The Cat's Meow

It seems Mrs. Heacock's disposition has improved vastly since the death of her father about a month ago. She approached me at 0730 hours this morning and suggested we play a practical joke on our office manager. The latter comes in later at 0800 hours.

What do you have in mind?
My new cell phone has a ring tone of a cat meowing. So I thought....

Say no more. Who's the target?
C.C.
Hmmmm. Are you sure?
Yes. I like to see her go searching for a lost kitten in our offices.

We tested the sound of the ring tone, and looked for different places to hide the phone in the course of the day. I was to be the dialer to call the cell number. At 0745 hours, the plan was in place. We were ready for the first cat's meow (pun).

The first call to the cat executed at 0819 hours before Mrs. Heacock and C.C. left for their morning briefing. The cat meowed.

C.C. was not a bit perturbed. It fact she casually remarked about someone's cat or someone's cell phone ringing. Bummer. The plan needed to be modified.

After the two left for their briefing at another building, I solicited a junior staff of the unit whose office was on another floor. The protege agreed to be the caller so I would not be caught while dialing for the cat to meow. The phone now placed in a dry flower vase on a cabinet several feet behind C.C.'s workstation.

The second call came at about 0915 hours. C.C. actually went to look for the cat. We two were smugly congratulating in our silence the plan was going according to plan. Then she abruptly stopped and said something about a cell phone again. I looked out from my office to Mrs. Heacock office. She nodded slightly. We knew C.C. wasn't going to be suckered into looking for the cat again.

I sent a coded message to the protege to have the exercise terminated. On this Friday morning, we three culprits enjoyed an abbreviated respite from an otherwise strained and very difficult week at the HQ.