In the kitchen, busy as they were, they all stopped for a moment to listen to the wild laughter in the living room. Cisco looked at her son and smiled.
“Merry Christmas, Mom. Merry Christmas, everyone!”
“Merry Christmas!” the young people shouted from the living room.
Epilogue
Thirty-one Months Later
Loretta Cisco thought her heart was going to burst right out of her chest. Just two short years ago, she’d stood here with her family in exactly this same spot and watched the ground-breaking ceremonies for the new Cisco Candies factory. Now, she was here with her family, her dear friends, her employees and some of the town’s dignitaries waiting for her son Jonathan to cut the yellow ribbon that would signify Cisco Candies was, after a short hiatus, once more making candy. But this time they were making it in Larkspur, Pennsylvania.
The best part, she decided, was the old warehouse she’d purchased, then renovated for the company’s headquarters. On a good day, if the weather conditions permitted, and her knees held out, she could take Freddie for a walk and visit both places.
Her cup indeed runneth over.
She reached for Ezra’s hand. As Hattie put it, they were keeping company these days. She smiled because it sounded so wicked.
“It looks to me, Loretta, like your family is the happiest family in the valley these days. I’ve never seen your son so relaxed and contented. I’m thinking that’s because of Alice and those two pups of hers. Do you suppose they’ll marry?” Ezra asked.
Cisco looked up at her beloved mountains, all the way to the top of the tree line. “I think Jonathan is going to take it slow and easy this time around. The Trips gave their seal of approval, so that’s a plus. Alice is in no hurry either. They have a deep, comfortable relationship, the kind you and I have, Ezra.” Ezra nodded approvingly.
The Trips rushed over the moment the ribbon cutting ceremonies were over.
“The first shift starts at seven tomorrow morning,” Sam said. “I think John and Henry are going to sleep in the factory tonight. They’re arguing over which one is going to turn the switch on. I think it’s going to be Hattie because she looks like she has a secret. They do like to devil one another. It’s beautiful, Cisco. Everything is new and modern. All your employees are happy to be here, not to mention the hundred and fifty new employees from town. Best move you ever made, Cisco.” Sam wrapped his arms around his grandmother.
“I think so, too. We’re open and ready for the Christmas season. It seems strange to say that in the middle of summer. Are the orders coming in?” Her voice sounded more anxious than she intended.
“Hot and heavy,” Hannah said. “New orders are coming in every day. “We aren’t going to miss a beat.”
“Sending out all those brochures we had made up, all the renderings of the new building, was a stroke of genius on Hannah’s part,” Sara said. “She did it all. People like warm and cozy. People like comfort and stability. They love small towns. Customers like knowing we sponsor Little League and give out scholarships. It makes them feel like they’re part of our company. It’s a win/win situtation, Cisco,” Sara said.
“Well, I think Ezra and I can head back to the house now. I can see I’m leaving my company in good hands. I just wish you three would get married already,” Cisco sniffed.
“New Year’s Day is the big day. That’s just a few months away. You know what? I can’t wait myself.” Sara gurgled with happiness as her eyes sought out those of her intended. Joel waved.
“Sonia’s whole family is coming from the Ukraine for the wedding. They don’t speak any English. None,” Cisco said.
“Now, that’s where you’re wrong, Cisco. Sam is teaching them via the Internet. He said by the time they get here they will be fluent.”
“Want a ride home, Cisco?” Hannah asked, her hand in Zack’s.
“It’s magnificent, Mrs. Cisco. I want to thank you again for moving your business here. It would have been hard courting a girl who works in New York.”
Cisco laughed. “I kept that in mind the whole time.”
“Mom, are you leaving already? Aren’t you going to stay for refreshments?” Jonathan asked.
“No, son. You do the honors. You’re the boss now. Ezra and I have some things to do back at the house. I promised to bake him a blackberry pie. Freddie and Hugo are waiting for us.”
Her family watched her walk away, her hand in Ezra’s. Tears rolled down the Trips’s faces. Jonathan bit down on his lip so he wouldn’t cry the way his children were.
“Why do I feel like this is the end of something?” Hannah cried.
“Look, she’s just walking away from us,” Sara sobbed.
“She doesn’t need us anymore,” Sam said, his voice so choked up, the words ran together.
Jonathan finally found his voice. “She’s always been the wind beneath our wings.”
Alice did something then that stopped all of them in their tracks. Hands on hips, she eyed them one at a time. “Shame on all of you. How selfish can you be? These are not Loretta’s golden years. These are her platinum years. Didn’t you hear what she said? She said she promised to bake a pie for Ezra. Right now that’s the most important thing in the world to her. The dogs are waiting for them. She was there every step of the way for all of you. She gave you this,” Alice said waving her arms about. “It’s her turn now. It would be nice if you could be happy for her.”
Bug-eyed, the Trips stared at Alice. “You sounded just like Mom when you said that,” the Trips said in unison.
“That’s exactly what Margie would have said,” Jonathan said quietly.
Cisco turned around and waved. “See you on Sunday for dinner,” she called.
“Okay,” they shouted as one. “We’ll be there.”
And they would be there, because there is nothing more important in the world than family.
FERN MICHAELS RECENTLY TOOK TIME FROM WORKING ON HER NEW BOOK TO TALK TO US. HERE ARE EXCERPTS FROM THAT CONVERSATION.
Q: After forty-four best-selling novels, what inspired you to writeNo Place Like Home,your first holiday novel?
For starters, I’m the oldest kid I know when it comes to Christmas. I start planning in July. Christmas is a time when people are kind, mellow and a sense of family is on everyone’s mind. I’m as big on family as I am on Christmas. I also had a grandmother whom I loved dearly. Like Loretta Cisco, the grandmother in No Place Like Home, she lived in a little cottage, too. I guess I was trying to relive that time in my life in some way because it was so wonderful.
Q: Are the Michaels family holiday festivities anything like the Cisco family’s festivities?
Absolutely. We do it all. We start around four o’clock on Christmas Eve and go to whenever.
Q: Do you have a favorite holiday tradition you perform every year?
Yes. I have five children, three grandchildren and five dogs. I wrap up thirteen silly presents and hide them outside. I pray there’s no snow so tracks don’t show. It’s kind of like an Easter Egg Hunt at Christmas. For some reason, the kids consider those presents the most important ones. The dogs get in the act, too, because I wrap up beef hides and they can smell them.
Q: The taffy-pulling scene in the novel seems wonderfully authentic. Did you rely on firsthand experience when you wrote it?
Yes, but that’s what we used to do for Halloween when the kids were little.
Q: Is there a special holiday recipe you make every year?
My daughters always come over early and we start cooking. We make everyone’s favorite food. Being Polish, my family’s favorite is pierogi.
Q: What is your favorite Christmas carol? How about your favorite holiday song?
My favorite carol is “Silent Night.” My favorite song is “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” sung by Bing Crosby. And “Jingle Bells.” We really sing that one with a lot of gusto.
Q: Why do you frequently feature dogs as significant characters in your novels?
As a ch
ild I wasn’t allowed to have a dog. As soon as I was on my own, I got one. When I got married, I got more. They’re smart, they’re loyal, and they love unconditionally. I’m an Animal Rights Activist and do what I can for all kinds of animals. Dogs, though, are my dearest love.
Q: Going back to the subject of the holidays, let’s get down to brass tacks. Do you and your family open your presents on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve?
That is a biggie. When the kids were little, we did it on Christmas morning. When Santa got stuck in the chimney for the last time, we switched up to Christmas Eve. That was about thirty years ago. We pile all the presents in the middle of the living room early on Christmas Eve morning. The kids deliver all theirs and the mountain grows. After a big dinner, we start opening them, but the stockings and all their treasures have to wait until Christmas morning. It usually takes us four hours to open them all. It’s a ritual that everyone has to hold the present up, say who it’s from so everyone can oooh and aaah and then they go home and leave me with the mess. They pick up their presents Christmas Day when they come for brunch. That’s when it all gets cleaned up. We get two bites at the apple that way by looking at all the presents again.
Q:No Place Like Homeis set primarily in Pennsylvania. Your next novel,Late Bloomer,is also set there. Is that a favorite spot?
You bet. I was born and raised in Pennsylvania. Right at the base of the Allegheny Mountains.
Q: Your next novel is about…
A young woman who is searching for the answer to a tragic childhood accident that left her near death. In her search for the answers, she rekindles old childhood friendships. The only problem is…the childhood friends are all grown up now and those childhood friends have a secret. A secret they’re afraid to share with her. With the help of a fearless canine, a well-meaning geriatric trio (her grandmother being the ringleader), and the local police chief, our Late Bloomer plunges head on into ferreting out her friends’ deadly secret.
Q: What was the biggest challenge in writingLate Bloomer?
Sometimes a character takes on a life of his or her own. I couldn’t decide which of the good guys should end up with my girl. One of them wasn’t supposed to be as good as the other but in the writing, he turned out really nice. I didn’t have the heart to turn him into something else. I always fall in love with the main guys.
Q: Finally, is there one special wish you would like to have come true this Christmas?
Yes. It’s the same wish every year. It’s what all my kids wish for, too. We wish and hope that no more animals have to be put to sleep for lack of funding, and that they’re all safe and sound because they are God’s creatures, too. If I was allowed a frivolous wish, I’d wish for naturally curly hair.
Please turn the page for a preview of
Fern Michaels’s next novel
Late Bloomer
Coming in hardcover in
February 2003
from Atria Books
Chapter One
Brentwood, California
Twenty Years Later
Cady Jordan felt sick to her stomach and wasn’t sure why. She looked down at the pizza she was eating as if it were the culprit. She’d already consumed four slices. Two would have been enough. She couldn’t ever remember eating four slices, much less five. She dropped the wedge in her hand into the box. It wasn’t just a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach she was experiencing. She was jittery, too, her right eye twitching, something that only happened when she was under a great deal of stress. She sighed as she swigged from a can of Coca-Cola. Just what she needed, caffeine for her already jangled nerves.
Cady tucked her yellow tee shirt into her worn, faded jeans. Her favorite jeans. They had to be ten years old at least. Holes in both knees, the back pockets long since gone. She would never give them up because they were like an old friend. Like Pete, Andy, and Amy. She decided to make a fashion statement and tied a yellow ribbon she plucked from the doorknob around her ponytail. Now, she was ready.
The sounds of the movers seemed exceptionally loud to her ears. Maybe that’s why she was jittery. No one liked to pack up and move. She thought of all the hours she’d spent packing her belongings, being extra careful to wrap the dishes and glassware securely. Her books, mostly hard-cover novels and reference books, had taken up an unbelievable twenty-five boxes. Brentwood, California, was a long way from Indigo Valley, Pennsylvania, where her grandmother had grown up and returned to live after being away for so long.
The grunts and groans of the movers in the living room reminded her that she still had some miscellaneous packing to do before the movers left. She got up and took the last of the small appliances out of the pantry.
Her grandmother needed her, at least that’s what her mother had implied. Not that she really paid much attention to what her mother said these days. Then she thought about her grandmother’s age, and the fact that she’d been in the hospital. That alone couldn’t be good. It was time to pay her grandmother back a little for all the wonderful things she had done for her. Her grandmother had always been there for her, even putting her own life on hold to take care of her after her accident. Now it was her turn to put her life, such as it was, on hold. How could she not head back to Pennsylvania to help in whatever way she could?
If it wasn’t that her grandmother needed her, she probably would have stayed right where she was for the rest of her life. New places, meeting new people intimidated her. When she bought the house in Brentwood five years ago, she’d thought she was putting down roots. What she was really doing was picking a nice safe haven where she could work at her own pace and not have to get involved too much with people. Writing technical manuals for Integrated Circuits, Inc. part-time allowed her the freedom to choose her own hours as well as her own workplace, thus enabling her to work on her dissertation and still remain independent of her parents and grandmother. She might have thought she was putting down roots, but what could she possibly know about that process? She had never been rooted anywhere when she was growing up because her mother and father had always lived like gypsies, moving from town to town, preaching the gospel according to Asa Jordan.
On her eighteenth birthday, when her parents had announced they would be moving again, right after her high school graduation, Cady had made the decision to stay where she was, get a job, and work her way through college. She had graduated from UCLA with a master’s in English and was just months away from getting her doctorate. Now she would have to put that goal on hold.
At least she wouldn’t have to give up her job. Although writing technical manuals for a Los Angeles-based electronics firm wasn’t the writing career she had dreamed of, it paid the bills.
One of the movers popped his head into the kitchen. “That’s the last of what’s in the front, miss. Do you have any last-minute items you want to go into the truck?”
“Just this stool and a few boxes there by the pantry. I guess I’ll see you in Indigo Valley in seven days. You have my grandmother’s phone number, right? And the name and address of the storage company where you’ll be delivering my things?” The man nodded and she handed over a check and waited while the driver scribbled his name and logged in the check number and recorded the amount. He ripped off a yellow copy that said Recipient on it and handed it to her. She shoved it into her purse.
She could feel tears burn her eyes when the door closed behind the mover. How empty everything looked. She knew if she shouted, the words would echo around the entire house. Moving was such a sad business. She swiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt before dumping the empty soda can into the pizza box that she would deposit into the trash when she closed the door behind her for the last time.
The house, a 1930s California bungalow, was ready for its new owner, a young professor and his wife. She’d lucked out when she posted a notice on the university bulletin board and was able to sell the house without going through a Realtor. She’d also made a handsome profit in the bargain.
Now it wa
s time to go. Time to get into the car and drive cross-country. She wished she had a dog. She’d always promised herself that she would get a dog when the time was right. A lot of things could happen to a young woman traveling alone across the country. A shudder rippled up and down her body. Fear was a terrible thing. She should know, she’d lived with it almost her entire life.
The fear hadn’t entered her life gradually. It had grabbed hold of her when she’d woken up in the hospital to the agonizing pain, with no memory of what had happened to her. The fear had stayed with her for the next three years as she’d fought and struggled to learn how to walk all over again. She might have had a chance of conquering the fear had she been allowed to stay with her beloved grandmother but that hadn’t happened. The day the doctors told her she could leave, her parents had whisked her away.
And now she was returning to the town where she’d had the accident she couldn’t remember. Just the thought made her jittery and nervous. Or was it her fear returning all over again?
Cady stood in the open doorway staring at the empty rooms. She hadn’t entertained much while she’d lived there. That was her own fault since she didn’t have any real, true friends. She had a friend she jogged with. A friend she played tennis with and a friend she went out to dinner with on occasion. The plain and simple truth was, she preferred her own company to making small talk and pretending to be interested in people’s lives that were just as boring as her own. As for men friends, there had been a few. None of them made her want to walk down the aisle.
No Place Like Home (Holiday Classics) Page 12