Things Remembered (40 page)

Jim laughed, not the polite kind, but a belly laugh. “I'll tell her—all of it. She was worried she might have gone a little overboard.”

They talked for a few minutes more and then said good night. Karla made herself a cup of tea and took it into the living room. Her feet propped up, her hands wrapped around the mug, she stared at the tree and thought about Christmases past and those yet to come.

Her tea finished, she picked up the bowls of popcorn and cranberries and went back to work.

Chapter

30

I
f you don't let me do the things I'm still capable of doing, what little muscle I have left is going to atrophy.” Anna followed the gentle rebuke with a smile as she struggled to get out of Karla's car.

“It's Christmas,” Karla said. “Chapter five of my good girl handbook says that during the month of December I have to be kind to surly shoppers and help little old ladies out of cars.”

“Well, since I've got years ahead of me before I'm a little old lady, you're off the hook.”

The humor helped ease the tension over having Anna released from the hospital days after either of them had expected. After a straight shot at recovery, she'd come down with a virus that settled in her lungs and had needed to be given oxygen again. Now Karla was caught between happiness at having Anna home and fear it might be too soon.

“Is that a tree I see in the window?” Anna asked as she leaned against the car door and waited to gather her strength.

Karla had purposely left the lights on when she went to pick up Anna, knowing it would be dark by the time they got home. “Mark and Cindy and I put it up to surprise you.”

She started toward the house, making the concession of holding on to Karla's arm. Before she started up the stairs, she paused to look at the other decorations—the wreath on the door and the pine swags attached to the porch railing with red ribbon. “How did you find time for all of this?”

“I don't know,” she admitted. “I guess when it's something you enjoy you don't notice the effort or how much time it takes.”

They slowly made their way inside. Karla took Anna's coat and purse and hung them in the closet before she led her into the living room. After uncounted hours of stringing popcorn and cranberries, she finally had the tree completed to her satisfaction and was anxious for Anna to see it.

“Oh, my . . . I don't think I've ever seen anything as beautiful,” Anna said in awe. “You must have spent days on this. And look at all those presents. Where did they come from?”

“Santa dropped by early.”

Anna gave her a scolding look before she moved closer. “Goodness, the popcorn and cranberries are real.”

“And I have the stained fingers to prove it.” She didn't even try to keep the note of pride from her voice.

“I used to talk about doing a tree like this, but never did.”

“Wait a minute. I only did this because I wanted to give you a Christmas like the ones you used to have when you were growing up.”

“I can see we have a way to go on the family history. Your great-grandmother wasn't the old-fashioned type. She was always the first in line to buy whatever was new. If those aluminum trees that revolved had been around when she was, she would have had one for sure.”

Karla laughed. “So much for tradition.”

Anna looked at her, her eyes grown misty. “But don't you see? You've started your own. You and Cindy and Mark. And you've made me a part of it by having your first tree in my house. Nothing could have pleased me more.”

Karla put her arms around Anna and gave her a long hug. “Welcome home, Grandma.”

“Thank you, sweetheart. You've made it a real home for me again.”

Two days later, on Christmas Eve, Karla was about to give up on the book she'd been reading and turn out the lamp on the nightstand when she heard a car pull into the driveway. She listened to see if it was just someone turning around, but instead heard a car door slam.

Puzzled at who would be there at ten-thirty at night, she put on her robe and went downstairs. She looked through the window and saw Grace struggling toward the house, her arms overloaded with packages. Hit with conflicting emotions, Karla simply stood and stared rather than immediately going out to help. She was as happy to see Grace as she was concerned about how and why she was there. The packages were in keeping with her excessive personality, which was fine in itself—but how had she paid for them?

In the end, nothing mattered more than the fact her little sister had come home for the holiday. Karla opened the door and was greeted by a rush of cold air. She pulled her robe closer, huddling into the collar and said, “To say I'm surprised to see you would be the understatement of the year.”

“Then don't bother,” Grace said. “Just tell me you're glad to see me.”

“Of course I am.” She took the most precariously balanced presents and followed Grace inside. “Grandma will be beside herself when she gets up tomorrow and finds you here.”

“I know I should have called, but I was on standby and wasn't sure I would get here at all. As it was, I had a seven-hour layover in Denver.” She put the presents under the tree, shrugged out of her coat, and gave Karla a hug. “But as you can see, I didn't let the time go to waste.”

It took a second for what she was saying to sink in. As Karla plugged in the tree lights, she took inventory of all the presents and said, “You mean you bought all this stuff at the airport?”

“I didn't want to come empty-handed, and there wasn't any time to shop before I left. We've been filming all day every day.” She stood back to admire the tree. “It's beautiful.” She came forward again and ducked, and bent, and stood on tiptoe to look at individual ornaments. “There's my angel . . . and my teddy bear. Oh, and there's Heather's cowboy boots. Remember the year she ran for Miss something or other and was supposed to sing the thing about riding the range but then started choking when she tried to yodel and had to be taken off the stage? Grandma was furious with the organizers and bought those boots for Heather as a consolation prize. I'm not sure whose idea it was to put them on the tree, but it wouldn't be Christmas around here without them.”

Karla did remember, but only from Heather's letters. She'd been a sophomore at college at the time and indignant that Anna had let Heather enter a beauty contest, let alone that she'd thrown a fit when Heather didn't win.

“I'm not staying long,” Grace said. “I have to leave again in the morning. It was the only flight out of here that was guaranteed to get me back to work in time. It seems hardly anyone flies on Christmas day itself, but every other day between now and New Year's is booked.”

“What time in the morning?”

“Eleven-thirty. But don't worry, I can take care of everything myself, you can stay here and have Christmas dinner with Anna just like you planned.”

“You came all this way for one night?”

“Yeah. Kinda dumb, huh?”

“Damn it, Grace. Just when I think I've got you figured out, you do something like this.”

She laughed. “Don't worry. I'll be back to being my old self-centered pain-in-the-ass self by the next time you see me.”

“If you're leaving tomorrow, I guess we're just going to have to get our visiting out of the way tonight. I'll fix us some cocoa and we can—”

“Cocoa?” She made a face. “Don't you have anything stronger?”

Karla thought a minute. “I saw some sherry in the back of the cereal cupboard, but there's no telling how old, or how good, it is.”

“As long as it hasn't turned, I don't care. Anything's better than hot chocolate.”

Karla found the sherry and poured them each a glass. They both agreed it was pretty bad, but drank it anyway. When they were curled up in opposite corners of the sofa, Grace held her glass out to Karla. “Here's to the old, and the new, and the good things yet to come.”

“I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of good things to come for the Becker sisters next year.”

“Like?”

“Your show is going to be a big hit.”

“Oh, no. If you're going to be passing good thoughts my way, don't make it those. What you have to do is hope the show fails but that I get outstanding reviews that will lead to bigger and better roles in films.”

“But wouldn't that be easier if the show was a hit?”

“The show sucks, Karla—stupid premise, terrible writing, bad acting. The last thing I want is for it to be a success and be tied down for seven years. I'd be typecast in a role that has nowhere to go.” She took a drink. “I have to admit it's nice for once to have more money coming in than going out. Which reminds me—” She reached for her purse. “There's something I want to show you.” She handed Karla a slip of paper.

Karla looked at it for several seconds but didn't see what Grace plainly wanted her to see. “What is it?”

“I'm paid up on the car for a year. I'll take care of the next year as soon as I get my next check. Three more after that and the car is mine.”

Planning ahead was a major step for Grace. “That's fantastic. You must feel as if you're really accomplished something.”

“Oh, please. I didn't do this for me, I did it for you. If it had been up to me, I would have stretched the payments as far and as long as they would go.”

“Well, you're right about one thing. It does make a great Christmas present, for me at least. Thank you.”

“You're welcome.” She poured herself another splash of sherry. “Now tell me about you and Mark. I assume if he's half as smart as he looks, he's still hot on your trail.”

“He is.”

“And?”

“It's getting serious.”

“Serious like he's talking about setting up practice in Solvang, or like he's arranging to take a couple of weekends off to come down to visit?”

“I love him. And he loves me.” Grace's delighted reaction was everything Karla could have hoped for. “Pretty cool, huh? Here I had my whole life planned out as a single woman and he walks in and changes everything.”

“With a little girl in tow.” Grace pulled her legs up, wrapped her arms around them, and put her chin on her knees. She looked young, and vulnerable, and ethereally beautiful. “A very lucky little girl, I might add. She's going to be getting a great second mom.”

“I hope so. I think about what's ahead on that front and can't imagine how Grandma coped with the three of us. Especially with me.”

“Ha—you were a walk in the park compared to me. You were long gone by the time I started rebelling and didn't have to witness the hell I put her through. I remember being so embarrassed when she would show up at school that I never brought home any of the notices about parent-teacher conferences or open houses. She was ancient compared to my friends' mothers, and I didn't want her anywhere around them or me. God, I'd give anything to take back all the pain I must have caused her.”

Grace was finally growing up. Karla liked the woman she was becoming. “Being here when she wakes up tomorrow is a good start. Of course she's going to tell you that you shouldn't have come all this way for only a few hours, but she's going to be very happy that you did.”

“And what about you?”

“It makes me happy, too,” Karla told her.

“I wish Heather were here.”

Karla had been thinking the same thing. She'd told herself not to dwell on the future, to stick to one day at a time where Anna was concerned, but there was no way around the fact that Anna was not going to be with them forever. “If I make the arrangements for the rest of us to be together for Easter, will you promise to do what you can to be here, too?”

“I promise,” she said without hesitation. “Whatever it takes, I'll be here.” She leaned forward to put her glass on the coffee table. “You know . . . you could save me a second trip if you and Mark arranged to get married at the same time.”

Karla laughed. “We've got a lot of things to work out before that happens.”

“You don't want to wait too long. You're not getting any younger, you know.”

“Thanks for pointing that out.”

She grinned. “No problem. It's what us younger sisters are for.”

Karla stood and stretched. “It's time this old woman went to bed. I've got a long day ahead of me tomorrow.”

Grace stretched, too, and yawned. “First tell me if you've told Heather about Anna yet. I don't want to answer the phone in the morning and have it be her and let something out that I shouldn't.”

“Bill did it for me last week. She wasn't nearly as upset as we thought she would be. Probably because I agreed to drop Anna off at her house for a visit when I go back to Solvang.”

“Is Heather still trying to talk Grandma into moving in with her?”