Unwrap these Presents

by Astrid Ohletz

  She flipped the tag over, looking for an address, and stared in disbelief. Then she dropped the tag and looked at the cat accusingly.

  “You’re kidding me.”

  The cat sat, curling its tail around its feet, and stared up at her.

  “Your name is Jackie?”

  At the sound of its name, the cat got up again and rubbed against her. Half the water on its fur transferred to Robin’s sweater, but she hardly noticed. What were the odds that on the one-year anniversary of her aunt’s death, she’d run into a cat with the same name?

  “Okay. This is just a weird coincidence. But Aunt Jackie, just in case you’re watching from wherever you are, don’t worry. I’ll take your little namesake home.”

  She pulled her phone from her pocket and tried to get the cat to hold still while she read off the number. It took several attempts, since Jackie was determined to be petted, but she finally succeeded by stroking the cat with the back of the hand holding the phone while grabbing the tag in the other. She punched in the number and lifted the phone to her ear, petting Jackie as she listened to the rings.

  “Hello?” said a female voice.

  “Hi. My name is Robin Marsten, and I think I have your cat. A silver tabby named Jackie?”

  “Oh my God! You have Jackie? Where are you? Is she all right?”

  “She’s wet but otherwise fine, so far as I can tell. And she’s very pushy about being petted.”

  A strangled sound came out of the phone, and when the woman next spoke, her voice sounded scratchy. “Thank God! I’ve been so worried. She’s been gone for a week, I’ve looked everywhere, I thought she was—” She stopped with a gasp and cleared her throat. “Thank you so much for calling. Where did you find her?”

  “At the Dunes Hotel in Florence.”

  “In Florence? How did she end up there? That’s twenty miles!”

  Well, that answered one question. Robin looked down at the cat, who lifted a paw and curled it as soon as they made eye contact. “I don’t know, but I’d be happy to bring her back to you.”

  “I—” The woman took a shuddering breath. “I would appreciate that so very much. You’re incredibly kind, and you have saved my Christmas. No, you’ve saved my whole year. Thank you so much.”

  She began listing off directions to her house, and every time she mentioned a landmark, Robin said “uh huh” until Jackie’s owner finally said, “You must be a local. Do you live in Florence?”

  “No, I live in Bend. But my aunt used to live here. Right around where you are, it sounds like. Her house was on the edge of the cliff, but she sold it twenty years ago and retired to live near my parents and me.”

  “Oh, then I’ll just give you the address. It’s 238 Seacrest Drive. It’s a three-story—”

  “A-frame house at the end of the street,” Robin finished, shaking her head. “That was my aunt’s house.”

  “Wow. That’s kind of an unbelievable coincidence, isn’t it?”

  Robin petted Jackie the cat and said, “Not so unbelievable, actually.”

  * * *

  It wasn’t as hard getting Jackie into the car as Robin would have thought. She’d considered opening the door first, but didn’t want to take the chance that Jackie might jump off and vanish while she was otherwise occupied. So she carefully picked up the cat and petted her while holding her against her shoulder. When this went well, she continued the petting as she slowly stepped to the door. Jackie purred and seemed quite relaxed, not batting an eye when Robin shifted to a one-handed hold. As quickly as she could, she opened the door and sat inside, tossing Jackie onto the passenger seat and yanking the door shut before the surprised cat could react.

  “It’s okay,” she said, holding out her hand. “I’m taking you home.”

  Jackie sniffed her hand, rubbed her cheek on it, and then began exploring. Robin thought all hell might break loose once she started the engine, so it was probably best to let Jackie sniff everything beforehand. She didn’t expect the cat to jump up onto the dashboard and spread herself out there.

  “Uh…you sure you want to be there? You’re going to see everything. I don’t think cats are supposed to enjoy driving in cars.”

  Jackie began washing herself.

  “Okay, then. I guess you know what you’re doing.” Robin started the car, watching for any adverse reaction.

  Jackie lifted a front paw and cleaned it.

  “Right.” She let out the clutch, pulled through the hotel’s overhang, and headed back into the rain.

  It was a longer drive than usual to Aunt Jackie’s street, because she didn’t dare go around the sharp curves at her normal rate of speed. She was afraid of the cat sliding off her dashboard. For her part, Jackie occasionally stopped her bath long enough to gaze out the window at the darkening forest whipping by, but otherwise was focused on getting her fur back into top shape.

  Robin passed one familiar landmark after another and had to swallow a lump in her throat when she turned into the gravel lane, which was now marked by a tasteful wooden sign for Sitka House Bed and Breakfast. No vacancy, of course, because that would have been too easy.

  She’d never actually driven down this lane herself; it had always been her parents driving when they came to visit Aunt Jackie. She had been sixteen when her aunt sold the house, and deep down she’d always been a little angry at her for selling it so soon. Her adult side knew that the three-story house and large property had become too much for her aging aunt to care for, but her child side thought it was completely unfair that Aunt Jackie didn’t wait for her to get old enough to buy it herself. Never mind that two decades later she still couldn’t afford it. Property values had gone up a hell of a lot since then.

  “I still think you should have held it for me in trust and let me inherit,” Robin grumbled. “Why couldn’t you be rich like other people’s aunts?”

  Jackie stopped her bath and rolled onto her stomach, looking straight out the windshield with apparent recognition.

  “No, you send me a cat that gets to live in your house instead. I think you might have misread my wishes.”

  She came around a curve and automatically went to the side to avoid the huge pothole that had always been there, but the road surface was perfectly smooth. Interesting. That meant the current owners of the homes along this lane were working together to keep it graded and graveled. Aunt Jackie had often ranted that she was the only one who cared about it, but she couldn’t afford to pay for its upkeep by herself.

  When Robin pulled into the circular driveway at the end of the lane, she understood the state of the road. This, it turned out, was the Sitka House. Its current owner clearly had cash, because the house looked beautiful, so did the yard, and the circular drive was filled in with small, round river pebbles, not the sharp-edged, larger gravel of the road.

  She turned off the engine and opened the door, but didn’t even get one foot out before the cat tromped across her legs and leapt to the ground. By the time Robin managed to get herself out of the car and upright, Jackie was already trotting up the steps to the wide front porch. A sudden sweep of heavier rain sent Robin up the steps as well, seeking the protection of the porch roof.

  The front door opened and she had a brief glimpse of a woman with plush curves and shoulder-length, dark blonde hair before the owner of Sitka House leaned down and scooped up her cat.

  “Jackie! Oh thank God!”

  She hugged the cat with her eyes closed and a huge smile on her face, but then her expression crumpled and she began to cry.

  “How could you do that to me, you furry little twerp! I’ve been worried out of my mind.” Her eyes opened, and she managed a watery smile at Robin. “I’m sorry; I’m not usually like this. Please come in.”

  Robin followed her into the foyer, which had been turned into a mudroom with shoe benches and hooks for coats. She was reluctant to move farther with her wet shoes, but didn’t want to take them off when she wasn’t planning to stay.

  Jackie’s
owner walked a few steps into the living area, speaking to her cat in low tones and occasionally sniffling. After a minute, she put the cat down by a beautiful Christmas tree that had to be ten feet high and returned to the mudroom, her nose red but her face wreathed in a welcoming smile.

  “Robin, wasn’t it? I’m Evelyn.” She held out a hand. “It is so good to meet you. I can’t thank you enough for bringing Jackie back to me.”

  Her grip was firm. Robin smiled back, enjoying the brilliance of her blue eyes even through the leftover tears. Evelyn looked to be her own age, which was odd for a bed-and-breakfast owner. An inheritance, perhaps?

  “No thanks necessary,” she said. “Jackie sort of insisted on it.”

  Evelyn laughed. “Yes, she does that. She insisted on me adopting her, too. She just showed up last Christmas Eve, this bedraggled little adolescent cat that couldn’t have been more than six months old, but she had the attitude of a CEO. Ever since then, she’s run this place at least as much as I have. I can’t get over how good she looks, and she’s not even hungry!” She paused. “Is something wrong?”

  Robin tore her gaze away from Jackie, who was sitting in the middle of the living area and carefully cleaning her hind leg, toes reaching for the ceiling. “Um. Did you say Christmas Eve? You’ve had her for a year?”

  “Yes, why?”

  Robin shook her head. “Just a strange coincidence. Anyway, I’m glad everything’s turned out all right and that Jackie has such a good home. But I need to head back—”

  “Oh no, you can’t possibly leave yet. Surely you have time for coffee? Or tea? Or hot chocolate? I make very good cups of all three.”

  Robin hesitated. She was feeling slightly creeped out, but Evelyn seemed nice and really, it was all just happenstance, right?

  “Please,” Evelyn said. “You don’t seem to understand what you’ve done for me. I’m so grateful, and it wouldn’t feel right to just turn you back out into the rain after you came all this way. Stay for a while and let me make you something.”

  “Well, when you put it that way…”

  “Oh good! Now I usually serve in the dining room, but you’re practically family since Jackie adopted you, and besides, your aunt owned this house, so come into the kitchen.” Evelyn didn’t wait for a response, instead striding down the hallway and clearly expecting Robin to follow.

  With one last wary glance at the cat, Robin toed off her shoes and headed down a hall she hadn’t seen for twenty years.

  Everything was so different. She’d often fantasized about seeing this house again, but in her dreams it looked just as it had when Aunt Jackie had lived here. Now the only things she recognized were the wood floors, the moldings, and the classic staircase. Either Evelyn or some previous owner had made substantial changes, and transforming the foyer into a mudroom was just the start. The old wallpaper had been stripped and replaced with a brighter pattern, but only on the bottom half of the walls. Then there was a line of molding stained to match the stairs, and above that the walls were painted a creamy yellow. Aunt Jackie’s clutter of family photos and her own watercolors were gone, replaced with a few large and beautiful landscape paintings that Robin suspected cost as much as her mortgage payment. Recessed lighting had been installed in the ceiling, and there were even tiny lights flush with the stair steps, probably a safety feature for guests.

  When she entered the kitchen, she saw at a glance that the cheap, dark cupboards were now white with glass fronts. It would never have occurred to her to put glass fronts on cupboards, but it worked here and made the kitchen look larger and more airy. Even the huge window looking out over the sea cliff had been changed for one of the modern double-paned types, something Aunt Jackie had always said she wanted to do but couldn’t afford.

  “What’ll it be, then? Coffee, tea, or hot cocoa?” Evelyn turned with her hand on the new granite counter and looked at her expectantly.

  “Actually, coffee sounds great.”

  “Perfect. In that case I’ll join you. Hang on; I’m about to make a bit of noise.” Evelyn bustled around, spooning some beans into a small grinder and holding down the top as it chewed them up. Robin was already impressed; she just scooped the instant stuff into a mug and called it good. Who had time to grind their own beans?

  As Evelyn set a kettle to boil and brought cups and saucers to the light oak table by the window, Robin noted what appeared to be professional pans hanging from a rack and a set of spices that was easily ten times the size of her own. Evelyn must love to cook. Well, it made sense; she was running a bed-and-breakfast after all.

  She turned to look at the door she’d just come through and stopped breathing.

  “Ah, I see you’ve found the best part of the kitchen.” Evelyn came up to stand beside her. “I found that in the attic when I bought the place, along with a whole pile of smaller watercolors. I used the smaller ones in the guest rooms, but this needed a special space. And because it’s so long and narrow, it was perfect for going over a doorway. I’m sure you recognize the location.”

  “Yes,” Robin managed. “That’s Heceta Head.”

  “Right. All of the watercolors are of local landmarks, which made them perfect for the guest rooms. I never could find the artist, because she didn’t sign her whole name, and none of the gallery owners around here recognized the style. But I named Jackie after her.”

  Robin swallowed against the tightness in her throat. “Her name was Jackie Linderhall. She left almost all of her watercolors behind because when she moved, it was to a much smaller house that didn’t have room for all of her art, and my parents’ house was already full of it. The couple who bought this house from her said they loved the paintings and would take any she’d leave behind, so she thought they were going to a good home.” But somehow they’d ended up piled in the attic? That was so wrong.

  Evelyn was staring at her. “Jackie Linderhall…was your aunt?”

  The tears rose up without warning, and Robin couldn’t hold them back. She nodded and turned away, wiping the tears off her cheeks, but they kept coming. A light touch on her shoulder was probably meant to help, but it just made things worse, and she clamped her jaw shut against the sob that was trying to escape.

  “I’m guessing your loss is recent,” Evelyn said softly.

  “One year ago today,” Robin rasped.

  “I’m so sorry. What an awful time to lose a loved one, on Chr—” Evelyn stopped. “Oh. Oh. That’s the strange coincidence.”

  Jackie the cat chose that moment to appear in the kitchen, making a beeline for Robin’s legs and rubbing happily against them. Both women stared at her in silence.

  “Would you like a dash of whisky in your coffee?” Evelyn asked at last.

  “God, yes.”

  * * *

  The coffee was fantastic. Evelyn’s company was even better. She listened patiently while Robin spilled out story after story of her beloved aunt and the many times she’d been in this house as a child. They went through one refill each, and then their empty cups grew cold as the winds grew stronger, and still Robin talked while Evelyn listened. The storm was getting closer and Robin really should have been finding a place to stay, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. Whatever magic had led her here was making her unwilling to leave, and the purring cat in her lap was probably part of it. She felt warm, safe, and suffused with a sense of belonging. Even if she could only be here for an hour or two, she’d take that for all it was worth. The idea of getting in her car and driving back down to Florence grew more unappealing with every passing minute.

  At last Jackie jumped out of her lap and demanded food, after which Evelyn offered a tour of the house. Robin accepted immediately.

  They started on the ground floor, with Evelyn pointing out the changes she’d made and describing how things had looked when she’d bought the house four years ago. From the sound of it, nothing much had changed until she came along, though the house had gone through at least one other owner before then.

&n
bsp; Evelyn had very good taste, Robin had to admit. Everything she’d done had been an improvement, and in many cases it was what Aunt Jackie had always wanted to do. When she said as much, Evelyn’s face glowed with pleasure, turning her rather plain features into something altogether beautiful.

  They finished with the ground floor and went up the stairs, where Evelyn opened the door to what had been Aunt Jackie’s studio. Now it was one of the guest rooms, clearly empty of any occupant. Come to think of it, Robin realized, the two downstairs guest rooms had also been empty, and there hadn’t been any other cars in the driveway or the parking area off to the side.

  “Wait,” she said. “There’s no one here. But your sign said no vacancy.”

  “Ah. That’s just my little Christmas gift to myself. I don’t accept guests over the holidays. I know I could probably pack the house, but it’s not worth it. This is my time to relax and treat myself to some well-earned peace.”

  Robin looked around the room and tried to hide her disappointment. “Good for you. I think that’s a great idea.”

  Evelyn frowned; she must have heard the lack of sincerity in her voice. But she recovered and finished the tour with class and courtesy, taking them back downstairs after showing off the last of the guest rooms. Her own rooms were up on the third floor, and Robin understood why she was not extending the tour that far.

  They ended in the living room by the beautifully decorated Christmas tree, where Robin thanked her host for a lovely afternoon.

  “No thanks necessary,” Evelyn said. “You gave me the greatest gift I could ask for this Christmas. I hardly think a few drinks and a tour come close to the same value.”

  It was on the tip of Robin’s tongue to ask if maybe she could rent a room and they’d call it even, but she caught herself in time. Evelyn surely had plans for tomorrow and family to spend the day with, just as Robin would if she hadn’t informed her parents that she’d be at the coast this Christmas.