Stacy gasped and opened her mouth to shout something, but Daria expertly filled it with a hush puppy. As the four watched, a look of surprise crossed Mrs. Johanssen's face, followed by one of puzzlement. She seemed to grope around in the bag, then withdrew her hand holding the tissue paper and peered inside again.
Her eyes widened in shock and she gasped and tried to jerk away from the bag. Her gasps grew in volume and took on a moaning note. The bag slid from her lap as she rose unsteadily to her feet, wheezing and clutching her chest.
A waitress rushed over to offer assistance, while another one ran for help. After several more loud wheezes, Mrs. Johanssen toppled over backward. Fortunately for her, her fall was broken by a man at the table behind her, and she slid off his back and onto the floor. He came up gasping as her considerable weight slid off him, his face covered in blueberry cobbler and vanilla soft ice cream.
The girls soon found themselves hemmed in by gawkers, and got only brief glimpses of the manager and the soup chef fruitlessly attempting to heimlich Johanssen's ponderous prone form. Quinn looked distressed, and Stacy nearly started hyperventilating, but Daria and Jane merely watched and ate an occasional bite, sometimes coughing, covering their mouths, or pounding on their knees with their fists. An ambulance arrived within minutes, and the EMS crew ordered the crowd back.
"Come on, you guys, let's get out of here," Quinn said as soon as she could see a path to the door.
"Hell, no," Jane replied, "I paid for lunch, and I'm not about to leave just when I can finally get to the food bar again."
"The blueberry cobbler that guy was wearing looked pretty good," Daria agreed, rising to her feet. "I think I'll try some."
By the time the two wormed their way back to the table Mrs. Johanssen, strapped to a gurney and still wheezing, was being wheeled away, the Cashman's bag balanced on her stomach.
……………………………..
"I just hate to think of her getting away with it," Stacy groused from the back seat. "I should have told the manager like you said, Daria."
Daria turned onto a tree-lined residential street much like her own. "She hasn't gotten away with it yet," she said. "They're going to ask her a lot of questions at the ER about what brought on that seizure. And even if she comes up with a good story, there's still the cat. If it's discovered, it'll bring on a whole other batch of questions." She slowed and pulled up in front of a house. "This looks like the place."
"Thanks for the ride, you guys," Stacy said as she got out of the Lexus. "Sorry about all the weird stuff."
"What weird stuff?" asked Daria.
"We want you to come with us the next time we go out raising hell," said Jane.
"Yeah, you'd be a riot at Pizza Forest with a dead raccoon," added Daria.
That's all.