were in love, forcing her to leave their honeymoon early and initiate divorce proceedings the following week.
How would she approach Christmas? Justin hadn’t said anything to her about it, but she noticed Gus had strung lights around the dockmaster’s shanty. Maybe sticking to strictly Cajun customs would make it easier for her to cope. No memories from the time with her ex would be tolerated. He was all about the silver and gold decorating, white-tablecloth dining, and celebratory balls with chamber music and long gowns and tuxes. She didn’t think that would go over in the bayou.
Like her thoughts had traveled through space, the phone inside the cottage rang. She ran to get it and saw her mother’s cell phone number on caller ID.
“Mom.”
“Hey, miss. How are you?”
“Good. Well, okay until I started thinking about Christmas.”
“It’s why I’m calling you, dear. Can you believe Thanksgiving is coming up?”
“Thanksgiving, and then four weeks later, boom! Christmas.”
“Yes. Anyway, Christmas here is not much different than it is in Pensacola. There are the boat parades and festivals and food and parties, but all with a Cajun flare. I’m actually looking forward to it for a change because I’ll have someone to share it with.”
“Aw, Mom, I’m so glad. How are things with you and Doc Chastain?”
“It’s all good. I’m going to continue to live with Aunt Rose. It’s taking some of the pressure off us. I want to be his girlfriend and his lover, not his wife. Does that sound selfish?”
“Mother, oh my god, no! It’s exactly why we aren’t getting married anytime soon. I like Justin to have his home, and I have mine. If he gets tired of living with his father, he can get his own place. That’s no reason to move in with me.”
“Anyway, the reason I’m calling is to remind you that you’re invited here to Aunt Rose and Val’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. It will be the same people as usual, Gus and Grace and the Chastains. I’m not sure who else Val is having. Maybe his daughters.”
“I’ll be there. I guess Justin will be, too, if you and Doc will be there.” She sighed, and Rose didn’t miss it.
“Are you okay, honey?”
“I’m just trying not to dread Christmas. Russ ruined it for me last year. I don’t want to allow him to continue to influence me. Hasn’t he done enough damage?”
“Do you want my advice?”
“I guess so.”
“Start your own traditions. Daddy and I did it one way, and now you can do it yours.”
“I don’t know what that is though.”
“Research it, like you do everything else,” she said. “It’ll be fun, you’ll see. You’ll be starting something you can pass down to your children.”
“Oh, Mom, I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about. If we were still in Florida, we’d probably do what we always did. But now here, I don’t know, it just feels like we need to do Christmas the bayou way.”
“And what way is that? What did you do for Christmas that was so different when you lived here as a child?”
“Lonnie played the accordion, you remember that, don’t you? Yeppers. You can’t listen to zydeco and stay down, sweetheart, trust me on this. You get your music on right now and then think about Christmas.”
She explained where Maggie could find her grandfather’s turntable and LP records.
“Okay, thanks, Mom. I’ll try it.”
Inside, she looked over the shelves where Lonnie Langtry’s books were lined up next to hers. In the left corner was a box covered with crumbling leather. She’d never moved it, just ran a dustcloth over it from time to time. It was Lonnie’s record player. Whatever that was, she had laughed when Rose described it to her. She didn’t even own a CD player. Lifting the top, it looked like something out of a museum. Rose had said to place the record on the round disc, and after switching the on switch, it would work automatically, the arm would move over to the edge of the record and begin to play.
The records were lined up on end, and she found the one Rose said to look for: Queen Ida. She pulled the cardboard cover out of the stack and looked for the open end. The black record was in pristine condition, and she vowed to keep it that way. Following Rose’s directions, she waited for the arm to move over on its own, and it did, and music began to play in seconds.
Rose was right; it was impossible to be down