by A. G. Mayes
He stared at me for a minute, and I thought he might tell me to go home and stop being so immature. ‘Want some help?’ he asked, picking up the roll. I nodded, and they followed me.
We got to Alice’s shop, and I set the bag down. I pulled out a roll of toilet paper and a roll of plastic wrap.
‘I’m thinking this for Alice,’ I whispered, holding up the toilet paper. ‘And this for Gina.’ I held up the plastic wrap.
‘I’m curious to see how you use that one.’ He pointed at the plastic wrap. I gave him a wicked smile and handed him a roll of toilet paper.
We both froze when we heard a noise inside the shop. We listened and heard a meow. I breathed out; it was just the cat. Willy let out a low growl.
‘No,’ Henry said, and he quieted down immediately. After telling the dog to ‘sit,’ and ‘wait,’ both commands he obeyed perfectly, Henry came over to help.
I had never TP’d anyone’s place before. We were fulfilling a childhood dream of mine and getting back at Alice. Two birds, I thought as I joyfully wrapped the toilet paper from one pillar to the next in front of the door. The cat appeared inside the window and watched us. I held my finger up to my lips and winked at her. The cat winked back at me. I was beginning to accept that everything in this town was unusual. I looked over at Henry. He was expertly throwing the roll high in the air as he covered one of the trees out front.
Moving on to the bushes next to the shop, I pictured Alice’s face when she won the baking contest. That smug smile when she looked down her nose at me made me want to do more than just TP her shop. Then when she agreed with Gina that I must have broken into my own shop, something inside me snapped. Nothing Aunt Erma had taught me had prepared me for this.
I realized I’d been wrapping the same bush for a while now, and I moved on to the next. I threw the last roll haphazardly up. It hooked on the awning. We stood back to survey our work.
‘I think it’s a huge improvement,’ Henry said. I was very aware of the fact that his arm had wrapped around my shoulders.
I felt something wet hit my nose. I looked up. Flakes of snow were falling. It was strange since it was November and had been so warm just yesterday. The moment felt surreal, and I wondered if maybe I was still dreaming.
‘Now onward to our next mission,’ I said holding out one of the rolls of plastic wrap in front of me to lead the way. The rest were in the bag around my wrist. Henry and Willy followed as I led them the three blocks to Gina’s Gym.
‘Now what?’ Henry asked.
Gina had two statues out in front of her gym on either side of the door. One was of a woman lifting a large barbell over her head and the other was of a shirtless man posing to show off his bulging muscles. We were standing under an awning, protected from the snow that was now falling heavily from the sky.
‘Here, hold this there,’ I pointed to the feet of the woman as I pulled out one end of the plastic wrap and handed it to him. I stretched the roll across the front door towards the other statue, wrapped it around his feet and back to where Henry was standing. I continued going back and forth, tightly wrapping layer after layer of plastic while Henry watched. Maybe I would accuse Gina of doing this to her own shop tomorrow. Give her a taste of her own medicine.
Once I got to a point where I couldn’t reach anymore, Henry took over. By the time we’d used all the rolls of plastic wrap I’d brought, the front door was completely covered. It would be awfully difficult for people to get inside tomorrow morning. Henry touched the plastic wrap and murmured something.
‘What are you doing?’ I asked.
‘What’s going on out there?’ a voice from a window called out before he could answer.
‘Run!’ Henry whispered, grabbing my hand and Willy’s leash.
We ran for blocks without looking back. Snowflakes pelted our faces. Finally we stopped, dissolving into a pile of giggles. Willy pranced excitedly next to us.
‘Well, thanks for letting us come along,’ Henry said once he caught his breath. ‘It’s late, and we should get some sleep.’
He gently brushed a snowflake off my cheek. I said goodnight as they disappeared into the snowflakes. I couldn’t imagine going to bed. I was so amped up on adrenaline, but when I got back to the apartment I lay down and immediately fell into a deep sleep.
I woke up the next morning to the brilliant light shining through the window. While most people grumbled about the cold, I was ready for snow angels and hot chocolate and fleece pajamas.
Holly was gone. She had made a pot of coffee and left me a note reminding me to call her if I needed anything. I called the number from Sheriff Buddy’s card and got his voicemail so I left a message about the missing spices.
For once, Mitzy’s enthusiasm was a bit more hesitant than mine when we went outside. She paused at the door and then sniffed the sidewalk before looking at me.
‘Come on,’ I said, giving her a little nudge with my foot. She backed towards the door to the kitchen. ‘Come on,’ I said, a little more forcefully, giving the leash a tug. She dug her nails into the tile. For such a small dog, she could sure make herself immobile.
I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Holly, ‘The furry thing won’t step on the white stuff,’ I said flatly when she answered.
‘What?’ She sounded a little groggy and confused.
‘The dog, the thing you call a bundle of love. She is ruining first snow day for me,’ I said, glaring at Mitzy for good measure. She gazed back at me, innocently batting her eyes.
‘Did you put her booties on?’ Holly asked, sounding a little more alert now.
‘Her what?’
‘Her booties.’
‘You have got to be kidding,’ I said.
‘What kind of person kids about dog booties?’ she asked in a perfectly serious tone. ‘I think Erma kept them in the little wooden chest by the back door.’
I opened the chest up, and sure enough, there were four knitted little red booties lying in there. When I pulled them out, Mitzy’s tail began to wag, and she rolled over onto her back sticking all four paws into the air.
‘If you really want to make points with her, you could put her scarf on.’ Holly was really enjoying herself now. ‘I think she likes to wear the blue one on Sundays.’
‘I’m hanging up now,’ I said, yelling ‘thank you’ as I hung up the phone and tucked it back into my pocket. I put the booties on Mitzy, and she happily skipped outside and pranced around in the snow.
We walked down the street. I couldn’t help myself. I had to go check out our handiwork. A few inches of fluffy snow had fallen, and it muffled my steps on the unshoveled sidewalk. I casually walked by Alice’s shop on the sidewalk across the street and tried not to stare as I went by. Stan was outside scooping wet bits of toilet paper into a big plastic garbage bag while Alice barked directions at him. How had she gotten him to do that? A couple walked past pointing and snickering behind their hands. A man stopped to take a picture, and Alice glared at him so menacingly that he quickly put his phone away and hurried down the street.
‘Ew, ew, ew,’ Stan said, as a large glob stuck to his fingers.
‘Stop being such a baby. It’s just paper,’ Alice said, though I noticed she hadn’t touched any of it herself.
I tried not to giggle as I turned down the street to go towards the gym.
My phone beeped with a text from Henry. ‘Apparently our artwork is the talk of the town. What are we going to decorate tonight?’ I smiled.
I was still half a block away when I spotted Gina with a box cutter angrily tearing through the plastic in front of the door. Two other women were out front with her. One was trying to gather up pieces of plastic wrap that were flying away, and the other one was on the ground doing one armed push-ups in the snow. Every now and then she would switch hands – probably when it got too cold.
A man in a green tracksuit walked up carrying a gym bag.
‘What? We can’t get inside?’ His voice sounded panicked. ‘But I can’t miss a workout. I sti
ll need to lose two more pounds this month.’
Gina growled something incoherent, though I thought I could make out an expletive or two.
He dropped to the ground next to the woman and began doing push-ups with her. I almost felt guilty before remembering Gina’s accusations.
Chapter 16
Day 12 ― Sunday
Dear Elodie,
I recently started dating someone. Things have been going great so far. We like the same movies, she laughs at my jokes, and she doesn’t mind that I yell at figure skaters on TV when they fall. I think this could be the real deal.
The problem is my family. Whenever we plan a date night, my family looks in my date book to see where we’re going. I keep a very thorough calendar. Once they find out where we’re going to be, they just show up. I planned a fancy date night last week, and sure enough, my family appeared in the middle of our appetizers. To make matters worse, my parents and three sisters pulled up chairs around the table so they could join us. Needless to say, it was too crowded and uncomfortable. After consuming lots of food and drinks, they all disappeared right before the check came.
I’ve tried talking to them about it. They always dismiss my concerns. They tell me they just want to better get to know the person I’m dating. They think I’m being too sensitive and that their behavior isn’t out of line at all.
How do I get them to back off before they scare away this woman?
Sincerely,
Table for Too Many
Dear Table for Too Many,
Buy a date book that locks or be spontaneous.
Ask and I’ll Answer,
Elodie
It began snowing again as soon as I got back to the pie shop. The flakes came down hard and fast while I prepped for the day. I found some Christmas CDs in the back of Aunt Erma’s cupboards.
Violet stalked in the second I unlocked the door.
‘The spices are missing?’ She sounded a little panicked.
‘Yes. How did you know that?’ I asked.
‘All of them?’ She ignored my question.
‘I think so.’
She then proceeded to question me for the next twenty minutes. She asked if I had seen anyone suspicious around the pie shop or if I had any inkling who might have broken in.
I answered, ‘I don’t know,’ to a lot of her questions. Sure, I might suspect Alice or Gina, but I didn’t have any evidence except that I didn’t really like either of them. Finally, she left, as frustrated with me as ever.
Flora came in around noon, a little later than the usual time. She wore a bright red hat and snowflakes covered her from head to toe. ‘It’s really coming down out there!’ she said with a shiver.
‘Isn’t it beautiful?’ I said.
‘Ah, you’re one of those snow lovers, huh?’ she said. ‘I am still on the fence about this whole winter thing. I’ve thought about spending winters in Florida, but all my family and friends are local. I don’t know what I would do down there. Besides be warm.’ She looked a little wistful.
I laughed. ‘Would you like a cup of coffee while you wait for the others?’
‘I am afraid the others aren’t going to make it today. It’s a little too far for Mr Barnes in this weather, and Lena is having a run on snow blowers today. I just wanted to check on you after that horrible break-in,’ she explained.
‘Oh, I’m alright.’ I watched her to see if she bought my lie.
‘Do you have time to sit and have a slice of pie with me?’ she asked.
‘I definitely have time,’ I said. ‘I don’t think I am going to get a lot of customers today.’ The snow was coming down so hard, I could not even see across the street now.
‘The plow will come through eventually,’ she said. ‘But you know Bob will start work on the ice rink first. The kids get so excited to skate. Plus, Bob likes to ice skate too. You know he used to dream of being an Olympic figure skater back in his youth. He dances around the ice when he thinks no one is watching. He’s not half bad either.’ She took her coat off, hung it on the back of her chair, and pulled her hat off. Some of her hair had come loose from her bun, and the strands stood straight up from the static electricity.
I ignored the fact that she spoke about Bob like I should know who he was. I had gotten used to that.
‘There’s an ice rink in town?’ I asked. I too had Olympic aspirations. Not in reality of course. I was a complete klutz on the ice, but in theory. When I was a kid I used to perform skating programs with my best friend on the floor of our living rooms. We would dress up and jump and dance and twirl about to different songs. Then we would make our parents award us medals that we’d fashioned out of construction paper.
‘Oh yes, it’s really close too,’ she said. ‘You know the clearing just over where the Larsons live?’ I stared at her blankly. ‘The place where Tommy broke his leg in that pogo stick accident?’ I continued to stare blankly. She realized she wasn’t going to get anywhere with me. ‘You go just down the block here, take a right and before long you’ll see it on your left-hand side. It won’t take you long to walk there at all.’
‘I might have to check it out,’ I said. ‘But I don’t have skates.’
‘Erma should have some. I think she kept them in the trunk by the back door. We go out skating every now and then. She can skate circles around me.’ She had stopped looking at me and was now looking at the selection of pies. ‘I will have a piece of the pumpkin,’ she said. ‘I feel like I need a little extra vitamin C in my life today. Don’t forget to pile on the whipped cream.’ I whipped my own whipped cream like Aunt Erma did. At home, I always bought cans of whipped cream because I had forgotten how amazing homemade whipped cream was. I didn’t think I could ever go back to that again. I usually found a way to taste test a few spoonfuls of the cream each day under the guise of quality control. It was so good. I served up two pieces of pumpkin pie and went to join her at the table out front with two cups of coffee.
‘Just make sure if you go skating, you go after dark,’ she warned me.
‘Why’s that?’
‘The little hooligans like to skate really fast and then slide across the ice on their stomachs, but all the kids in town have to be home by dark. It’s much quieter and more peaceful if you wait. You might even get the whole rink to yourself,’ she said.
‘Oh, that would be fun, and probably the safest for everyone. I might slide across the ice on my stomach, but it would be an accident.’
She laughed, but then her face grew serious. ‘How are you doing after the break-in?’ she asked again.
I shrugged. ‘I’m alright.’
‘They didn’t take anything?’
‘It turns out they stole the spices,’ I said.
Her face paled. ‘All of them?’ she asked.
I nodded, ‘The whole box was gone.’
‘Have you heard anything from your aunt?’ Flora asked.
‘No. I’m starting to get more than a little worried.’
‘I wouldn’t worry,’ she said. ‘Sometimes a woman just has some things to take care of.’ Her voice was perfectly calm, but her brow furrowed in the middle a little when she talked.
‘Doesn’t she have a cell phone?’ I had asked this question before, but I couldn’t help hoping I would get a different answer this time.
‘She doesn’t like cell phones. Says too much screen time is turning everyone’s brains to mush,’ Flora said.
Despite the nagging feeling in my stomach, we moved the conversation along. We gossiped about people in town and the upcoming holidays. I wasn’t as plugged into the gossip mill as Lena and Mr Barnes were, so I was not as good at participating in the discussions, but I was an eager listener. It felt homey to be gossiping with Flora – just me and her.
I wanted to ask her about Henry. She seemed to know him so well, but I couldn’t figure out how to bring him up without looking like a schoolgirl with a crush. Which, to be honest, was a little bit how I felt.
‘I should rea
lly get going,’ Flora said once her pie was gone.
‘Maybe I could visit you at the bookstore later. I’ve been wanting to spend more time in there, and I don’t think anyone will miss me here today,’ I said.
‘That would be lovely, dear,’ she said with a smile.
Flora bundled up and was out the door with a wave. The snow had lightened up a little, so I was able to see her red hat for part of her walk across the street before it faded into the flakes.
I had zero customers after Flora. Was it because of the snow or because of the Fall Festival fiasco? I flipped the sign to ‘Closed’ later that afternoon and walked over to Flora’s bookstore. The snow was just a light dusting of flakes coming from the sky now. Even though her shop was about forty steps from mine, I was freezing by the time I got there.
‘You came,’ she called joyfully as I stepped inside.
‘Of course I came. I had to kick out the fifty people who were inside waiting to pay for pie, but I came here. For you,’ I joked.
‘Quiet day, huh?’
‘Yup, it’s only been me and Mitzy since you left us earlier,’ I said. ‘I organized the books on the bookshelf by alphabetical order. Then I moved on to the CDs and organized them by genre and then by alphabetical order. Then I moved on to the pantry. I instituted a whole new organizational system. Aunt Erma probably won’t be able to find anything when she gets back.’
‘Oh, I’m sure she’ll love everything you’ve done with the place,’ Flora said. ‘She’ll be so grateful to you for coming.’
I wandered around the shop. I had asked her once how she was able to keep track of everything. The books were stacked so high and so deep. What if someone was looking for something specific? I didn’t see a computer to keep track of inventory anywhere in the shop.
‘Oh, I have my ways,’ she had told me with a twinkle in her eye.
‘She always has what people are looking for, and she always knows right where to find it,’ Mr Barnes had told me.
Christmas music was playing, and Flora was singing along softly. The place was brightly lit, and she had hung Christmas lights along all the bookshelves and around the cash register desk at the front.
