Merrily Yours : An 80s Christmas Novella

by Jessica Marie Holt

  Then, the snowman, and only the snowman, buzzed back to life, flooding the yard with light again. She looked up and saw that angry eyebrows were drawn on its round, smug snowball face. As she watched, sparks shot out of the bottom of the decoration. One fell to the ground, setting a dry blade of grass on fire. When the tiny flame fizzled out, June shut the blinds.

  She snuck out of the room and called Ellie’s house from the kitchen phone. Ellie answered groggily.

  “Ellie, it’s me,” June said, in a loud whisper. “I’m sorry to call so late, but I can’t take it anymore. I have to do something about that snowman. Are you busy Saturday night?

  “Um, no?”

  “Good, because I have a plan, but I need your help. Are you in? Please say you’re in, so I can sleep tonight.”

  “Sure, June. Whatever you need.”

  “Good. Good. Thank you, Ellie. You’re the best.”

  June crept back into bed. Henry slid his arms around her, and she fell asleep. All was right with the world. Or it would be, very soon.

  Twelve

  June

  “Just like I told you,” said Ellie triumphantly.

  June sipped terrible punch from her plastic cup and looked around. The middle school gym still looked exactly like a middle school gym, except for a few small changes. A swath of white balloons covered the ceiling, potted plants strung with white lights sat in the corners, and dark blue crepe paper lined the lower half of the wall, dotted with glittering white snowflakes and scrolled with the words “Winter Wonderland.”

  Refreshment tables lined one end of the gym, draped in white tablecloths, with silver balloons floating from them. June and Ellie were stationed at the punch bowl; it was their job to pour the stuff into cups for the kids and hand them napkins for the inevitable sticky spills.

  The boys stood bunched together on one side of the room, cutting up, laughing, and making crude noises. The girls stood on the other side of the room, huddled together in groups, talking, giggling, and pointing at the boys. Music played from a speaker system underneath a basketball hoop, but no one was dancing.

  “They’ll dance eventually, once one of them is brave enough to do it first,” said Ellie. June nodded absently, scanning the crowd of girls for Cynthia. She spotted her and smiled. She stood at the center of a small group of girls, laughing and talking, and showing them the sparkling lip gloss she had convinced June to let her wear.

  Her dark pin curls—the ones June had carefully rolled up in strips from an old T-shirts the night before—perfectly framed her pretty face. She wore the red, crinkled, puffy-sleeved dress and red jelly shoes she had chosen at the mall, and she looked every bit the young lady she was clearly becoming.

  June heard a click and a whirring sound, and she turned to find Ellie pulling a picture out of her Polaroid camera.

  “Here you go,” she said, handing the photo to June. “So you can remember this always.”

  “Thank you,” said June. She waved the photo back and forth until she could see Cynthia’s smiling face in it, then put it in her purse.

  “Look, there’s Miss Simmons!” said Ellie. June looked up and saw the teacher in a floral Laura Ashley dress, her long hair pulled back on each side of her head with barrettes shaped like flowers. She was looking around shyly, idly tapping the cup of punch in her hand with one finger. “Do you see Frank, though?” Ellie craned her neck to see better.

  “Ellie, why are you looking? You have no idea what he looks like.”

  “Oh, true.”

  June looked around, herself. “He was on the list of chaperones, so he should be here. Oh, there he is. About as far away from Miss Simmons as he can get.” She shook her head.

  “Oh, he’s handsome!”

  “He is!”

  “And she’s so pretty.” Ellie sighed. “They belong together. I feel it in my bones.”

  June laughed. “I’m sure you do. So, we’re going to stick to our plan, right?”

  Ellie nodded. “It’s a good plan.”

  June wasn’t entirely sure about that. They had cobbled it together hastily over coffee the day before, after June told Ellie about everything that had happened between Frank and Miss Simmons—or Anna, rather—at June’s house, and they both agreed the pair was in dire need of help.

  While she wasn’t totally confident in the plan, she did like Ellie’s optimism, and doing something seemed a better option than doing nothing.

  “Okay, I’m ready,” she said. “Are you?”

  “Yes.”

  June stood in front of the punch bowl table while Ellie ducked down and fussed with the table leg.

  “All set,” said Ellie.

  “Okay,” said June. “You go talk to him first. Just keep him distracted so he’s not looking over here. We don’t want anything to seem engineered, so neither of them should see me talking to the other.”

  “Got it. I’ll tell him I dropped my contact over there, and we’ll look on the ground for it.”

  “Okay, great. I’ll talk to Anna in the meantime.”

  Ellie walked away quickly, and when June saw she had gotten Frank’s attention, she waved Anna over.

  She walked up to June with a smile and greeted her warmly.

  “Thank you again for helping Frank the other night,” June said.

  “No thanks necessary. I’m just glad it all worked out, and Frank got his ball back. Even if …”

  “Even if what?”

  “Even if Frank isn’t totally happy with me, and the way I went about things.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She waved her hand in the air. “Oh, nothing. It doesn’t matter anyway. He’s just a parent of one of my students. We don’t have to be good friends or anything.”

  “I don’t know,” said June. “You seemed pretty friendly with you the other night. I even thought …”

  “Thought what?” asked Anna, her blue-green eyes hopeful.

  “I thought maybe you were more than friendly.”

  Anna’s face fell. “I thought I saw something there, myself. A spark, you know? But I’m worried I messed everything up before it even started.”

  June considered her next words carefully. “I wouldn’t give up hope just yet.”

  “No?”

  “No. Sometimes things seem personal, but they aren’t. And sometimes people can seem angry or sad, but they’re really just afraid. If you’re patient and persistent, things might just turn around for you.”

  “You think so?”

  June leaned in closer to her. “I do.”

  “I feel better now,” Anna said. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  June saw Ellie coming back toward her, just in time.

  “Oh, Anna, this is my friend, Ellie. Cynthia was telling me that you were looking for set design ideas for the school play.”

  “Yes, I am!”

  “Good! Ellie is an artist, and she also did summer stock theater in college. I’m sure she’ll have some useful input for you.”

  “Great!” said Anna.

  “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go to the ladies room,” said June. Ellie managed to turn Anna away from the table, and June quickly, yet casually walked over to where Frank was standing.

  “Hi, Frank, how are you?” she said.

  “Oh, hi, June! I’m good. How are you?”

  “I’m doing well. Thanks for bringing Cynthia out for pizza the other night.”

  “Oh, yeah, sure! They get along so well, and she’s a lot of fun to have around. Adam doesn’t have any brothers or sisters, so it’s nice.” He shrugged.

  “It must be hard. Doing this alone.”

  “It is hard.”

  “Well, you have a lot of people looking out for Adam. Henry and I. Miss Simmons.”

  Frank flinched. “Yeah. You guys are great. And I really appreciate how Anna—Miss Simmons—has helped Adam.”

  “You seemed to really like her.”

  Frank laughed nervously. “Was
it that obvious?”

  June sighed. “Yeah.”

  “You know, I thought for a minute that there was something there . . . but I may have jumped the gun. I’m not really sure she’s the right person to . . . try and move on with.”

  “Can you imagine a right person?”

  Frank flinched again. “I don’t know.”

  “Are your doubts really about her? Or are they about moving on?”

  Frank laughed nervously. “I don’t know that, either.”

  “That’s probably something worth figuring out. You don’t want to pass up an opportunity for the wrong reasons.”

  Frank nodded. “That’s true. But I don’t know how she feels. What if she’s not even interested?”

  “Only one way to find out!”

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “Oh, by the way. Are you handy?”

  “I like to think so.”

  “We’re having an issue with our table over there. Do you think you could look at it?”

  “Sure.”

  Frank walked over to the table with her. Ellie and Anna were still standing there, with their backs to them. Frank’s face blanched as soon as he saw Anna.

  “Well!” June said to him in a low voice. “Speak of the devil!”

  Frank gave her a suspicious look, then shook his head and went to examine the table. “It’s a missing a screw, is all,” he said. At the sound of his voice, Anna turned around. “Oh, here’s the screw on the floor. I have a screwdriver in my Swiss army knife. Just give me one minute . . .” He popped up from under the table. “Good as new.” His eyes met Anna’s. “Hi, there.”

  “Hi.”

  “Oh!” said Ellie, suddenly, clutching her stomach. “Oh, I don’t feel so well.”

  “Ellie, what’s wrong?” asked June. Did you take your meds?”

  “No, I forgot. But I have them in the car. I’ll go get them.” She took an unsteady step, then swayed on her feet.

  “I can’t let you go alone!” June said. “I’ll walk you to the car.” She turned to Frank and Anna. “Would you guys mind manning the punch bowl for a few minutes while I help her?”

  “No, of course not!” Anna said.

  “Yeah, we’ll be fine here,” said Frank. “You just go do what you need to do. Wow, first you lose a contact, then this. You’re having a rough night!”

  “I know!” said Ellie. Me and my terrible luck.” She smiled wanly at him. June slipped her arm through Ellie’s elbow and led her away before she could keep talking.

  “We’ll be back as soon as we can,” said June.

  “No hurry.” said Frank. He looked at Anna and smiled. “No hurry at all.”

  They walked slowly toward the exit. Suddenly Ellie stopped.

  “Keep going!” said June through her teeth. “We have to sell it.”

  “June, look!”

  June turned her head toward the dance floor. In the center, between the groups of boys and girls, Cynthia and Adam were dancing. They stood about a foot apart, barely touching, awkwardly moving in a circle.

  “See,” said June? “Two left feet.”

  “It’s the most precious thing ever,” said Ellie

  June couldn’t respond. She had caught sight of her daughter’s radiant smile, and the sudden lump in her throat wouldn’t let her speak.

  Thirteen

  Ellie

  Ellie’s heart was pounding so hard she was worried the whole neighborhood could hear it.

  “I don’t know about this, June. I think we should just forget it and go home.” Ellie looked around nervously. Christmas lights glared above her, but the street and the other houses were dark and quiet.

  June stopped climbing and looked down at her. “Not a chance.” She pointed the hammer in her hand at Ellie. “And you can’t back out now. You’re holding the ladder!” She looked up again. “This will all be over soon, I promise. It won’t take but five minutes!”

  June began climbing again, the ladder shuddering slightly with every rung she passed. Ellie gripped the sides so tightly that the metal bit into her hands.

  June was nimble and surprisingly strong, and she was up the ladder and on the roof in no time at all, as if she did this sort of thing every day. Ellie was left trembling on the ground beneath her, torn between closing her eyes tightly and waiting until it was all over, and watching June obsessively to make sure nothing went wrong.

  She chose to watch, and even took a few paces back so she could see everything clearly.

  Balancing herself carefully on the gently sloping surface, June studied the snowman from every angle. Ellie was relieved—she’d half expected her to go to town on the thing with her hammer in a fit of rage.

  June gave her a thumbs up, then pulled a screwdriver and a wrench from her back pocket, crouched down, and got to work. After a moment, there was a scraping sound, and the snowman slid down the roof a little, then turned, having apparently been freed from all but one corner. June grabbed it and pushed in back into place, then kept one hand on it while she walked around to the part that was still fastened to the roof.

  As she crouched down again, her foot slipped on the roof tiles, and she lost her balance and her grip on the snowman. Ellie fought the urge to scream.

  June quickly righted herself and pushed Sparky back in place again. Then she steadied him with her foot while she worked at unfastening the final side. And after a moment, the snowman was free.

  “Okay,” June whispered loudly. “Are you ready? Come stand over here.” Ellie glanced around, then walked over and stood beneath June. “I’m going to tilt him toward you. You grab the top, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  June wrestled with Sparky, then eventually managed to tilt him downward and shove him forward enough so that Ellie could reach him. Ellie grabbed his round, shiny head, and faced his ghoulish grin and his Sharpied-on angry eyes.

  “You really are an awful thing, aren’t you.”

  Ellie grappled with the plastic body, then finally got a good enough grip to pull the snowman to the ground. Then she grabbed on to the ladder, and June climbed down. As soon as her feet touched solid ground, Ellie let out a huge sigh of relief.

  “I can’t believe it!” she said, squealing. “We did it!”

  “I told you we could!” said June, grinning.

  “Now what?”

  “Now we take it and hide it in the woods around the corner.”

  The snowman hummed as if in protest.

  “You should have shut it off when you were up there,” said Ellie.

  “No switch,” said June. “Has to be unplugged.”

  They followed the snowman’s cord. Ellie expected it to run to an outdoor socket, but instead, the cord ran through the sliding glass door at the back of the house, which was cracked open just enough to accommodate it.

  Ellie and June looked at each other. “Now what do we do?” asked Ellie. “We can’t go in the man’s house!”

  “Wait,” said June. “Why would he leave his door unlocked and open if he was on a trip?”

  Flickering blue lights flashed in the air, and the single whoop of a police siren seemed to fill up the whole neighborhood. Ellie’s heart began pounding again, and she grabbed June’s hand and clutched it tight.

  “What do we do?” asked Ellie. “Do we run?”

  “No. That will make everything worse. We have to face this. It’s going to be okay, Ellie. Don’t panic.”

  They walked toward the front yard. A single police car was parked by the curb. The officer got out of the car and walked toward them, his sure and steady steps making thudding sounds on the grass until he was close enough for them to recognize him.

  “Officer Buff!” June whispered.

  “Oh, no,” Ellie moaned. “Fanny . . .”

  “June? Ellie? What are you doing here?” Officer Buff, whose real name was Scott, stared at them incredulously, taking in the hammer, the ladder, and the snowman buzzing next to them. “I have to tell you, when I got a disturb
ance call to this property, this is the last thing I expected to find.”

  “We can explain,” said June.

  Just then, Mr. Krantz’s car pulled wildly up into the driveway. Mr. Krantz opened the door and fumbled out, then stood there staring at them, practically hopping with rage.

  Then the light went on in June’s bedroom.

  “Arrest them!” Mr. Krantz shouted.

  Ellie’s heart went straight into her throat.

  “I want them arrested!”

  “Now, sir, maybe you guys can talk about this. They can go home, and you can talk about it in the morning. Settle it like neighbors.”

  “No talk,” Mr. Krantz sputtered. “Arrest!”

  A moment later, the sheriff’s car pulled up to the curb next. Sheriff Bryant got out and stood there, scratching his head as he surveyed the scene. He looked at June.

  “I see you took matters into your own hands.”

  “Because you wouldn’t do anything!”

  Ellie heard June’s front door close. Within a minute, Henry and the kids were standing on June’s lawn, taking it all in. The kids were speechless, mouths agape. Henry looked around in shock and confusion. Then his eyes narrowed, and he shook his head.

  “Arrest!” shouted Mr. Krantz again.

  “Unfortunately, ladies, it seems you trespassed and destroyed Mr. Krantz’s property, and he wants you arrested. We have no choice but to take you in.”

  By now, neighbors were filing out of their houses and watching the spectacle from their lawns. Ellie turned to see Jeff coming up the sidewalk, presumably to look for her after finding her missing. He stopped and stared, his glasses flickering blue in the police car lights. Then his jaw fell open. Then he began laughing and couldn’t stop. Ellie glared at him. He really did have the oddest sense of humor.

  Officer Buff handcuffed Ellie and June and sat them in his squad car, which smelled mostly like vinyl and Armor-All, but also faintly like vomit. Then he started the engine, and they drove off toward the jail.