The Ghostly Hideaway (18 page)

“Here’s a set of three cashmere sweaters that I
think are beautiful. Do you know what size she is?”

“The last pictures they sent—about six months
ago—she looked about the same size as Mom and she’s about your
size. What size do you wear?”

“I guess about a size thirty-four in a blouse. Is
Sean about your size? I’ll bet he would love this leather
jacket.”

“What do you think, Grandmother?" When they turned
around, Lydia was nowhere in sight. They were a wee bit concerned
and began to look all around to see where she had got. They were on
the verge of being totally alarmed when they found her nearly a
half hour later in front of a gift wrap counter loading gaily
wrapped packages onto her wheel chair.

“Grandmother, we were getting worried about you. We
thought you were right there with us and when we turned around you
were gone.”

“Listen, Kids, I’ve been taking care of myself for
longer than the two of you put together have been alive. I think I
can do it for a few more days. Anyway, how am I supposed to shop
for Christmas with people sticking to me like glue?" They noticed
one of the tags on a package had Sean’s name on it and another had
Janet’s name. Johnny realized she had taken his suggestion and he
was glad.

When they had carried in all the packages—all of
them wrapped at the store—they began to bring in the groceries,
decorations, and everything else. Lydia took an electric candle and
set it in one of the front windows and Johnny and Chrissy put one
in each of the other three windows. Next, they climbed the stairs
and decorated the windows on both the second and third floors. Soon
all the windows had a lighted candle.

“Let’s go out front and see how it looks,” Chrissy
suggested. When they had run out past the front porch and saw how
terrific it looked, they went in and urged Lydia to come look,
too.

“It does look ‘welcoming’ don’t you think? I want
lights wound around both of these bushes on either side of the
front door, too, and I bought a wreath for the front door. That
should make it almost say, ‘Come in and join us at this happy
season.’ I didn’t know I had missed this so much; this celebration;
the decoration and all the trimming and everything. I feel like I’m
alive again after being in hibernation like a cross old bear.”

“We’re going to need a Christmas tree, too, Johnny.
Where shall we put it, Grandmother? We’ll have a better idea what
size to get if we know where it will be set up.”

“Come, I’ll show you. If we put it in that corner
between the front window and the side window, it will show up from
both sides of the house. You’d be able to see it coming up the road
from the side window and when you’ve turned the bend down there
coming up the driveway you can see it from the front window.
Okay?”

“It’s perfect, Grandmother.”

Chrissy had never realized how much their house and
Grandmother’s house were alike. They were both three stories high
with a wide front porch at the front and on both sides of the
house. Where the Thorne house had dormer windows, though, theirs
had two turrets with curved fronts in the front center on both the
second and third stories. Grandmother’s house had windows on all
four sides, though, and looked much more like a southern plantation
mansion. The west side of the Wroe house, though, had only blank
walls because of the secret passage.

“This house looks like a picture postcard,
Grandmother,” Johnny said as he threw his arms around her and
hugged her tight. “I’ve never thought of it that way before;
probably because we never use the front rooms at all. We’ve mostly
used just the kitchen, the breakfast nook, and our two bedrooms.
Mom will be proud to see it looking as grandiose as when she was a
young girl. She would tell us kids about what a showplace it was
and what wonderful parties you had here. She would tell us about
the graduation party you gave her when she graduated from high
school with all the streamers and lights indoors and out where you
had set up a dance floor and had music for her and all of her
friends. She dearly loved this place. I know she’ll be happy to see
it again. You and Chrissy have done a wonderful job of fixing it up
and cleaning it up for her homecoming. Thanks to both of you.”

“I—uh—I wasted many, many years. I wish—“Lydia had
trouble saying what she wanted to say but they understood anyway
and they both urged her to sit on the couch and they sat on each
side of her while the tears flowed. Only moments later, though, she
wiped her eyes with her fists and smiled up at them, brightly, if
somewhat watery. “But that’s in the past and the past is gone.
We’re going forward! I love you both so much. Now, since we’ve got
a lot still to do, we’d better get to it.”

On the Friday night before Christmas, Johnny and
Chrissy had a night out planned. Johnny wanted to take her out to
dinner and there was a play at the Theater Workshop they wanted to
see. They did go to dinner at O’Charley’s and then back to the
Executive Inn Rivermont for an evening of love. It was only their
second time together but it was even more special than the first.
Chrissy had been especially apprehensive the first time. This time
she was looking forward to their time together and they had a
thoroughly enjoyable evening to say the least. They knew this could
very well be the last time until after their wedding. With Sean and
Kathleen there, it would be difficult if not impossible to get away
by themselves. And they made the most of it. They still kept their
intention of being home by eleven. When they got back to Chrissy’s,
no lights were on in the house, and they spent a few more minutes
in the car before she went in.

“Just think, Hon, my folks get here tomorrow. It’s
been almost three years since I’ve seen them and I never expected
them to be here unless Grandmother passed away. Now I’ll have them
all together again with everybody happy. If I had wished for a gift
for Christmas, that would have more than fulfilled it. Speaking of
Christmas gifts, I wanted you to have this to wear tomorrow.”

“Johnny, we said my ring would be my Christmas gift.
What’s this?”

“Open it and find out,” Johnny suggested.

“My goodness, Johnny, are those diamonds? Real
diamonds? Oh, Baby, I’ve completely run out of superlatives. This
is—this is—what can I say? Thank you so much!" He clasped the
necklace around her neck and the three gems sparkled against her
chest.

“The three diamonds are for ‘yesterday, today, and
forever’ and that’s when I’ll be loving you." He kissed her
tenderly and was about to open the door when she remembered her
gift for him. She dug it out of her purse and gave it to him.

“It’s nothing even close to what you’ve given me but
it comes with all my love.”

“And that’s worth more to me than diamonds or gold
or anything." He opened it and smiled to see that it was also a
neck adornment—a gold chain. She, in turn, fastened it around his
neck, they kissed again, and she went inside.

Christmas Eve dawned cold and cloudy. Not too many
people were up around there, though, who saw the dawn. Ed had been
up late the night before. In fact, it was after four o’clock when
he had crawled in bed. He had had to wait until Chrissy and Johnny
got home to start taking things out of his shop and setting them
up. As soon as Chrissy went in the house—he nearly froze waiting—Ed
began to carry things out to the front lawn. He was really pleased
with his efforts as well as being proud of the new stuff he had
tried. For the last several months, he had been doing research and
creating patterns for what he wanted to construct. Now he carried
out the little rough shelter that would house the manger. When the
manger was in place, he carefully placed the small hand-carved Baby
on the hay he had purchased from Frank Tinsley. The other figures
were one-dimensional cutouts of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the
wise men, and all the animals. He had two sheep and a baby lamb; a
donkey; two oxen; and three camels. In addition, two angels
appeared to hover above the shelter where the manger set and in the
center at the back was a small pipe, at the top of which rested a
large star. He had fashioned the star from wire and screen mesh for
the center. When a button was pushed, the star seemed to shine of
itself and spotlights located some distance away illuminated the
whole scene beautifully. The cutouts were all painted meticulously
on both sides and the full effect was stupendous. Ed had every
right to be proud.

When he finished, he got in his work truck, loaded
up more stuff, took it to Lydia’s house, and set up the same scene
for them. He was almost afraid he would be caught setting it up but
he had no interruptions and finished his work by about
three-thirty. The only thing left to do was the wiring work so that
it would actually light up. He’d have to go inside to do that. He
planned to do that later in the morning after he could figure
everyone would be up. He wanted it to be working properly before
Johnny’s family got there that evening.

About nine o’clock he dragged himself out of bed.
Penny hadn’t waked him. She knew he had worked late last night; she
didn’t know exactly what time he came to bed but she knew it was
quite late. After breakfast, he took his electrical tools and
walked up the hill to Lydia’s house. Johnny was at the back of the
house coming in with a pail of milk when he got there. Through the
window, he could see that Lydia was at the stove cooking. He got
Johnny’s attention without Lydia knowing he was there and told him
to take the milk in but without alerting Lydia, he needed him to
come out the front door and help him with something. A couple of
minutes later Johnny emerged from the house and nearly dropped in
surprise.

“It’s great, Ed. Did you do this all by yourself?
The painting and all, too? I didn’t know you could do anything like
this. It’s unbelievable! They look completely authentic and the
Baby; it’s not just a cutout; you hand-carved this. It’s superb,
Ed.”

“I didn’t know if I could do it or not. But I found
pictures and made patterns and well, there it is. It looks even
better lit up. Can you help me run the wiring? I’d prefer that your
Grandmother see it for the first time when it is lit up." In about
twenty minutes, the star and the spotlights were shining brightly.
Then Johnny went inside to get Lydia. When they came back out, Ed
was nowhere in sight.

Lydia was totally entranced. “Who in the world did
this?” she asked incredulously. This is fabulous!”

“This is Ed’s gift to us for Christmas, Grandmother.
He wanted it to be something unique that he had put his own time
and effort into and this is it. I had no idea he was doing it. It
is great, though, isn’t it? And it will be even more spectacular
after dark. With the lights on it will probably show up from a long
way off. I’d say it might be visible from the main highway but
certainly from halfway up our road.”

They finished breakfast and Lydia called Ed and
Penny to say how much she loved the nativity set. Penny was
thrilled with the one at her house; but she hadn’t known that he
made one for Lydia, too. He was such a sweet man. And she knew he
had put many hours of work into it—painstaking, backbreaking work.
She was definitely surprised and delighted with the most unique and
thoughtful gift.

That afternoon Johnny was having a really difficult
time disguising his excitement in knowing that his folks would be
there soon. They had expected to arrive around six o’clock and they
had insisted they would stop for something to eat before they
came.

“Grandmother, would you mind if we eat a few minutes
early this evening? I don’t know why my system wants food this
early but it does. I don’t want a lot; just a sandwich would be
fine if you can eat this early. I might go down to Chrissy’s for a
few minutes if you don’t mind. I guess I’m feeling a wee bit
restless.”

Grandmother agreed to eat early, by five-forty-five
they had eaten, and Johnny had cleared the table and put everything
away. He had gone to the living room and checked to be sure that
everything was still as it should be. The Christmas tree they had
cut, set, and trimmed did look gorgeous and he had all the gifts
they had bought under the tree, including his special gift to
Grandmother. He had purchased a round-trip ticket for her to go to
Ireland with his folks when they went home. He had wanted Lydia to
see what a happy home his mother had in Ireland and some of the
sights that were his birthright.

Johnny slipped on his jacket and went outside. It
was already dark and he wanted to see if the Christmas scene Ed had
made looked as magnificent after night as he was sure it did. Then
he wanted to lure Grandmother outside so she’d be handy when his
folks came. He went in, got her coat, and entreated her to come out
with him.

“Grandmother, let’s go out front and look at the
Nativity Set and get a good look at it after dark.”

“Okay, but I thought you were going to Chrissy’s,”
she said as she put on her coat. Johnny looked at his watch: five
minutes before six. He hoped they were on time.

“I may after a bit but I do want to get a good look
at our Christmas gift at night." He did hope he was timing this
right. He was so anxious and excited he could hardly contain
himself.

He opened the door for Lydia and they walked out on
the front lawn with him steadying her so she wouldn’t slip. He felt
something on his face and, looking up, he realized it was snowing.
Oh, please, don’t start snowing until they get here. Oh-oh! I
see a car turning into our driveway and starting up the hill. Thank
goodness, Grandmother is engrossed in the scene. She hasn’t noticed
the car lights, yet. I can hear the car engine, now. She’ll be
hearing it any second.

“Johnny, what is that noise? Is it an airplane—?
Why, it’s a car coming up the driveway. Who would be coming to
visit on Christmas Eve?”