Page 18 of Holiday on the Rocks
We walked into the empty store and the stress rolling off her was eating at me. Before I entirely knew what I was going to do, I scooped her up in my arms and put her in the back of the grocery cart as her laughter bounced off the wall behind us.
“What are you doing? I have to sit criss-cross-applesauce in a cart?” Her eyes lit up when she looked back at me.
“Today’s been a lot, what you need is a distraction.” I started pushing the cart down the cereal aisle and tossed a box into the cart. “You look like a Fruit Loop kinda gal.”
“You’d better grab the Lucky Charms. With my luck I’ll probably die the day after I finally get my shit together.”
“Is Langley having a little pitty party?”
“No. It’s just one of those days I’m glad we only live once because I can’t do this crap again.”
“It was just a bad day.”
“Nope, the “L” in my luck has been replaced with an “F”.”
“That’s it. It is now my goal to get your mood out of this clusterfuck it’s in.”
“Goal?”
“Yup, I’m about to lock in like no one has ever locked in before. Just saying.”
“I don’t believe you’re motivational speaking skills are necessary. Maybe I just need to simmer in the suckiness for a bit, and I’ll bounce right back.”
I whipped the cart in a circle. “You think the itsy bitsy spider gave a shit about the rain? No, it climbed the spout again. Lock in, Langley.”
Her head shook. “Fine, cheer me up.”
“Alrighty. When a door closes, open it again. It’s a fucking door.”
She shrugged.
“Sugar and spice and everything nice is so yesterday. From now on it’s be defiant, salty, and extremely noncompliant.”
“Hmmm, I do kinda like that.”
“From this moment on we give everyone we meet the middle name of motherfuckin. Life is about to get interesting.”
Her giggle circled me. “Can we start that now?”
“Absolutely, Allison motherfuckin Langley. I see my wise nuggets of wisdom are improving your mood.”
“Maybe a little, Levi motherfuckin Dawson.”
I leaned down. “To conclude my Ted Talk, a little tid bit that will make you smile the rest of the night.” Her brow popped up as I whispered, “Boobytrap spelled backwards is partyboob. Carry on.”
“Wow.”
“You ready, girlie?”
“For what?”
I ran through the aisles pushing her in the cart while she screamed with laughter. Jingle All The Way blew through the store speakers while we sang along.
Memories of our Christmas past shot through my brain like a poisonous arrow. Allie knowing Christmas was something I was weirdly fond of, and her showing up at my dad’s crap apartment dragging a Christmas tree behind her and a bag of decorations she’d picked up at the Dollar Tree. How she turned that shit hole into a beautiful place is still beyond me. While my father wouldn’t admit it at the time, he spent the whole month of December in his recliner next the tree. At home almost every night. Most of his evenings involved bars and ladies and for him to be around, if even for a few weeks, was kind of like the sprinkles on a fucking donut.
She had so much fun with it she made it her New Year’s resolution to make it permanent. She’d go to Goodwill and Thrift World and we’d load up treasures from a couch to cool shit for the walls and for the first time, I didn’t hate being there. Everywhere she went she made things better without even trying.
“I need two pounds of butter.”
