Christmas in Icicle Falls

by Sheila Roberts

  More, after all those years? “Well, honestly, a woman can’t manufacture attraction. You of all people should know that.”

  Cecily shrugged.

  “I don’t know why all three of you couldn’t have gone,” Samantha put in.

  They could have, probably. If Dot was paying her own way anyway, there was no reason Muriel couldn’t have just bought an extra ticket and truly made this a trip among friends. Really, though, it was better this way. Arnie needed to expand his horizons, do more things with other people. “I think he and Dot will have fun.”

  “Maybe something will happen between them,” said Bailey.

  “Oh, I don’t think so,” Muriel was quick to say. “Arnie and Dot are two very different people.” Arnie was quiet and refined; Dot was outrageous and often uncouth.

  “Opposites attract,” pointed out Samantha.

  “Not those two opposites,” Muriel said firmly. Samantha and Cecily exchanged smiles and that annoyed her. “I don’t know what you two are smirking about,” she said irritably, and all three of her daughters grinned.

  “Mom, I’m beginning to suspect you don’t want to share your special friend,” Samantha teased. “I wonder why.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Muriel snapped. “I was the one who suggested they go together. There’s nothing between Arnie and me. We’re good friends and that’s all we’ll ever be.” She wasn’t attracted to Arnie. Dot could have him!

  “Okay, whatever,” Samantha said. “But I think you should have gone to Germany.”

  Yes, she probably should have. Was Arnie interested in Dot?

  * * *

  Sienna normally worked Mondays, but it was parent-teacher conference week and her conference was scheduled for early Monday afternoon, so Pat had given her the afternoon off. She’d promised Leo that after her meeting with Mrs. Brown he could help her put up Christmas lights. He’d also begged to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas and she’d agreed, hoping the anticipation of a fun-filled afternoon would lift his spirits. His poor excuse for a father hadn’t bothered to call on Thanksgiving and it had left Leo feeling down.

  He wasn’t exactly happy that she had a conference with his teacher, either. And once she sat down with Mrs. Brown, she knew why.

  “Leo is a sweet boy,” Mrs. Brown began. “He always wants to help. He loves to help me collect and pass out papers, but...”

  Oh, no. Here came the but.

  “...we need to work on his concentration. He’d much prefer to clown around and put pencils up his nose or talk to his neighbor than work on his addition and subtraction.”

  Addition and subtraction. Other kids Leo’s age were on to multiplication and division and Leo was putting pencils up his nose. This behavior wasn’t anything new but it was still disheartening. Sienna heaved a sigh.

  “This is not unusual,” Mrs. Brown said gently. “Children with special needs often prefer to ignore dealing with unpleasant tasks. As do most of us,” she added with a smile.

  “I know. And I have talked to him in the past. I’ll speak with him again.”

  “He is making some progress,” Mrs. Brown assured her. “If you could work with him a little more at home, that might help.”

  “I’m doing all I can, Mrs. Brown, believe me.”

  The woman gave her a sympathetic nod. “I know. It’s hard. Don’t give up. And remember, he needs concrete examples and step-by-step direction. I’m sure you have other aspects of his life where you have to do this.”

  As a matter of fact, she did. Even simple tasks like taking a bath could get complicated. Leo needed to be reminded that washing his hair required another step beyond simply sudsing up his scalp. When she forgot to remind him to rinse it out, he often wound up crying with soap in his eyes. Setting the table was done with everything mapped out and she still had to stand over him when he loaded the dishwasher and supervise the process.

  “We have a lot of the school year left,” Mrs. Brown assured her.

  Sienna wasn’t sure whether to be grateful for that or depressed by it. She thanked the teacher and left.

  She saw Leo standing at Rita’s living room window when she went to pick him up, but by the time she got inside, he was hiding behind the couch. Rita had her toddler on her hip, and at the sight of Sienna little Linda squealed happily and reached for her, crying, “Si-si.”

  “Hello, my beautiful niece,” she said and took the child. She would have loved to have had another child, but that probably wouldn’t happen now with no husband in the picture. As a single parent, she felt that one child was all she could handle, especially when that one child had special needs.

  Still holding Linda, she walked into the living room. “You can come out now.”

  Leo’s head popped around the corner of the couch. “Hi, Mama.”

  “Have you been behaving yourself for Tía Rita?”

  He nodded but still stayed behind the couch.

  “How’d it go?” Rita asked.

  Leo’s head disappeared.

  “It could have been worse.” Sienna kissed the toddler’s head. “Your teacher says you’re a sweet boy. Is that true, my son?”

  Leo peeked around the corner of the couch and made a silly face.

  “And she says you’re a clown.”

  “I like clowns.”

  “That’s nice, but you can’t be a clown when you’re supposed to be doing your schoolwork,” Sienna told him.

  He frowned.

  “Tito will be disappointed if he hears you’re not paying attention in school,” put in Rita.

  The frown dug deeper.

  “But we’re going to work on that, aren’t we?” Sienna said cheerfully.

  Leo went back behind the couch and now Sienna frowned.

  “Remember, the teacher said what a sweet boy he is. I know a lot of parents who’d give anything to hear that from their kids’ teacher,” Rita said. “Come on out to the kitchen, have a cup of coffee.”

  “No, we should get going. The snow’s starting to stick and I want to get home.”

  “You’re good to go now. You’ve got snow tires.”

  “I also want to get my lights up before it gets dark.”

  “Okay, fine. Linda and I both should take a nap, anyway.”

  Sienna gave back the baby and summoned her son, and he reluctantly came out of hiding. She felt as though she should give him a stern talking-to on the way home and insist that there would be no more showings of Cars until he stopped clowning around in class. But really, clowning was preferable to tears. So instead, she hugged him as they walked down her cousin’s front walk and told him she loved him.

  “I’ll try harder, Mamacita,” he said softly.

  “You just try your best. That’s all anyone can do.”

  When she’d first left for her conference, only a few little snowflakes had been drifting lazily toward the ground. Now an entire army of flakes was falling, quickly smothering the street and adding to the thick blankets on the lawns.

  “It’s snowing!” Leo announced.

  Brrr. Maybe she’d rethink hanging her Christmas lights.

  Except Leo hadn’t forgotten that decorating the house was on the agenda. “Can we do our lights now?”

  “Yes, on one condition. You have to promise you’ll try to have a good attitude about schoolwork tonight.”

  Leo frowned. “I promise,” he said reluctantly.

  Once they got home, she fetched the boxes of lights she’d purchased earlier in the week. “This is going to look like Disneyland,” Leo predicted as he followed her out onto the front yard.

  Hardly, but it would look nice.

  The new snow had lured out many of the neighbor kids and they were racing back and forth through yards, throwing snowballs at each other. She c
aught Leo watching them, yearning to be a part of the fun. The last time he’d joined in, the fun had involved a baseball sailing through Mr. Cratchett’s living room window and it hadn’t turned out so well.

  Jimmy Wilson, a nice little boy who lived a few houses down, came running up to them. “Can Leo play?”

  Jimmy was one boy in the neighborhood who was kind to Leo, who didn’t see him as different. Jimmy was seven and Leo was nine. The age difference worked to Leo’s advantage.

  “Yes!” Leo cried. “Can I go play?” he asked Sienna.

  “Of course,” she said. Snowball fights were infinitely more exciting than putting up Christmas lights.

  The words were barely out of her mouth before he and Jimmy were charging off across the lawn. As far as Leo was concerned, snow was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

  Sienna smiled until she heard a boy call, “Here comes the retard.”

  Her jaws clamped together and her good mood evaporated. When Rita had suggested she leave LA and move to Icicle Falls, it had seemed like a good idea. Leo had been having trouble in school and she’d grown weary of the traffic, pollution and worrying about staying in a neighborhood that was becoming increasingly more populated with unsavory characters. A move to her cousin’s idyllic mountain town had seemed like the best solution, especially when Rita had painted a glowing picture of Icicle Falls. Gorgeous scenery, clean mountain air and a good school for Leo, friendly people.

  But Sienna had quickly discovered that a small town could be just as hard on a child’s psyche as a big city. It hadn’t taken the other kids long to figure out that Leo wasn’t as mentally sharp as the rest of them. Then the bullies had surfaced and the name-calling had begun, leaving him hurt and angry.

  She’d love to have aimed a snowball at whoever had just called out those hurtful words.

  “I am not a retard,” Leo cried hotly.

  Sienna turned to summon him back just in time to see Mr. Cratchett checking his mailbox, kids racing past him down the sidewalk. And here came Leo after the biggest one, a scowl on his face and a tightly packed snowball in his hand. He hurled it with all his might.

  And missed.

  His target danced away, laughing, even as the icy weapon beaned Mr. Cratchett on the head. Sienna watched in horror as Cratchett blinked, staggered and lost his balance, stumbling backward onto his lawn.

  Chapter Four

  Be sure to include that new family member in your holiday preparations.

  —Muriel Sterling, A Guide to Happy Holidays

  Laughing and whooping, the herd of boys moved on, taking their snowball fight to the other end of the street.

  Leo’s friend Jimmy stood for a moment, wide-eyed, and then he bolted.

  Leo simply froze in the street, staring in horror.

  “Leo, get out of the street!” Sienna called as she rushed to help Mr. Cratchett.

  An approaching car honked and Leo jumped and moved out of the way. He slowly approached Cratchett, who was struggling to his feet, and said in a small voice, “I’m sorry.”

  “Are you okay, Mr. Cratchett?” Sienna asked as she bent to help him up.

  He waved away her hand. “I’m fine, no thanks to your son. I could’ve broken my hip. As it is, I think I’ve sprained my wrist.”

  Oh, no. What if he had? What if he expected her to pay the doctor bill?

  Now he was upright again and brushing the snow off his backside. Leo tried to help him and was promptly told to keep his hands to himself. “You’ll get the doctor bill for this,” he informed Sienna. Of course she would.

  Just what she wanted for Christmas. “Absolutely,” she said. “I’m really sorry.”

  “You’re lucky I don’t sue you,” Cratchett added.

  Oh, Lord. She wouldn’t put it past him.

  “I didn’t mean to hit you,” Leo told him.

  “Well, you did. Didn’t you?” Cratchett snapped.

  “I didn’t mean to,” Leo repeated, tears beginning to make their appearance. “I was trying to hit Tommy Haskel.”

  “It’s okay, sweetie,” Sienna said, patting her son’s arm.

  Cratchett glared at her. “It is not! These kids run around throwing snowballs every which way, hitting innocent bystanders, and then you coddle them.”

  “He said he was sorry,” Sienna snapped, her mama-bear side showing itself.

  Now Leo began to cry in earnest and she hugged him.

  “You should be ashamed of yourself,” Sienna scolded Cratchett.

  “Me?” he protested. “Who’s the one who got hit?”

  At that moment a red truck pulled up to the curb. A large man with a dark beard wearing jeans, boots and a black parka stepped out of it. “Hey there, uncle. Making friends with the neighbors?” he said with a smile.

  Cratchett told him he was a smart-ass and stomped back up his front walk.

  This man was related to Mr. Cratchett? Poor him.

  “Don’t tell me, let me guess,” said the man. “You must be the killer of the juniper bush.” He had a deep voice and a nice smile.

  But Sienna was in no mood to smile back. “Your uncle is...impossible.”

  “Yes, he is,” the man agreed.

  “He’s made my life miserable ever since we moved in.” Why was she complaining to this man? As if he had any control over his uncle’s behavior?

  “It’s a gift.” The man held out a gloved hand. “I’m Tim Richmond.”

  She took his hand and shook it. His big hand swallowed hers and she felt a little tingle in her chest. Tingle bells, tingle bells... It’s been way too long.

  Oh, stop, she commanded herself. Anyone even remotely related to Cratchett wasn’t worth getting stirred up over. He was probably married, anyway. If he took off his glove, she was sure there’d be a sign of ownership there on his left hand.

  “Sienna Moreno,” she said, all business so her hormones would get the message. “This is my son, Leo.”

  “I saw him in action when I was coming up the street. That’s quite an arm you’ve got on you, son, if you can knock a grown man over,” Tim said with a wink.

  Leo looked at the man suspiciously and wiped his runny nose with his coat sleeve. “I didn’t mean to hit him.”

  “I know you didn’t. Don’t mind the old guy. He gets grumpy sometimes.”

  Sienna cocked an eyebrow. “Sometimes?”

  “Well, okay, a lot of times.”

  Now Cratchett had his front door open. “Are you going to get in here and fix my sink or just stand out there jawing all day?” he hollered.

  “I’m coming. Keep your shirt on,” Tim hollered back.

  “His shirt is on,” Leo pointed out.

  “So far,” the man said. He had a nice smile. He opened the passenger door of his truck, reached inside and pulled out a toolbox. “Don’t mind my uncle. He’s got issues.”

  As if that excused his behavior? “Well, I’m going to have issues before he’s done with me. Anyway, that’s no excuse for being rude to a child.”

  “He’s mean,” put in Leo.

  “Yeah, sometimes he is.”

  “Are you coming?” roared Cratchett.

  Tim scowled in the direction of his uncle’s house. “Shut the door, unc’,” he yelled. “I’ll be with you in a minute.” Cratchett’s door slammed shut and Tim turned his attention back to Sienna. “Nice to meet you. Maybe next time it will be under better circumstances.”

  “If your uncle’s around? I’m not holding my breath,” Sienna replied. “Maybe you can give him kindness lessons,” she said, adding a smile to show her grumpiness wasn’t directed at him.

  “Trust me, I keep trying.” He gave a friendly nod and then made his way up Cratchett’s front walk.

  Wouldn’t it be nice
to get someone like him for Christmas?

  Sienna pushed away the thought. Her life was full enough with Leo and her family and friends. Besides, Cupid hadn’t exactly come through for her lately. After her ex and the losers she’d dated since her divorce, she didn’t trust the little guy.

  “Come on,” she said to her son. “Let’s finish stringing our lights.”

  Putting up the Christmas lights was enough to make Leo forget his earlier misery. His sunny disposition quickly surfaced once the front porch and windows were glowing with multicolored bulbs.

  Sienna, too, was pleased with how pretty their house looked. There were certainly benefits to living in a gorgeous small town like Icicle Falls, and the home she was able to provide for her son was one of them.

  An older couple from the neighborhood strolled by and waved. “Your house looks lovely,” the woman called.

  “Thanks,” Sienna called back.

  At least most of her neighbors were nice. If only the Grinch would come along and steal Cratchett. Then they’d have peace on earth.

  * * *

  Once the guests had checked out, Mondays were often a quiet day at the Icicle Creek Lodge, and Olivia took advantage of that to run errands or go shopping in nearby Wenatchee. She usually tried to buy from her fellow business owners in town, but many of those shops were closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. In addition to that, while the town was filled with charming specialty shops that catered to tourists, as well as a grocery store and drugstore, it was lacking the malls or department stores the larger cities boasted. When a woman wanted new underwear or a nightgown, she had to look elsewhere.

  Today Olivia was in need of a new bra. She also wanted to do a little Christmas shopping, and this was as good a time as any to slip away and do it.

  She mentioned her intention to scoot off while she and Brooke were in the kitchen cleaning up after breakfast.

  “Would you mind if I come with you?” Brooke asked. “Eric needs some new jeans and I want to pick up a few things for the baby.”

  “Of course not. I’d love the company.”

  She always enjoyed spending time with Brooke. Her daughter-in-law was sweet and generous and she shared Olivia’s love of elegant home furnishings, fancy soaps and all things lavender, especially the lavender lemonade and lavender cookies to be had at Bailey Black’s tearoom.