8. Harrison
HARRISON
The following evening, Harrison stood outside the Heroes Center with Katie, his heart pounding as he contemplated stepping inside for his daughter’s first playdate in forever.
Through the big plate glass window, they could see a flurry of activity happening inside.
One of the men was up on a ladder, stringing up Christmas lights while another unspooled the string from below.
A young woman set up a fluffy snowman family on the reception desk, while the toddler beside her chuckled and reached for the figures.
A couple of guys tried to untangle a cardboard Santa’s sleigh that was strung to eight tiny cardboard reindeer.
He fingered the wedding rings in his pocket.
If you’re watching over her, Penny, please help her get through this…
“Are you ready?” Harrison asked Katie, not quite daring to ask if she really wanted to do this, or if she had changed her mind. He wanted so badly for her to participate that he couldn’t bring himself to give her such an easy out.
Katie nodded, resolute.
Harrison felt a surge of pride, and a sense of gratitude to Mallory Fisher.
Seeing Katie laughing her head off in the bakery kitchen last night, clinging to Mallory like they were long-lost sisters had been both shocking and heartwarming. Harrison hadn’t seen Katie like that in a long, long time.
If his daughter had the courage to have a hang out with a new friend today, he was pretty sure it was thanks to the baker with the flaming ponytail and the heart of gold.
He pushed open the door and they stepped into the warmth of the center and pulled off their coats.
“Hey there,” the young woman setting up the snowmen said cheerfully.
“You must be Katie. I’ve heard so much about you.
I’m Sam. I’m Amelia’s big sister, and I’m married to your dad’s cousin, so we’re all related in some way.
Isn’t that cool? Amelia is very excited to hang out with you today.
She’s in the community room making snowflakes. ”
Sam swept up the toddler, who chuckled at Harrison over her shoulder, and headed off for the community room, leaving them nothing to do but follow.
“Amelia,” Sam sang out. “Your friend is here.”
Another little girl sat at a big table, surrounded by lacy paper snowflakes. There was a pair of scissors in her hands and a stack of fresh paper in front of her. Harrison couldn’t help noticing that there was another pair of scissors beside the paper.
A black and white border collie was curled up in the corner. It lifted its head to observe Katie and Harrison with some interest.
“Hi, Katie,” Amelia said, looking up from her task. “Want to help make snowflakes?”
Katie nodded and went to sit beside her friend.
“We’re trying to make like a million of them to hang up out there,” Amelia explained, sliding her the other pair of scissors. “There’s no right or wrong way to do it, but I like cutting them into a square first.”
She immediately began to demonstrate on her next sheet of paper.
Katie watched for a minute, then grabbed her own sheet and got to work, the two of them snipping intently away at their creations.
“We’re cousins, you know,” Amelia said in a friendly way.
Katie nodded. She didn’t look away from her snowflake, but Harrison thought he saw a hint of a smile trying to peek out, and was glad all over again that she was doing this.
“Harrison,” Sam said, ducking her head back in, this time without the baby. “Would you mind helping me with the outside decorations?”
He kept his eyes on Katie until she looked up at him and nodded once.
“I’d be glad to,” he told Sam, following her out to the reception area.
Two of the guys were sitting on the floor, stacking up blocks for Sam’s baby, who crowed with delight as Sam set him down on the floor again so he could knock them down.
“Do you have Ezra for a bit, Fallon?” Sam asked the man with the big, dark eyes.
“Of course,” he replied.
“Thank you,” she said.
He nodded to her.
“And thank you so much for helping out,” Sam told Harrison. “We had some string lights out there, but Captain Anderson really wanted this set instead.”
She held up a box of lights with big colorful bulbs, like the ones his grandparents always had on their tree.
“Nice,” he said, nodding.
“His son’s grandmother had this kind,” Sam said with a fond smile, echoing Harrison’s own thoughts. “So he thought it would be nice to have them here too.”
“Is Anderson the one who runs this place?” Harrison asked.
He’d heard something from his great-aunt about the man getting married last Christmas.
It was a juicy story with a second chance and a fake wedding, and a little boy who allegedly dreamed up the whole thing in an attempt to bring them together.
“That’s a good question,” Sam said, smiling. “He was, but we share that responsibility now. He promoted me to co-director.”
“Wow, congratulations,” Harrison said. “That’s a great promotion.”
“I still can’t believe it,” Sam said, shaking her head as she unpacked the lights. “We’ve both got families, so we cover for each other a lot, which has been a lifesaver. And it’s been wonderful to be in on the big picture planning side of the center, not just in the trenches, rolling things out.”
“So what’s the vision for the coming year?” Harrison asked.
“We’ve got another space up by the open-air market,” she told him. “And we had planned to move our day-to-day up there.”
“Okay,” Harrison said, hanging the first section of lights from a hook.
“Wow, you don’t even need the ladder,” Sam said, her eyes twinkling.
“Yeah,” he said. “Being tall comes in handy once in a while.”
She laughed and handed him another section.
“So you’re moving things to your other location?” he asked.
“That was the plan,” she said. “But you see how it is in the village. People stop in and say hello or drop off donations while they’re in town for other things.”
“It feels more like you’re part of the community here,” Harrison said, nodding.
“Exactly,” she said. “When the farmer’s market is going, it will be the same at the other location. And the space is bigger up there. But most of the time, we think it would be a lot less active.”
“I haven’t been to the open-air market yet,” Harrison admitted. “But I can imagine. So what will you do?”
“That’s what we’re working on now,” Sam said. “Trying to find the best use for that space so we can keep up the day-to-day in this one. It’s a good problem, really. Captain Anderson wasn’t expecting the town to get as involved as they have.”
Harrison nodded and took the next section of lights from Sam, thinking that he wasn’t a bit surprised the town had embraced the veterans center.
He’d grown up in a fairly small town. But Trinity Falls was different.
All the adults had known his name and asked about his family members by name when they saw him, even though he was only here from time to time.
There was a sense of community that went deeper than town pride, or even duty.
Folks here felt a real ownership over each other’s struggles and successes.
He and Sam finished up with the lights and then hung a garland around the door and a set of sleigh bells on the inside knob.
Her little Ezra was leaning against Fallon’s chest now, practically nodding off as the big man quietly read to him from a picture book, in spite of all the activity around them.
“He’s really cute,” Harrison said.
“Thanks,” she replied. “He brought your cousin and me together, you know.”
He nodded. He’d heard only bits and pieces of the story, and he was very curious, but hadn’t wanted to ask too many questions when she was clearly busy.
The sound of a television came from the community room, and when he poked his head in to check on Katie, he saw that she and Amelia were watching Miracle on 34th Street with a bunch of the guys.
The two of them had a giant bowl of popcorn between them, and they were both eating and watching avidly. They weren’t exactly talking to each other, but it was the closest thing to bonding he’d seen Katie do with another kid since she was in preschool.
“Aw,” Sam said softly. “Hey listen, do you need to run errands or anything? I’ll keep an eye on her and buzz you when she’s ready to go.”
Every instinct told him not to leave his daughter. But he obviously wasn’t going to take her home when she was having this nice moment, and he didn’t want to just stand around watching her watch a movie.
“Tell you what,” he said to Sam. “I’m just going to grab a cup of coffee at the bakery. I can be back here right away when she wants to go.”
“That’s perfect,” Sam said with a knowing smile.
How small is this town?
He headed to the front door, grabbed his coat, and took off down the block before he could change his mind.
There really were only a few storefronts between the bakery and the center. He was standing in front of Mallory’s window before he’d had a chance to get in the headspace of seeing her again.
The first thing that caught his eye was the warm glow inside and all the pretty lights and garlands. Then he noticed that the sign was turned to CLOSED.
Three faces gazed back at him from one of the tables. Mallory was there, of course, her beautiful hair shining like burnished copper in the warm light. The dark-haired girl was beside her and the fashionable one sat opposite them, but she had turned in her seat to look at him.
He gave a quick wave, feeling like an idiot, and headed away. He wasn’t even sure where he was going, but wasn’t going to just keep standing outside the closed café like a stalker.
But before he got more than a few steps away, the sound of a door opening and bells jingling behind him made him stop.
“Harrison,” Mallory’s voice called out sweetly.
He felt his heart throb and wished he could rip it out of his chest.
She’s too young. And I’m too broken.
But she was also the woman who had soothed the ache in his soul with her messages, who had sent him passages from The Bible, The Jungle Book, and even Dr. Seuss in his lowest moments this year.