“Was it locked?” he asked with concern.
She shook her head. “Since we back up to a park here, I like to leave it unlocked so Rickey and I can have easy access to the playground.”
“Our yard’s too small for a swing set,” Rickey said sadly. “At my old house…”
“Rickey,” Maggie scolded. “We’re thankful for what we do have.”
He nodded his head vigorously. “Yes, Mama. I am.”
“I take it you haven’t lived here long?” John said.
She shook her head. “We moved in a couple months ago. We’re still getting settled.”
“Are you new to town then?”
“Yes. We moved here from Eugene, Oregon.”
“Well, I hope you like it here.”
“I’m sure we will.” She gave a sheepish smile. “We seem to have gone off on a tangent. I still wonder how the camel got into my yard.”
“Maybe the gate wasn’t latched,” he speculated.
She nodded. “Maybe…”
“Well, there are no other large animals in your backyard. I’ll let you get back to your evening.”
Maggie suddenly remembered the time. It was after nine, and the party had started at eight-thirty.
“Is everything all right?” the officer asked her, watching her with concern.
“Oh, no, I mean, yes,” she said, giving a dismissive wave. “It’s just… One of my coworkers is having a holiday party at her home. It started a half hour ago, and I was supposed to bring cookies…” She gave a sigh. “My son fed them all to the camel.”
He smiled. “Well, he didn’t give them all to the camel. He gave me one too. The cookies were delicious. I can understand why the camel liked them so much.”
“Thank you.” She smiled self-consciously. “I guess I’ll just call my friend and bow out of the party. I think I’ve had enough excitement for tonight.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, goodness. I need to call the babysitter too. I should have dropped Rickey by over an hour ago, but in all the excitement, I…”
“I’ll let you get back to your evening,” he said, smiling as he turned to walk to the front door.
She followed and pulled it open for him. “Thanks again,” she said.
He nodded in reply and touched the tip of his hat. It was such an old-fashioned gesture, but made her heart give a jump. He really was handsome. She hadn’t noticed before, but he was very tall—towering over her by a good eight inches. His shoulders were broad, his waist lean. He looked great in his uniform.
She swallowed over a lump in her throat. She hadn’t had a response to a man other than her husband in years.
Her stomach twisted and a wave of sadness washed over her. Shane was dead and she missed him with the same intensity she’d felt when he first passed. She just couldn’t seem to let him go.
“I should get back to work…”
John’s deep voice penetrated, causing her eyes to snap to his. “Oh, yes. Thank you again.”
“Don’t forget the picture of the camel!” Rickey called.
“I won’t,” he assured him, smiling.
At the door, he gave another salute, and walked out the door and into the darkness. Maggie watched after him and felt an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach. She felt, almost–bereft. She couldn’t understand the reaction—and to a stranger, no less.
She suddenly missed her husband terribly. But he was gone. And he was never coming back.
Chapter Two
“Okay, son, we’ve had quite a night, but it’s time for bed. Let’s get your teeth brushed,” Maggie said.
“It was great!” Rickey cried. “I hope the camel comes back soon.”
Maggie laughed. She hoped the camel stayed exactly where he was.
“I’m just glad Melinda wasn’t too upset about me canceling her babysitting job tonight,” she said, grateful the teenager had seemed understanding of the situation. Of course, once she’d told her about the camel, she had forgiven the late call to cancel.
“Let’s say our prayers,” Maggie urged, as Rickey ran into his small bedroom.
The little boy promptly dropped to his knees beside his bed, where Maggie joined him. He recited his prayer first. After Maggie said a brief prayer, he leapt into bed.
“Scooch down and let’s get you covered up,” Maggie said. “It’s going to be a chilly night.”
Rickey snuggled down into his blankets. “What a great night we had. I bet we’re the only people in this town who had a camel visit—maybe the only people in the United States.”
“I’d bet you’re right and I’m glad you enjoyed it,” Maggie laughed, but abruptly sobered. “I’ll have to have a look at the back of the house tomorrow. I hope the camel didn’t do any damage.”
“We never had any camels in our yard in Eugene,” Ricky commented.
“True,” she said, and kissed him on the forehead and then padded to the doorway. “Sweet dreams, honey,” she said softly. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Mama.”
She’d no sooner left than Rickey climbed out of his bed. He ran to his bedroom window, which overlooked the backyard. It was relatively dark, but the park behind the house was well-lit with lamps. He strained to see beyond it, where he knew the animals from the live nativity scene were either sleeping or grazing. He couldn’t manage to see any of the animals and gave up with a sigh.
He returned to his bed, but rather than climb in, he knelt down beside it again. He put his hands together. “Dear God,” he prayed, “I just wanted to talk to you some more. I hope that’s all right with you. I know how busy you are. Well, um, you know, God, I would never tell you how to do your job or nothin’, but…”
He glanced heavenward, but then dropped his head again, resting his chin on his hands. “Um, well, God, it’s just…” He gave a sigh. “Okay, well, I’ll just come out and say it. God, I asked you for a daddy and…” He shook his head. “And you sent me a camel…”
***
Maggie padded silently down the stairs and to the family room. She glanced at the adjoining kitchen and sighed. It was a mess, with empty baking sheets stacked beside the sink, and ingredients strewn all over the island. Since Rickey had helped her with the baking, before the arrival of their unwanted guest, there was sugar and flour on nearly every nearby surface.
The broken plate was still lying in shards on the floor.
As much as she would have preferred leaving the mess for morning, she got to work cleaning up. She just couldn’t bring herself to leave dirty dishes for morning. There was something about waking to a tidy kitchen that always seemed to set her day right.
Well, for the last two years, her days had lost their ‘rightness’—regardless of the condition of her kitchen. Losing Shane when he was only thirty-three had been a blow she wasn’t sure she would ever recover from.
When he’d been injured on his job as a lineman, and she’d received the phone call alerting her to his accident, she had nearly collapsed from the shock. He hadn’t been electrocuted, nor had he fallen from the dizzying height of a telephone pole—her worst fears—but instead had been struck by a passing motorist. The drunk driver had veered off the roadway, striking him as he’d climbed down a pole. He’d been killed on impact.
When she saw the image in her mind’s eye, she still couldn’t bear it. She shook her head vigorously, to eject the painful memory. How was she ever going to deal with the loss of her sweet, kind-hearted husband, a man who had loved her and Rickey so well during their few years together?
Even tonight, when she saw the camel in her backyard, her first inclination had been to call for Shane. He would have known exactly what to do, just as he had always known what to do in any situation. He would have laughed, of course, but he would have then taken swift and decisive action. That kicking camel wouldn’t have stood a chance against her husband.
Lord knew, she missed Shane with her whole heart. She was about to face her second Christmas without him. The holiday season had always b
een his favorite time of the year. He was all about traditions—observing old ones and making new ones with his young family.
They had known a happiness together she feared she couldn’t possibly find again. And even if it were possible, she wasn’t sure she was willing to try.
With a sigh, she left the kitchen and dropped onto the loveseat in the family room. She tipped her head back and moved it from side-to-side.
If it hadn’t been for Rickey—and a deeply ingrained faith—she didn’t know if she could have gone on after losing Shane. Her little boy had just turned three when he passed. She wondered if he would retain any memories of his father, after having lost him at such a tender age.
Shane loved his son, with everything in him. Her heart broke anew remembering the dreams they’d had for their little family—a family that they had desperately wanted to expand. Only now, she wouldn’t have any other children with her beloved husband.
Maggie took a shoring breath. She refused to cry. Looking back at all the crying she had done in the months since his death, it was a wonder she had any tears left. But when one slid down her cheek, and then another, she knew she had plenty more in her.
***
John arrived back at the station around two-thirty in the morning, having nearly finished his twelve-hour swing shift. It had been a relatively slow night, though it hadn’t been without its highlights. Finding himself face to face with a hungry and volatile camel had been a first for him.
He strode into one of the offices the road cops shared with one another and laid claim to a desk. He settled his laptop in front of him, intending to complete a couple reports before he left for home.
Home.
He just couldn’t envision the small apartment he was residing in as home. Home had been the large two-story he’d shared with his wife of ten years—a home the two had had built according to a plan they had chosen together. They’d worked together on every aspect of their dream home.
Of course, he hadn’t banked on his wife falling for the architect they’d worked closely with over the course of his final year in the home. They had decided to add on a large, family room, as well as a second story office, and the architect had assisted them in the planning.
He’d certainly had no idea how close his wife had become to the man, until he’d arrived home from an overtime shift at work, to find his suitcases packed for him, and waiting just outside the front door.
He still shook his head at the memory—his wife ousting him from their house, without preamble—informing him in a voice devoid of emotion that she had fallen in love with someone else.
Remembering that early morning, he could still recall the crisp chill in the air, the sunny haze that promised the day would soon warm up, and the cheerful chirping of the birds in the nearby trees. His life had been shattered on a perfect spring day.
He laughed at the absurdity of his life. He was thirty-four years old and living in an apartment the size of a postage stamp, while his wife and her new husband were living in the home he’d built.
Looking back, he probably should have fought her—fought for her—but he’d been so blindsided by the sudden turn of events in his life, he’d been in a fog. But perhaps deep inside he’d understood that fighting for her would have been to no avail. Kim was perhaps the most stubborn woman he’d ever met. Talking her out of anything was akin to trying to talk that camel out of kicking the back of Maggie’s house.
A slow smile tugged at John’s lips. He suddenly envisioned that camel in the backyard of his former home, kicking the daylights out of the perfectly painted siding with the crisp trim. He saw Kim’s face—contorted in rage—as he imagined her chasing the beast around the yard.
Who was he kidding? The camel wouldn’t have stood a chance against his ex. Kim would have taken his service revolver and blasted the animal to kingdom come.
Maggie, on the other hand, had seemed to take the whole, ridiculous situation in stride. She managed to see the humor, maintaining a relatively cool head for her little boy. He wondered, was she married?
The errant thought startled him. He hadn’t looked at a woman since Kim divorced him, probably because he viewed the female gender in the same way he’d view a cobra—dangerous and ready to strike. He had to concede, Kim had hurt him deeply—cut him to the quick, really. When he’d married her, it was with the intent of spending a lifetime with her.
His parents had instilled sound values in him. He supposed his mistake was thinking his wife had embraced the same values.
He’d known they were opposites. Every one of his friends and family members had pointed out to him how different he and Kim were from one another. He was solid, quiet, and steady, her—volatile, boisterous, and prone to flights of fancy. He’d always told himself that they balanced one another out.
He should have listened to the words of warning from well-meaning people around him. He should have listened to his sister and brother, both of whom had taken him aside and offered counsel. They’d seen something in Kim he hadn’t. They hadn’t gone so far as to call her selfish, but had intimated as much.
With a sigh, he sat back in his chair. Was Maggie anything like his ex? Something told him, no, she was not.
He gave his head a swift shake. What was he doing speculating about Maggie? Suddenly, he recalled seeing a gold band on her ring finger. She was married. He had no business thinking about her at all. As a Christian, he lived by firmly entrenched principles, and fixating on another man’s wife certainly went against his belief system.
He was relieved when a couple of his coworkers entered the large office, laughing and joking with one another. Their arrival pulled his thoughts to more neutral territory.
He didn’t notice that one of his friends had something behind his back, until he pulled it out with a theatrical flourish. “Thought you might like to have this to commemorate your evening,” Steve said, with a twinkle in his eye.
John shook his head and chuckled. “How did you have time to buy that?”
“Hey, stores are open late for the holidays. I called my wife, and… Ta da!” He set a toy camel on John’s desk.
John lifted it up and studied it briefly, before returning it to the desk. “Never thought I’d see one of them up close and personal,” he related.
“Any idea how it got in the woman’s backyard?” the other officer, Jeff, asked.
“She has a gate that backs up to a park behind her house. It happens the park backs up to a field adjoining a church, where the live nativity scene is set up.”
Jeff nodded. “Yeah, my wife and I always take our kids over to see the animals every Christmas season.”
“I wonder what possessed that camel to venture into that particular backyard?” Steve said.
John gave a shrug. “The woman who lives there was baking cookies. The camel seemed fairly adamant that she feed it the whole batch.”
The officers laughed. “Well, here’s hoping the camel stays put from here on out. If it wanders into the wrong yard, it’s liable to get shot.”
John conceded the point with a nod, and then rose from his desk. “I’m heading home.”
“Don’t forget your camel,” Jeff said.
John smiled ruefully. “Thanks.”
He didn’t miss the curious looks from the few support staff still on duty at the late hour, as he walked past carrying the toy camel. He lifted the camel and gave a wave with it, while they chuckled in response.
When he arrived home, he entered the small apartment with a weary sigh. He set the camel on the dinette table, and gave another rueful smile. As he headed for his bedroom to shed his uniform and take a quick shower in the master bath, he realized he was wide awake. Normally, he went to bed within moments of arriving home, but he just wasn’t feeling tired now.
He took a shower and was about to head downstairs to watch television, but remembered his small digital camera in his shirt pocket. He retrieved it and crossed the room to a small computer desk. He sat down and pr
omptly loaded the photos onto a file and then viewed them.
He couldn’t help smiling at the photos of the camel. In one, it regarded him face to face, as if sizing him up. When he’d tossed it a cookie little Rickey had given him, the camel appeared to actually smile in gratitude.
The rest of the photos showed the handler leading the camel out of the yard and presumably back to the nativity scene. John had made sure to latch the gate when they’d left. He smiled as he recalled the little boy passing him a cookie afterward. “This one is for you,” he had told him.
For whatever reason, that little kid tugged at his heartstrings. He couldn’t figure out why, other than if he was being honest with himself, when he envisioned himself a father to a son, the kid was the spitting image of the little boy he saw in his mind’s eye. The kid really could have been his, with his dark hair and brown eyes.
He furrowed his brow. The boy’s father had to be dark, since his mother was petite and fair-haired. She was also blue-eyed and beautiful and he couldn’t seem to get the picture of her smiling face out of his mind.
He eased back in the chair and groaned, lifting his hands to either side of his head. He ran his hands through his hair, sighing at the feeling of emptiness that seemed to invade his heart. He knew he was being ridiculous, but something about the woman and her child had him pining for a family of his own. Had his life continued according to plan—his plan—he would already be a father to a child or even two. If only Kim hadn’t shattered his dreams. If only she’d meant her vows when she’d said them.
He sighed and rose from the chair, eyeing the photos of the camel again. No doubt the little boy was eager to receive them. He’d promised to deliver them, and he intended to fulfill that promise.
Chapter Three
When Maggie’s doorbell rang early afternoon the next day, she was struggling to finish up a long list of household chores. She hurried to answer the door. She found her coworker Gloria on her small porch, her arms leaden with goodies.
The Happiest Season Page 2