by concern about her father. Was it possible he had some physical or even mental disorder that forced him to live in the past? Unsure, she knew she’d have to do whatever it took to find out.
Chapter 3
Monday, December 2, 2019
As soon as Lauren entered the store, she bumped the thermostat up to seventy degrees. It was the coldest day of the season, according to the local weather report. Twenty-one degrees. She used the remote to turn on the lights and started the sound system so she would have Christmas music playing in the background. She never turned the music on until the first day of December. To her way of thinking, December 1 was the official beginning of the Christmas season. A personal quirk of hers.
She filled the kettle with water and turned on the gas fireplace. With any luck, it would warm up the store in no time. The building was old and rickety, and took a while to get warm when the temperature went below freezing.
She made herself a cup of tea, then carried it with her as she walked up and down the aisles, checking to make sure everything was just so before she unlocked the door. She’d thought about opening at 7:00 again but decided to stick to their usual hours of 9:00 to 5:00 since the biggest shopping weekend of the season was over and opening early hadn’t made all that much difference.
Convinced that there wasn’t much left to do other than unlock the door, she did so and went back to her office. The bell she had hung over the door would alert her to customers, so she felt free to get down to work.
First, she called Roger Riedel and explained what she wanted him to do.
“Lauren, this isn’t a sound investment. I would advise against it,” he said, when she explained why she wanted funds transferred to Razzle Dazzle’s business account.
“Probably not, but it is my money,” she countered. “And the store is mine in every sense of the word. My parents are retired, and I know for a fact that the store will go to me when . . . when they’re no longer here.” She didn’t like saying the words aloud, but it was a reality, and unlike her father, Lauren didn’t see the world through rose-colored glasses.
“Of course, but remember I’m advising against this. Take out a small business loan instead, Lauren; your credit is excellent.”
“No, I won’t do that.” It was against her rules. Period. She was not going into debt, nor would she put the store in debt. She’d close the place first. Knowing she sounded as stubborn as her father, she didn’t care. Even though her dad lived in the past, she agreed with him when he’d talked about being debt-free.
“Then I’ll make the arrangements as soon as we’re through,” Roger said.
“Good. And thank you, Roger. I know you don’t agree with me on this, but it’s something I have to do, with or without your approval.”
She ended the call, took her laptop out of her bag, and logged onto the Internet. She really needed to install Wi-Fi at the store. Her father wouldn’t know if she did, and it was a bit embarrassing when she had to use the pharmacy’s account.
She typed the words SYMPTOMS OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE into the search engine. Hundreds of links came up. She scrolled through several before finding an article from the National Institutes of Health. The article listed several symptoms. Mental decline, difficulty thinking and understanding, confusion in the early-evening hours. That’s odd, she thought. She read on. The inability to create new memories, unable to do simple math. Aggression, agitation, meaningless repetition of words, inability to recognize common things. Anger, depression, and hallucination, loss of appetite. The list was lengthy, yet Lauren could not match a single symptom to her father’s refusal to believe how the world was changing. Just as she’d always thought—he was just stubborn, bullheaded, and insistent upon doing what he wanted in his own way.
Relieved, but still concerned that his behavior could have dire consequences where Razzle Dazzle’s future was concerned, she knew her decision to add to the store’s bank account was the correct one. Lauren would talk with her parents when the time was right. Her plan was to get through the month of December and reassess their finances after January 1.
She checked her e-mail and saw one from Angela Winters, her literary agent. She opened the e-mail and read through it,