The Happiest Season (4 page)

“So you said.”  She pinned her with a look.  “If you didn’t
want to come to my party, you could have just said so.  You didn’t have to make
up a story about a camel.”

“Hey, if you’ll remember, I did try to bow out, however…” 
She raised a clarifying finger.  “At your persistent urging, I did intend to
come—had planned to come—but, we had an uninvited guest stop by the house last
night.”  She raised her right hand.  “Honest.”

“Right,” Gloria said dubiously, her blue eyes narrowed with
suspicion.  “A camel.”

“Yes, a camel,” Maggie said, as she reached to help Gloria
with her armload of goodies.

“Anyway, since you missed out on the fun, I thought I’d
bring you and Rickey some of our leftovers.  Lord knows, we had plenty.”

“I appreciate it,” Maggie said, smiling her gratitude.  “And
I can assure you, Ricky will appreciate it too.”

“Where is the little guy?” Gloria asked, taking a seat at
the kitchen island.

“Outside.  I’ll call him in.”  She crossed the room to the
slider and pulled it open.  “Ricky, come on inside.  We have company.”

“Is it Officer John?” he cried eagerly, as he charged for
the door.

“It’s Gloria,” Maggie told him.

“Gloria!  Yay!  Did she bring me a treat?”

“Don’t I always?” Gloria called.

“Yes,” came his exuberant reply.

Rickey dashed into the house and hurried to Gloria.  He
threw his arms around her and gave her a squeeze.  “I missed you!” he
announced.

“I missed you too,” she said, wrapping him in an embrace. 
Gloria had become like a grandmother to him within weeks of their move to
town.  

He finally pulled away from her, his eyes brimming with
enthusiasm.  “Did Mama tell you about the camel?”  His face grew serious.  “He
really banged up our house.”  He turned to his mother.  “Mama, you need to come
outside and take a look.”

Maggie gasped.  She’d forgotten all about the camel kicking
the house.  She should have hurried outside at first light.  She took a deep
breath and braced for the worst.  “I’d better take a look,” she told her
friend.  “Care to join me?”

Gloria gave a shrug.  “Why not?”

Maggie started for the back slider, just as the doorbell
rang again. 

“It’s Officer John!” Rickey cried.  “He brought me a picture
of the camel!”

Gloria gave Maggie a surprised glance.  “You’re really
serious about the camel…?”

“
Yes!
” Maggie said, giving her a chagrined glance as
she hurried to the front door.  She pulled it open and found John on her porch,
dressed in civilian clothing.  He held up one of the photos, as if to jog her
memory.  She smiled at the gesture and stepped back to allow him inside.

“Rickey is going to be so excited to see those,” she told
him, indicating he should walk into the family room.

There, she discovered that Gloria and Rickey had stepped
outside.  Gloria suddenly popped her head into the room.  “Maggie,” she said
seriously, “you do need to have a look at this.”

Maggie detected from her tone that there was something amiss
in the back.  She shot John an apologetic look.  “I guess the camel did some
damage yesterday.  I’d better have a look.”

He frowned with concern and followed her out of the house
and into the backyard.  He immediately registered Maggie’s alarm, when her body
tensed beside him and she gasped with surprise.  “Oh, my goodness!” she cried,
her eyes fixed on the number of deep dents and gouges on the siding of her
house.

John moved closer to the back wall, crouching down to assess
the damage.  He rose with a sigh and shook his head.  “Wow,” he said, giving a
low whistle.  “This siding needs to be replaced.”

Maggie sighed, wondering what she should do.  Should she
submit a claim to her homeowner’s insurance, or was the owner of the wayward
camel responsible for repairing the damage?

It was as if John read her thoughts.  “This isn’t your
responsibility,” he said.  “The camel’s owner, or even the folks at the church,
need to make this right.”

Maggie wrung her hands nervously, unsure what to do.  But
John was right.  The camel had ruined her siding and someone needed to assure
it was fixed.

“You weren’t kidding about the camel, were you?” Gloria murmured.

“
No!
” Maggie cried for the umpteenth time, and then
seemed to register that she hadn’t introduced her new best friend to John. 
“Oh, Gloria, this is John Dutch, John, Gloria.  Gloria and I work together at
the Employment Security Office downtown.”

John extended a hand in greeting. 

“It’s nice to meet you,” Gloria said, accepting his
proffered hand. 

“Do you have pictures for me?” Rickey asked, coming up
beside John and tugging on his jacket.

John smiled his way.  “I do.  I printed out several for
you.”  He passed them to the eager five-year-old.

Gloria appeared just as eager to see the photos, since she
hurried over to see them too. 

“Look, Gloria,” Rickey said eagerly, “this is the camel we
found in our backyard.  Isn’t he awesome?”

She winced.  “Well…”

John took a step closer to Maggie, who was presently examining
the damage and seeming uncertain as to how to proceed.  She turned to him and
shook her head.  “I … uh … wow.”  She aimed a finger at a particularly damaged
section of the siding.  “It looks pretty bad,” she sighed.

He nodded in agreement.  “It definitely needs to be
repaired.”  He checked his watch, but then appeared to remember something of
import.  “Is your husband working?” he asked.

She abruptly turned toward him, surprised by the question,
but realized he’d apparently seen the wedding band she still wore on her
finger.  Her right hand immediately went to her ring finger.  She began
nervously twisting the ring, unaware she was doing it.  She opened her mouth,
to respond to his question, when Rickey spoke up first.

“My daddy died,” he said, his face solemn. 

John’s face fell and his eyes filled with regret.  “I’m
sorry, I…”

Maggie waved off the apology.  Referencing her husband was
reasonable, in light of the ring still on her finger.  She did feel awful for
the look of anguish on his face.

“Well, what are we going to do about this siding?” Gloria
said brusquely, in an obvious attempt to change the subject.  “Frankly, that
camel can’t get away with creating this kind of damage… ”

“I agree,” John said, and checked his watch again.  He met
Maggie’s eyes.  “I’m going to call the station.  Offhand, I don’t recall the
name of the guy who owns the camel, but they’ll be able to pull my report and
get a hold of it for me.”

“Oh, okay.  That’s great.”

He went into the house, and Maggie followed a moment later. 
She found him sitting on the couch in her family room, engaged in conversation
with someone.  “Somebody needs to fix the siding of this house,” he said
firmly, and then paused, listening.  “Okay,” he said crisply, “I’ll run it by
the homeowner.”

He clicked off his cell phone, and turned toward her.  “I
ended up speaking to the owner of the camel, but he’s insisting he’s not liable
for the damage—or at least not entirely—because he says it’s not his fault the
camel managed to escape the field adjoining the church.  He says he’s a member
of the church and that he’s going to speak to the pastor and church deacons, in
order to determine who’s responsible.”

Maggie weighed the information with a downturn of her
mouth.  “I guess I’ll just wait and see what happens then.  Did he mention when
he might call back?”  She gave a grateful smile.  “Thank you so much for making
that call for me, by the way,” she added.

He smiled in return, seeming almost self-conscious when he
spoke.  “You’re welcome.”

She checked her watch, which prompted him to rise.   “Oh,
I’ll get out of your hair,” he said.

“Oh, no, I wasn’t…”  She smiled awkwardly.  “I was going to
say that it’s lunchtime.  Have you … eaten?”

He shook his head.  “I haven’t, but…”

“Have lunch with us!” Rickey cried, as he dashed into the
room.  “Mama, can we have cookies after lunch?  Gloria brought us all kinds of
good stuff.”

“I brought fudge,” Gloria stage-whispered for Rickey’s
benefit.

“She brought fudge!” he cried.

Maggie turned to John.  “She brought fudge.”

“Well, in that case, I’d be happy to join you all for
lunch,” he said, his eyes twinkling with humor.

“Well, have a seat everybody, and I’ll get busy making sandwiches.”

“Do you need any help?” Gloria and John asked in unison.

“Oh, no, I’ve got it covered,” she assured them.

Gloria ushered Rickey into the family room, where he
promptly began showing her a puzzle he was working on.  John surprised Maggie
by pulling up a stool at the kitchen island.  Having him within close
proximity, his eyes on her as she began assembling sandwiches, made her feel
self-conscious of her movements. 

It was odd having a man in her kitchen again.  She’d
prepared meals for Shane hundreds of times over the years, and often bemoaned
the drudgery of trying to figure out what to cook each lunchtime or dinnertime. 
Now, she would give anything to have another mealtime together with her
husband. 

Apparently John saw something in her facial expression,
since he asked quietly, “Are you okay?”

She glanced at him, her eyes widened.  “Oh, I’m fine,” she
assured him, forcing a smile.  She couldn’t very well tell him that having him
in her home made her think about her dead husband and that it was taking every
ounce of self-control not to break down crying. 

Lord, give me strength
, she
prayed silently.

When was she going to be able to move on?  When was she
going to be able to go about her day, without everything she laid eyes on
reminding her of what she’d lost?

She shook her head to clear it.  “Did you get much sleep
last night?” she asked John, desperate for neutral territory.

He nodded.  “Working swing shift, I usually get home shortly
after three.  I try to get to bed soon after, and try to get six or seven hours
sleep.”

“I’d try for eight,” she said, smiling.

“Well, I try, but I seem to do okay with six or seven.”

She furrowed her brow.  “So you work a longer shift then?” She
remembered that a customary swing shift was eight hours—typically three or four
in the afternoon until
midnight
.

He nodded.  “I work four days on, three days off, twelve
hours each shift.”

“Long days,” she mused.

“But the three days off make it nice,” he told her.  “And although
I work Friday night and into the early morning, I get the remainder of the
weekend off.”

She nodded and then passed him a sandwich.  “Gloria, Rickey,
lunch is ready.”

To Maggie’s surprise, Gloria picked up her and Rickey’s
plates and returned to the family room.  Fortunately, John missed the cheeky
grin she tossed Maggie’s way.

“We have a puzzle to work on,” Gloria explained, as she
rejoined Rickey on the couch.  The two ate their sandwiches bent over the
puzzle, with Rickey delighting at each successful placement of a puzzle piece.

Maggie reached for a stool and pulled it around to the other
side of the island.  It was a bit awkward, since the island top didn’t extend
out on this side, but she just didn’t feel comfortable sitting on a stool
beside John.  It was too close for comfort.  She hadn’t been this close to a
man since Shane passed.

Suddenly, John’s cell phone trilled and he pulled it from
his pocket.  He glanced at the number and gave Maggie a slight nod as he
answered it.  “It’s the owner of the camel,” he whispered.

He rose and left the room to take the call.  When he
returned, he made a frustrated face.  “I guess there’s some dissention as to
whose responsibility it is to fix the damage to your place.”

Maggie watched his face, as he gave a grimace.  “I’m afraid
the camel’s owner is busy for the next week or so, but says he’ll stop by at
some point to have a look at the damage.” 

“At … some point,” Maggie said, her face conveying her
surprise.  She was a patient person, but surely the camel’s owner understood he
had a responsibility to fix her house.

John gave a fatigued sigh.  “He suggested that you file a
homeowner’s claim…”

Maggie gasped, but followed by taking a deep, shoring
breath.  “I suppose I might as well.  I’m afraid, however, that after they fix
the place, they will go after his insurance to recover the repair costs anyway.”

John nodded.  “You’re right.”  He stood silently for a
moment, as if deep in thought.  “The weatherman is predicting cold and rain
over the next few days,” he murmured.  “I’m afraid water may manage to get into
the dents and gouges and cause even more damage.”  He scrubbed a hand over his
jaw, and his eyes widened as if he had an idea.  “I’ll fix the damage,” he
announced.