Raising Faith (8 page)

So Morgan set aside her sewing, put on her coat, and went out to the shed. At least she had her deposit money now. That was something.

On Friday, Morgan’s plan was to go straight home from school. She tried not to feel bad when Emily said she was riding home with Chelsea. She knew it was because Emily was going to be babysitting for friends of the Landers. It was business. Still, it was hard not to be just a little bit jealous.

“I’d like to go with you and your dad to get a tree on Sunday,” Morgan told Carlie as they walked together.

Amy had already turned off toward town.

“Cool,” said Carlie. “I think Emily wants to come too.”

“Do I need to get a permit?”

“No, you can just pay my dad five bucks. He’s already gotten several permits.”

“I’ve never gone out and cut down a Christmas tree before,” said Morgan. “It sounds like fun.”

“We do it every year,” said Carlie. “It’s kind of a tradition. Hey, have you paid your deposit for the ski trip yet?”

“I have the money now,” said Morgan. “But I’ll have to wait to do it in the morning when I go to the bazaar.”

“Good. It’d be terrible if you didn’t go.”

Morgan considered this. “Yeah, maybe I should call the church and tell them to save my spot … and that I’ll pay tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” agreed Carlie as they entered their mobile-home park. “You should definitely do that as soon as you get home.”

“See ya tomorrow.” Morgan waved to Carlie as she turned toward her colorful-looking house. Grandma had already turned on the Christmas lights. Morgan was glad that she’d put them up last night. It made everything look happy and cheerful. Morgan just hoped that Grandma wasn’t overdoing it. They had discussed everything at the dinner table last night. And Grandma had promised to take it easy. But when Morgan opened the door, she immediately smelled cookies.

“Grandma?” she called out in a warning tone. “What have you been doing?”

Grandma poked her head out of the kitchen. “What, dear?” she asked innocently.

Morgan looked to see racks of sugar cookies cooling and shook her finger at her grandmother. “You’re not supposed to be doing things like this.”

Grandma smiled sheepishly. “I just couldn’t help myself.”

“But Mom said —”

“I know, I know, but I was feeling really spunky. And I had a hankering for some good sugar cookies.”

Morgan looked at the messy kitchen and then took Grandma by the arm. “Okay, I promise not to tell Mom if you go and sit down for the rest of the day.”

“What about the —”

“I’ll clean it up, Grandma. You just go and rest, okay?”

“Well, I guess I can’t argue,” said Grandma.

“No, you can’t.”

“I was going to freeze some of those,” said Grandma, “to decorate later.”

“So how do I do that?” asked Morgan as she helped Grandma to her chair where Grandma gave her step-by-step directions. “That sounds pretty simple,” said Morgan. “Anything else?”

“Well, I was hankering after a cup of tea.”

“I’ll make it,” said Morgan firmly. “You just stay here and sit.
Please.”

Grandma chuckled. “Yes, dear. Whatever you say, dear.”

Then Morgan made Grandma some tea and began to clean up the kitchen. By the time everything was cleaned up and put away, it was after four o’clock, and Grandma was happily watching
Oprah
.

“Thank you, honey,” she called out as Morgan went to her room.

Morgan looked at the pile of unsewn socks and then at the clock. If she could manage to sew two pairs an hour, she would have them all finished by eleven o’clock. That was if she didn’t take any breaks, which wasn’t likely. Just the same, it seemed possible, and she set to work. Still, it was slow going. Using the stretchy knit stitch was time consuming. But not using it would ruin the socks. Morgan thought about people in other countries as she sewed. She’d heard stories of children who were forced to work for long hours every day in sweat shops, where they were paid only pennies per hour. At least that wasn’t the case with her. Still, the sooner she ended this project the happier she would be. She had always enjoyed sewing and creating, but doing the same thing over and over again was incredibly boring. At least the sock fabric patterns were different.

Morgan sewed until six o’clock, when Mom arrived home with Chinese takeout from Asian Gardens. “Amy said to tell you hi,” Mom said as she set the white boxes out on the table. “Boy, were they busy tonight.”

“That should make Amy happy,” said Morgan. “More tips.”

“Are you girls all set for the parade?” asked Grandma. Then Morgan told them about yesterday’s fitting and how the elf outfits looked pretty good.

“And how are your socks coming?” asked Mom.

“If I stick with it, I should have them all done in time for the bazaar tomorrow.”

“And then you’ll bring me what’s left?”

“Hopefully there won’t be any left,” said Morgan with a grin.

After they finished eating, Mom excused Morgan to return to her sewing. “I’ll handle cleanup tonight,” she told her as she tossed a carton into the trash.

So Morgan returned to sewing. Thanks to things like broken needles, running out of thread, or silly mistakes, it was taking longer than her time estimate. Yet, she was determined not to quit until she was done. It was past midnight when she finally finished the last sock. She turned off the light on the sewing machine and let out a big sigh. Sure, it was hard, but she was done. And hopefully these socks would sell like hotcakes, and she would make enough money in one day to pay for the ski trip and then some. “Time to get up,” called Mom the next morning.

“Huh?” Morgan blinked blurry eyes toward the clock. “Isn’t it Saturday?”

“You asked me to wake you up before nine,” said Mom.

“Oh, yeah,” said Morgan, jumping out of bed. “The bazaar. Can I still get a ride with you?”

“If you can be ready in twenty minutes.”

“Yeah, sure.” Morgan was already pulling off her pajamas and reaching for her elf costume.

“How is the Queen of Socks?” asked Grandma, poking her head in the doorway.

“All done,” said Morgan as she tugged on her tights. “But I haven’t had time to make tags or anything.”

Grandma came over to look at the pile of socks. “You do nice work, Morgan. Say, maybe I could safety pin the pairs together. Would that help?”

“That’d be awesome,” said Morgan as she put on a red turtleneck to wear under the elf costume.

While Morgan dressed and ate a quick breakfast of a banana and milk, Grandma managed to safety pin all the pairs of socks together then put them in a large plastic bag. “Now, maybe you can just make a sign that says eight dollars a pair, and you’ll be good to go.”

“Great idea.” Morgan was stuffing her elf shoes and hat into her backpack. “Thanks, Grandma!”

Grandma frowned. “I just wish I could work at the bazaar today.”

“Mother,” said Morgan’s mom in a stern voice as she pulled on her cape. “We discussed this already. You really must take it easy. There’s some leftover Chinese food in the fridge. And I do not want you to do anything except sit in your chair, watch TV, and knit.”

“Am I allowed to read?”

“Yes.”

Then Morgan and Mom kissed Grandma good-bye and went on their way. Morgan felt sorry for Grandma
being stuck at home, but under the circumstances, it seemed the only option.

“I can go home after the Christmas parade,” said Morgan. “To be with Grandma, I mean.”

“Oh, that would be nice, sweetie. I know she feels bad about missing out on things. Maybe you could tell her how everything went.”

“Sure.”

Then Mom dropped Morgan at the church. “I’ll see you at the Christmas parade,” she told her, holding up her camera. “I’m going to close the shop while it’s going.”

Morgan waved and ran into the church. She headed straight for the office, pulling out her registration form and deposit money. Distracted with cleaning up Grandma’s baking mess, she’d forgotten to call yesterday.

“Can I help you?” asked a woman that Morgan didn’t recognize.

“Where’s Mrs. Albert?” asked Morgan.

“She’ll be in later,” said the woman.

“Oh.” Morgan laid her registration form on the counter and started looking for her money. “I’m registering for the middle-school ski trip.”

The woman frowned. “I’m sorry, but that’s all full now.”

Morgan just stared at her. “Completely full?”

“Yes. And we actually have a waiting list.”

“A waiting list?”

The woman nodded. “I don’t know if Cory and Janna can take any more kids or not, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to take names.” She looked at her paper. “You’ll be number three on it.”

“Oh …”

“Your name?”

“Uh, Morgan. Morgan Evans.”

“Oh, you’re Cleo’s daughter. Of course.” She wrote down the name. “Well, hopefully they’ll be able to squeeze a few more in.”

Morgan nodded. “Yeah, hopefully.” But as she walked through the foyer and on toward the bazaar area, she felt numb. She couldn’t believe that she had worked past midnight last night just to sew all these stupid socks, and now she wouldn’t even be able to go on the ski trip. What was the point of even selling her socks in here today? All the money made at the bazaar was either to pay their way or to donate to the church’s outreach fund. Not that she didn’t want to contribute to the outreach fund, but she had twenty pairs of socks in her bag. That was equal to one hundred and sixty dollars. Combined with her fifty dollar deposit, which she had tucked back into her backpack, that would’ve been more than enough to cover her spot. But now she had no spot.

She blinked back tears as she walked through the sanctuary, which was now serving as the shopping area. Friends
from church smiled at her elf costume and said hello to her. She tried to be friendly back, but it was just too hard. Everything felt way too hard. Finally, she got to the youth-group booth, and she knew what she would do. She would donate some of her socks to be used for the outreach fund or whatever. And then she would excuse herself from working there. She would tell them that her grandmother was ill, and that was true — totally true. And then she would walk back home and spend the morning with Grandma.

“Hey, Elf Morgan,” called out Emily with a happy smile.

“Hey, Elf Emily,” said Morgan, forcing a smile.

“What’s the matter?” asked Emily.

“Nothing.”

Emily shook her head. “No, I can tell something’s wrong, Morgan.” She pulled Morgan aside. “What is it?”

“Look, Em,” said Morgan quickly. “I can’t work here today and —”

“But you have to —”

“No,” said Morgan firmly. “My grandma is sick and I need to go —”

“Grandma is sick?” said Emily with concern. “Is it serious?”

“It’s her heart.”

“Oh no!”

“Anyway, she’s going to have surgery next week. And she’s not supposed to overdo it or anything … and I just
feel like I should go home and —” Then Morgan began to cry.

“Oh, Morgan,” said Emily, wrapping her arms around her and hugging her tightly. “I’m so sorry. Do you want me to come with you?”

“No,” said Morgan, wiping her tears with her jacket sleeve. “You stay here and help.” She handed Emily the whole bag of socks. Really, what difference did it make if the sock money went completely to the outreach fund? Maybe that was for the best anyway. “They’re pinned together. I wanted to sell them for eight dollars a pair.”

“Okay.” Emily peered at Morgan. “I’ll take care of it for you. Tell Grandma hello for me. And let me know if there’s anything I can do. I didn’t know she was sick, Morgan. I feel so bad.”

“It’s okay,” said Morgan, still sniffing.

“Will you be at the parade?”

“Yeah. I think so. Unless Grandma really needs me.”

“Well, don’t worry about your socks,” said Emily with authority. “I will take care of everything for you.”

“Thanks.”

Then Emily hugged Morgan again. “I really love you, Morgan. And now I know why you’ve been acting kind of different. You’ve been worried about Grandma.” She stepped back and shook her head. “And I haven’t been a very good friend. I’m sorry.”

Now Morgan was starting to cry all over again. “It’s okay.”

“See you later?”

“Yeah.” Before anyone else could ask her what was wrong, Morgan made a quick escape out a side exit. Then she slung her backpack over one shoulder and jogged all the way across town and home.

“What’s wrong?” asked Grandma when Morgan came into the house. “I thought you were working at the bazaar.”

What Morgan really wanted to do just then was to break into tears and tell Grandma the whole sad story. But she knew that would be wrong. Grandma’s heart wasn’t strong, and Morgan suspected stress would only make things worse. “There were a lot of people working at the bazaar,” she said, which wasn’t untrue. “And they didn’t really need me. I left my socks with Emily, and she’s going to take care of it for me.”

“You didn’t want to stay and work?” asked Grandma, clearly suspicious.

“I stayed up so late last night,” said Morgan as she hung up her jacket. “And there’s still the parade … I was just feeling tired.”

Grandma smiled. “Well, I know how that feels.”

“And,” said Morgan with a smile that she hoped was convincing. “I got to thinking about those sugar cookies,
and I only had one yesterday …”

“Hmmm?” Grandma smiled. “That would be nice with a cup of tea now, wouldn’t it?”

“It sure would. You sit down and I’ll get it ready.”

And so Grandma and Morgan enjoyed a nice little tea party, just the two of them. And then they both took a morning nap. Morgan felt surprisingly better when she woke up a little before noon. Oh, sure, she was still bummed about not getting to go on the ski trip, but she wasn’t going to let that ruin her life. Besides, she told herself, maybe it was better this way. Maybe Grandma was going to need Morgan at home, after her surgery and everything.

“Are you going to the parade?” asked Grandma as she looked at the clock.

“Will you promise to be good while I’m gone?” said Morgan.

“I promise,” said Grandma. “Your mother said she’d take pictures on her new digital camera and show them to me tonight. I want to see my granddaughter elf with her friends.”

“Okay, then,” said Morgan. “Just make sure you keep your promise.”