I kissed Riley goodbye—okay, it was slightly more than a kiss but you get my point, right?—jumped in my Mini and headed over to Mum’s. I must say, it appeared Grandma Mabel didn’t share Mum’s enthusiasm for this tour either. As I walked into the kitchen, the look on her face was anything but happy, but there she was, dressed in her Sunday best complete with her purple patent handbag.
“Hi Grandma,” I said, leaning in for a kiss. I felt the crack in my heart as her eyes filled with tears. Grandma was not an overly emotional person and it was only on very rare occasions that I had ever seen her cry.
“It’s okay, Grandma. I’ll talk to her,” I said hugging her.
“So will I,” said Molly stepping up behind me.
“I didn’t fall because I’m incapable of holding myself up!” she snapped, wiping at her tears. “I fell because I was shaking my booty and got a bit carried away. Before I knew it, it had a mind of its own and got so out of control, I lost my balance.”
“It’s okay. You don’t need to explain anything to us,” I soothed, wishing she really wouldn’t explain anything to us. Today was going to be hard enough without the image of Grandma shaking her booty for Ben Willett.
“Hope Mr. Willett appreciated it,” said Molly.
“Humph. Well that’s the thing. He didn’t like it at all. Said I looked stupid.”
“Well, he’s the stupid one,” said Molly. “Some men are just so arrogant. They think they’re too good for you. Get rid of him, Grandma and find someone more deserving.” I’m guessing Molly’s date didn’t go too well the other night. Note to self , don’t ask her about it.
“Are you all ready?” asked Mum walking into the room, looking around at our group and taking in our gloomy faces. “It’s not like she’s dying you know!” she chastised.
“I may as well be,” said Grandma.
Grandma was a bit slower on her feet since her fall. She explained to me that was because of the bruising and asked me if I wanted to see it. As most of it was on her hip, I declined her offer.
We headed out to Mum’s car. Mum drove an old Mazda. It was silver and as shiny as the day she bought it. Helping Grandma into the front passenger seat, I closed her door, folded her new walker up and put it in the car boot. Then, I got in the back with Molly. For the first time I noticed Molly was looking better than usual.
“You look nice today, Molly. Is that top new?” She looked down at her yellow silk top (I’m guessing it was from Forever New) and her perfect white pants.
“Yep. Bought it yesterday. What do you think about the shoes?” she asked, wriggling her ankles in a sparkly pair of three-inch, white satin-covered heels. Grandma twisted her neck around and looked down.
“Wow. They’re great.” She turned her head back to look at her own black leather shoes she’d recently bought from the podiatrist. “I don’t know why sensible shoes have to look so sensible,” she commented.
I heard Mum’s sigh from back here.
It didn’t take us long to get to the Allora Lodge Nursing Facility. I’d been here once before so I had an idea of what to expect, and I wasn’t disappointed. Walking in, we found the same room of Bingo players as last time that I was here. Today our tour guide was a lovely lady by the name of Jessica who was obviously very well trained in making this place sound attractive, because by the time our tour was over, even I was ready to pack up and move in. The idea of three meals a day cooked and delivered to your door, along with a fridge full of chocolate and the promise of a glass of wine every evening made this place a lot more appealing than the bingo tournament held in the dining room every Tuesday and Thursday morning. I did notice Grandma smile when that piece of information was announced.
All was going well with our tour until we stopped for a look around one of the rooms. When Mum turned to ask Grandma what she thought of it, Grandma had disappeared.
“She was just here,” I said, turning in circles, in the hope that Grandma was right behind me.
“Where could she have gone?” asked Mum, her voice much higher than her normal register.
“I’ll have a look,” said Molly. I looked at Mum, then at Molly’s disappearing back and tried to decide what to do.
“It’s your fault!” said Mum, looking at me.
“What? How is it my fault?” I asked.
“It was your job to look after her.”
“Since when?” Honestly, I never got that memo.
“It’ll be okay. She couldn’t have gone too far,” said Jessica but I could see the look in her eye. She knew Grandma was going to be a handful.
I quickly decided that following Molly was the way to go, and hurried down the hall after her. We passed room after room of men and women, some having a sleep whilst others watched television. We met a few randy old men in the common room. Molly decided that maybe her shoes screamed hooker more than she would like after one man tried to put some money in the waistband of her jeans.
We found a lovely room filled with ladies knitting and crocheting, but we didn’t find Grandma. Jessica did ask if Grandma liked bingo, so maybe we should visit the bingo room. It was then that I remembered what Grandma’s favourite pastime was.
“Do you have any nice looking men that live here?” I asked.
Jessica looked at me with concern.
“Well…we…um…” She stopped and looked at me bewildered. “Why do you want to know?”
“Oh, Grandma likes the men,” I smiled, thinking back to Molly’s advice she gave Grandma about finding a new man. “It’s not the first time she’s gone missing,” I explained. “If there is one in particular who is attractive, that’s probably where we’ll find her.” I shrugged. It was worth a try wasn’t it?
Jessica lead us to a room not far from where we had stopped, and I noticed on the door was a nameplate that read James Browning. She knocked and opened the door.
Sure enough there was Grandma, showing Mr. Browning the scars from her knee replacement surgery.
We all let out the breath we were holding. Mum was going to have a heart attack.
Walking back to the nurse’s station, Grandma pushing her walker, Molly phoned Mum to tell her we had found Grandma and to stop worrying.
“Mum’s on the oxygen,” explained Molly, pushing her phone back into her bag. “And she thinks Grandma’s not ready for a nursing home yet.”
****
Mum and Molly had moved ahead of me, helping Grandma back into the car whilst I stayed and signed us all out of the visitor’s book. As I was signing my name, a man approached the nurse’s station and walked behind the counter. He was about sixty, had a nice shiny bald patch on top of his head and wore navy trousers. His light blue shirt had ‘Allora Lodge Nursing Facility’ and ‘Colin’ embroidered on his left breast pocket.
“Hey, Colin,” said the nurse looking up from her keyboard. “I was chatting to Mrs. Johnson in room 22a. Apparently it’s three years ago today her husband passed away and she wants to visit his grave to place some flowers. Do you have time to take her this afternoon?”
Colin looked at his watch. “I can take her about three o’clock if that suits. It would give her time for her visit and still get back here in time for dinner.”
“Perfect. I’ll let her know,” replied the nurse, shuffling through a folder on her desk. “This is the number of the grave you need to take her to.” She scribbled something on a sticky note and handed it to Colin.
“Oh geez. These things never make sense to me,” said Colin, looking confused.
“What doesn’t make sense?”
“These numbers. How am I supposed to find what I’m looking for? There’s thousands of graves out there.”
“Well, this is the location of the site. The CE is Church of England, the 012 is the twelfth row and the 04 is the number of graves in from the end of the row.” I heard Colin sigh. “Just don’t get confused between the old section and the new. All the old graves are coded with OLD after the religion so would be CEOLD. You’re just looki
ng for CE. But they do have sign posts up to help visitors.”
“Ok. That makes it a bit easier. I suppose I can always ask for help when I get there.”
“That’s the spirit!” she smiled.
Listening to this conversation, a memory stirred. There was something familiar about the location code of the grave the nurse had just given Colin. Itpuzzled me. CE 012 04. CE? Church of England. The memory of the dream I’d had involving the mysterious Christmas bauble and the message I had written down stirred.
I put the pen down and raced to Mum’s car, hoping that my dream-induced scrawl was still scrunched up in the bottom of my waste paper bin.
Chapter Six
I will admit, I probably pulled into my driveway slightly faster than necessary. I slid on the gravel and skidded to a halt, dust flying up around me. Getting out, I slammed the car door closed and saw Helen, my neighbour, glare at me over the fence. Oops. Lets hope the wind blows the dust away from her washing, otherwise I guarantee I will be the main topic of conversation at the next Residents’ Association meeting. I’d already given them months of gossip after my run in with my stalker earlier this year. With all the burning my ears had been doing, they really needed a break.
Riley’s truck was absent, so I knew he must be at the hardware store or somewhere equally as thrilling, so I unlocked my front door and made my way straight to the lounge room. Thankfully, I had been lazy and had not emptied my bin, so I filtered my way through chocolate wrappers (mmm, maybe I should reconsider my diet) and found the paper I was looking for.
Walking to the kitchen, I unfolded it and spread it flat on the table. There in my big loopy writing was CCOLD11200LL. Remembering the conversation between the nurse and Colin, I thought maybe I had read my scrawl wrong. Maybe instead of CCOLD it was CEOLD 112, but what could 00LL be? I moved to the fridge and poured a glass of water, thinking about the dream. Maybe Google could help. I opened my laptop and looked up the Westport Cemetery. It didn’t take me long before I found a map of the sites and a truckload of statistics. Apparently the cemetery is one hundred and forty five years old, has forty four thousand three hundred and twenty two new residents since it opened, and thirty five thousand visitors a year. Wow. I looked carefully at the map but it didn’t give me any insight, so I looked at my writing again. I counted the rows of graves in the CEOLD section on the map. There were twenty. I counted the plots. Forty. I looked back at my writing and realized that maybe the 00LL was actually 0011.
I felt the butterflies in my stomach wake up with excitement and as they stirred, I moved back to the lounge room. At that moment the sun broke free from the clouds and streamed through my bay window, hitting the glass bauble and sending the coloured rays around the room. I held my breath as the air pressure seemed to change around me and I waited for the lady from my dream to reappear.
Watching the coloured lights dancing, I tried to make out the patterns I had seen in my dream, but nothing happened.
No woman and no pattern appeared.
As the sun once again hid behind the cloud, coolness swept through the room and I knew she had just been a dream.
****
Riley walked in the door about an hour later. I was wrong about the hardware store, he’d been at his Grandma’s. I always noticed that after Riley had spent some time with Grandma Mabel, he liked to visit his own gran. Maybe he needed a reminder of what a normal grandmother acts like.
Ruby Thomas is as beautiful as her grandson. She is almost as short as me, has steel grey hair and wears her pearl necklace with everything. She also has Riley’s eyes. The only problem I had with Riley visiting her was that he hadn’t taken me with him.
“How is Ruby?” I asked.
“She’s good. She asked me to take her to Grandpop’s grave tomorrow though. Christmas is not far away and she misses him more at this time of year than at any other.”
“You would think that she would miss him the most around the time of their wedding anniversary.”
“Yeah, but Christmas was always Grandpop’s favourite time of year. You’re a lot like him in that way,” smiled Riley.
“Would you mind if I tagged along tomorrow?” I asked, thinking I would like to visit grave number CEOLD 012 0011.
“Sure. Gran won’t mind. She loves you.”
“You love me too,” I smiled.
“Yes, I do,” he whispered, pulling me in close. “Now are you going to get ready?”
“Ready for what?” I asked, perplexed.
“For dinner with my brother Jarrod and his wife Shelly. I told you about it last week, remember?”
Obviously I didn’t remember.
“Oh yes, of course. I’ll just quickly get changed. I won’t be long,” I trilled, keeping my eyes away from his. One look at me and he would know I was lying.
Shit, shit and double shit. I’d been hoping for a quiet night at home, snuggled up on Riley’s couch, reading a good book. Oh well, worse things could happen I guess.
****
As I mentioned earlier, Riley and I have been together for about six months, but even after all that time, I still had to pinch myself when I woke up and the first thing I saw was his gorgeous face. And right after I’d pinched myself, I snuck out of bed and jumped in the shower. Even I had trouble looking at my hair first thing in the morning, so I would have to have a wedding ring on my finger long before I would show it to Riley.
We’d been spending the nights at Riley’s house since the smell of fresh paint in my bedroom was too harsh for a good night’s sleep. Riley lives in a converted church and it is absolutely one of my favourite places in the world. Not only was it full of charm and good decorating, but it was filled with Riley. Plus he had an exceptional massaging spa head on his shower. I was just standing under it rinsing the conditioner out of my hair when he walked in to use the toilet. We’d only been together for a few weeks when he’d decided he was comfortable enough to pee in front of me. Also, his house only has one toilet and it’s in the bathroom, so I think maybe it had more to do with need than comfort.
“What time are we going to the cemetery?” I asked.
“I told Gran we would pick her up about eight. I think she wants to stop for some flowers and a coffee before heading over there,” he replied, pushing the flush button. “Do you need a hand?” he asked, walking towards me and opening the door.
“I don’t know. Do we have time?”
“We have all the time in the world. If we’re late, I’ll tell Gran I was making wild passionate love to you and she’ll understand.”
I laughed. “No. That’s what you would tell Grandma Mabel. You’re more likely to tell Ruby you got caught in traffic.”
“You know me so well,” he said, pulling off his boxers and stepping under the water.
****
Luckily, after we picked Ruby up, we stopped by the river and had a cup of coffee. Once Riley had finished with me in the shower, I’d hardly had any time to get dressed, let alone stop for breakfast. Thinking back though, it was well worth the grumbling stomach. I ordered a chocolate muffin with my cappuccino. I didn’t like cemeteries at the best of time, but with Ruby and Riley, I had a feeling this morning was going to be emotional. So that meant I needed chocolate.
The sadness enveloped us the second we opened the car door and stepped outside. Riley walked around to his Gran and gently took her arm to lead the way to George Thomas’ final resting place. Stepping back, I allowed them some time alone.
I looked around at all the headstones placed in perfect rows on the grass and looked at all flowers. I thought of the lives and stories those people had experienced. I probably should clarify I don’t like cemeteries because of the sadness that lies within them. Take that away and I find them extremely interesting. I looked at Riley with his arm around Ruby and thought what a lucky man George had been. Yes, I had never met him, but I’d met his family and that was enough to tell me what a wonderful life he would have lived.
Silently, I looked around
the stones nearby and started to read the inscriptions, making my way away from Riley and towards the older section of the cemetery. It took me a while, but eventually I found the grave I was looking for.
The headstone was larger than the one on Riley’s Grandpop’s grave and it looked like it had been well kept until a few years ago.
It read : Eliza Watson
16th June 1935 – 25th December 1955
Rest in Peace My Angel
She was only twenty years old. I felt the lump form in my throat as I reread the date of her death. It was Christmas day.
Christmas day to me was a day filled with love, laughter and family. It was a day where the world felt peaceful. I could not imagine a loved one dying on that day.
I knelt down, started to pull away the weeds that now grew around it, and saw a hole about the size of my fist in the middle of the stone. I reached out, noticing it had a rusty hook embedded into the stone. Whatever had been hanging there was now missing.
A sadness washed over me and as I felt the tears well up and spill over my lashes, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Turning to see who it belonged to, I came face to face with Riley.
I stood up, buried my face in his chest and allowed the sobbing to start because at that moment, I knew who the Christmas ornament belonged to.
****
I wanted to return the glass ornament the very next day, but I had a lot of work that needed to be caught up on, so instead I locked myself in my office and did what had to be done. But on Christmas Eve I decided it had waited long enough and I would return the glass bauble to Eliza that day. Not only could I not stand another night like the previous one, where I had tossed and turned with dream-filled sleep, but I wanted Eliza to have the bauble back for Christmas morning. I didn’t know how long it had been missing, but it was time for it to go home. Riley had wanted to come with me as he knew how emotional I got at cemeteries, but I assured him this was a happy occasion and that I’d be okay alone. So I carefully wrapped the glass ball and placed it in my handbag.
It Started With A Christmas Tree - A Lizzie Fuller Christmas Novella Page 5
