It Started With A Christmas Tree - A Lizzie Fuller Christmas Novella (5 page)

“Not really,” said Danny. “Who is he?”

“None of your business,” she replied.

“Oh come on, sis. We have to meet him
sometime.”

“No you don’t. I quite like this guy and I
want more than a few dates with him, so meeting this family isn’t going to
happen for quite a while.” Yeah, I could see her point. I had wanted to keep
Riley away from them for a while too.

“Pfft. We grow on people. Look at Riley, He
loves us now,” said Danny, pointing his thumb towards Riley.

Riley nodded. “I do. Some of you more than
others,” he smiled, kissing my neck.

I felt the tingle all the way to my toes.

****

Sunday dinner came around
pretty quickly and thankfully I did remember the ornament. I had it safely
tucked into my bag where I would ask mum later to have a look at it. If it were
crystal then I would go back to ‘Happy Christmas Trees’ in the morning and see
if I could talk to Earl. If it were meant for someone else then it would be the
right thing to do.

“Pass the potatoes, please,” Danny asked Grandma.
Grandma was usually a barrel of laughs but today she looked sombre and cranky.

Ignoring Danny, she stabbed at her
pumpkin.

I reached over and touched her hand and
indicated she should turn her hearing aid on. We all heard the familiar screech
as she turned it up to loud.

“
What?”
she
asked, looking at me.

“Danny asked you to pass him the
potatoes,” I said.

“What’s wrong with
your
hands?” she snapped at me.

“Did someone miss nap time?” asked Danny
quietly.

I heard Mum sigh. “No. She came home from
Mr. Willett’s as irritable as this.”

“What happened at Mr. Willett’s?” asked
Drew. We all glared at him. None of us really wanted the details of what happened
between Grandma and her man friend. Especially not while we were eating dinner.

“Well, thanks for asking,” replied Grandma,
looking at Drew. “No one else around here cares enough to ask about my life,”
she huffed.

“Oh Mum! That’s not true. I asked you what
was wrong when you walked in this afternoon but you just ignored me and hurried
off to your room.”

“Oh. Is that what you said. I thought you
asked what’s that pong and I didn’t want to tell you I’d had curry for lunch. You
don’t like it when I have curry,” explained Grandma, her mood improving slightly
now she realized we did care.

Mum gave a disgusted grunt and resumed
eating her dinner.

“Are you alright, Nell? Sounds like you’ve
got a bit of indigestion. Maybe you need some of my medication. Actually, that
reminds me, that cream you got me doesn’t work.”

“What cream?” asked mum.

“The one you got me for my sore gums.”

“Mum, I haven’t bought you any cream for
your sore gums. What cream are you talking about?”

“The white and blue one. It’s got a really
long end on it.”

“You’re not talking about the Anusol are
you?” asked Mum, her fork full of potato stopped half way to her mouth.

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“Mum, that’s your hemorrhoid cream. It’s
for sore bums, not gums!”

I watched Grandma consider this new
information, swishing her teeth around as she did so.

“Well, I guess that explains why it tastes
so bad then,” she replied.

After dinner, Molly and I helped Mum clean
up the kitchen. For some reason I always got stuck with the washing up, Molly
taking the drying up role. A few years ago, we had bought Mum a shiny stainless
steel dishwasher but she sent it back saying she would much rather wash up by
hand. We didn’t like to tell her the reason we bought it was so
we
wouldn’t have to wash up by hand. Placing the last
dish on the draining board for Molly, I took the opportunity to question Mum about
the Christmas decoration.

“Hey Mum. What do you think of this?” I
asked, getting the ornament out of my bag and holding it out for her to look
at.

“That’s really pretty. Did you buy that in
the city the other day?”

“No, it came with my new tree but Molly
thinks it looks expensive.” I gave Mum the Readers Digest version of how it
came into my possession, leaving out the part about my dream. Mum took it from
me and had a closer look. Holding it by its hanger, she flicked it with the
back of her fingernail and we all listened to the melodic ding that echoed
around the room.

“It’s definitely crystal,” she said
smiling. “Maybe Danny is right and you should take it back. People don’t give
crystal away for nothing.” She carefully handed the bauble back to me.

“What do you think of the etchings on it?”
asked Molly.

“I think it’s pretty,” shrugged Mum.

“You should see it when the sun hits it. It’s
stunning.”

“Yeah. Lizzie reckons it contains a secret
code,” said Danny, walking into the kitchen to put the coffee on.

“I do not!”

Mum looked at me quizzically. “I worry
about you, Lizzie. Maybe you should see Doctor McGrath and get some sort of
test.”

“I don’t need testing!” I said, raising my
voice. “It was just a stupid dream. Geez.”

“Yes, but she wrote something down
whilst
she was dreaming,” dobbed Danny.

“What did you write?” asked Mum, her hands
on her hips. This was the stance she took with us when she meant business and
we were to stop messing around.

“Nonsense is what I wrote. What did you
expect? War and bloody Peace?” I huffed.

“Don’t take that tone with me, young
lady,” she chastised.

I let my breath out with a sigh. “I’m
sorry.”

“That’s better,” she said. “Now, do you
want to tell me exactly what’s going on?”

No, not really I didn’t, but I knew better
than to argue with her. She stood and listened patiently as I recounted my
dream. Only when I had finished did she walk over to me and pull me in for a
hug.

“I think that house is possessed,” she
said earnestly. “I think you should move out and sell it. Then your life will
go back to normal and maybe you and Riley can get married and start making me
some grandbabies. I saw his grandmother in town the day and she agrees that the
pair of you will make beautiful children, and none of us are getting any
younger.”

“What does grandchildren have to do with
my house?” I asked, stepping back and looking at her. Now it was my turn to put
my hands on my hips.

“I’m just saying, that’s all.”

During this exchange Danny had gone very
quiet and I had noticed Molly slink out of the room. They both realized the
conversation could turn on them very quickly.

*****

As a freelance bookkeeper who
works from home, I do have the luxury of working my own hours. True, most
clients had a deadline but it was no skin off their noses if I worked all day
or all night, so this morning I took advantage of that and headed back to
‘Happy Christmas Trees’. Looking around the parking lot, I soon realized I
should have bought my tree on a Monday as I was the only customer in sight. True,
their stock seemed to have diminished quite a bit, but I could have purchased
my tree without the headache.

Walking to the office building, I opened
the door and waited for the middle age gentleman with the beer gut to finish
his phone call. Looking around, I could see the office was pretty minimalistic.
It was reasonably small—about the size of my dad’s garage—had an
old dark timber desk pushed into the far corner with a modern looking computer
screen sitting on top and a counter that ran horizontally across the front of
the room, allowing just enough room for a couple of people to stand side by
side. I knew they had a mobile EFTPOS machine so they probably didn’t get a
whole lot of customers inside, and the room reflected that.

Finishing his call, the man dropped the
phone onto the desk and shuffled his way towards me.

“How can I help you?” he asked, scratching
his beard as he spoke. Seriously, add a red coat and this man could be Santa’s
younger brother, but according to the name embroidered on his left breast
pocket, his name was Bob.

“Hi, I was hoping to speak to Earl,” I
smiled.

“Earl? Sorry love, don’t know an Earl,” he
replied, his bushy eyebrows meeting in the middle creating one very hairy mono
brow. “Maybe I can help you though.”

“Oh. I was really hoping to speak to Earl.
He sold me a Christmas tree last week.”

“Is everything alright with the tree? I’d
be happy to replace it if there is. All our trees come with a twenty-eight day
warranty. If they die before that you can have another tree or your money back.
Never had to replace one in the ten years that I’ve worked here but if your
tree’s not up to standard then replace it we shall.”

“No, no, no. My tree’s fine. Perfect in
fact,” I explained quickly before he got concerned. “I was just hoping to see
Earl.”

“Well, what’s it about?”

I didn’t want to say in case I got Earl in
trouble but thinking up a convincing lie, especially at short notice, wasn’t
something I was particularly good at.

“Umm…” I could feel the sweat start to
drip between my breasts. The day was humid and the air conditioning in the office
didn’t seem to be working very well. Either that or the pressure of thinking up
a lie was all too much for me.

The door to the office opened behind me
and in walked a guy who looked about my dad’s age. His name read Alex. He had
shocking red hair and a really friendly smile.

“Hi Bob,” he said walking past me and
moving behind the counter. “Is everything okay?”

“This lady’s looking for a guy named Earl.
She wants to talk to him.”

“Earl?” repeated Alex.

“Yes. That’s what his shirt said,” I
answered. “Although, his shirt was a bit different to yours,” I said, thinking
of the shirt Earl had been wearing.

“Are you sure you got the tree from here?”
asked Bob. “We do have some competition with the farm a bit further up the
road.”

I had a moment of panic and quickly
checked the sign on the wall behind the counter. It read ‘Happy Christmas
Trees’.

“Of course,” I smiled.

“What did he look like?” asked Alex.

“Umm, he was elderly and walked with a
limp and he had a really gravelly voice.” I saw a memory dance in Alex’s eyes. “Do
you know him?” I asked. Alex considered his response before replying.

“Well, I don’t really know him as such,
but I do remember him. This farm used to sell Christmas trees when I was a kid and
was owned by a guy that sounds like the man you’re asking for. But I’m sorry,
that man died a couple of years ago.”

“No. You must have the wrong man. This man
only sold me a tree last week,” I smiled.

“Well I guess it’s not the man I’m
thinking of then.”

“Maybe he was wearing an old shirt that
belonged to somebody else. Do you have anyone who works here now that fits that
description?” I asked.

“The oldest guy we have working for us is
Johnno, and he’s only 61,” said Bob. “Are you
sure
this is the right place?” he asked again.

“Yes. Happy Christmas Trees, right?”

“Yeah that’s us,” he said, once again
scratching his beard. “But we don’t have anyone who walks with a limp.”

“Never mind. Sorry to have bothered you then,”
I said, pulling my phone out of my pocket and calling Riley. Maybe he would
remember Earl.

Chapter
Four

Riley didn’t remember Earl though. Apparently
he’d never seen him. Of course he hadn’t. Earl had gone by the time I’d seen Riley’s
truck moving up the lane.

Standing in front of my Christmas tree, I
took the ornament out of my bag and hung it back on its branch, unsure of what
I should do next. Riley walked in the front door carrying a very large can of
paint.

“Thought it was time we painted the
bedroom,” he smiled. “We’ll move to my place tonight if you want to round up
Cat.” I’d inherited Cat with the house and even though this was his home, he
didn’t seem to mind moving to Riley’s occasionally.

“Sure.”

“Did you find Earl?” asked Riley, kissing
me on the cheek.

“No. No one had even heard of him. Except
one guy. He remembered someone who fitted Earl’s description but apparently
that man died years ago,” I said, letting out a breath that blew my hair out of
my face.

“Then you can keep the ornament and have a
clear conscience,” smiled Riley, his kiss moving to my neck. “You smell good,”
he murmured.

“Thanks. It’s a new perfume I thought I’d
try.”