A Christmas Arrangement (16 page)

The crowd in the shop had started to thin out by the time the ladies arrived, but any stragglers made their purchasing decisions quickly once they singing started.  I had to do something.  I grabbed some cups of cider and hot chocolate and passed them out to the singers, then thanked them all for coming. 

“Let me get the door for you so you can hang on to those drinks,” I said. 

They trooped past me into the dwindling storm.  By then it was dark and the snow on the ground sparkled under the street lamps.  The falling snow looked soft and delicate as it was illuminated by the light cast from our shop fixtures.  My mother was the last of the carolers to pass me at the door.  “Thanks, Mom.  I love you.”

“I love you too, dear.”  She patted and squeezed my arm.  “Alright girls,” she shouted in a commanding voice, “
Angels We Have Heard On High.”
I tried not to laugh, imagining the heights the sopranos would reach about the time they passed in front of Cowley’s Old-Time Pharmacy and Soda Counter.  Maybe the pharmacy would have oxygen for the ones who passed out.

We had a resurgence of customers in our last hour.  There were only thirty out of the thousand free ornaments left.  The treats were holding steady, but thinning out.  We’d sold all of our fresh centerpieces and only a few silk arrangements remained.  Suddenly the music stopped and the lights went out.  There was no background thrumming from the fan inside the walk-in cooler.  Everyone grew silent. 

“Looks like the power went out,” K.C. said.  “But don’t worry folks, we’ve already got candlelight and the drinks are still hot.”  She came back to me at the design table, where I had been adding some ornaments to a silk arrangement someone wanted to purchase.  “We can’t use the cash register or the credit card machine.  What are we going to do?”

“The cash register has a battery switch and we can use my cell phone for credit cards,” I said.  I pulled up the program and found the card reader plug-in for my phone, then hurried over to switch the cash register. 

“We need some towels over here,” said a woman’s gravel-scratched voice.  K.C. rushed over to see what was happening.  “My husband spilled his drink,” the woman said loud enough to ensure that he was publicly shamed.

I finished with the customer who’d had their transaction interrupted by the power outage.  The phone rang and Daphne went to answer.  The front door bell chimed and
The Hallelujah Chorus
belted through the doorway.  The MLM had returned, singing their favorite I presumed, due to the volume and power behind the off-key voices.

Daphne whispered in my ear.  “It’s Eleanor Cooper on the phone.  She wants to know when it’s convenient to come over.”

I’d reached my boiling point.  “It’s not convenient.  There isn’t a less convenient time than right now.” 

Jerome began wailing from the back room.

“Should I tell her that?” Daphne asked innocently.

“No!”  I apologized to the customer I was helping and finished her transaction.  “Tell her it’s a little overwhelming here right now and I’ll have to call her back in just a moment.”

“Okay.”

“And, Daphne?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”  I’d failed to say it enough that evening and it wasn’t her fault I was stressed out.

The lights flickered and stayed on after a few tries and the customers cheered.  Also, the carolers stopped singing which was a Christmas miracle in itself.

After a half hour, it appeared the biggest rush of business had ended and it was down to just a few stragglers.  It was strangely quiet—in a something’s not right kind of way.  The compressor for the cooler had never kicked back on.  I gave it another half hour to see if I had misjudged time.  After that, I checked the thermometer inside the cooler and the gauge had risen.  The temperature was in the low fifties and climbing.  There were flowers inside for a funeral the next day.  It was a large, last minute order and there would be no time to get replacement flowers from the wholesalers if my cooler cooked its contents.

I glanced out our front window.  The snowflakes were still falling, but growing sparse.  It was now or never.  I had to climb on top of the roof.

***

“What are you doing up there?” I heard a female voice in the distance.

“Rooftop picnic,” I shouted.  “You should try it sometime.”

I knocked on the side of the metal box again and nothing happened.

“Quincy!  Come down, you’re going to get hurt.”

I rolled my eyes and smacked a good one to the box.  With a clatter broken by intervals of quiet, the motor finally caught and roared into a constant hum.  I did an internal dance of joy, knowing I wouldn’t have to pay for a new condenser unit just yet. 

I carefully slid down the side of the roof.  The pitch wasn’t nearly as sharp as that of a house.  It was almost flat really, something I was grateful for since the snow had been sticking for a while.  I made my way to the edge and peered over.  Alex’s parents stood below near the ladder.  They didn’t appear to know just where I was.

“Has anyone seen Santa?  I came up here for a better view but there’s no sign,” I said.

“Quincy, what are you doing?” Jack said.

“What are you two doing here?  How did you know where to find me?”

“Quincy, honey, we’re so sorry.  We’re all so worried.  I know life can be overwhelming sometimes, but you don’t need to do this.  We’re here for you.  Please come down and we can talk about things,” Eleanor said.

“I don’t know what you all think I’m doing up here, but I’m pretty sure you’re wrong.  I’m fixing my cooler.  You know—for the business I run?”

“I’m so sorry, Quincy,” Eleanor shouted.  “I’ve been so mean to you.”

“What?” I shouted, “I can’t hear you through these elf ears.”  I’d heard her just fine.

She cupped her mitten covered hands around her mouth.  “I’m…very…sorry,” she yelled, enunciating every word.  “I was terrible to you.”

I forced myself not to smile.  I wanted to enjoy myself just a little longer.

“Quincy, this is ridiculous.  Come down here,” she said.  Sweet, apologetic Eleanor had been short-lived. 

The snowflakes seemed to be getting larger.  Or maybe there were just more of them.  They collected on my hair like sheets of cottony gauze.  I could see them in my peripheral vision as I looked down at the Coopers. 

I knew Alex’s mother loved him so fiercely she’d probably do anything for him.  Which was admirable.  And maybe she’d been just as afraid of meeting me as I’d been of meeting her and her husband.  But, maybe she’d also let her fears grow too big and take over.  At least I hoped that’s why she’d treated me the way she had.

I saw Jack say something to Eleanor, then gesture toward me.  “I’m sorry I called you a whore,” Eleanor said.

“A ten-dollar whore, Eleanor.  That’s what you called me.  And that’s where you’re wrong.  I’m at least a
fifty
-
dollar
hoor.” 

Eleanor threw her hands in the air.  “Look, I don’t want your death on my conscience.  Alex would never forgive me.  Please just climb down.  Carefully!”

I tucked my now wet hair behind my elf ears and stood up.  “You know,” I shouted, “I’ve come up here so many times I can’t count them anymore.  And I’m careful every time.  I didn’t come up here, dressed like this, to clang on this compressor because I’ve got a desire to take up drumming.  I come up here because I
am
careful.  I’m careful to find ways to keep this business afloat. 

“I can’t afford a new cooler, so I have to figure out a way to make the old one keep working.  I’m not the smartest person, or the prettiest, and I didn’t know how to make stuffing, but I figured something out for that dinner, didn’t I?” 

The Coopers looked at each other then back at me.  “Now, Quincy—” Jack began. 

I brushed my hands down in front of me, starting at my head and then pointing toward my toes.  “Take it all in.  Warts and all folks, this is what your son chose,” I pointed both thumbs at my chest.  “I’ve tried so hard to make you like me, and not let my hurt feelings get in the way.  I know who I am, most of the time, and I’m okay with that.  Alex seems to be okay with who I am.  And even though I’ll never live up to your expectations, I’ve got to find a way to make that work too.  Because I love your son and I…”  I sucked my breath in, wishing the act would un-say the words I had not only said out loud, but literally shouted from the rooftop.

The shock of what I had just done made me feel like throwing up.  I grabbed at my stomach.  It seemed ready to launch any second.  I couldn’t have Alex’s parents watch me actually lose my cookies, since that’s all I’d had to eat the entire day, so I turned away from them.  Which proved to be a mistake.

My back foot slipped as I turned and then the other foot zipped out from under me.  Eleanor screamed.  I landed face down in the cold slush, my legs dangling off the side of the building and the wind knocked out of me. 

“Quincy, are you hurt?” Jack yelled. 

I gulped like a fish on the shore trying to get my lungs to work again.  After a very long pause I turned my head to the side, trying not to move any more than absolutely necessary. 

“No, I’m okay,” I called as loudly as I could, given the state of my depleted lungs. 

“Call for help, Eleanor,” Jack said.  “Quincy stay there, I’m coming up to get you.”

“No!” Eleanor and I both yelled. 

“I’m okay,” I said, “I just need to pull myself up and come down the ladder.” 

I pushed up on my forearms then army crawled with them until my hips had cleared the edge of the building.  Then I swung one knee up and used it to propel myself forward until I was completely on the roof.  Once my whole body was on a solid surface, I rolled onto my back and watched the snowflakes, illuminated by the nearby billboard lights, torpedoing through the sky as I waited for my heart to stop racing. 

“Quincy?” Jack called.

I turned my head to the side and stretched my neck, just enough to see Jack standing there alone.  Eleanor must have gone for help.

“I’m fine, Jack.  Just catching my breath,” I shouted out with a half-trembling voice.

The sound of Jack’s voice reminded me of his son’s.  I pictured the last time I’d seen Alex at my house, with his parents getting a good look at my prostitute makeup after I’d just flashed a cop.  That was the last image he had of me.  What if I’d fallen all the way to the ground and been maimed or killed?  I’d still be wearing that damned elf costume. 

My face scrunched up and I cried, not because of the close call I’d had, but because I’d done one more—this time colossally—embarrassing thing in front of his parents.  I’d gotten all uppity on my high-horse—no, make that
roof
—and then made a complete fool of myself.  I put my freezing hands over my eyes for a minute, partially to hide from myself, but also to squelch the hot tears.  But it was just too cold for such an indulgence, so I got back on hands and knees and crawled over to the ladder.

***

“That was a close one huh?” I said lightheartedly to Jack over my shoulder as I positioned myself to step onto the rusty metal ladder.  “Sorry if I scared you.”

“Oh dear,” he said.  “Just be careful there, Quincy.”

I heard the back door to the flower shop blast open.  I could hear K.C.’s voice clearly.  “I’ll save you, Boss!”

“Thank you everyone,” I shouted, “but I’m fine.”  I rubbed my freezing hands together before stepping down to the first rung.  As I placed all of my weight on the ladder, I heard an awful metal groan.  The ladder disappeared from under me and for just a nanosecond, I was walking on air.  I was frozen with fear.  I knew I was about to fall to my death.

But I didn’t land.

My leg slid through the space between the rungs and I did a sort of cartwheel.  I hung, suspended from the ladder, which seemed to have come unseated from its bolting to the roof, but only on one side.  I was hanging upside down, looking away from the building at the Coopers and K.C.  I could feel my leg slipping.  I flailed my arms, blindly trying to find part of the ladder to cling to.

I made contact with my right hand and grabbed hold of the slippery cold metal.  Giant, fluffy snowflakes crashed down around me.  I silently begged the ladder to hold onto the building. My life was literally hanging by a rusty screw.

“Hang on, Quincy!” K.C. yelled.  I heard something dragging.  And figured it was probably the wobbly table from my system.  “Hold it steady, Ellie, we’ve got to balance the table for Jack.  We’re coming, Boss.  Hold on tight!  Jack, you climb up my back if you have to.”

I closed my eyes hoping to block out the Tilt-O-Whirl feeling that was pooling in my head.  I could hear the sound of groaning metal I’d heard when the first side of the ladder broke.  My leg felt like it was slipping again and despite one hand hanging on to the ladder, I knew I wasn’t strong enough to hold my body weight with just one arm if my leg came loose.  But if the other side of the ladder broke too, it wouldn’t matter how I gripped it. 

I closed my eyes tighter and prayed.

“Quincy,” Jack called.  “Are you still with us?”

I opened my eyes.  Jack’s voice had come from beneath me, but when I tried to tip my head back to look at him the ladder moved and groaned again, which made Eleanor and K.C. shriek. 

“Don’t move,” Jack said.”

Metal slammed into the wall below me. “Whoa,” they all shouted, but I couldn’t see what happened.

“Jack, be careful!” Eleanor cried.

“Some system!  Boss, we just broke your table.” 

“Quincy,” Jack said calmly, “we’re going to have to try something else.  We’ll get you down though, don’t worry.”

“Thanks, Jack,” I said.  “I just want to tell you guys that I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused and for the mean things I said.  You’re wonderful parents and I know you love your son.  And he loves you.”

“He loves you too, honey,” I heard Eleanor say.  “And so do we.  Now just hold on, we’re coming.”

Despite my dire predicament, I smiled.  At least I would die happy.

I couldn’t tell if it was the topsy-turvy view of the snow or all the blood rushing to my head, but I felt dizzy and my vision was blackening on the periphery.  I knew I was about to pass out, but I also knew that I couldn’t if I wanted to survive.