A Little Mistletoe and Magic: Ho Ho Howls Romance Holiday Edition

by Marianne Morea

  Chapter Twenty

  The wind howled, sending a rotted plank crashing through what was left of the roof. Jenny woke with a bolt. A strange light glowed bright and then dim just outside the door.

  “Thank God! Jack!” Jen scrambled to her feet for the search party, but she stopped short. Kitto sat on a pile of rubble by the door.

  “What the hell?” She bent to pick up the cat, but it vanished before her eyes. “That’s it. I’m dying. Confusion and hallucinations just before death from hypothermia, right?”

  “Sounds logical, but then again everything isn’t always what it seems.” Tess stood in the doorway, her body shimmering with a soft, warm light.

  “No.” Jenny shook her head. “Please no. Tess, you can’t be—”

  “Dead?” Tess smiled, and her eyes glowed the same shade of purple as her hair. At least not yet.”

  “How is this happening?”

  “Think of it as something akin to astral projection.” Tess stepped through the broken doorway, and her illumination faded a bit. “You do realize by now I’m a witch, right?”

  She waved her hand and Kitto reappeared. He meowed, very put out, and Tess laughed. “Kitto has been helping me welcome you to our little town, though I think he’d rather cuddle up on your bed like a fat housecat with a yummy chicken leg than be out in a snowstorm.” She bent to scratch his head. “He told me all about it.”

  “I’m hallucinating.”

  Tess straightened. “Maybe. Or maybe you’re just dreaming.” She pointed to the corner of the ramshackle building.

  Jenny turned only to see herself still curled up with the old newspaper and the big cat.

  “I have to say, I was a little surprised myself at the appearance of the ghost cat, but anything’s possible on Christmas Eve.” Tess snapped her fingers and Kitto disappeared again.

  “This is impossible.”

  “Jenny, with everything you’ve witnessed and experienced over the past three weeks, you should’ve realized by now that word isn’t part of our lexicon. I say our because you’re one of us. Magical. Something I suspect you have been all your life and just didn’t know it.”

  “If this is just another weird ass dream like the others I’ve had, then what’s the reason? Why are you here?”

  “To help. What else are friends for?”

  “Then help me get to the falls so I can save my girls. Help me walk away from Charlie before he makes a fool of me. Before I turn into a screaming shrew and cause the accident that took my family.”

  “That’s not the help I’m here to give.”

  “What then?”

  “I’m here to help you decide.”

  Jenny looked at her beautiful friend. If this was real, then it was messed up. “Decide what? Would I have ditched Jack and Sam at the tree lighting if I hadn’t already made up my mind?”

  “Weren’t you told the heart knows what the mind refuses to hear?”

  “Ugh, first Talan with his riddles, now you? If I’m dreaming, then I can control what happens.”

  Tess shook her head. “Not this time.”

  “Then what?” Jenny lifted a hand, letting it drop. “I wish—” She exhaled, shaking her head.

  “Now you’re getting it. Christmas Eve is all about wishes and hope for the future. What is it you wish?” Tess held up her hand before Jenny could answer. “Be careful. Especially tonight of all nights.”

  “What is there to say, Tess? You know me. I wish my girls hadn’t been in that car. I wish Carlie had been the husband I thought he was. I wonder what would’ve happened if I had faith in my own dreams earlier, instead of putting them aside. Perhaps I should’ve done something different with my life, then perhaps it wouldn’t hurt so much.”

  Tess’s illumination brightened. “Are you saying you wish your life had turned out differently?”

  Jenny shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “Well, why don’t we find out?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “That’s why I’m here, Jen. Christmas Eve is the only time when magic gives you the chance to glimpse how things are, how they could’ve been, and how they might be.” Tess held out her hand. “Come. Let’s take a look.”

  Jenny took Tess’s hand and the light around her friend encompassed them both. In seconds they were at the hidden pool. The water was even more iridescent than when she was here with Jack. Even the ice on the rock face of the falls glowed.

  Tess waved her hand over the first third of the pool. The water swirled in that end as if separated from the rest of the expanse.

  Images formed, and Jen crept toward the edge of the bank, still keeping her distance from the icy slope.

  “Don’t worry. You won’t fall in. That dream is done and dusted.”

  Jenny’s head jerked around at that, and Tess shrugged. “In this form, I know so much more than I should.” She winked. “By the way, you and Jack and the horizontal hook-up? Good job.”

  “Wow.” Jenny turned back to the water. Images formed and her lips parted. “I know this place.”

  “Of course you do. It was yours and Charlie’s favorite campus pub when you were in graduate school.”

  “Christmastime on campus was always spectacular. Decorations from all faiths lined the paths leading toward the student center, and I remember how the snow looked like frosted silver in the twinkling lights.”

  Jenny watched her and Charlie holding hands across the small booth. “Look at us. We were both so young.”

  “Young and in love.”

  Jenny ignored the comment. “I remember this day. Dr. Bradford told me she recommended me for a scholarship to Trinity College to study literature over the summer.”

  “What an honor.”

  “I was so excited to tell Charlie about it. Of course, it didn’t fit his agenda, and I let him talk me out of accepting.”

  Tess closed her fingers into her palm and the image enlarged. “I don’t see him coercing you, do you?”

  “Still, I didn’t take the offer.”

  “Jenny, the fates dangle threads at important moments of our life. Think of them as possibilities. Choose one, and your life goes one way. Choose another, and there’s an entirely different path. You chose not to take the potential scholarship. Do you remember why? Look at yourself here, and tell me what you see.”

  “I’m so proud of you Jenny.” Charlie dug into his burger. “Did Bradford say how many people were applying?”

  “A lot. It’s international.”

  He nodded. “What do you want to do?” he asked, chewing. “It’s not going to change our plans. Whatever you want is fine with me. If you don’t get the scholarship, it’s not a total loss. There’s always the Charlie Mitchell plan.”

  Jenny licked ketchup from her thumb. “Oh yeah? And what’s that?” She leaned in with a smile.

  “I finish law school first, and then when we’re making the big bucks, you get your PhD and live your dream.”

  Reaching for one of his fries, she pointed it at him. “And what dream is that?”

  He grinned. “Married to a rich lawyer who adores you, and teaching at NYU. The sexiest literature professor they’ve ever known...”

  Jenny inhaled, watching the rerun from her life. “I didn’t remember it like that.”

  “Time has a way of changing perspective.” Tess snapped her fingers, and the images froze like a movie on pause. “Look at Charlie, and then look at yourself. Whatever happened a decade after, in this moment in time, in those early years, Charlie meant what he said to you. You chose. Strings of fate cut.”

  “Tess, I don’t like this.”

  “Of course you don’t. No one likes looking at things with an ice cold eye, but it’s the only way to see clearly. Without prejudice. Did Charlie do you wrong later in life? Yes. You had choices then, as well.”

  Jenny squeezed her eyes closed. “I don’t want to see anymore.”

  “Sorry, Jen. It’s a package deal.” Tess waved her hand over the mid
dle third of the pool. The water swirled like it did in the first third.

  “Lemme guess. Present day?”

  “Very good, smartie pants.” Tess whistled and a sofa chair slid under her butt, complete with popcorn. “I’m going to enjoy this one.”

  Images formed again, only this time she was with Jack at the bonfire night before last. They were laughing together, snuggled under the blanket.

  “He is one big hanging man, and you are one lucky girl.” Tess chewed a mouthful of popcorn. “Not to mention gorgeous and sweet. Not that my Sam is any slouch. He’s my teddy bear and I’m his—”

  “Pinky?”

  Tess turned with a grin of surprise on her ethereal face. “I can’t believe he told you that.”

  Jenny shrugged. “He loves you.”

  “I know.” Her grin faded to sappy, and she sighed. “Enough about me. This is your time, and we don’t have all night. I’m not your average Ghost of Christmas Whatever. Unlike the ones from A Christmas Carol, I’m on the clock.”

  The memory reel played on, and Jenny watched herself giggle and grin over Jack’s attentions under the blanket.

  “Look at Talan’s face across the clearing. You probably didn’t catch it while you two were busy playing pattycake. He’s caught your scent, and he’s thrilled, yet cautious. He already knew you’d take his ritual necklace, which you need to return by the way. The big kahuna spirits were not happy with you, but because Talan decided to let this scenario play out, you got a pass. Trust me, a bitch slap from the universe hurts like a mutha, so think before you do something stupid again…and remember to thank Talan. He had faith.”

  “Jeez, you’re a real Chatty Cathy for a coma girl.”

  “And you need to work on patience, Scrooge McDon’tlikehearingthetruth.”

  Jenny cracked a grin, but Tess was absolutely right. She needed to learn patience. “Can we watch, please?

  The reel shifted to the two of them restoring the dining room at the inn. Jack flicked her with paint, and she jerked her arm up to wipe her face, knocking the paint off the ladder, all over his shoes.

  “Ooops.” She stifled a laugh. “I didn’t mean it, Jack…seriously. It was an accident.”

  He blinked at his paint-covered sneakers. “Accident, huh?” Grinning, he squished across the drop cloth to give her a paint-splotched kiss. “Eat your heart out, Jackson Pollock.”

  “He deserved that.” Jenny chuckled. “Wiseass.”

  Tess did her freeze frame thing again. “See that smile on your face in the rerun, and the one you’re wearing now, watching yourself with Jack? He fits you like a glove, and you know it. Besides that, he’s protective rather than possessive. He doesn’t owe you a thing, Jen, yet take a look at what the man did for you when you didn’t know it.”

  “Jenny!” Jack raced to the entrance of the sweat lodge, but Talan flung a hand out, warding the entrance so he could not enter.

  “Talan!”

  “No, Jack! She’s between worlds! Not yet.”

  “She’s screaming!”

  “My memory came back during the sweat. That much I know, but I don’t remember screaming or carrying on. What happened to me in there?”

  “Like Talan said, you were between worlds. He released the spirits, and Jack rushed in to catch you, sweetie. He held you, then dressed you, and got you back to the safety of Talan’s house where he bathed you, making sure you were in one piece both emotionally and physically.”

  Jenny was speechless.

  “And how did you react once you were conscious and back to normal?”

  She watched herself, and she cringed inwardly.

  “You repaid both Jack and Talan by pulling away from them, and then stealing from Talan.”

  “It’s not that simple, Tess. You know that.”

  “Oh, but it is. Talan offered to help you deal with your self-imposed guilt, but you acted like a child.”

  Jenny shot the spirit a look.

  “Again. Ice cold eye. You insisted on something that could not be, and should not be.” She waved her hand again, and Jenny watched Jack driving icy roads looking for her, even after she dodged him at the tree lighting.

  “Wishing we could change the past is not uncommon,” Tess continued. “We all carry regret. The goal is learning from our past choices and moving forward. Jack loves you, Jenny. Moreover, you love him. Tonight, fate is dangling another set of threads in front of you. You can choose or not, but your heart knows what it wants, even if your mind isn’t ready to hear it. Don’t risk playing catch up, Jen. Be smart when you choose this thread.”

  Tess waved her hand over the last third of the pond. No explanation was needed. Jenny knew it was shades of what was yet to come.

  Images, like coming attraction trailers at the movies, played out in successive snippets, until she jerked her hand up at one. “Tess! Stop!”

  The trailer slowed and she stepped to the edge of the pond for a better look. It was years from now. Her hair was much shorter, and she was a little plumper. She talked on the phone while she picked up video game controllers and game pieces, putting them in a basket next to the television.

  “Mom! Dad wants to know if you want pizza or Chinese for dinner?” a little boy yelled from the kitchen.”

  “Is Daddy home already?” She bent, picking up a baseball mitt.

  “He’s in the garage Have you seen my catcher’s mitt?”

  “It’s in the basket in living room, and it’s your brother’s mitt, not yours.”

  The boy raced in, taking the mitt from the basket, and turned for the door, almost in one solid motion.

  “Whoa, not so fast, mister.” She reeled him in for a hug. “Dinner first. Go tell Daddy to order whatever’s easiest. I’ve got midterm papers to grade tonight.”

  “That’s just one of many possibilities, Jenny. The threads are waiting for you to choose, and my time is just about gone.”

  Jenny turned from the water’s edge. The sofa was gone and so was the popcorn. Tess’s illumination was almost gone as well. “What if I still want to go back? What if I still need to try? What will happen to the threads?”

  Tess waved her hand over the past once more. As the ripples morphed into images, Jenny moved to the edge to look.

  She saw her girls, and her heart squeezed. The twins stood with her at the corner of East 60th Street and 2nd Avenue, down the street from Serendipities. Both girls were wearing more chocolate than they ate.

  Jenny grinned from her vantage point watching beside Tess. “It worked! Look at my arm, Tess. There’s the scar from the pins I had in my elbow from the accident. I went back!”

  At the corner, Jen held both girls by the hand. A scream jerked her attention, and she turned as though in slow motion as a yellow cab jumped the curb, crashing into the three of them.

  “No!” Jenny screamed, lunging for the image in the water, but was knocked back. She fell to her knees on the snowy bank, her face in her hands. “I was there! I had changed things.”

  “Yes, you changed everything.” Tess rested her hand on Jenny’s shoulder. “Everything else went dark the moment death staked his claim.”

  Jenny’s head jerked up, and just as Tess said, both her present and her future had faded to black.

  “Where there is death, there will always be death. The threads were cut on Charlie and the girls the moment he crashed his car that fateful night. We can’t change the past, no matter how desperately we want to, and now you see why.”

  Jenny got to her feet, her eyes still on the pond. “I didn’t want to believe there was nothing I could do. I was their mother.” She turned with a hitched breath. “I still hear them, you know. I told myself it was for a reason. That there had to be a bigger picture, or why else was I surrounded by magic if not to go back? If not so I could be forgiven? I just wish I could hold my girls one more time.”

  Light swelled around Tess, and she glowed with a brilliance that was near blinding. Jenny lifted a hand, shielding her eyes.

&n
bsp; “Mommy…”

  Jenny’s hand slowly dropped from her eyes. Her girls were there, standing in Tess’s bright white light.

  “Emma? Maya?”

  Jenny fell to her knees again, stunned.

  “I guess the universe decided to grant you a Christmas wish after all.” Tess nodded to the girls, and they ran to their mother with a squeal of laughter.

  Jenny opened her arms with a cry, the girls’ light enveloping her with instant warmth and joy.

  “You see, Jen. There’s nothing to forgive.”

  She kissed them each, holding them tight.

  “Don’t cry, Mommy,” Maya whispered, “Emma and I are with Granny.”

  “Yeah,” Emma giggled, “and she likes Jack. Maya and I do, too.”

  “Listen for us, Mommy. We’re always with you.” Maya nodded. “…and don’t worry. Emma and I will keep an eye on our brothers.”

  “Yeah, they can’t wait to meet you.”

  The girls’ illumination faded as they stepped back. Jenny reached for them, but they were gone with a soft giggle and a kiss.

  Jenny’s hand was still reaching as the wind faded. She sat back on her heels with a ragged breath.

  “The choice is still yours, Jen.” Tess lifted a hand to the pond. “You have Talan’s wolf-tooth necklace. You can roll the dice and lose your present and your future, or you can move forward and have the future your girls want for you.”

  “But the future is—”

  “Unsure.” Tess nodded, finishing the sentence. “Even on Christmas Eve, magic can’t predict the future. Its gift to you is the boon of infinite possibilities.”

  Tess’s light faded again, and this time she glanced at the changing sky. “My time is up. Of course, I won’t remember any of this once I wake from my coma, but you will.”

  She faded into the wind, even as Jenny reached for her, but it was too late. Tess disappeared, leaving her alone with her choices.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Jenny woke on the couch, groggy and still half asleep. She stretched, wincing at her stiff neck and shoulders, and the pounding in her head. Kitto curled into the crook between her lap and her chest, purring.