Tangled
Warm
Bohemian
Cozy
Eloise stared mournfully out the window. That stupid weatherman said it was going to snow! This is NOT snow! Eloise sighed heavily and leaned her head against the single paned farmhouse window. Fall had been brilliant, filled with bright colors and crunchy leaves. Then everything died. Now the hard ground was as gray as the sky and a heavy sleet tap danced across the rusting tin roof.
Eloise huffed loudly and stomped off through the house, her steps echoing against the scuffed wood floors. She flung the door to her mother's office open and crossed her spindly arms over her chest. "Everything is stupid here! Even the stupid weather!" she shouted.
Eloise's mother swiveled in her desk chair to face her errant seven year old daughter. Eloise's orangy-red hair was a tangled mess and one green sock peeked out of the left leg of patched trousers while her right foot appeared to be clad in fuzzy pink. Eloise stomped the pink clad foot and scowled at her mother.
Her mother's mahogany hair was pulled into a neat bun and kind brown eyes peered over the edges of wire rimmed gold frames. "Eloise, you know I do not like that word. I do not want to hear you say it again." She swiveled the chair back around and the familiar click-clacking of the old fashioned typewriter filled the room.
"I hate it here!" Eloise wailed, slamming the door and running noisily from the room. Virginia sighed. She had been the editor for a big time travel magazine in Orlando, Florida. Eloise had loved the sun and the beach and most especially Disney World. Their life in Florida had been a happy one. Then the magazine Virgina worked for had tanked and she had lost her job. She was unmarried and had no extra income. The magazine had filed for bankruptcy and she hadn't even gotten a severance package. She could barely feed the two of them with her meager unemployment checks and try as she might she just was not able to find a job. Then last month her unemployment ran out.
Two days after her last unemployment check had been spent on groceries the telephone jangled and a nice man named Tim Strauss was on the other end. He offered her a senior editor's job with The Maple Tree Herald in tiny Maple Tree, Vermont and sweetened the pot further by talking the retiring editor into selling her his old farmhouse at a very reasonable price. It was half the pay she'd been making at the magazine but Virginia couldn't refuse. She believed a bucolic town with a slower way of life would be good for Eloise. So they'd moved to Vermont.
Eloise had not wanted to move, but Virginia had regaled her with tales of snowy winters and roaring fires. Vermont was supposed to be snowy after all, and Eloise, being from Florida, had never before seen snow. Yet here it was, the fourth of December and it had yet to snow. The locals were baffled by the lack of snow. Just last week elderly Mrs. Espy who liked to sip coffee all day at the local bakery had clicked her tongue, "Virginie, I swear. So long as I have been alive Maple Tree has seen snow by the end of October. No snow in December! Why it's unheard of!" Yet here was December, and there was no snow. The weatherman had promised snow today, but sleet was what they'd gotten. No wonder Eloise is so upset. Virginia thought.
Virginia heaved her own sigh. Vermont was not what she had expected. She missed Florida too. She stood up and glanced at the growing stack of paper on the edge of her desk. She looked at the half finished page. It can wait, she thought. She marched out of the office and down the stairs.
"Get your coat and your galoshes Eloise," she said.
"I don't want to." Eloise said, crossing her arms again.
"And your hairbrush," Virginia continued, ignoring her daughter's surly attitude.
Eloise glared at her mother, but didn't budge. Virginia raised her eyebrows. Eloise huffed and stood with a dramatic affectation, putting her hand on her hip. She huffed her way down the hall.
Virginia buttoned her black wool peacoat and pulled her rain boots on over her shoes. Eloise appeared, thrusting a brush at her mother.
Virginia yanked the brush through Eloise's snarled hair, ignoring the yelps and whining that always seemed to accompany the use of the hairbrush. She zipped Eloise's puffy white coat and watched as Eloise pulled her pink galoshes on over the tops of her battered sneakers.
"Where are we going?" Eloise asked, curiosity finally overcoming her determination not to speak to her mother ever again.
"You'll see," was the only response she got.
Virginia loaded Eloise into the battered red pick up truck parked in the drive and edged her way slowly up the gravel road. She unfolded and attempted to smooth the somewhat crinkled directions scrawled untidily across the back of her grocery list. Go until you reach the fallen pine then turn left at the giant rock near the owl's nest. Virginia eyed the directions nervously and shifted the truck into third gear.
Virginia pressed the gas pedal to the floor and watched as the speedometer crept above 55 miles per hour. She twisted the big steering wheel and rounded a sharp curve. OHMYGAWD! There's the pine tree! Sure enough a long needled pine stretched its limbs languidly across the entire road. Virginia slammed on the brakes, the truck groaned in protest, and finally the came to a stuttering halt as the manual transmission stalled out. Virgina let out a startled squeak and Eloise giggled, "Cool!"
"Are you alright?" Eloise nodded at her mother. Virginia turned the giant key and the truck rumbled back to life. "Ok so there's the giant rock," Virginia muttered to herself, turning right onto a barely visible and very narrow dirt path.
She drove until she reached a wooden shack that was leaning sharply to the right. A large green wreath hung across a short door. Virginia rapped on the window and Eloise stepped behind her mother's legs.
A tall man with a bushy orange beard and sparkling blue eyes yanked the door open. "What?" he barked.
"We are in need of a Christmas tree and some firewood." Virginia stated.
The man slammed the door in her face. Virginia looked at Eloise. Eloise shrugged her shoulders.
"Well I never!" Virginia said. She raised her fist to pound on the door again, but just as she was about to knock the door was flung open.
The tall man barreled past her and stalked around the back of the shack. Virginia stood there with her mouth hanging open.
"Well are you coming?" the man's deep voice rang out.
Virginia grabbed Eloise's hand and stumbled down the steep path around the back of the house.
Several large Christmas trees sat around the yard in shining metal buckets and stacks of firewood leaned against the back of the ramshackle shack. The man pointed at the trees.
"Wow!" Eloise said, weaving her way through the trees. Virginia smiled. Finally, she'd done something right. A few moments later Eloise scampered back into sight. She ignored Virginia completely and grabbed the stranger's hand.
"C'mon mister!" she said, tugging him along behind her. Virginia smiled half-halfheartedly at the man who made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.
Eloise came to a sudden halt and Virginia ran into the stranger's back. "I want this one," Eloise demanded, pointing at a rather tall and bushy tree.
"That one is rather um...large, Eloise."
Eloise's bottom lip quivered, "Oh please Mommy."
Virginia shook her head but then she said, "Ok."
The stranger picked up the tree as if it weighed little more than Eloise herself and lugged it to her truck. He piled stacks of wood into the bed beside the tree and then held out his hand.
Virgina dug around her purse for her wallet and unearthed a hundred dollar bill. She thrust it at him.
"That's too much," he barked.
"Well it's all I've got!"
Virginia shoved Eloise into the cab of her truck and climbed behind the driver's seat, slamming the door.
The stranger ripped the door back open, "Move over."
"I will not!"
Eloise scooted over and eyed the man happily. Nobody talked to her mother like that. She liked it.
"Move over. If you're going to overpay me then I'm going to carry your tree inside for you," he said.
"Move over. If you're going to overpay me then I'm going to carry your tree inside for you," he said.
Virginia stared at the stranger, aghast. He waggled his bushy eyebrows at her and she reluctantly moved over.
"I live in--"Virginia started to explain.
"The old Crowley place. I know it," he said gruffly. He roared down the narrow path and onto the road, the truck bouncing along loudly. Virginia placed a hand on the roof, "You should slow down."
"You should loosen up," he responded.
He jerked the truck around the fallen pine tree and accelerated loudly up the hill and over the bridge. He downshifted into Virginia's driveway and was out the door and heaving the tree up the steps before she'd even had the chance to get Eloise unbuckled.
The stranger set the tree in the corner by the fireplace and rushed out the door. A clattering on the porch followed and Virginia was sure he'd stacked her firewood by the door. He reappeared and began poking about in her fireplace.
"Whatever are you doing?" Virginia demanded, peering over his shoulder.
"Starting a fire. It's freezing in here." He stacked wood and did some more poking and then blew between the stacked logs. Sure enough there was a flame and the flame soon turned into a blazing, crackling fire.
"Your hair is orange like mine," Eloise announced, tugging on the stranger's beard.
"Eloise!"
"What's your name anyway?" Eloise asked, climbing into the stranger's lap and examining his face.
"Earnest. And I suppose your name is Eloise."
"Eloise, leave that man alone." Virginia said. "I am so sorry," she apologized.
"His name starts with an E just like mine." Eloise said.
"Eloise, leave him alone," Virginia hissed.
Earnest smiled, "She's no bother."
Virginia's cheeks flushed. It's just warm from the fire she told herself, turning away.
"We should take Mr. Earnest back now Eloise. Come along."
"Can't he help us decorate the tree?" Eloise said.
"I am sure he has much better things to do than help us decorate a silly old tree." Virginia said.
"Actually I don't," Earnest said.
That's the end of Part I. I am not particularly happy with this story so I may either edit it or cut it completely and start from scratch tomorrow. Either way it's time to announce a contest! It is your turn to write your own story. There will be a very short (200 words or less) story contest announced next Wednesday. Keep an eye out for it!
No comments:
Post a Comment