Christmas Tails: The Christmas Dog ; The Christmas Cat by Melody Carlson

Author:Melody Carlson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction-Christmas;FIC042000
ISBN: 9781493420544
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2018-10-16T00:00:00+00:00

2

Rebecca had been right about the weather system pressing into the Seattle area. Ice-cold rain whipped against him as Garrison hurried to the bus station. It wasn’t so much that he was unaccustomed to Washington’s climate. But after the years in Uganda—and after suffering from malaria—he was having difficulty acclimating to the chilly, damp environment in the Northwest. Fortunately he’d had the forethought to layer on lots of clothes this morning. He probably looked like a refugee in his strange-looking ensemble. Not that he cared about fashion. Besides, for all practical purposes, he was homeless. Homeless, jobless, and alone.

He tried not to feel sorry for himself as the bus rumbled down I-5 toward Vancouver, Washington. Instead, he focused his thoughts on the sweet old house that he’d lived in from age twelve to graduation. It had been nothing like his parents’ new home in a brand-new subdivision high on a hill. Gram’s neighborhood, with old homes and tree-lined streets, had real personality. Sure the neighborhood had been a little run-down, but the people had been friendly. Of course, that could’ve changed by now. After all, he hadn’t really spent time in that area during the past nine years. And his last visit, due to the cats, had been very brief. The truth was that Garrison hadn’t really spent much time there since graduating from high school. That was more than sixteen years ago, and about the same time Gram had started taking in cats.

Garrison had understood when Gram had taken in her first cat. The big orange tabby she named Genevieve had seemed like good company for her. And Garrison knew that Gram had loved having cats as a child. He also knew that she grew very lonely when he left for college on the East Coast. He had actually been comforted to know she had Genevieve’s companionship, and he’d told himself that he could simply take his allergy medicine whenever he came home. But over time his visits home grew rare. He claimed it was because of the cost of travel, but he knew it was also because of the cat. He learned quickly that visiting Gram for more than just a couple of hours put his health at risk. For her sake, though, he had tried to play it down. He never revealed to Gram that sometimes it felt as if she’d chosen the cat over him. He knew that would be selfish.

As Garrison walked from the downtown bus stop toward the old neighborhood, he noticed that some people were giving him curious glances. With his longish dark hair and layered clothes, beat-up duffle bag and backpack, he probably looked suspicious. The fact that he hadn’t shaved probably didn’t help much either. His plan was to drop off his bag, peel off some clothes, drive Gram’s old Pontiac back to town for a quick bite, and then meet with the lawyer at two.

The neighborhood looked even more run-down than he remembered. Not only that, some of the trees had been cut down, giving it a stark and somewhat desolate appearance.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.