The next morning before Lauren is awake, her phone rings. She wants to ignore it and go back to sleep but decides it could be someone from Glory’s Place needing her. “Hello,” she says, trying to make her voice sound awake.
“Is this Lauren?”
It’s a man’s voice but Lauren doesn’t recognize it. “Yeah.”
“This is Larry. From yesterday. You dropped off the stuff for Miss Glory.”
She throws an arm over her forehead, wondering what he wants so early in the morning. “Right.”
“Well, I wanted to let you know that I set the box down by the door. Now what I did not know was that my wife had other boxes and bags sitting there at the door that she was taking to the dump.” Lauren sits up on the mattress, anticipating what he is going to say. “I didn’t know about it until this morning when I went to look for the box that you dropped off.”
“So all that stuff is gone?”
“I’m afraid so. But I’m happy to make a box for the fund-raiser. It won’t take much time and since I’m the one who’s in charge of this mess-up, then I’m the one who needs to make it right.”
Lauren swings her legs to the floor, careful not to bang them against the metal frame. She feels like such a vagabond sleeping this way but at least it’s an upgrade from her usual mattress on the floor. “Thanks, Larry! I’ll call Miss Glory and let her know.”
“You tell her I’ve got some real nice curly maple here that can make a beautiful box. I could even make it out of curly maple and do an inlay of cherry or black walnut. Or I could just make the whole box out of black walnut or mahogany or something. You just run it by her and give her my deepest apologies. But like I said, I will make it right!”
Hanging up, Lauren looks at the time on her phone: seven o’clock. Miss Glory would definitely be up by now. As she dials she realizes that Heddy said the box she gave Larry needed a lot of work. Obviously, the one he would make would be new and beautiful and worth more. “Miss Glory! Are you awake? It’s Lauren.”
“Marshall and I are sitting here having breakfast. Is everything okay?”
“I think so. I just wanted to tell you that Larry called me and said that the box of stuff that I dropped off with him was accidentally taken to the dump.” She can hear Gloria gasp on the other end.
“Oh! This is awful!”
“No! Larry said he would make you a brand-new box, more beautiful than the last one. He said he would make it out of any kind of wood that you wanted.”
“She’ll be so devastated.”
Lauren leans on to her knees, looking at her toes. “Who will be devastated, Miss Glory?”
“Cassondra! She gave me that box for the fund-raiser. She said it held dreams. I can’t tell her it’s been thrown away.”
Lauren gets up and paces in her bedroom, thinking. “Can’t Larry make a similar box without her knowing?”
Gloria sighs on the other end. “I’m afraid not. She is way too sharp for that! Plus, the box had a verse written on the top of it and of course I can’t remember what it was!”
“I’m sorry, Miss Glory.”
“Don’t be! It’s not your fault. Well, I’ll just have to put on my big-girl pants and tell Cassondra what happened. In the meantime, if you can call Larry back and ask him to make a box that would be great. I would still like to fill it with beautiful stationery and pens and offer that in the auction.”
Hanging up, Lauren walks into her bathroom and turns on the water. “She loves that box,” she says, realizing she’s praying. “Would you show us where it is?” The moment the words slip past her lips she knows how absurd they are and splashes water over her face. Sometimes things are lost forever and that’s just the way it is.
* * *
Before leaving for work Lauren checks e-mail and sees a few new ones from Craigslist. There are two of the obligatory hate-filled ones, calling her a moron and idiot and she quickly trashes those. The others are from Mary Richards and Laura. She reads the one from Mary first.
Hi, Kelly! Well, I am assuming that I blew it again. I must have gotten our date and time wrong for getting together at Betty’s Bakery. I am so sorry that I missed you and I do hope that you did not wait too long for me on the day that you were there. On the upside, I ended up having a lovely lunch. I hope that you did, too. Could we try this again? Hoping that I have not scared you off. Mary Richards
Lauren feels a wave of relief to know that Mary did not blow her off. She opens the e-mail from Laura and discovers that she, too, had waited at Betty’s.
Dear Kelly, apparently I got the time mixed up for our meeting. I would like to say that this is the first time that something like this has happened, but alas, it has happened before. Perhaps I input the wrong time in my phone. I send you my deepest apologies. Do you think there is another time that would work for us to get together? Things are ramping up here with work and all things Christmas and I imagine that your schedule is getting quite busy as well. Please let me know if there is another opportunity to meet. Yours, Laura
Lauren looks back at the calendar on her phone and wonders if she is the one who input the wrong date or time. She sits on the edge of her mattress studying the calendar. She will be back in Grandon in two days, on Monday. Dear Mary, she types. Thanks for letting me know! I thought that maybe you had second thoughts. Maybe I’m the one who got the date wrong. I did have a great lunch that day. What does Monday look like for you? I’m free after six. Working before that. We could try Betty’s again. Kelly
She sends a duplicate letter to Laura and hopes for the best.
* * *
Maria Delgado finishes her grocery shopping before collecting the votes for grand marshal of the Christmas parade from the box on Clauson’s customer service counter. She smiles as she pulls each one from the box, reading them. Whether she is collecting them from Clauson’s, Wilson’s, Betty’s Bakery, Patterson’s, City Auto Service, or other businesses throughout town, the overwhelming majority of votes have been cast for the one particular citizen that the residents of Grandon wish to see riding high on the horse-drawn coach that day. She puts the votes inside a Ziploc bag and then inside her purse before looking for an open cashier. One of the lines stretches longer than the others that are open and she notices Ben hard at work. Even though the line will take longer than the others, she’ll wait. How could she neglect having a message from Ben this close to Christmas? The man in front of her notices that another cashier is open and moves to that line. “You don’t know what you’re missing,” Maria says, under her breath.
“Hi, Ben,” she says, pushing her grocery cart closer when she’s next in line. “Have you found out if you can come to the Christmas parade?”
“We don’t have the schedule yet,” Ben says, careful to put the boxes of cereal in one bag and cans of soup in another.
“Les!” Maria says, noticing the manager walking toward customer service. “I’ve spoken with Ben and Alice at customer service and Jim in meats and none of them know if they can go to the Christmas parade yet.”
Les walks toward them, smiling. “What do you suggest? That I let everyone off to go to the Christmas parade?”
“Of course not!” Maria says. “But since the entire town will be at the parade I think it’s safe to say that the store could operate with just a couple of people here.”
“Well, I’d keep my best employees here but you’re saying you want Ben to go to the parade.”
Ben hurries to bag the last of Maria’s groceries before picking out a message for her. “I’ll stay here if you want me to.”
Les winks at Maria. “That’d be great, Ben. I know the store would be safe in your hands, but maybe Maria’s right. Maybe you should go to the parade that day and I bag the groceries.”
“Are you sure, Mr. Gentry? I can come in after the parade.”
Les walks toward his office, talking over his shoulder. “I might just take you up on that. I’ll schedule you off that day right now before I forget, and hopefully, this means that Maria will get off my back.”
Ben loads Maria’s groceries into her cart and says, “I don’t think he meant that you’re really on his back.”
Maria laughs. “He might have meant that! I’ve been needling him pretty hard about letting you off work that day so you can see the parade.”
He hands her the last bag before turning his attention to the next load of groceries. Outside Maria places the bags in her car trunk and pulls out her note. It’s written on a small red piece of paper with a star at the end of Ben’s name.
Christmas is a great time for celebrating, so dance today! You know you want to inside!
Merry Christmas! Ben
“I just love that kid,” Maria says, closing the trunk.