The Mill River Redemption (7 page)

“I’m sure you will,” Father O’Brien said. He prepared to tuck into his second helping just as the doors to the town hall burst open. A man dressed as Santa Claus strode into the meeting room shouting, “Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!”

“It’s Santa Claus!” Rose yelled. The four-year-old was already down off her chair and jumping up and down. On each side of their table, children of all ages were rushing past. Josie saw that the Santa had opened a large bag and was handing out candy canes and small packages to each of them. “Can I go up, Mommy? Please, can I?”

“Go ahead,” Josie said, and Rose streaked away from her. “Try to get one for your sister, too,” she called out. It made her happy to see Rose acting like her old self, and not the clingy, withdrawn girl she’d been since Tony’s death.

“That one’s not shy at all,” Father O’Brien said.

“Nope,” Josie agreed. “Never has been.”

“That’s Doc Richardson up there in the Santa suit,” Father O’Brien said as they watched the mob of children receiving presents. “He’s the only doctor in town, has been for years. He’s very good.”

“He plays Santa each year for the kids here and at the hospital up in Rutland,” Ivy added. “He’s a good doctor and a good person. Everybody loves him.”

Josie noticed a slight wistfulness enter Ivy’s voice as she spoke those few last words. When she looked up, her aunt’s pensive expression piqued her curiosity. Josie followed Ivy’s gaze across the room to the man in the Santa suit and realized again just how little she knew about her.

———

O
N
C
HRISTMAS MORNING
, J
OSIE WAS SHAKEN AWAKE BY
R
OSE
.

“Mommy! Wake up, wake up! We have to go see if Santa came, Mommy!”

“All right, Rosie, hang on,” Josie said. On the wide bed between them, Emily opened her eyes and stretched. It took only a moment before she, too, was up and yelling, “Santa!” Josie made the girls put on their holiday slippers before they all went downstairs.

Ivy was already up filling the coffeepot with water. “Merry Christmas!” she said as they entered the kitchen. “Boy, you girls sure got lucky this year. Santa left you some pretty spiffy toys out under the tree.”

Rose rushed into the sitting room. Josie followed, carrying Emily, and she was shocked by what she saw.

Ivy’s tiny Christmas tree was almost completely buried in presents. Wrapped boxes and several stuffed animals were piled around the base of the table that held it. Two filled stockings hung from the edge of the table, while some smaller gifts and books were stacked around the tree itself. Only the top of the tiny evergreen was visible.

Josie was so fearful of exhausting her limited savings that she’d bought just a few gifts for the girls and Ivy during the past week, but nothing compared with the display before her. She turned and glared at Ivy.

“Let’s see what you got, girls,” Ivy said, with a wink at Josie. “I think I see some Strawberry Shortcake dolls!”

“I can’t believe Santa brought so much,” Josie said. She set Emily down so that she could join Rose in looking through the presents and then said, much more softly, “Santa didn’t have to do all this.”

“But Santa wanted to,” Ivy replied in a hushed voice. “Looks like he even brought a few things for you.” Smiling, she reached over, took two of the wrapped packages from the tree table, and handed them to Josie.

“Ivy, you really shouldn’t have done this,” she whispered.

“Nonsense. I wanted you all to have a nice Christmas. I know it’s hard this year, but you need every little bit of happiness you can get right now. Just look at them.”

They watched the girls for a moment. Emily was pawing through the toys, oblivious to everything else, while Rose was sitting off to the side, pulling the scented Strawberry Shortcake dolls from their box.

“You should open those,” Ivy said, looking pointedly at the gifts in Josie’s lap. Josie sighed and slid the paper from the larger of the packages. It was a book, a heavy hardcover edition of the complete works of Shakespeare. A ribbon was placed as a bookmark in the middle, and when the book fell open to the marked page, Josie saw a highlighted passage from
Macbeth:

She looked at her aunt with tears in her eyes as Ivy took her hand.

“It’s what I told you, about how it’s important to talk about things,” Ivy said. “This’ll remind you how to heal and help you remember that I’m here for you. And, it’ll help you fall asleep at night, if you need it.” She chuckled. “Shakespeare’s gorgeous stuff, but I can only read a little at a time before it wears me out. It’s real good for insomnia, you know?”

Josie laughed and shook her head. “Thank you, Ivy. I just … I can’t tell you how grateful I am to you for this. For everything.”

“It’s nothing. Now, open the other one.”

The second present was small, in a box only a few inches across. Josie removed the paper and lifted the lid to reveal a gold, oval locket nestled in a bed of cotton.

“Ivy, I can’t accept this. It’s too much,” Josie protested, but Ivy wouldn’t listen.

“No it isn’t, not at all. It’s something that belonged to your great-grandmother. She gave it to me years ago, since I was the older of her granddaughters, for me to pass along to my oldest daughter someday. Since I never had any kids, it’s just been sitting in my dresser drawer. It’s a family heirloom, really, so it’s something you should have.” Ivy reached over, picked up the locket, and gently popped it open. “There’s space in here for pictures of the girls. Maybe wearing it will remind you to keep going when you’re feeling sad.”

“They … and you … are about the only reasons I’ve made it this far,” Josie said. She reached over to hug Ivy.

“Mommy?”

Josie turned around to face Rose. “Yes, sweetie?”

“Are you crying because you miss Daddy?”

Josie took a deep breath. “Mommy is crying right now because she feels happy and sad at the same time. Happy because it’s Christmas and we’re all together, but sad because Mommy still misses Daddy very much.”

“I miss Daddy, too,” Rose said, and Josie saw her little face start to crumple. “I like the new toys, but I really wanted Santa to bring Daddy for Christmas.”

“Oh, sweetie,” Josie choked, “not even Santa can bring Daddy back, even though I wish he could.”

“You know,” Ivy said to Rose, “it’s okay for you to miss your daddy, and to cry when you feel like it. But you know something? Your daddy wouldn’t want you to be sad
today
. He’d want you to
play with all your new things and think about all the happy times you spent with him.”

“That’s right,” Josie said. “Today, Mommy is going to try very hard to remember all the fun we had with Daddy, because he loved us all very much, and he wouldn’t want us to be sad on Christmas.”

Rose looked at them with her chin quivering. She put down the doll she’d been holding and laid her head in Josie’s lap. “I’ll try hard, too, Mommy,” she said.

After a minute, Rose straightened up with an excited expression. “Mommy, what about the envelope?”

“What envelope?” Ivy asked.

“Oh,” Josie said as she remembered the mysterious envelope Father O’Brien had given her at the holiday pitch-in. “I completely forgot about it. Just a minute, I’ll go get my purse.” She dashed back through the kitchen and up the stairs to the attic.

“I guess it slipped my mind,” she said as she returned with the sealed envelope. “Father O’Brien gave me this at the holiday dinner. He said it was a gift from someone who wanted to stay anonymous. I was supposed to wait until Christmas morning to open it.”

“Strange,” Ivy said. “Let’s see what’s in it.”

Josie ripped open the end of the envelope and reached inside. She withdrew two small keys on a ring, a business card, and a handwritten note, which she opened and read aloud.

Josie stared at the note, blinking.
This can’t be real
, she thought as she turned the keys over and over in her hand.

“Well, I’ll be dipped—” Ivy started to say, but Josie was already heading through the kitchen. Even though she was still in her pajamas, she slipped on her boots and exited through the side door without her coat.

The Bookstop was on a corner lot with only one neighboring house, so Josie plowed through the snow in the front yard until she stood before the home next door. It was white with green shutters and about the same size as Ivy’s. A Realtor’s
FOR SALE
sign protruded from the snow at the edge of the lawn.

The walkway leading to the front door of the house was freshly shoveled.

Josie went to the front door and inserted one of the keys. As she turned it, the lock opened with a quiet
click
. She took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

Someone had obviously been by to turn on the heat, because it was comfortably warm inside. The entryway opened up into a living room on the left and faced the bottom of a staircase on the right. Josie slipped off her wet boots and walked cautiously across
the living room carpet. On the far side, there was a fireplace and a door to a small room that could be used as an office or for storage. Toward the middle, the living room connected with a dining area, which led, in turn, to the kitchen. A door under the staircase on the right side opened to reveal a small bathroom.

Josie backtracked to the entryway and climbed the stairs. The second floor was much smaller, consisting of two bedrooms, one larger than the other, with a bathroom in between. The whole house was painted and carpeted in neutral shades and seemed immaculately clean.

She came down the stairs and went back through the living and dining rooms into the kitchen. Through a sliding glass door, Josie could see a nice yard surrounded by a white privacy fence. The kitchen already had a refrigerator, dishwasher, and range.
It’s not huge, but there’s room for more than one butt
, she thought to herself with a smile. Finally, Josie opened the door at the far end of the kitchen and entered a small mudroom. A new-looking washer and dryer were there, as well as a utility sink and a built-in ironing board. An exit from the mudroom led into the small attached garage.

Could someone have really given her this house?
It was perfect. Not too big, but with plenty of room for the girls to grow up. Rose and Emily could share the big bedroom upstairs, and she got teary-eyed when she realized that they would be able to play to their hearts’ content in the fenced backyard. It was close to Ivy, in a safe little town where amazing things happened for no reason. Josie felt a little light-headed.

With one hand against the wall for support, she went back to the living room and noticed a small Christmas card propped open on the mantel of the fireplace. Inside, in the same handwriting as that of the letter she had just opened, was written “Welcome home, Josie.”

Josie sat straight down on the floor. She was trembling and
crying, trying to make sense of it all.
Who could possibly do something like this? Who would?
She wondered whether Tony had somehow managed to do this from wherever he was now. If it wasn’t Tony’s doing, it was staggering to think that a stranger could show her such benevolence.

At that moment, the front door opened and Ivy came in with Rose and Emily in tow.

“Mommy!” Rose said, as they all rushed over to her.

“Josie, are you all right?” Ivy asked. She leaned forward with her hands on her knees while Rose and Emily jumped into Josie’s cross-legged lap.

“I’m fine,” Josie choked. “Just a little overwhelmed, that’s all.”

“Well, it’s happened again, I guess,” Ivy said, shaking her head.

“What’s happened again?” Josie asked.

Ivy straightened up. “The secret gift thing that happens every so often in Mill River. It seems like just when folks in town really need something, it just appears. Or sometimes, it’s given to ’em, anonymously, like this.” Ivy smiled. “It’s happened for years, but nobody has figured out who’s behind it. Nowadays, most people just accept the random gifts as part of what normally happens here.”

Josie didn’t answer. Her mouth was having trouble forming words.

“This house has been on the market forever,” Ivy said. “I guess it was just waiting for you to get here.”

“Mommy, is this going to be our house?” Rose asked.

Josie squeezed a daughter in each of her arms and pulled them against her. She noticed a new feeling building in her very center, a small, reassuring spark of something. Hope? Optimism? Maybe even the beginnings of a realization that everything was going to be okay? Whatever it was, it started because of a stranger’s gift of shelter. She would draw on the spark, build on it to go on, to give her
girls a safe and happy life. And even after they were grown, even if someday she could afford to move to someplace bigger or newer, she promised herself that she would continue to live in this house as a humbling reminder of the miracle she had been given.

“Yes, baby,” Josie said with her face nestled in red and blond hair. She closed her eyes. “This is our house. This will always be our house.”