Page 33 of Christmas Cove

“Carol, I’m so glad to see you out today.” And she was. Carol’s presence there would put a legitimate stamp on the activity.

“I brought some things that I thought you could make use of.” Carol handed over a well-used cardboard box, evidenced by a long list of crossed out items written on one side.

America set the box on the ground near the base of the tree and opened the four flaps. “Ornaments,” she said. “Pretty ones. Are you sure we can use these?”

“Better out here where people can enjoy them than sitting around in a stuffy basement, don’t you think?” Carol said.

“It’s very kind of you.”

America placed an arm around Carol’s shoulders. The old woman, with all her saucy banter, reminded her of her own great-grandmother. She had enough stories of the old world to fill volumes. America supposed, deep down, that some of her independent spirit and zeal for family came to her through the bloodline. There was a strength that came with knowing one’s history.

Leo was up on a ladder now, slinging the light strands around the top of the tree. She peered skyward. “How tall is this tree?” she yelled up to him. “Twenty feet?”

“Twenty-three, give or take,” Leo called down, but didn’t take his eyes off the task. “Hold the ladder, will you? I’m coming down.”

With her hands firmly placed on the sides of the A-frame, she braced her weight against his movements as he descended the rungs. The old ladder creaked beneath him, and she found herself wincing with each of his steps. The whole thing rocked as he took the bottom rung and jumped down the rest of the way.

“Close one,” she said and steadied him, though she didn’t know why she was holding his arms so tightly. He was perfectly capable of standing on his own.

America backed away, and as she searched his gaze for some clue as to what was going through his mind, a strand of lights whipped around the tree and landed, wrapping around her shoulders.

“Incoming,” Edwin yelled from somewhere on the other side of the tree.

“Thanks, Pa. We got it,” Leo yelled back.

Fully amused, Leo unwrapped the lights from around America and tossed the strand back to Edwin on the other side. America had never seen a town in the midst of being decorated. It had always been as though she would go to sleep in autumn and wake to a magically decorated town the next day. The number of workers it would take to outfit the city was staggering to calculate. Though she had attended plenty of tree lighting ceremonies in the past, she was fairly certain that flinging strands of lights through the air was not the way it was typically done. She bit her lip, but a giggle escaped her mouth anyway.

“What’s so funny?” Leo asked.

“Nothing really. I’ve just never seen anything like this before. Oh!” she remembered, “Carol has brought us a present. Come and take a look.”

Carol had since disappeared, and America made a mental note to find her later and thank her again. She pointed to the box and let Leo take a look. His attention shifted between looking at her and inspecting the contents of the cardboard box.

“These are quite nice. Is she sure we can use them?”

“Yep. I asked her the same thing, and she said that they weren’t doing anyone any good in her basement. Plus,” America added, “we have all the colorful ones that we got from the barn. I have a feeling this is going to work out.”

It took all day, and the sun was setting when the last of the red and gold ornaments were hung on the branches. They had placed Carol’s special ones mostly in the front, where more people could see them. Each ornament looked like a tiny model of a home, a barn, a church, and all the other buildings representative of their small town. Each piece of the expertly painted village had a number and year signed on the bottom.

How fitting it was for this year’s celebration for the town to be displayed in such a beautiful way! And what a shame it would be if no one came out to see it.

“We need to hand out flyers, and let everyone know that Christmas Cove is back,” America said to Leo as they stood back and admired their work. Some of the people in town had come and helped for a while during the day. One lady brought pumpkin bread to share, and another delivered pots of much appreciated coffee.

“I’m sure by now that every single resident knows about this,” Leo said and motioned up and down the street like an airline ground crew. “Things don’t stay secret in a town this small for long.”

“Then...” She thought about their options. “Then we hand out flyers in the nearby town. What is its name?”

“Elizabethtown. And I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Leo walked in a circle around the tree, inspecting and fixing, fidgeting really, the ornaments and bulb placements.

“Why not? Don’t you want people to come here? Wouldn’t that help everyone get back on their feet?” America couldn’t understand his hesitation.

“Let’s just say, the mayor and I aren’t pals,” Leo said, and she was sure there was a juicy story behind the way he said the wordpals, but she would add it to the list of layers she would push to uncover about him later.

“Then, I’ll go alone. No one knows me there. After I’ve finished passing out flyers, I can do some research at the county library. Is that all right?”

“You’re doing it again,” he said. “Dreaming big and getting your way.”

“I’ll have you know that I work hard to get my way in life. It’s a skill like any other.”

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