Lola nodded, not knowing what else to do.
“Honey we’ve all been there. When you’ve got babies on the brain every headache, every unappetizing bite of food, every time you’re tired you think it’s a baby. But you’re not even trying yet. It’ll all work out.” She said, patting her hand reassuringly. “I’m Stephanie Callahan by the way.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Lola said, just as she recalled a vivid memory of sitting with a younger Stephanie and watching Little Women.
Chris appeared at the doorway. “Okay so I talked to Dr. Murphy and she says she’s going to come in and check you out, but we should be able to go as soon as she’s done.”
“Great… are we going to the ski resort?” Lola asked, afraid to name a specific place.
“Um I’m afraid we’re not going anywhere for a few days.”
Stephanie turned to him and said, “Oh… I was hoping this storm wasn’t as bad as they were thinking.”
“Storm?” Lola asked confused.
“Three inches of ice, and four inches snow and still coming down. We’re here to stay for a while.”
“Snow and ice? When I went in that gas station it was hot and drizzling. There was lightening in the distance.”
Stephanie laughed. “That’s when weather is at its worst. But don’t you worry. We might not have ski slopes, but you two couldn’t ask for a better holiday get away than here.”
“Did you call my mom?”
Chris looked at her with another look as if she’d lost her mind. “No. Why would I?”
“Oh… well it is Christmas.” She said, thinking to herself, “Apparently mama didn’t make it into our new and improved lifestyle.”
Dr. Murphy came in and gave her a final check-up before giving her the go ahead to leave.
Once they started out to Chris’s car Lola realized that he had her coat… or a coat that must be hers here though it was a brand she’d only ever looked at in the store. “Wait, do I have clothes?”
“The suitcases were already in my car so we could leave as soon as I got off work.”
“What happened to my car? And my handbag and my phone?” Lola said as panic seized her.
“It’s fine. As soon as you were found I logged in to the OnStar for your car and reported it stolen. The guys have been arrested and your stuff is all safe and sound at the police station.”
“Oh good.” Lola said, wondering what kind of car she had. Her real car certainly didn’t have OnStar. But in her real life Chris definitely didn’t drive a shiny black brand new Ranger Rover so who knows?
“Where are we going?”
“Well, they tell me Appleby’s B&B is straight out of a Hallmark card.” He said stopping and pulling her close to him. “Don’t ever do anything like this again. There was a split second between them telling me ‘your wife had been in a robbery’ and ‘she’s unconscious but she appears to be fine.’ In that split second my whole world stopped turning.”
He kissed her hungrily, and she sighed, feeling some part of her that had been missing shift back into place. “God I’ve missed kissing you.” She whispered.
He laughed and opened her car door. “It’s only been about ten hours since we kissed.”
“Ten hours too long.”
Chapter 3
“Remember the night we broke the windows in this old house? This is what I wished for.”… Mary Hatch Bailey
Lola looked inside of a large gingerbread house, expecting to find a family of gingerbread people at the kitchen table… and she wasn’t disappointed.
It was on the tip of her tongue to remark on how much Ethan would love that, but she caught herself. She’d awaken that morning in a panic trying to figure out where she was and what had happened to Ethan and the baby, but after closely inspecting the four poster bed and fire place in the bedroom she remembered that she was lost in some sort of elaborate dream. And then Chris woke her up in a way he hadn’t woken her up in a very long time and she decided she might just embrace this dream for a little while. After a pancake and sausage breakfast like she’d never had in her life, they’d dressed in their warmest clothes and set out to explore the picturesque town of Snowy Pines. Every storefront and display window brought back another memory and left her more convinced that she’d been here before.
“Mrs. Appleby said we had to go to the chocolatier. They have those giant chocolate covered strawberries that I love.” Chris said, swinging her hand as they walked down the street. Lola couldn’t remember the last time they’d walked down a street, any street, holding hands.
“Don’t talk about chocolate covered strawberries. They give me flashbacks to the ones at our wedding reception. That poor old woman, whose fence backed up to your grandmother’s lawn, who knew you loved them; said she could make the ones that looked like they were wearing tuxedoes. They were tragic!”
“They were delicious. Who cares what they looked like?” Chris reasoned.
“They looked like muddy-bloody-blobs. No one knows what they tasted like but you because no one else was brave enough to taste them.” She teased. “Of course our wedding was a bit of a DIY disaster.”
“I don’t remember it that way at all.” He argued.
“Come on, paper runner, folding chairs, taped music and a cake from the supermarket. Not to mention that everyone figured we were pregnant.”
“Shows what they knew.” He said, tightening his hand possessively.
“Yes we got married because we wanted to do the stuff that could get us pregnant.” Lola said sarcastically, though as it happened in real life it didn’t matter. Even though they’d been married right at a year when Ethan was born, no one could remember exactly how long they’d been married so when a baby appeared soon after they all clucked and pointed in disappointment.
“That’s not the only reason we got married.” Chris said, sulkily.
Lola shook her head. “Not by a long shot.”
He swung her around behind a Christmas tree on the sidewalk and kissed her before saying, “I loved everything about our wedding… even the muddy-bloody-blobs.”
They walked on and found their way into the chocolatier and Lola had to admit it was more than impressive. There were over a dozen aisles of glass display cases featuring elaborately tempered chocolate curls and ribbons and twists and twirls adorning apples as big as soccer balls, and marshmallows that were shaped like reindeer and rice-crispy treats shaped like trees and dipped in green-white chocolate decorated with red-white chocolate and white chocolate bits and bows and ribbons and stars. There were peanut-butter cups as big as saucers, and nut clusters in three difference shades of chocolate and every other variety of chocolate candy that Lola could or couldn’t have imagined. And strawberries… in every size, shape and design including perfectly tailored tuxedoes.
“Okay, just back the car up and pop the trunk… I’m filling it up with chocolate.” Chris said as his eyes danced like Ethan’s did when they decorated the Christmas tree for the first time every year. Lola laughed… and she was enjoying seeing Chris so lighthearted and carefree. But everything she saw was a pale comparison to seeing it with Ethan. Chris didn’t know what he was missing… but she did.
She turned away to hide her wave of sadness by looking at a display of chocolate cordials and caught a glimpse of her reflection in the glass. She still didn’t quite recognize her stylishly coiffed hair with professional highlights to accentuate her naturally blonde hue. And then there was her make-up which didn’t come from the self-serve aisle at the superstore. And her clothes… the outfit she wore at the moment cost more than her entire closet in real-life she could be sure.
“Lola?”
Lola turned at the sound of her name. “Lola, it is you.” Stephanie said, stepping forward to embrace her. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine. Good as new.”
“I’m glad we ran into you. I wanted to introduce you to my daughter-in-law. Kellany, this is Lola McCauley. Lola, Kellany Callahan.”
“It’s so nice to meet you Lola. My daughter is named Lola, but you just don’t hear of that many Lola’s anymore.” Kellany said, smiling politely, but with a blank expression.
“Uhhh… it’s nice to meet you too.” Lola said, feeling her insides churn with disappointment. Kellany was supposed to be the one with the answers. She was her anchor in this place where no one else was who or what they were supposed to be.
“This is my husband Chris.”
“Hi Chris. This is my husband Josh.”
Josh took her hand and stared at her for a moment. “You look so familiar to me. Have we met before?”
“Oh hush. He thinks he knows everyone. He insisted he’d met me the first time we met too.”
“As I recall you insisted…”
Kellany interrupted whatever he was going to say and asked, “So now are you the one who loved my cookies?”
“I am.” Lola said her voice thick with unexpressed emotions.
“Then you have to have one of my gourmet cocoas. They use my recipe here. Can we bring one back for anyone?” Kellany asked, pulling her away before anyone really had the chance to answer.
Once they began walking away Kellany exhaled deeply, and whispered, “Oh God Lola is it really you?”
“You know me?” Lola said, fighting tears.
“Of course I know you! Look at you! You’re all grown up and so beautiful. I really never thought I’d see you again!”
“What is this? Am I dead?”
“No… I don’t think.” Kellany answered nervously.
“You don’t think?” Lola shrieked.
“Shhh…Well the truth is, I don’t exactly know. But we can’t talk here. Can you meet me somewhere later?”
“Yes.” Though Lola wasn’t exactly sure how she’d get away from Chris, but she knew she had to find time to talk to Kellany alone.
“Are you staying at Mrs. Appleby’s?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I will swing by this afternoon at 3:00 to take you shopping for the ingredients for my cookies.”
“Okay.” Lola said, sighing with relief. “By the way. I know how to make your cookies. They’re the only homemade thing I know how to make, but I make them well. You taught me.”
Kellany smiled and touched her face. “I remember everything about it.”
***
As it turned out, it was easier to get away from Chris that afternoon than she’d planned. He still needed to email some documents for the brief he was supposed to file the day of her accident, and the Wi-Fi at the B&B was sketchy at best. He’d been told that the library was his best bet, so he was going to work for a couple of hours which left her free to meet with Kellany.
“Is it okay if I hug you?” Kellany said when they met in front of Mrs. Appleby’s.
Lola laughed and stepped into her outstretched arms. She felt as if she was coming home.
“Okay, now tell me what you know about this.” Lola said when they started walking.
“I don’t know anything for sure. But let me just tell you my story, and we’ll go from there. Sixteen years ago I was on a trip a few days before Christmas to reconnect with someone I knew when I was in foster care. This woman had an amazing Christmas Village that I adored when I was a little girl. Anyway, along the way I had a wreck and I woke up here – inside that Christmas village come to life. I knew every building, every lamp post, even Josh looked like my favorite figurine. I thought I was losing my mind, but I just kept being here… I met you and Josh and I fell in love… with both of you. And just when I’d decided I wanted to stay here I woke up in a hospital bed at Johns Hopkins. But here’s where it gets interesting. The woman I was going to see was there at the hospital. They’d called her because her address was in my GPS. She came to the hospital and tells me that the Christmas Village was a replica of her home town. Then she calls her grandson to come and check on me because he’s a doctor there and he walks in my room and it was Josh. He always said he couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew me so finally I told him he did know me. That we met in my dreams. We come home to Snowy Pines every Christmas and no one remembers me or anything that happened during those first few weeks. I’m just Josh’s wife from the city. I honestly thought that they were my dream and you were part of my dream. So what do you know?”
Lola sighed. “My memories aren’t as clear as yours… I was a little girl after all. But the best I can piece together, sixteen years ago my mom and I had a wreck. She went to rehab and I went in the hospital and took pneumonia. I was here in this hospital with you and Josh. Most of my memories were hazy till I got here, but they’re all coming back in startling clarity now. We had dinner at Appleby’s that you cooked and we went to the carnival and you gave me clothes. We spent a perfect day together decorating a tree that we cut down from the woods, and then you taught me how to bake cookies. And when we went back to the hospital Josh told me I was going home to my mom. I woke up the next morning at Johns Hopkins from an extremely high fever and found out I was going to be spending Christmas in foster care. I hardly ever even thought about that… I just thought it was a dream. But I’ve had a tough time lately, and I started thinking about it the other night when I was driving home from work. I’m a nurse at UMMC. I got lost, stopped for gas and directions and walked in on a robbery. I fainted and woke up here… but everything is different! Were you different when you were here before because I don’t think I was different?”
“Just my hair.” Kellany answered, clearly trying to think back.
“Your hair?” Lola asked skeptically.
“Yes. In real life I had short bright red hair. All my life I’d been coloring my hair ridiculous colors just so I wouldn’t look like my mom. But when I woke up here it was long and blonde. Then when I woke up in the hospital it was short and red again.”
“I have a five year old son and I’m fifteen weeks pregnant and Chris and I are separated… I woke up here and we’re childless and all honey-moony and rich because he’s a lawyer. We live in Inner Harbor! This outfit costs more than my entire wardrobe. I don’t get it!”
“Okay, slow down. I think we come here because we need to learn something. When I came here before, I came to meet you and Josh; to find out that I could fall in love and be a wife and a mother and all of those things that I thought I couldn’t do because my mother was such a nightmare. The truth is… I thought you were my daughter.”
“What?” Lola asked, looking confused.
“When Josh and I got married and I pictured us with children I always pictured us with you. And then we got pregnant and I had no doubt she would be a girl, and she’d be Lola and she’d be you. And she was a girl and she was Lola and she had long beautiful blonde hair, but somewhere along the way I realized she wasn’t going to be you. Don’t get me wrong… she’s the love of my life and the most amazing little girl on the face of the earth, but she’s her own person. Which means… I didn’t just meet you for me. I met you for you. So what did you learn from our last encounter?”
Lola thought about it for a moment and finally said, “I was safe… I mean my mother wasn’t like yours. I wouldn’t describe her as a nightmare. I loved her. I still love her dearly, and I know she’s always got my back. But I was never safe with her because she makes bad choices… men, drugs, finances. But with you and Josh I was safe. I learned what I wanted. I learned about the kind of love and the kind of family I wanted to be a part of and I was always different after that. I was different than the other girls in my neighborhood; set apart somehow. And so was Chris. And that’s the kind of family we have, like yours.”
A Trip Back to Snowy Pines (Book II in the Christmas Village Trilogy) Page 3