Leota's Garden by Francine Rivers

Author:Francine Rivers
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndal House Publishers, c1999.
Published: 2012-01-10T17:31:02+00:00

She smiled, an irritating little smile that told him she wasn't going to make things easy for him.

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All she said was, "I have hope for you, Corban Solsek." She waited another moment; then she rose stiffly from her chair, turned the television on to a game show, sat again, and leaned her head back. With that, she closed her eyes and said not another word for the rest of the evening.

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13

NORA WALKED THE MALL. THE CHRISTMAS STORE WAS OPEN, BUT SHE walked past, disgusted. It wasn't even Halloween, Thanksgiving a distant six weeks away, and yet soon the holly and Santas would be cropping up like weeds in every store window. Every year Christmas came earlier, bringing with it an inner sadness. Why was it Christmas always depressed her? No matter how big the tree, how bright the decorations, how frenetic the festivities, she felt alone and lonely.

Pausing by a toy store, Nora remembered the excitement of buying presents for her children when she was younger. Michael had loved Lego toys from the time he was old enough to stack blocks. Over the years, she had purchased more and more complicated-and expensive-collections of the connecting plastic blocks. Where were they now? Stored in the garage in case a grandchild might someday want them? Or had Michael taken them with him when he moved away? She couldn't remember.

The dolls in the store window reminded her of shopping for Anne ... and the frustration that went along with it. One Christmas she had stood in line to buy a Cabbage Patch doll for her precious daughter. When the store announced there was no more stock available, she had forked over two hundred dollars to a lady who had purchased

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three. Greedy witch. When Annie had opened the pretty package and seen the doll, she had said a quiet thank you, nestled it back in the box, and placed it under the tree.

"Don't you like it? Every little girl wants one of these dolls. You have no idea how difficult it was to get one for you."

"It's nice, Mommy."

Nora hated being called Mommy. She had reminded Anne-Lynn over and over to call her "Mom" or "Mother." "Mommy" was for babies.

Anne had taken the doll to school with her. When she returned without it, Nora had been angry. She had been so certain Anne had lost it and wondered how she could be so careless. "Do you have any idea how much that doll cost me? Two hundred dollars! I should've just bought you one of those cheap Raggedy Ann dolls!" Then, to make matters worse, Anne-Lynn had cried and confessed she hadn't lost it. She had given it away to a little girl who had received only a puzzle for Christmas. Standing at the toy store window now, Nora remembered how furious she had been over that. And why shouldn't she have been? She had waited for hours, paid a ridiculous price for something every normal little girl wanted... and what did her daughter do? She gave the gift away as though it meant nothing to her.

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