Christmas in Evergreen Tidings of Joy - Nancy Naigle Page 0,54
let’s open another advent calendar box, shall we?”
Katie looked out across the people of Evergreen bundled up with their rosy-cheeked neighbors, all anticipating the possibilities.
Michelle reached into the hat and pulled out a name, then read it. “Henry Miller!”
“Hooray!” Henry jumped in the air and jogged over. “I can’t believe it.” He rubbed his hands together, then moved the ladder to where he could climb up and pull out the next box.
A garland of Christmas trees represented an assignment for that night. The whole town was to get together for a tree lighting at seven o’clock. Forming a large circle around the tree, holding hands, the whole town was to sing “O Christmas Tree.” It was really the perfect box for him to open.
There was no way Michelle could’ve rigged that.
Magic? Have I gone crazy to even entertain that might be a plausible answer?
She stood there, trying to make some logical sense out of it all. There was no other explanation.
As if Ben knew exactly what was rolling through her mind, when she looked up and caught him staring at her, he winked. “I’m headed over to the library if you want to come with me.”
“I do.” She didn’t hesitate, keeping in step with him the whole way over. Barely an inch between them as they walked.
Nan was already inside, tidying things up.
“I’m going to do a little research this morning if you don’t mind.” Katie took off her coat and hung it on the rack near the door.
“No problem,” Nan said. “What are you looking for?”
“Articles about the blizzard fifty years ago.”
“Not a problem. I’ve got all those old newspapers on microfiche. Do you know how to use one of those machines?”
“Sure do.”
“Follow me.” Nan led her to the room and got her set up with the films from that year.
Katie sat there for hours, reading the articles and jotting down names, hoping to uncover more nuggets that would be interesting reading.
Her meeting later that afternoon with the twins over at the farm was delightful, but not very informative. They weren’t sharing many details. They did, however, elude to having a special box in the advent calendar and left her with a wait and see for yourself. Maybe her investigative reporting skills weren’t as sharp as she thought.
Then again, she didn’t really want to be a reporter. She wanted to write fiction, and boy, did this place spark those ideas. Her notebook was now full of ideas for a book filled with tradition in a community that embraced the holidays and put friends and family first over anything else. She’d checked out a few holiday novels and had devoured them one a day for the last few days. Did the world really need one more Christmas novel?
Every time she read The End, she was convinced it did.
She wished she hadn’t felt inclined to accept the challenge to write an article for the magazine, because if she’d been free to cut loose and work on a novel while she was here, she knew she’d have thousands of words on the page by now. Instead, she kept writing and rewriting the same fifteen hundred words, and it was a decent article, but it wasn’t what she really wanted to be working on.
The next few days, she worried less about that article and concentrated on just enjoying her time in Evergreen and getting to know the people. Each morning, she rushed to get dressed to go see what the advent calendar would behold. She’d be lying if she didn’t admit that meeting up with Ben there was a big part of the draw. He dropped more Evergreen trivia on her daily, which set her day off to a good start.
And even though the contents of the advent boxes differed, they still all carried a thoughtful message that set the theme for the day, and with that she got to know Ben a little better. It was nice that she’d been able to extend her trip when they uncovered the time capsule. She would have hated to miss all of this. But now her time was quickly dwindling, and she worried she might be a little too interested in this small town man. As much as she loved this town and these people, she knew she couldn’t live here. She looked over at him. He’d said he loved Chicago. Was there any way he might fall in love with New York City? Maybe even consider a move? A girl can dream.