Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
Lizzie is excited when she steps in the front door to see that Sophie has come to visit. She hasn’t even taken off her coat or put anything down when Sophie comes running over, crashing into Lizzie and grabbing her legs.
“Aunt Wiz! You’re finally here!” she keeps squeezing Lizzie’s legs, making it impossible to walk. Lizzie laughs and picks the toddler up and hugs her.
“Oh my gosh, this is the best surprise ever!” She spins the giggling little girl around and around, kissing her rosy cheeks over and over. “I thought we were coming to your house for dinner? Did you eat already?”
“Nope, Mommy and Daddy had work ‘mergenices, so I came here. Grabby told me we were waiting for you. So now we can eat. I am so hungry.” She squirms out of Lizzie’s arms and runs into the kitchen.
If Lizzie thought she’d lost the Sophie-name lottery with being Aunt Wiz, her mother wasn’t far behind with Grabby. Something Sophie had created herself combining Grandma and Gabby which she had heard so many people calling her.
“Mom, I'm home,” she says, rounding the corner into the kitchen. “Something smells very good.” She’s stopped in her tracks by the mountain of Christmas cookies all wrapped in eco-friendly bags and tied with festive, and reusable, ribbons. “How did you get all this done, babysit for this one, and make dinner? And why did I not get those genes from you?” she asks, lifting Sophie onto a stool at the counter.
“She’s only been here an hour or so. I’ve developed a system wrapping the cookies over the years, and got into a rhythm with it, and I’d already prepped a soup to make in the instant pot for tomorrow night, and I had some bread I made last week in the freezer, so I think we’re all good!” She goes over to the stool where Sophie is busy trying to count the bags of cookies, and squeezes her. “And Miss Sophie and I got to play out in the snow for a while and took Daisy for a little walk.”
“I’m exhausted just hearing about it!” Lizzie says.
“How was your day?” Gabby asks as the instant pot begins to hiss, releasing steam. She goes over and makes sure the valve is clear. “Where’d you go? What’d you do?” Who’d you see?” Gabby is teasing her as she peppers her with questions while monitoring the noise as the instant pot decompresses.
“Well, I went to Tall Tales, and met the Patels, who were lovely, I love what they’ve done with the store–and then I went to Sea Coast and interviewed Leah Alden about the festival,” she says, sitting down on a stool next to Sophie.
“So where are Matt and Shannon? And hey, wasn’t this supposed to be Taco Tuesday on Thursday night at their house?” Lizzie asks.
“They both got stuck with work and festival projects, so I said I’d do it. It’s not a big deal.”
“Well they sure are lucky to have you.”
“We sure are!” says Shannon, Sophie jumps down and runs to her mom.
“Mommy!”
Shannon swoops her up, and gives Lizzie a hug. “Group hug!” says Sophie.
Shannon puts her down and takes off her coat. “Gabby, I can’t thank you enough.”
“You know I’m always happy to spend time with this peanut,” she says. “Did you get everything done you needed to?”
“Not exactly...I was wondering, Lizzie, if you’d like to help me with something after dinner? It shouldn’t take too long.”
“Sure, I have to write some stories for my dad, but if it’s pretty quick I can help.”
“I had this crazy idea for the kids to make little reindeers with candy canes, using pipe cleaners and little googly eyes, but the head librarian said there’s not enough time and just wants us to read Christmas stories with them, and have Santa pass these out, so now I’m going to make them.”
Shannon, who looks completely overwhelmed, shows Lizzie a picture of the project on her phone–very cute little reindeer, with pipe cleaner antlers, little googly eyes and a piece of red candy for a nose. “I’ve got all the supplies,” she lifts up a big canvas tote.
“Okay, let’s set up a little assembly line on the island,” Lizzie says, moving the mountain of cookies aside. “How many do you need to make?”
“Well, I bought materials for 400?”
Lizzie is a little taken aback,“Okay, we’d better get started then!” she says plugging in the two hot glue guns she found in the bag.
“What about dinner?” Gabby asks. “Want to just have your soup while you work? I can keep Sophie busy.”
“Sounds good, Gabby, and thank you both. Lizzie, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this. I was thinking I might be up all night. Matt got stuck at this job site because per usual he has no help. And he was setting up some solar thing at the town square.” She’s near tears. “Sometimes it’s hard to do it all.”
Lizzie hugs her. “You don’t have to do it all, we’re here to help you, that’s what family’s for. And, it’s been a long time since I’ve done a craft project. This will be fun.”
There’s a commotion in the hall, voices, laughter and footsteps. Lizzie turns to see her brother Matt, and Jack walking in.
“What–” Lizzie stammers.
Jack is holding some type of tech device. “I was helping Matt set up a timer for the solar panel powered Christmas lights in the center of town, and he forgot this,” he says, holding up something, though Lizzie has no idea what.
“I told him I was coming here, so he tracked me down,” Matt says, giving his wife and daughter each a kiss.
“Jack, stay and have some soup with us, there’s plenty,” Gabby offers.
He looks at Lizzie for any type of signal. “Um, I’m–”
“He’s staying,” says Matt, taking control of the situation. “He helped me all morning and this afternoon, it’s the least we can do.”
“If it’s not an imposition, sure, I’d love to.” He takes off his coat and surveys the mountain of craft supplies Shannon is sorting. “What’s going on here? A Santa workshop annex?”
“Hey, Jack,” Shannon greets him. “Lizzie kindly offered to help me make 400 little reindeer for the library festival event.” she looks at him and smiles, “We could always use more hands, if you’d care to join?”
“Well, how can I say no to helping a good cause?” he says, pulling up a stool.
“You know, upstairs in the hall closet, along with my abandoned knitting projects are two more glue guns and a bag of glue sticks. Matt, would you run up and get them?” Gabby asks. “That way all four of you can work on it, or I can do it and one of you can watch Sophie.”
“I got it, Mom, thanks,” Matt runs up the backstairs and returns in under a minute. “I wish we could keep our closets organized like that, Mom.”
“Ha! Well, it’s amazing what one finds time to do when they retire! The soup and bowls are all here whenever you want to take a break and eat,” she says. “Sophie, why don’t you and I take our dinner and go eat by the Christmas tree?”
“Yay! Daddy! I’m going to have dinner with Grabby in the Christmas tree!”
He picks up his little girl, “Next to the tree, and that is great!” He puts her down and she scurries into the living room, trailed by Gabby carrying a tray for them, and Daisy hoping for some fallen treats.
“Okay, so what do these little guys look like,” Jack asks, ready to get to work.
“You really don’t have to do this,” Lizzie says to him quietly. “I’m sure you’ve got better things to do.”
“It’s fine, I’d like to do it. All that was waiting for me at home was some leftover lasagna, and Netflix. My parents went to some board meeting, so it’s all good,” he says.
Lizzie isn’t too sure about sitting with her ex-fiance’ making candy cane reindeer, but it’s for a good cause so she decides to make the best of it and not make anyone else uncomfortable.
In short order the four of them are moving right along and soon have a growing pile of mini-Rudolphs.
Matt, glue gun in hand, points to Lizzie and Jack, “Do you two remember, I was a sophomore, you two were seniors, when we decided to make a float for the festival?”
“Even though there was no parade?” Jack laughs.
“Yes! It was kind of, ‘the sea meets the North Pole’. Jason Miller got a Santa suit and insisted on being Santa,” Matt says laughing.
“Even though he was six-foot-four and maybe weighed 150,”
“Wait, I think I remember this, he was on a boat, being pulled on a trailer, and the kids didn’t get permission or a permit to have this one-float parade and the police came?” Lizzie says.
“But they were nice and let us make it all the way down Main Street before they stopped us,” says Jack.
“Did you like growing up here? I worry about Sophie sometimes, is there enough going on, things like that,” asks Shannon. “I moved here later, when I was a junior, so I didn’t have the childhood all of you did here.”
“I liked it, most of the time,” Lizzie says as she glues googly eyes and a red candy nose onto yet another candy cane. “But I was ready to leave when the time came.”
“Getting away for a while is important,” says Jack. “If you grow up here and never go anywhere else it is a pretty sheltered life. I’m grateful for having had all the experiences I’ve had, the small town, and moving away. But now that I'm older, I miss it.”
“What about you, Lizzie?” Shannon asks, getting up to get the basket she brought to put finished reindeer in.
“Same, except I don’t feel the pull to come back,” though she’s not sure how she feels honestly. After college and grad school, she’d thought she and Jack would eventually perhaps build a life there, but as a single person, she wasn’t sure this sandbar was the best spot for her. “There’s no perfect place,” she shrugs. “I see kids growing up in Boston and think it’s really cool that they get to go to museums, ride the T, and have so much diversity around them. But then I think of learning to sail as a really little kid, searching for hermit crabs, and toasting marshmallows on the Outer Beach as the sun goes down.”
“I like the idea of having both,” says Jack, precisely twisting a brown pipe cleaner into antlers. “Having this as a homebase, but also getting to Boston or New York often enough to be happy to come back here.” He keeps looking over at Lizzie and she is trying to ignore him.
After an hour and a half of reminiscing, eating some soup and reindeer making, Lizzie stands up and stretches. “I hate to leave the party, but my editor is going to have my head if I don’t write those stories for him.” She pushes in her stool, and takes her bowl to the sink.
“I’ve heard he’s impossible to deal with,” says Peter, coming in at the end of a very long day.
“Hey, Dad,” Matt says.
Jack goes to stand, “Mr. Martin.”
“Jack, sit down, and for goodness sake, call me Peter.” He claps his hands together and rubs them to warm them, “This looks like Santa’s–”
“Workshop, yeah, Peter, we’ve already used that one,” Shannon says. “These guys were wonderful enough to help me with this project for the library. Tell me again why we have this festival every year?” she laughs, completely exhausted, jokingly putting her head down on the counter.
“I’d say because it’s fun, but it’s also a ridiculous amount of work,” Peter says. “I’m pretty festival-ed out myself.” He goes over to the still-warm instant pot and gets himself some soup. “I feel terrible making you leave the party to write those stories, honey,” he says to Lizzie and she picks up her notebooks.
“Dad, it’s not a big deal,” she says, kind of happy to have the excuse to leave. “See you all later, give me a shout before you go, Matt and Shannon,” she turns to go upstairs, and stops to look back at Jack laughing with her brother as they have a battle with their reindeer. Jack looks up and sees her, and she hurries up the stairs.