Christmas, Criminals, and Campers Page 2

  “I think it’s that people love to gather and enjoy each other. At least, I hope that’s what the campground offers. Which brings me to why I’m here.” I gestured over to the snowman. “I have a special camper coming. . .”

  “That writer woman?” He asked, interrupting me. I guess the look on my face asked him how he knew. “Abby came in here like a jumping bean she’s so excited. Looking for a perfect gift for the woman. I had an old leather-bound book that she’s going to turn into some sort of flower vase. She mumbled about going on over to Sweet Smell Flower Shop to get this woman’s favorite flowers or something.”

  “Oh, boy.” Abby was further gone than I had thought. “Abby is her biggest fan.”

  “I gathered that.” He adjusted the pile of long johns and rubbed his hands together. “What about the snowman?”

  “According to Abby, Nadine White - that’s the author - loves blow-up snowmen. I was wondering if I could either buy it or rent it from you to put in front of the camper she’s staying in over the Christmas holiday.” I had to admit it was super cute.

  It wasn’t too big or too small. It was the perfect size for the camper she was renting.

  “I also need some lights to go on the outside along with one of those multi-colored camper flag banners you sell.” I might as well go all out, which Abby said Nadine would love. “I do want to show her the hospitality Happy Trails and Normal have to offer. Maybe she’ll set her next book in a town like ours.” I fluttered my lashes, knowing Buck was a sucker for a southern gal.

  My insides began to flutter. Was I climbing aboard Abby’s wagon and getting a little excited too?

  “Oh, alright.” He shook a finger at me. “Just because I like you, Mae West.”

  I stood near the window watching Buck make his way into the winter wonderland display he’d made. The snowman wasn’t easy to get out of the window, but Buck forged ahead. I heard the snowman’s fan turn off, followed by the sound of the round, white guy deflating.

  A knock on the glass made me jump and look up. Bobby Ray Bond, my foster brother from when I was a kid who’d recently found me in Normal, was waving from the sidewalk. He was dressed in a pair of thick mechanic’s overalls, a knit blue cap, and a pair of snow boots.

  I waved him in.

  “May-bell-ine, what on earth are you doing out in this weather?” He scolded me, raking off his cap. What was left of his thinning, brown hair stuck up due to the static electricity from the hat. His brown eyes bore into me. “I don’t think it’s fittin’ for you to be out when there’s a storm coming.”

  “I’m fine, Bobby Ray. I lived through all the people milling about New York City all those years. A little snow isn’t going to bother me.” I reminded him that he was no longer my protector even though he was the one who’d paid for me to get out of Kentucky the minute I turned eighteen.

  I mean the exact minute after, which was in the middle of the night. He’d given me enough money to get me to New York and I’d made all the arrangements. I hadn’t looked back either. At least not until my ex and all that mess and his leaving me with the campground. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I’d actually found myself in love with being back in Kentucky.

  I can’t say I was exactly thrilled when Bobby Ray showed up at Happy Trails looking for a job and a place to live, only because I didn’t want to relive my past. It was in the past and I didn’t like to live there. Bobby Ray had embraced the new me and I’d felt like we’d moved past the foster family days.

  “Okay. If you say so. I’ve got to get back to work.” He slipped his hat back on his head. “I’ll see you, Buck,” Bobby Ray called out before he headed out the door and walked down Main Street towards Grassel’s Gas Station where he worked.

  Bobby Ray was a great mechanic and it was just his luck that Joel Grassel had been looking for a good mechanic. I told him to look no further than Bobby Ray. He was the finest around. In Normal everybody brought their cars to him and he’d done right well for himself. He was a full-time resident there along with me, Dottie, and Henry, my maintenance man, Ty Randal and a few others. Other than that, the rest of the campers were intended to be rented for short periods of time. There were some bungalows nestled in the back of the campground, only they didn’t have heat, so those weren’t rentable for the winter.

  “Here you go.” Buck handed me the snowman all neatly folded like he’d done the stack of long johns. The blower for the snowman, a box of outside lights, and the banner were all stacked on top of the deflated snowman. “ You just need to plug it in. The amps on the camper should be fine. It doesn’t take up too much electricity.”

  He was talking about all the hookups and electricity required for the campers. Some of them required more since they were bigger and had more electric items, but the one Nadine’s agent had rented was a simple camper with not many amenities.

  “You’re the best, Buck.” I took the snowman. “I can have it back to you after the New Year.”

  “Nah, you keep it. But I do want to come to Christmas Dinner at the Campground.” He smiled. “I’ve got nowhere to be, so I figured I’d just show up there.”

  “You got it. We’ve got some good food planned.” Each month I had a themed party at the campground.

  It was originally for the campers’ enjoyment, but they had gotten bigger and bigger since the citizens of Normal had gotten involved and I’d invited them. Happy Trails had needed a lot of work when I moved here. It was broken and rundown. Nothing worked. With the help of many of the local businesses and donations, we were able to get it up and running again. There was a year long wait for a reservation now.

  We were booked solid for the month of December, and I knew the Normal Diner would be closed on Christmas Day. It was the perfect time to host a Christmas Day lunch for anyone who wanted to come, but with the impending weather, I was hoping we would have electricity.

  “Did you see Dottie upstairs?” I asked Buck, wondering where she’d disappeared to.

  “Yep. She was trying on some new clothes I just received from an estate sale. I haven’t even gone through all of it yet. But she helped herself,” he said right before she appeared at the top of the steps.

  “How much?” She had a plastic bag full of pink sponge curlers.

  “Free. I don’t think anyone wants used hair curlers but you.” He laughed, shook his head, and pushed his hands down into the front pocket of his jeans. “I swear, Dottie Swaggert.”

  “Let’s get out of here before the snow really starts to fall and we can’t get this snowman up in time.” I was more worried about getting the decorations up in time than the snow. “But first, I’m going to grab a small tree from the tree lot.”

  I’d bought a small Ford to get me around since I’d parked my RV at Happy Trails. It was sorta a pain in the neck to move once you got situated. I had to take everything down, put it away, and secure it in order to drive it, so when Joel Grassel had a car I could buy, I jumped at the chance. I had a golf cart to use around the campground, but not in the snow.

  The little Christmas fir we picked out for the outside of Nadine’s camper fit perfectly on top of the Ford.

  There weren’t many big highways around Normal. We were located in the middle of Daniel Boone National Park and Forest, which meant the roads were maintained by the county. This was a good thing since the National Guard was in charge and they kept the roads clear as best they could.

  “It sure is coming down, Mae.” Dottie drummed her fingers along the door. “You be careful.”

  “Don’t you worry. I’ll get you back in no time to get those new curlers in your hair.” I joked, but kept my hands steady on the wheel. One slick spot and we’d no doubt hit a tree. “It looks like they’re going to have to make a few passes on this road.”

  I looked in the rearview mirror at the snow covering my tire tracks faster than my wheels could make them.

  Dottie reached over and turned on the radio. The latest weather update was just coming on.

/>   “The Bluegrass Airport is going to be shutting down in two hours. If you are on your way to the airport, be sure to check the status on any and all flights leaving out of or flying into the airport,” the woman said. “The snow is falling at a more rapid pace than we’d initially anticipated.”

  I took it slow as I turned right into the campground’s entrance and under the Happy Trails Campground sign. The entrance was a long and windy gravel road that took you deeper into the park before you entered the clearing where the cute and cozy campground was located.

  “I wonder if our famous camper is here?” Dottie asked a good question. She’d put her hands in her pocket and pulled out her cigarette case. “I’ll be happy to get in my house.”

  “Did I make you nervous?” I laughed and drove further into the campground, passing the office building on the left and the storage units on the right before turning right onto the road that circled around the lake in the middle.

  “You don’t make me nervous.” She had her door open before I could even stop the car in front of her camper. “This weather makes me cranky and achy.”

  “Alright. Be on the lookout for our famous guest,” I told her. “Also, can you send a call out to Henry to meet me down at her camper, so I can get some help putting all this up?”

  “Sure will!” She hollered and looked up at the sky. The snow was really coming down now. “You better hurry up or you’re going to turn into a snowman.”

  Three

  The campground was surrounded by the park, with its wooded tree lines and entrances to many trails for different levels of hiking expertise. Each trail had something special to offer. The tall evergreens were as pretty as a picture with the snow caked on top of each branch and a burst of green popping out.

  Happy Trails added to the park’s natural beauty with lights around the campers and on all the trees that surrounded the lake. Henry had taken it upon himself to put white lights around all the tree trunks, making the lake look like a winter wonderland. Ty Randal, one of the residents who lived at the campground fulltime, had donated ice skates in various sizes to the campground. Instead of closing the cute tiki hut bar next to the dock for winter, we turned it into a skate shack, where guests could borrow skates and enjoy the frozen lake.

  Instead of going to the right of the lake, I drove around the circle on the left, so I could drop off the Christmas tree. The rest of the stuff I’d bring over after I parked my car at my RV.

  You could spot my RV from a mile away. The vibrant yellow pop top’s awning was up with a farm-style picnic table underneath. I’d hung icicle lights around the awning and the camper. I loved Christmas and spending it here was perfect.

  I parked the car on the concrete pad next to my RV.

  The yelping from inside the RV came from Fifi, the miniature poodle I’d acquired from a woman whose house I’d cleaned. Long story short, she was one of the suspects in a crime I’d helped solve. Only she’d gone to jail for a few days before I solved it and she picked me of all people to babysit her prized, award-winning poodle.

  Unfortunately, it was during the summer and our busiest season. I let Fifi run around during one of the campground parties and Ethel Biddle’s brown and white pug, Rosco, was seen in an uncompromising position with Fifi. And Fifi got pregnant. She’d done “gone to the wrong side of the tracks” as her original owner had told me and Fifi was no longer worth half a cent, making Fifi useless to her and my problem from then on.

  “Hi, baby girl.” I opened the door, greeted by a small ball of fur, tap dancing around on her four little paws. “You are exactly what I needed to see.”

  I picked her up and gave her a few kisses before sliding her paws into little shoes. It was ridiculous. Me with a dog. I’d barely been able to take care of myself, much less a dog. It’d been an adjustment for me to stop by the RV to let her out or take her with me, which I’d been doing a lot. She didn’t like the snow and the only way I could get her outside to do her business was to put these dog booties on her.

  I’m sure they’d look adorable if I’d continued to keep her groomed like she’d been used to, with balls of fur in various places along her otherwise shaved body, but I couldn’t do that to her in the cold winter. She shivered as it was, even with a coat on. Besides, she didn’t need to perform for anyone now that she owned me. And that’s what it was. She owned me now.

  “Want to come with me to decorate?” I asked Fifi once I’d put her down under the awning, so she’d get her footing and realize she was going to have to go potty in the snow. “I’ve got to put up a snowman and some lights.”

  I glanced across the lake at the mini camper Nadine had rented before I retrieved the wagon from the backside of the RV. It was one of those industrial wagons with big wheels. It was perfect for when I wanted to go to the lake with blankets and beach things. It was also perfect for wheeling Fifi around and for doing gardening around the campground, though Henry did most of it.

  “You comin’?” The familiar voice called from the distance, though the echo off the mountains and trees made it sound like Henry was much closer. “Gettin’ colder by the minute!”

  “I’m coming!” I hollered, pulling the cart behind me. Fifi did her business and ran over as quick as her little legs would carry her before she stood on her back legs and clawed the air with her front legs for me to pick her up. “I’m going to grab you a blanket too.”

  I talked to her like a person. I swear she knew what I was saying. It made me feel better to think she did. I carried her until we got to the car. After I put the items Buck had given me in the wagon, I grabbed a blanket from my backseat and put it in there with Fifi perched on top.

  “Dashing through the snow, in a little wagon,” I began to sing on our way over to the other side of the lake where Henry had started to put up a small Christmas tree. “Fififi, Fififi, Fifi all the way.” I changed the lyrics to get my little pup to wag her cute tail when I said her name.

  No matter what, she was always happy to see me, and it lifted my spirits.

  “This here sure is a cute tree.” Henry stood back from the little four-footer and went back to straighten it up. “Is this for your foster mama?”

  I jerked up from the taking the blow-up snowman out of the wagon.

  “What did you say?” I was sure the bitter cold had frozen my eardrums. “I thought you said something about my foster mama.” I laughed and turned back to get the electric fan to blow the lawn ornament up.

  “I did.” Henry had picked up the lights he’d gotten from seasonal storage unit and walked around the tree, placing them on the branches. “Bobby Ray said something about your foster mama comin’ to visit or something.”

  I thought back long and hard to when I saw Bobby Ray at the thrift shop and he never mentioned Mary Elizabeth Moberly’s name once. Or trust me, I’da come unglued.

  “Mae?” Henry called my name. It was like I was frozen solid right there in my snow boots. “Mae?”

  I blinked a few times. The chill had left the outside of my body and moved inside to my organs.

  “Did you say that Bobby Ray Bond,” I said, pointing to Bobby Ray’s camper, “said that?” I had to make sure I heard him correctly. “Because I know I’m not hearing you right.”

  “Yep. She’s comin’ for Christmas. He even asked Dottie if there was a rental available and when Dottie said we was all booked up, he mumbled about putting her in his camper or even up at one of the log cabins up on Tree Top Lookout.”

  “Or he could put her up in a cabin in Colorado,” I groaned, knowing it was just like Bobby Ray to get a soft heart on me now. He was always a sucker around the holidays and if I knew Mary Elizabeth Moberly like I did, she was going to use that to her advantage.

  “Colorado? Why Mae West,” Henry cackled. “I’m not that smart on geography and all but I do believe that’s clear out yonder across the United States.”

  “That’s where she needs to be.” My eyes narrowed as I glared across the lake wondering when i
t was the blizzard was going to blow in. And I didn’t mean the snow blizzard.

  The darkness during the winter months came much earlier in Daniel Boone National Park than it did other places in Kentucky. In most other parts of the state it got dark around six p.m. In the mountains of the park, it got dark around five p.m. and there wasn’t much for me to do but sit in my RV staring across the lake to see when Nadine White was going to arrive.

  Well…there was one thing I’d been doing that I’d tried not to do and that was stew over what Henry had said. I continued to tell myself I was waiting on Nadine White, but when Bobby Ray Bond’s car rolled up next to his camper, I darted out the door.

  “Well, well. May-bell-ine, you sure are in a rush to greet me from work. Are you inviting me to supper?” He smiled as big as the moon hanging over our head and as bright too. “It’ll just take a second for me to clean up.”

  “Right now, the last thing I’m going to do is sit down for supper with you if what Henry told me is true.” I stuck my hands in my coat pocket. The temperature had dropped at least ten degrees since the darkness had crept in and taken over any and all light.

  “Do you mean that Henry didn’t tell you I was visiting?” A familiar looking woman with glossy brown hair cut in a stylish way stood at the entrance of the camper. “Mae, you better get over here and give me some sugar.”

  There stood Mary Elizabeth Moberly in all her southern glory, pearls and all, with her arms outstretched. She was dressed head to toe in Lily Pulitzer or at least someone with similar designs. Trust me. I knew. She used to cover me in the same bright pinks and yellows.

  “Whaaat?” Her southern voice dripped off her like the pearls around her neck. “You aren’t happy to see me? I did take you in and give you a wonderful home after you bounced around to a few different foster homes. Got you debutante lessons and etiquette classes and put you in the finest of clubs.” She frowned, batted her eyes and jutted her arms out again. “I forgive you for not inviting me to your wedding. Though.” Her head bobbled side-to-side. “I did hear it didn’t end so gracefully.” Her eyes raked over me.