some corn to pop. His wife Jane had made her usual great evening meal and they were ready to sit down for some after dinner television.

After a couple of shows they would turn in early. Clare went upstairs to get ready. Now in his early fifties he was still a tall strong frame of a man.

Clare the quarterback of the Fred Yellow Jackets was an imposing, blonde haired, blue eyed boy. His summers were spent in the fields throwing hay bales and hoeing rows of produce. In the evenings, after milking and feeding cattle he would shower and walk to Jane's home, a mile away.

Jane was a beautiful girl with her own brand of blonde hair and blue eyes. They had fallen in love in junior high and were lettering together, Clare in football and Jane as head cheer leader.

Theirs had been a story book romance. Boy meets girl, boy flips head over heels for girl. They stay together through high school and marry in June following graduation. Clare went on to college and now ran the funeral home in tiny Fred. Jane took business in college and was now the manager of their concern.

They planned one day to be parents. To have little Clares and Jane's running around, but it was not to be. Something had gone wrong. They were aunt and uncle to other children but nada to any of their own. The reality of this was painful. There was no way that this should have happened to two such people. But at last it did and they would eventually be better for it.

Now the couple was thinking of retiring in the near future. The Howard family had always gifted the home to the next generation. This time there was no next generation to give it to. They would one day need a buyer. The thought of a new owner in their business made Clare cringe. What if it was a major corporation. The people of Fred needed the personal touch not the corporate coldness. These people were Clare and Jane's neighbors, friends and follow church perishoners.

Now there was another problem. Someone or something was vandalizing the home and their customers. It was a concern that Clare wanted to get straightened out fast. No family in their hour of grief should have to face harassment.

Clare vowed to get to the bottom of it. Just then he heard an awful meow. He walked around to the back side of the home. On the board fence he saw rags, the neighbors larger than life cat. He was the biggest and ugliest house cat in existence. Clare was certain of it. He stroked the cat a few times and then returned to the house. Once upstairs, he climbed into bed. This was an important night. A body would arrive in the morning. That of an old family friend, retired to Florida, now back to be laid to rest in familiar surroundings. Tomorrow would be a very important day, for the Howard's and certainly for the other family.