by A. G. Mayes
‘It’s so festive in here,’ I said.
‘Oh honey, I am just getting started,’ she said. ‘I am going to make a Christmas tree out of books by the front door next.’
Would I ever figure out the layout of this place? I went down one aisle and over to the next and already I was lost in a maze of bookshelves. One book caught my eye. The young girl pictured on the cover bore a vague resemblance to me when I was a kid. I opened it up and ran my finger over the first page. The paper was thick and had a soft worn quality to it. It was a book of fairy tales. Each one was accompanied by intricate illustrations, all of which featured the girl who was both familiar and not at the same time. I carried it to the front to buy.
‘Good choice,’ Flora said as she stood up from her downward dog position to ring me up. She hadn’t been able to make it to her usual yoga class today, so she was practicing in the shop.
I grabbed my purchase and headed out the door. The snow was coming down heavier again. I heard the rumble and scraping just in time to get out of the street before the plow truck came through. It sprayed snow up covering me from head to toe with slushy ice. I felt like a walking snowman as I tried to dust off my book and myself. I really should have taken Flora up on the offer of a bag. Maybe a bag for my whole body. I felt the dampness seeping through my coat already.
I ran upstairs to take a quick shower to warm up and changed into my pajamas. It was still three hours before the pie shop was supposed to close, but I figured no one would come in. Just in case, I flipped the sign to ‘Open’ again once I got back downstairs.
I was right. Almost. I was sitting in the overstuffed red chair in the corner when Henry walked in. I was halfway through the first fairy tale in the book, and I was already hooked. It was about an evil queen who turned all of her enemies into squirrels.
‘Whoa,’ Henry said. ‘You blend right into the chair.’ I was wearing a long red sweatshirt and red leggings with white polka dots. Mitzy sat on the arm of the chair. ‘Red’s a good color on you,’ he said and my heart fluttered a little.
‘You’re the second customer I’ve had today,’ I said, prying myself out of the chair.
We chatted for a minute while I boxed up his pies for the nursing home residents.
‘I told them I might not make it here today with all the snow, and there was almost a mutiny,’ he said with a laugh. ‘Mr Macabee said that back in his day he would walk twelve miles to school in three feet of snow with baked potatoes in his boots to keep him warm, and he would eat the potatoes for lunch. Then Mr Cramer shook his fist at me and said, “Bringing us pie is the most important part of your job, so get going.”’
‘I pay him to say those things,’ I teased.
I told him about my plans to go ice skating later. I asked him if he’d seen the rink. He said it was beautiful, that Bob had gotten it all done a couple hours ago, and the kids were having fun shoveling it off. I was excited when he said that Bob had even hung Christmas lights on the trees around the rink.
Later that night, after I had found Aunt Erma’s skates exactly where Flora said they would be, I traipsed through the snow to find the ice rink. I was wearing black leggings and a long, thick maroon sweater with lots of layers underneath. My coat was still soaking wet after my walk back from the bookshop earlier in the day. The snow had stopped, the sky was crystal clear, and the stars twinkled. The moon was full, but it was very light considering how late it was.
The ice sparkled in the Christmas lights that hung on the trees surrounding the clearing. I put the skates on. Luckily, they fit perfectly, but they felt strange on my feet. It had been years since I’d been on ice skates. I stepped out onto the ice, pushed off with the confidence of an Olympian, and promptly fell flat on my face. I’m talking full on belly slide. I could almost hear the crowd gasp. Oh wait, that was a real gasp. I looked up and saw Henry peering down at me.
‘Are you OK?’ he asked concerned.
‘Of course,’ I said. ‘Did you see the triple toe loop I did before that fall?’
‘Yes, I definitely did,’ he said, hiding a smile. ‘It was beautiful, you almost stuck that landing.’
I stood up carefully so as not to go flying again. I guess I was a little out of practice. I always thought visualization was everything, and I often visualized that I was flying around the ice when I watched skating specials on television.
‘What are you doing here?’ I asked him as I stood with my knees bent hoping that position didn’t look as awkward as it felt.
‘I was just walking home from work. I didn’t dare drive in this morning with all the snow. I saw you down here and came to say hi. Just in time to catch you at the end of a beautiful performance,’ he said.
‘Thank you, oh so much, for humoring me,’ I said. ‘Since you’re making fun of me, do you have skates?’
‘Uh…’ He looked uncomfortable.
‘Come on buddy,’ I said. ‘If you have skates, you have to go get them and come out here with me. I want to see you strut your stuff.’
‘I think my skates are broken.’
‘Yeah, right.’ I rolled my eyes.
‘They need to be sharpened?’
‘Nice try. Go get them.’
‘Fine, I’ll be back in a bit. But I’m only doing this to make sure you don’t break your neck because you’re out here alone,’ he said turning to head towards his house.
‘How very chivalrous of you,’ I called after him. I wondered briefly if he would actually come back or if he would just go home, lock all the doors, and turn off the lights.
I skated around the rink. I felt bolder with every stroke. I was cruising around at a halfway decent speed by the time Henry came back. He carried hockey skates, two hockey sticks, and a puck.
‘Um, what are you doing?’ I asked.
‘I figured it would be safer if you had something to hold onto when you skate,’ he joked. ‘We don’t have to play. It was just an idea.’ He threw the hockey sticks into the snow.
‘I bet I can beat you at hockey,’ I said with more certainty than I felt.
‘Oh yeah?’ His face lit up.
‘Yup!’ I nodded and went over to fish one of the sticks out of the snowbank.
‘Care to make it interesting?’ he asked.
My eyebrows shot up. ‘How do you suggest we do that?’
‘Loser of the game buys drinks at Sal’s,’ he said as he finished lacing up his skates.
‘You’re on!’ I glided over and shook his hand.
My confidence began to dissipate when Henry got out on the ice. He flew around the rink so fast it was almost as though his blades weren’t touching the ice.
‘Just need to do a couple warm up laps,’ he called out as he sped by me.
I gaped at him, then quickly tried to hide my surprise.
He skidded to a stop, sending a spray of ice into the air. He grabbed a handful of snow from one of the piles by the ice and began making snowballs.
‘We’ll put two on each end, and you have to get the puck between the snowballs to score a goal,’ Henry explained.
‘Yeah, I get it,’ I said. ‘Now let’s get to some hockey playing!’
He took the puck out of his pocket, and the game began. He was playing a very gentlemanly game, but I’ll admit, I was out to win. Henry pulled his stick back, ready to shoot the puck into the goal, and I lunged at him. We both fell to the ice.
‘Oops,’ I said as I landed on top of him. He felt warm and was breathing hard from all the physical activity, I think.
‘Oops?’ he asked. ‘I think you did that on purpose. If there was a ref here, I think he’d call a foul.’
I carefully pushed myself off him and sat up on the ice.
‘What?’ I asked in mock horror. ‘That was a perfectly legal maneuver. I think you need to check your hockey handbook again.’
‘Hockey handbook?’
‘Yup,’ I nodded earnestly at him. ‘When one player is playing at the level of Wayne Gretzky, the other pl
ayer can check said player at any time in order to prevent him or her from scoring a goal. I watched a lot of figure skating growing up which taught me that it’s perfectly acceptable to incapacitate your rival in order to win.’
He held his hands up in surrender. We played a little more, and I scored a goal. Since we hadn’t decided how many points we were going to play to, I claimed that one was good enough. I did a victory lap around the ice while singing ‘We are the Champions.’
‘Fine, you win,’ he said. ‘Let’s go get drinks.’
‘I can drink a lot,’ I said. ‘I hope you brought a lot of cash in that wallet. And I don’t want to hear from you that any of my playing was “unfair”.’ I used my fingers to do air quotes.
He laughed. ‘I wouldn’t dare call any of your moves “unfair”.’ He mocked my air quotes.
We took our skates off and headed to Sal’s.
Henry and I found a table near the bar and ordered a couple of beers. I don’t know what it was about the drinks here, but they were more delicious than any drink I’d had anywhere else. I smiled a little when the soundtrack for Titanic came on. We drank in silence for a few minutes.
‘How are things at the nursing home?’ I asked.
‘Good,’ he said taking a big gulp of beer. ‘Next week they’re going to put on a Thanksgiving show.’
‘A Thanksgiving show? What does that entail?’ I asked.
‘Beats me,’ he said. ‘They wanted to do it without me because they want to surprise me. For my birthday.’ He added the last part as an afterthought.
‘It’s almost your birthday?’ That got me excited. I loved birthdays.
He shrugged and glanced at me as though he wished he could take back what he said.
‘When? When is it?’ I bounced in my seat. He reached over and slid my beer away from me.
‘I think we need to cut you off,’ he said. ‘Maybe you should have a water? Soda? Iced tea?’
‘The only kind of tea I drink is Long Island,’ I said, reaching over to grab my beer. ‘And you can’t change the subject. I want to know when your birthday is. If you don’t tell me, I’ll just find out from someone else. Hey Sal,’ I called out towards the bar. ‘When’s Henry’s birthday?’
‘Today,’ Sal called back.
‘Oh yeah? We should sing now,’ a woman’s voice called out.
‘Yeah, let’s sing.’ I shot at huge smile at Henry who was now glaring at me.
Sal poured a healthy shot behind the bar.
‘Happy birthday to you,’ I began and everyone in the bar joined in. Sal brought the shot over to the table and lit it on fire. We finished singing, and as Henry blew it out, mouthed, ‘I hate you,’ then winked, and took the shot while everyone cheered. I reached over and grabbed his arm. ‘You’re welcome,’ I said. ‘Now how many shots will it take to make you forgive me?’
‘At least two more, and you have to do them with me,’ he said.
Sal made us some shots that tasted sweet and lemony and sparkled in the glass. I was feeling loose and giggly.
‘Henry, Henry, Henry,’ I said, reaching across the table to grab his arm again. ‘Tell me about yourself.’
‘What do you want to know?’ His face was glowing a bit too.
‘What do you love about the nursing home?’ I asked. ‘What are your plans for the rest of your life? How many serious relationships have you had?’ I kind of surprised myself with that last question, and from the look on Henry’s face, him too.
‘Um…’ he began. ‘I love the people at the nursing home. They’re all really wonderful. They’re like family. Sometimes they annoy the heck out of me, but usually I truly enjoy being with them. I would like to travel for a while, then spend the rest of my life in this town. It’s perfect here.’
‘Wow,’ I said. ‘Why?’
He shrugged. ‘I just feel like I belong here. How about you? How long do you think you’ll stay here?’
I paused for a minute. I’d been taking things just one day at a time since I’d gotten here. This trip hadn’t gone at all like I expected. Aunt Erma was supposed to be here with me. Alice and her cookie shop weren’t supposed to be here. ‘I don’t know.’
We sat in silence for a moment.
‘If you stay, you can enter the snowman building competition next month,’ he said with a smile.
‘If that’s not motivation to stay, I don’t know what is,’ I said.
‘The prize is a gift basket that Lena puts together of stuff from around her apartment that she doesn’t want anymore,’ he said. ‘Last year the winner got a chipped coffee mug and six bobblehead dolls.’
‘Wow, I didn’t realize what was on the line. I’ll definitely have to try to stay,’ I said. He perked up a little at that.
We finished our drinks. Henry still wanted to review the video replay of our hockey game for fouls, but he was a good sport about it and paid the tab. We walked down the street together. We were about half a block from the pie shop when I realized I was holding Henry’s arm. It was as much for stability as anything. Those drinks were strong.
Henry hadn’t pulled away in disgust. Was that out of gentlemanliness or did he not mind for other reasons? My mind began to race, but I was having trouble finishing thoughts. Should I go in for the kiss? What if he was just being friendly? Then I would probably lose one of my only remaining customers. We got to the back door at the pie shop.
‘Thanks for ice skating with me,’ I said, suddenly aware that he was facing me. He was a little taller than me, and I couldn’t help but look up through my eyelashes, a move I had seen in every romantic comedy I’d ever watched.
His hand was reaching towards my face, and I held my breath. ‘Thank you for singing “Happy Birthday” to me,’ he said.
‘Really?’ I asked, letting my breath out.
He gave me a grudging smile and brushed the hair behind my ear. Then he let out a squeal and jumped back.
‘What’s wrong?’ I asked, wondering if my breath was really that bad.
He was looking down. I followed his gaze and saw the cat had returned and was circling around his legs. Henry sneezed. ‘Sorry, I’m allergic to…’ He sneezed again, pointing at the cat. ‘I’ll talk to you later.’ Two more sneezes and he vanished around the corner.
Chapter 17
Day 13 — Monday, November 14
Dear Elodie,
I have been a dancer for as long as I can remember. Recently I suffered a severe injury to my right elbow. I have always been known within the dancing community and beyond for having superior elbow work. I’m devastated that I can’t dance anymore. All of my friends are dancers and they don’t seem to know how to talk to me because talking about dancing is too painful for me. My family seems to think that I should just shake it off and do something new.
I’m lost and I don’t know who to turn to. Can you help me figure out what to do with myself?
Sincerely,
Dancing Dud
Dear Dancing Dud,
It can be hard when you lose something that has been such an important part of your life for so long. You don’t say what type of dance you practice, but you say that the problem is with your elbow. There are many different types of dance. Perhaps you could practice one that is less elbow-focused. Maybe you could become well known for your superior knee work.
If this isn’t an option for you, try exploring different interests and joining some different clubs until you can find a new passion and direction for your life. Maybe some of your dancing friends can join you as you try these different things or maybe you’ll meet some new friends and expand your social circle.
This may feel like you’re losing something, but consider it an opportunity for new adventure.
Ask and I’ll Answer,
Elodie
‘Stupid cat,’ I muttered, still thinking about the night before. Mitzy and I had stayed up late and gotten up early. I was full of an excited energy that I hadn’t felt in a long time. I tried to channel that energy i
nto thinking of ways to bring business back to the pie shop now that the special spices had been stolen. My mind went from advertising a happy hour at the pie shop where slices would be half off between three and four in the afternoon, to thinking about how it felt to lay on top of Henry.
I had decided to take advantage of our extra time this morning by going to the diner to pick up a couple of egg sandwiches and a cup of the special hazelnut coffee they made for breakfast. The sun felt warm and was beginning to melt some of the snow giving the sidewalks and street a nice sheen. I was trying to dodge the fat drops of water that were falling from the awnings, so I didn’t spot her until it was too late. Gina was walking down the street towards me. I looked for a doorway or alley to duck into, but I didn’t see anywhere to hide, and she was approaching fast.
I wracked my brain for some smooth retort to whatever snarky insult she was going to hurl at me. My brain filled with schoolyard comebacks like, ‘I’m rubber you’re glue,’ and the ever-mature, ‘I know you are, but what am I?’
She got closer. I plastered a smile on my face and hoped that I looked calm, cool, and confident. ‘Hey Gina,’ I said.
Her eyes stared blankly ahead. That was strange. It wasn’t like her to ignore an opportunity to rip me apart.
‘Gina?’ I tried again. I didn’t know why I was poking the bear with a stick. I was sure a therapist would trace it back to my relationship with my mother. Mitzy let out a low growl, but still Gina didn’t even glance in our direction as she passed.
Wow. Gina didn’t really seem like the cold shoulder type. I turned and watched her continue down the street. Her steps were quick and stiff. Was the zombie apocalypse upon us?
I saw Flora across the street skipping along. Good, someone friendly. We crossed the street to talk to her.
‘Hi Flora,’ I called. Her bright pink scarf was wrapped around her face, but I could tell she was smiling. ‘Are you going to come into the pie shop today?’
She pulled her scarf down, ‘Oh no, dear,’ she said joyfully. ‘I’m just coming from Alice’s cookie shop.’ She held up a large paper bag in her hand to show me. Mitzy let out an uncertain whine.
