Seven

I hurried into the Armory. It was three thirty. Ninety minutes of selling left before the event was over for the day. How much had the trip to the police station cost me? I conjured up visions of sugar plums, Santa Claus, reindeer, and Buddy the Elf. Smiling is my favorite. I repeated the quote from Elf until I felt a true smile on my face. A cheerful seller sold more gifts than a grumpy one, and I had ground to make up.

I scooted around the people waiting in line to buy admission tickets. “Vendor!” I called out to the young man and woman at the registration table that was now the information/ticket booth.

“Badge.” The man stood and craned his neck, searching for the vendor badge that I had taken off earlier and left near the register.

“It’s at my booth.”

“Then you need to buy a ticket. Go to the end of the line.”

A few of the people who I “cut” in front of snickered.

“I had to leave in a hurry or I’d have remembered to grab it.” I pressed my hands together. “Please, I’ll get it and bring it back to show you.”

“Can’t.” The guy excused himself around the young lady sitting next to him and headed toward me.

I didn’t want more time stolen from me by either standing in or line or chatting with security. Could this day get any worse?

“Merry, there you are.” Grace hooked her arm through mine and led me away. “Abraham needs to have his break. I’d have found you a different replacement if I’d known your errand was going to take so long.”

“I’m so sorry. I had to rush out and didn’t have time to explain.” Poor Abraham. He was probably frantic.

“Abraham told me. He’s more concerned about Ebenezer. He didn’t know if the little guy was missing lunch or something.”

“I owe Abraham a huge thanks. Anything I can make for him?”

Grace grinned. “There is something you could do.”

“Name it.”

“Let Ebenezer sleep over at our place tonight. Abraham is smitten with him.” Grace leaned into me, lowering her voice to a whisper. “I’m thinking about getting him a guinea pig for Christmas, and I’d like to see how he’d handle taking care of a pet overnight.”

While I’d miss my furry companion, I couldn’t say no to the request. “Of course. I’ll even let Abraham take Ebenezer with him for his break. They enjoy each other’s company.”

Grace hugged me. “Thank you. I know Abe enjoys being with Ebenezer. He had a rough time sleeping last night and I hope with Ebenezer over, it’ll be a better night for Abraham.”

“Did something happen?”

“I think Samuel’s death left him a little out of sorts. He’s afraid whoever killed him is coming back. He was sure someone ‘made the man dead’ as he put it.”

“Why did he think that?” Had Abraham seen something I missed? Did the forensic person see it?

Grace shrugged. “I don’t know, and I’d rather we didn’t question him about it. Right now, Abraham is handling everything okay, but I see signs that his anger is about to surface, and I don’t want that.” Tears shone in her eyes and I heard the tremble in her voice.

I hadn’t seen one of Abraham’s outbursts myself, but I had heard about them. Would the detective want to question Abraham more? What would the young man say? Would the detective stress the young man? I took out Brett’s business card from my pocket. “Here.”

She plucked it from my fingers and stared at it. She frowned, flicking the loosening flap of a bandage on the edge of the paper. “What’s this for?”

“Just in case the police want to ask Abraham any more questions. It might be good if your son had an attorney in his corner.”

Grace froze in place. I nearly tripped at the sudden stop. She glared at me. “What did you tell the police about my son?”

“Nothing. Abraham made some comments to the detective and I was taken to the police station.”

“You’re saying what happened to you was Abraham’s fault?” Her expression was a mix of hurt and anger.

I was making the matter worse. “The detective likes to twist things around, I’m just afraid he’ll talk to Abraham again and make him say something that sounds like Abraham knows something about Samuel’s death. He tried it today.”

“The detective did.” Her eyes narrowed.

I nodded. “Like I had Abraham help me…do something to Samuel.” I couldn’t say the word murder in relation to me. It was all so seedy.

She pocketed the card. “I’ll tell Abraham not to talk to anyone he doesn’t know.”

“He kind of knows the detective. I can see the man using their talk today as a way to get around it.”

“Don’t worry, Merry.” She patted my arm. “I won’t let anyone use my son to lock you up for that creep’s murder. If I was the police, I’d look at some of his Facebook friends.”

As we headed down the aisle toward my booth, I caught sight of another person in my area. A young woman with long brown hair streaked with blonde was sitting in my chair. My heart nearly burst with pride and love. Raleigh’s head was tilted to the side, and if I was near enough, I knew I’d see her golden-brown eyes showing interest in what Abraham was saying. My daughter was tough and had a compassionate soul. People were her passion. Her goal was to fix the world, one person at a time by making sure they believed in the power of themselves and their worthiness.

Both of my children served the public in their own way, Scotland was a police officer, and Raleigh was on her way to becoming a certified counselor. She had just finished up her first year of her master’s degree program. I was so proud of my children.

Raleigh saw me and smiled. She waved and rushed over, wrapping me in a hug.

I held my daughter tightly for a few moments before releasing her.

Another vendor waved for Grace’s attention. She held up her finger and started walking in that direction. “Let Abraham know he can go on break.”

“Will do,” I said.

Placing her hand on my shoulders, Raleigh looked me in the eye. “Good day?”

“It’s better now.” I smiled at her, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. “A mom always loves seeing her beautiful daughter.”

“Good thing I’m not ugly or you’d banish me to a tower.” She shot me a cheeky grin before dragging me into the booth. “There have been a few sales this afternoon. Abe took care of ringing them up since I couldn’t work your cash register.”

Abe? And no correction? Abraham only let a select few people shorten his name, like his mother and Santa Claus, and after a few hours, Raleigh skated onto the list.

Abraham nodded. “I showed Raleigh, but she said I was better at it so I should do the money. I’m trustworthy.”

I took stock of my inventory. Raleigh wasn’t kidding when she said only a few items sold. All the wooden trees remained, along with the RV decals, and the ornaments Bright had made. What was going on? Bright’s ornaments were usually sought after, and I had trouble keeping them stocked. Last year, I sold out of her hand-painted ornaments by the first day. Bright had sent a few more so I’d have some for Sunday.

“Were there any custom orders?” I asked as I flipped the book open. None.

“No.” Raleigh draped her arms over my shoulders and rested her head on top of mine for a moment. “I’m sorry, Mom. I don’t think I’m a good sales person. I tried getting some people over, but no one stopped at the booth for long.”

Customer relations was a delicate art. It took time to know which customers wanted to chat and which preferred browsing without being acknowledged, and then there were the customers who were competing businesses who wanted new ideas or to undercut other vendor prices. The latter used to send me into a mini rage at the unfairness, but I didn’t want the issue to ruin my attitude about my craft business or Christmas. I vowed not to worry about it. There was nothing I could do about other people’s business model. I’d focus on mine.

The day was a wash. There wasn’t a lot of time to drum up business, but I could get everything set up for tomorrow and sell, sell, sell without first having to reorganize the booth. The priority was displaying the RV Christmas décor better.

“I have to go, Merry Christmas.” Abraham shifted from foot to foot.

My face heated. I was so excited to see my daughter, I forgot about Abraham. He was waiting for me to dismiss him and take Ebenezer. I lifted the edge of the fabric concealing Ebenezer’s cage. “I’m sorry I was distracted.”

“I’ll get him.” Abraham took the cage out from under the register area.

“What is that?” A woman stopped and leaned over the table displaying the decals and ornaments.

Abraham held out the cage. “This is Ebenezer. He’s Merry Christmas’s partner.”

She squealed, a delighted not an I-saw-a-rat-and-must-flee sound. “Isn’t he the cutest thing?” She cooed at Ebenezer and wiggled her finger at him. He wriggled his nose. “What do you recommend for my aunt? She’s eighty-years-old, loves to decorate, but doesn’t have a lot of space for storing items at the nursing home, nor does she have a lot of strength to carry items and she hates having anyone help her. Christmas was always her thing, and it breaks her heart that she’s losing the ability to indulge in that happiness.”

The decals. Why hadn’t I thought of it before? The tree decals were perfect for people living in nursing homes, dorms, barracks, or any other small space. It allowed those who wanted Christmas around them to have it without it costing a lot or needing a space to store it. I quickly scribbled down “storage boxes” to remind myself later to create some labeled cardboard envelopes to store the holiday décor.

“A tree and some ornament decals are the perfect solution for your aunt. Currently, there are two sizes of trees. I can also customize one for her wall.” I showed her the glitter vinyl tree I cut this morning.

“Does it peel off easily?”

“Yes.” I lifted the tip of tree and slowly peeled it down. “I have a backing sheet that the decal can be stored on when not in use. I can also create a special holder for it to be stored during the rest of the year. It would easily fit on top of a closet shelf or underneath a bed.”

“That’s perfect.”

Raleigh scooted some ornament decals closer to the potential customer. Pride filled my daughter’s voice. “My mom is like your aunt, Christmas is in her heart year-round and she loves to share that joy and create items that help people display their love of the Christmas season.”

My heart hummed with happiness. I always wondered what my children thought about their mother being only a crafter compared to their father’s career. I had a lot of jobs: book store clerk, church secretary, tax preparer, shop pro at the golf course which consisted of pretty much anything that was needed as it was a one-employee-at-a-time job, and now crafter. Crafter was the one job I was working on becoming my career, and at times I felt like it wasn’t a grown-up job. It wasn’t everyone who could turn a love of Christmas into a career. I should embrace it rather than apologize for it.

The woman pulled out her wallet. “I am so glad I decided to stop at this booth after all.”

After all? My curiosity got the best of me. I was here to sell and if the customer could explain to me why she hadn’t been interested until she saw Ebenezer, I could make changes for tomorrow. I doubted the lack of my presence had kept people away from buying. “Is there something about the set up that wasn’t inviting?”

“Oh no. Your display is lovely. Once I saw how much you love your pet, and Christmas, I knew you couldn’t be a bad person.”

“A bad person?”

“What’s being said about my mom?” Raleigh clenched her fists.

The woman pointed down the aisle. “That young lady is telling people to stay away from your booth unless they want to buy stuff made by a murderer.”

Raleigh’s face turned bright red. Mine was Christmas snow white as I felt the blood drain from my face.

At the end of the aisle was Cassie. A look of pure hatred directed at me.