(advent) Tuesday, December 10

“Do we have everything?” Drew asked, looking over the back of his Range Rover. Molly frowned, looking from the back of the car to the list in her hand, and back again.

 

“I think so,” she said finally, after counting the boxes three times. “Unless Sue forgot to put it on the list.”

 

“Which means we’ve got everything,” Drew said. “Sue doesn’t forget things on her list. She’s better than Santa in that respect.” And he winked at Molly.

 

Better than Santa?? Schrodinger popped his head up over the seat back from where he and Jack had been lounging in the back seat. Is that possible?

 

“I don’t know,” Molly admitted. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her forget to put something on one of her lists, though.” She looked over at Drew. “There is one more thing, though.”

 

He frowned. “I hope it doesn’t take up much room. We don’t have much left.”

 

“It won’t.” Molly turned to Schrodinger and Jack. “We have to do the Advent Calendar before we go, remember?”

 

Oh, right! They both scrambled out of the back seat as she held open the car door, and ran back into the kitchen. Molly and Drew followed, eager to see what the calendar held today.

 

Schrodinger and Jack were peering at the calendar, searching for the elusive number 10. Finally, the CrossCat found it, curled in the branches of one of the pine trees, and pressed his nose to the painting, then stepped back.

 

But there was no snowflake, and they stared in confusion as the painting crumbled back from the point of contact. Molly peeked over their heads and blinked. “Look at this,” she said, reaching over and pulling out an envelope. On the front, it said, “Open me after the bake sale.”

 

“Well, I guess we’ll have to take this with us,” she said, putting the envelope into her coat pocket. “Maybe the calendar knew that the girls weren’t going to be with us.” She looked down at them. “Ready to go?”

 

The snow flurries that had been threatening all morning finally started drifting down as they drove towards the Daughter of Stars Middle School, where the annual Carter’s Cove Christmas Bake sale was held. Corinne had picked Lily and Zoey up at the elementary school, and they were waiting at the door to the gymnasium for them.

 

“What did the snowflake do?” Lily demanded, as soon as the Range Rover pulled up and the doors opened. “What did it do?”

 

Nothing, Schrodinger said, as he and Jack hopped out. There was no snowflake.

 

“What?” Lily and Zoey stared at him.

 

There was an envelope instead, Jack said. It’s in Molly’s pocket. We’re supposed to open it after the bake sale.

“Oh wow,” Lily said, but Zoey was staring at Jack.

What’s the matter, Zoey? Schrodinger asked, concerned. Are you okay?

She pointed a finger at Jack. “I heard him.”

What? Both Jack and Schrodinger stared at her, dumbfounded.

“I heard him,” she repeated, awestruck. “I heard Jack just now.” She looked up at Molly. “Is that really real? You have the envelope in your pocket?”

Molly nodded. “I do. Welcome to the Cove, Zoey. Looks like the magic has already started to work.”

“Wow,” Zoey said, and then hugged Jack. “I can hear you!” Then she giggled as he licked her face enthusiastically.

“Come on, we have cookies to sell!” Molly reminded them, pulling the first box out of the back of the Range Rover. “You guys get to watch the table while we bring everything else in, okay?” She paused to blow a strand of hair out of her face. “At least this year, they gave us tablecloths.”

“Which one has the trays?” Corinne asked. “The girls and I can set the trays out while you bring things in.”

“Awesome.” Molly handed her the box she had brought in. “We made sure to pack it last, so it was the first out.”

“Handy.”

By the time Molly and Drew had brought the rest of the boxes in, with Schrodinger and Jack supervising, the three had gotten out all the trays that Molly had brought, as well as the two clipboards with order forms and pens attached. Molly took the last box from Drew and set it on one of the chairs, then attacked the other boxes. “Scones go there,” she said, handing the box to Drew and pointing. “Lily, Zoey, can you put those out for me?”

While they did that, Corinne and Molly pulled out the sugar cookies, which Molly had packaged after the kids had left the day before. These went into a similar tray as the scones, and then she pulled out two large vases and put candy cane cookies in them.

“What’s in that?” Zoey asked, pointing at the box that was still sitting on the chair. “More cookies?”

“Kind of,” Molly said, going behind the table. She stowed the extra cookies under the table and pulled off her coat before finally opening the box. When she pulled out what was inside, both girls gasped.

It was a gingerbread house, but it was so much more than just a simple house. Molly had created a winter wonderland out of gingerbread, and Zoey leaned in to look. “What is it?”

“It’s the skating rink!” Lily said, clapping her hands. “It’s Indi’s skating rink!”

And it was. Molly had crafted the entire cove on Elizabeth River, complete with the small hut that Indi Sarabian sold hot chocolate and hot cider out of, the trees that lined the beach, and the benches where skaters changed into their ice skates. There was even a bonfire of gingerbread logs, with icing flames.

Molly grinned at their expressions and said, “Watch this.”

She pulled a small package from one of the other boxes, and set several small skaters on the iced pond. Then she pulled out several strands of Christmas lights, and set them up around the edge of the pond, just like Indi had done in her cove. Finally, she put a sleigh on one edge of the iced water.

“Now,” she said, and blew gently on the sleigh.

To Lily and Zoey’s delight, the lights went on, and the skaters began to move about the pond.

How did you do that? Schrodinger demanded, his ears lying flat against his skull in shock. That’s magic!

“It is,” Molly agreed, laughing. “Jade helped me, because she knew I wanted to do something special for the bake sale this year.” She touched the sleigh. “She sent this and said it would work. Any more of an explanation and you’ll have to ask her.”

“Who’s Jade?” Zoey asked, watching the skaters twirl around.

“The Snow Queen,” Lily said, her eyes getting even bigger. “She’s the most powerful magic user in the world.”

“Well, in the Cove, at the very least,” her mother said. “I’m not sure about in the world.” She looked at Molly. “Are you all set?”

“I think so,” Molly said. “Thanks, Cor. We’ll get everyone home tonight in one piece.”

“Good enough!” Corinne hugged both Lily and Zoey, then waved and went off to look at the other tables as they were being set up.

“Now, you four,” Molly said, putting her hands on her hips. “Are you ready to help me?”

They tore their gazes from the magical skaters and looked up at her.

“Good.” She went behind the table again and dug in one of the boxes, looking for the two small baskets she’d packed specially for the day. Once she found them, she came back out and handed one to each girl.

“What are these?” Zoey asked, looking at the small cellophane wrapped packages in the basket.

“Samples of the new peppermint scones and almond sugar cookies that I’m going to be featuring this year in the gift baskets,” Molly said. “Each little package is marked. You guys get to go and give them out to everyone. Just stay in the gymnasium. And come back when you need more – I’ve got a whole box full of samples.”

“Oooh, cool! Come on!” Lily grabbed Zoey’s hand and they ran off, followed by Schrodinger and Jack. Molly went back behind the table and sat down next to Drew, who handed her a mug of tea from the thermos that she’d brought.

“You are an evil woman,” he told her. “Samples? Are you trying to run everyone else out of business?”

“That’s why you love me,” she replied, blowing on the tea to cool it. “Besides, I’ve done the same cookies and scones in the gift baskets for the last six years. I’m a bit bored.”

“And a bored Molly is NOT a good thing.” Drew chuckled. “Well, I suppose I should taste test them too.”

Molly pointed out the samples box. “I should probably put some out on the table too,” she mused.

“You sit and drink tea. I can put samples out.” He ducked down under the table. “Did you bring another basket?”

“I think so?” Molly shrugged. “If not, don’t worry about it. We can wait until one of the trays is emptied.”

“Or we can just spread the samples out.” Drew suited actions to words, and soon had the small cellophane-wrapped packages strewn across the front of the table. “There, now you can get on with your master plan.”

“What master plan is that?” Molly asked, as he sat back down beside her.

“To take over the world one stomach at a time,” Drew said, pouring himself a cup of tea. Molly had brought extra mugs, and there was a thermos of hot chocolate for the girls as well. “I figure you will just threaten to withhold your baked goods, and we’ll all fall in to line.”

“Hmm, that’s a great idea.” She leaned back against him and pretended to consider it. “Do you think it would work?”

“You’ve got at least one willing servant right here.”

Molly laughed softly, her eyes following the progress of Lily and Zoey through the room. The bake sale hadn’t opened to the public yet, but there were a good thirty or forty vendors, and they all fell victim to the two adorable girls, the CrossCat and the hound dog. Of course, the fact that they had baked goods that they were handing out for free definitely helped.

“You have done a good thing, Miss Molly,” Drew said, putting one arm around her and pulling her close.

“We have done a good thing,” she corrected him, smiling again. “It was definitely a team effort.”

And then the bell rang, and she sat up, finishing her tea and getting ready to greet the hordes that were about to descend on them.

Descend they did, and Molly and Drew were soon both swamped with eager shoppers. At several points, Lily and Zoey reappeared and filled up their baskets again, and then vanished into the crowd. Schrodinger made sure that Molly at least saw them every once in a while, so she knew they were okay.

Not that they wouldn’t be. This was the Cove, after all.

Finally, all the trays and boxes were empty, the two clipboards totally denuded of order forms (and Molly blessed Sue again for keeping the number strictly controlled, or else she’d be baking for the rest of the month to try and get it all done), and she could sit down again. Lily, Zoey, Schrodinger and Jack had retreated behind the table to have their tea and hot chocolate and the sandwiches Molly had brought them.

When Molly joined them, Zoey said, “Wow, this was a lot of work!”

“Indeed,” Molly agreed, leaning over and snagging a half of a sandwich from the cooler. “You guys did awesome too. Did you see anything you wanted?”

Lily shrugged. “Not really. I’m sure Mom got some jam, but most of it wasn’t really interesting, to be honest.”

Lisa said she would keep four jars of the plum jam for us, Schrodinger told Molly. We just have to pay her.

“Four?” Molly said.

I like her jam, he replied loftily. And four means you might get some too.

She laughed and went to go and pay for the jam. Then they cleaned up, carefully repacking the gingerbread skating pond. “What are you doing with that?” Drew asked Molly, as she placed the magical sleigh in with everything else.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Aunt Margie was thinking of raffling it off at the store on Christmas Eve, but we can’t decide what to donate the money to.” She shrugged. “We’ll probably just end up donating it to the food pantry or something.”

“Raffle it off,” Drew said. “I think you could raise a lot more money for the food pantry.”

“We’’ll see.” Molly picked up one of the boxes. “Let’s get this packed up, and then we can see what the Advent Calendar has in store for us today.”

Lily and Zoey pitched in eagerly, and since most of the boxes were empty, the cleanup went fast. When they finally all stood out by the Range Rover, Molly pulled the envelope out and gave it to Lily. “Since it was supposed to be your day, you open it.”

The little girl slipped one finger under the envelope’s flap and opened it. The instant the flap was free of the rest of the envelope, something shimmered, and the magical snowflake danced up into the chill night air.

“It waited for us!” Zoey said, clapping her hands together. “What are we going to do, magic snowflake?”

In response, it spun and split into six snowflakes, which fell into Lily’s outstretched hand and turned into…

“Movie tickets!” she squealed in delight. “Look, guys, six movie tickets! For the Marshall Theater, tonight!”

We love the Marshall! Jack shouted, baying with delight.

Molly took the tickets from Lily before she could drop them, and the two girls grabbed each other’s hands and spun around. The Marshall Theater was in the heart of Carter’s Cove, and prided itself on catering to all the races in the Cove area, human and non. “Well, come on,” she said. “We’d better get moving, if we want good seats!”

They all piled into the Range Rover, and only then did Lily asked, “So what are they playing tonight? I didn’t even look!”

Molly chuckled. “It’s a Christmas specials night,” she said, looking down at the tickets. “That’s all it says. I guess we’ll find out when we get there.”

At the theater, there was a line, but it was moving briskly. Molly spotted the movie poster first. “Oh, look! They’re doing all the old ones that I remember from my childhood!” she said, delighted.

The movie poster listed, among others, The Year Without A Santa Claus, The Grinch (the original cartoon, Molly noticed with approval), a Charlie Brown Christmas and several others.

“We used to watch them too,” Drew said, nodding. “My granddad had them all on tape. It was a Christmas eve tradition.” His eyes were soft as he said this, and Molly realized he never really talked about his past, or his family. “I miss that.”

“I’ve got a lot of them on DVD,” she said now, linking her arm in his. “Maybe we’ll have to convince Nathan to let us choose the Christmas Eve movie this year.”

“And not watch Star Wars?” Lily looked shocked. “Bite your tongue.”

“You know, we could actually watch a Christmas movie on Christmas Eve,” Molly told her.

“No.” Lily shook her head. “It’s always Star Wars. That’s OUR tradition.”

Molly gave up, chuckling. “Only my brother would raise a geek like that,” she whispered to Drew, who chuckled as well.

Maybe we could watch both, Jack said reasonably.

They handed their tickets to Michelle, who grinned and said, “Enjoy! It’s fun to see them on the big screen!”

Drew pulled out his wallet and bought popcorn and soda for everyone, over Molly’s protests. “Let me spoil you,” he said finally. “Lord knows you don’t let me do it very often.”

“Let him spoil you, Molly,” came her uncle’s voice from behind them, and they all turned around to see Aunt Margie and Uncle Art in line. “We guys like to spoil our girls once in a while.”

She gave up in the face of united opposition, and they all went into the theater. Although she was sure the kids had all seen these movies before, since they were played on the television every year, Michelle had been right – there was something new about seeing them on the big screen.

At the end of the last show, Patrick, the owner of the theater, came out in front of them all and said, “I hope you guys all enjoyed this! I’ve got a special surprise for everyone under the age of ten now!”

“Ooh,” came the delighted response from the packed theater, as Michelle and the other ushers, wearing Santa hats, started down the aisles, handing out small wrapped packages to each of the kids.

“Open it!” Molly urged Lily, who had two in her hands. Zoey had two as well, and she gave one to Molly for Schrodinger.

“Oh, look! A Christmas ornament!” Lily said excitedly, holding the large ball up in her hands. “And it says the year and Mitchell’s Theater on it!”

Each of the balls were slightly different, and Molly realized they were probably hand-painted by Michelle, who loved to do things like this. “Now you really will remember this night,” she said, showing Schrodinger his ornament. “We’ll put this on the tree when we get home.”

“I love the Cove,” Zoey said happily, cradling the ornament in her arms as if it were a baby doll. “This is the best December ever.”

Originally published at The words of Valerie Griswold-Ford. You can comment here or there.