A Trip Back to Snowy Pines (Book II in the Christmas Village Trilogy) (2 page)

“It hurts.” Florrie whispered softly from the
bed.

Lola jumped to her feet and reached for
Florrie’s good hand. “Where does it hurt?”

“Everywhere.” Florrie answered, her lips
trembling. “You’re Lola. You came back to see me.”

“I did.” Lola answered softly.

“How’s my dad?” She asked groggily.

“I haven’t heard anything, but I’ll check on
him for you.”

Lola made some calls while Florrie drifted in
and out of awake and asleep and learned that he was still listed as
critical but stable. “They’re going to come up and get you and take
you over to visit him at his next visiting hour which is in about a
half hour.” Lola explained.

“Thank you.” Florrie said and then looked out
the window, her eyes filling with tears. “They told me my mom is
dead.”

Lola reached or her hand again. “I know. I’m
so sorry Florrie.”

“I… I had this dream. It was so real. She was
dead in my dream too, but I was okay. I was sad, but I knew someday
I’d see her again… and she’d be watching out for me. When I woke
up, I was hoping that was just part of the dream, but it wasn’t.
And now… I don’t feel okay. I just feel sad… and scared.” She said
tremulously.

“Oh Florrie, I don’t know how you feel. I
know this is the worst thing that could happen at your age, but I
do know about being alone and scared and not knowing what the
future holds. My husband and my son… they’re together on a trip
without me. My husband and I aren’t… together right now. And I’m so
scared. I don’t know what’s coming next for me. And once, when I
was a little bit younger than you, my mama and I were in a car
wreck.”

“Were you okay?”

“I was okay. But my mom… well, my mom was
taking some pills she shouldn’t have been taking.”

“I’m 10 Lola. I know all about what it means
to be on drugs.” Florrie interrupted.

“Of course you do. Well my mama was a
druggie. She’d been on something my whole life. When we had the
wreck she was high as a kite. So when I woke up in the hospital a
week before Christmas I went into protective custody while mama was
in rehab. It was the worst, scariest time in my whole life. But I
got through it. You’ll get through this too.”

Lola went downstairs with Florrie to see her
father in ICU. She wasn’t sure if it had been a good idea or not.
He never woke up and Florrie just sat by his bed watching monitors
beeping and tubes filled with medicine and fluids. Once they were
back in Florrie’s room, Lola promised she’d stay until she went to
sleep. They ended up watching a Disney movie together and then
Florrie went to sleep. Lola wasn’t sure but she thought she was
crying even in her sleep, so she stayed until she drifted into a
deeper sleep. In truth Lola stayed later than she should have,
mostly because she didn’t want to go home. Finally she left at just
before midnight, cranking her second hand Civic and starting out of
the parking lot.

It was a long drive back to west Baltimore,
where her mama’s house was but Lola didn’t mind. She liked to
drive, liked the solitude of being in the car alone with just her
thoughts and her radio.

Talking to Florrie tonight about the wreck
she and her mother were in had brought back memories… most
specifically Florrie’s story about the dream she’d had. It reminded
Lola of a dream she’d had… she wasn’t sure if it was after the
wreck or in the following weeks when she developed pneumonia and
ran a very high fever but she had a dream that was so real she’d
never quite been able to shake the feeling that she’d somehow been
in another place with people she was certain were more than just
figments of her imagination. Parts of it were still hazy, but she
remembered the carnival, and cutting down a Christmas tree and a
pretty blonde lady who looked a lot like her mother, but who never
did drugs, or dated inappropriate men. Someone who fixed her hair
and bought her lots of pretty clothes and taught her how to make
Christmas cookies. Her mama had never been much of a cook and
neither was Lola but she made a homemade butter cookie that
everyone raved about… and for the life of her the only place she
ever remembered making them before was in her dreams with the
blonde lady.

She’d never told anyone about that dream
except Chris. His mom had left him and his dad when he was too
young to remember. After years of drunken rages and unexplained
bruises, social services had finally pulled Chris from his home and
given him to his grandmother. Most fourteen-year-old boys would
have let something like that turn him hard and bitter. But Lola
would never forget rounding the corner of their apartment complex
and finding Chris alone, quickly turning his back to her, but not
before she saw him looking at a picture of his mom and crying. Lola
was generally shy, especially around an older boy, but there was
something about him that she knew immediately he wouldn’t insult
her or blow her off. So she started talking, and before she knew it
she’d told him all about her mother’s stint in rehab and her dream
and then her few weeks in foster care. He’d listened intently,
asking questions and sharing opinions. She fell in love with him
that day and from then on the thought that she’d marry anyone other
them him never entered her mind.

They married right after her high school
graduation. Her friends thought she was crazy, but they’d been
together for seven years already. They were so happy and in love.
She had a scholarship to a nursing program and he was finishing his
last semester of business school and had already been accepted to
the law school at UM. They were well on their way to being one of
those rare success stories – kids raised in and out of foster care
who married too young but were getting their education and building
the kind of lives people dreamed of. And then four months into
their marriage Lola took a stomach virus that wouldn’t go away.
After nearly a month she faced the obvious truth. This was no
stomach virus. This was Ethan. She was less than enthusiastic, but
Chris was great. He postponed law school, convinced her to go ahead
with nursing and he went to work at a bank. They’d really done
okay. It hadn’t been much of a setback after all. And they both
adored Ethan. She really thought they’d avoided becoming the
clichéd too-young-to-marry tragedy. But now she realized that maybe
she’d come to that conclusion too soon.

She shook her head, realizing she wasn’t on
the road she’d meant to be on. She wasn’t sure where she was. She
looked down at her gas hand and it was dangerously close to
empty.

“I know I filled up yesterday.” She muttered.
“How long have I been driving?”

She saw lights up ahead and decided to turn
in and try to get her bearings. Luckily it turned out to be a
mini-mart and gas station that was still open. She started her car
filling up and went in for a caffeine free diet Coke and something
to munch on and hopefully some sense of direction.

She opened the door and immediately realized
something was terribly wrong.

“Get in here, and close the door, quick!”

She stared, trying to figure out what was
going on, and then she saw that the man who’d spoken wore a cowboy
hat and a scarf pulled high on his face and was holding a gun while
another man wearing a baseball cap low over his eyes and his collar
turned up was behind the counter at the cash register. A young man
in the red clerks vest was sitting in the back corner in front of
the drink cooler with his hands tied behind his back. She was
pretty sure his shoulders were shaking from crying.

“Give me your phone.” He ordered.

“It’s i-i-in my c-car.” She stammered.

“Then give me your keys.”

She threw them down on the ground and started
for the door but he grabbed her, yanking hard on a handful of
hair.

“Get over there.” He said, pushing her toward
the clerk. He pulled out a cord and tied her hands behind her back
and then tied the other end to the door handle. “Now I didn’t come
in here to shoot anyone, but I will if I have to, you got it?”

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
She got her first look at the clerk who was indeed crying and
couldn’t have been more than eighteen. She also realized that his
ankles were tied together too.

“You got all of it?” He yelled.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

It happened just like that. No threats, no
telling them to count to 100 or that they’d come back and kill them
if they called the cops. They were just gone, presumably with
Lola’s car, IPhone and beloved Michael Kors handbag. The door
closed behind them and a sob escaped Lola as she finally allowed
herself to make eye contact with the boy.

“Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” She asked
tearfully.

“No. I’m so sorry you came in. I was praying
someone would come in but I’m sorry it was you.” He said, openly
crying now.

“Can you get up? I can’t get loose from this
door.”

“I don’t know. I’ll… I can try.” He said.

“How much traffic do you get out here? Where
are we?”

“A c-couple of miles off of 330. We don’t get
a lot of traffic. I doubt we’ll see anyone till my relief comes in
the morning.”

“Oh God, how did I get this far off course?”
She asked, struggling to get her hands free, and realizing that she
was simply succeeding in pulling them tighter.

“I can’t get up.” He said.

“Maybe if you scoot over here and put your
back to the wall, then you can push up from there.”

He nodded and began trying to do just
that.

“You’re doing great. What’s your name, by the
way? I mean, we’ve been held at gunpoint together. We should be on
a first name basis.”

“I’m Kendall.”

“Kendall, I’m Lola. Lola McCauley.”

“Like… the Copa Cabana?” He asked, as he
attempted to push off the floor.

“Exactly like the Copa Cabana. When I was
little that was what my mother sang me to sleep with.”

He laughed nervously, but it sounded more
like a sob. “I can’t do it Lola. I’m sorry. I’m trying.”

“It’s okay. We’re fine.” She said
reassuringly. “We’ll just hang out here till someone comes.”

“But the morning shift person won’t be here
till 6:00 and her name is Talia and she’s always late.”

“That’s just a little more than five hours
from now. We’ll be fine for five hours.” She said, though she
realized she desperately needed to go to the bathroom, and she
hadn’t eaten since… she wasn’t sure when.

“What if they come back?” Kendall asked,
trembling.

“They’re not coming back. They’ve got money
and my car had a full tank of gas. They’re not slowing down for
anything.” She reasoned.

“But what if they’d killed us? When you tried
to run I really thought they were going to shoot you.”

“But they didn’t. We’re fine. We’ve just got
to stay calm till morning. Come on… let’s… let’s sing!” Lola said,
hoping to distract him. “Her name was Lola. She was a show girl.
With yellow feathers in her hair…”

“And her dress cut down to there.” Kendall
added, joining in.

They sang along for a while and then Lola
began to hear her voice getting farther away.

“Kendall… I don’t want to worry you, but I’m
feeling a little woozy.” She said, though in reality her vision
seemed to be alternating between flashes of blurry and big spots
that blocked out everything. “I’m gonna try and slide down and sit,
okay.”

“Lola… you… you don’t look so good. You’re
really pale.” Kendall said, suddenly sounding panicked.

“I’m okay.” She said, though her voice was
very far away even to her own ears. “I just haven’t eaten all day
and I’m a little anemic.”

“Anemic? Doesn’t that mean you don’t have
enough blood?” He said nervously.

“It’s okay. I’m a nurse at University of
Maryland Medical Center. It’s really very common when…” Her words
tapered off as she slipped into unconsciousness, but the last
thought that she had before blackness overtook her was that she
really should have told Chris that she was pregnant again.

“
You've been given a great gift, George. A
chance to see what the world would be like without you.”… Clarence
Oddbody

“Is the baby okay?” Lola asked, grasping at
life and trying to claw back into consciousness.

“What baby?”

“My baby. I’m fifteen weeks pregnant.” She
said, her hand dropping to her stomach but feeling only flat,
instead of the bump she’d been desperately trying to conceal.

“Oh God, what happened to the baby?” She
asked tearfully.

“Mr. McCauley, has your wife been pregnant
recently?”

“No, we’ve been talking about starting a
family but we haven’t yet.”

“Oh thank God.” She thought, when she heard
Chris’s voice. He’d come for her. He was always there for her.

“Chris, how did you get here? How did I get
here?” She asked, still trying to find her way back to full
awareness.

“You were in a robbery and you fainted. You
were unconscious for a while, but someone finally came in and
rescued you.”