Forever Christmas by Lynxwiler Christine

Author:Lynxwiler, Christine [Lynxwiler, Christine]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-10-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

“Welcome to the first meeting of the Committee to Save Jingle Bells.” I smile at the crowd. “Dottie, thank you for keeping the library open late for us.” She’d been really uncertain about doing it. But I’d begged and she said yes.

Dottie nods. “Any time, Kristianna.”

Oh, good. Maybe I won’t have to beg next time we get together.

Ruby Lemmons waves her hand in the air.

“Ruby?”

“I was thinking we could call ourselves CARE—C-A-R-E.” She pronounces each letter very carefully.

“What does that stand for?” I’ve tried for days to think of an acronym, but haven’t been able to find anything that works.

“Committee Against Renaming Everything.” She smiles proudly.

A few people snort.

I glare at them. At least she’s thinking about why we’re here. I’m pretty sure a few people came for the free refreshments. “That’s original, but it may be a little broad for us. What if we focus on Jingle Bells? Even without a cute name, we can be a strong force in our community.”

Ruby leans toward the woman beside her. “Maybe so, but I think we’d be a lot stronger with a cute name.”

Great. Our first meeting and mutiny’s already brewing. I ignore her. “Did everyone get refreshments?” I point to the back of the room and everyone turns. Ami waves from her post beside the hot chocolate and cookies. I had asked Garrett to come, but he made a flimsy excuse. “Feel free to get some while we talk. This is going to be informal. Anyone have ideas about how we can save Jingle Bells?”

No one speaks.

I perch on the edge of the desk. “Does anyone know who else was planning on coming?”

“Where’s David from Mistletoe Music?” Sarah asks quietly.

Scott shakes his head and pushes his glasses up on his nose. “Didn’t you hear? David locked up.”

We just stare at the bookstore owner. Sometimes he forgets to fill in the narrative.

He shrugs. “He quit. Out of business.”

“I was hoping that wasn’t true,” I say under my breath. I heard it from Elva Campbell at lunch today, but sometimes she gets things mixed up. Apparently not this time.

In unspoken agreement, we observe a moment of silence for David’s fate. Each of us shopkeepers can feel the same doom breathing down our necks. This just brings it one door closer.

“My nephew would have been here tonight, but his wife’s uncle offered him a job and he had to move the family down there,” Ruby says.

The woman beside her nods. “They’re dropping like flies.”

This isn’t how I envisioned the meeting. Whose side are we on anyway? We sound more like we’re giving reasons for the name change.

I clear my throat. “Dottie? Where are the flyers you made?”

She weaves in and out of the rows passing out the papers. “Look this over,” she says. “And if you like it, I’ll have plenty after the meeting you can pick up to post around town.”

She hands me one, even though I saw it earlier. She’s done them on paper with a candy cane border. Underneath

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.