All Roads Lead Home (Bellingwood) (58 page)

"Now, if you know someone who needs a tree and
can't afford one, do me a favor. Write their name on a card and hand it to me
or Jeff here. We want everyone to have a little bit of Christmas this year.

"Enjoy your evening and let's decorate!"

More applause followed her as she walked down the
steps, music began again and Lydia caught her. "Come with me,
alright?" she said quietly.

Polly followed Lydia out to the foyer and then into
her office. Bruce and Hannah were standing there, smiling.

Bruce said, "Polly, thank you for believing in
me. Everything is going to be alright now."

"What do you mean?" she asked. "What
happened?"

Aaron said, "Well, Bruce told us who he'd bought
the car from and we started investigating backwards. It seems that an old buddy
of his set him up as a transport. Denver police caught him and he admitted to
everything. When Bruce started talking about driving out here to Iowa to beg
his dad for work, this guy figured it would be a great way to move things
across a few states. Once, Bruce got to Story City, another guy was planning to
steal the car and move it on to Minneapolis. We're working on that one. A young
family would never be suspected of moving drugs or so he thought. So,
everything is good. We've got all of the McKenzie's stuff in storage until they
find a place to live. They're free to go."

Polly hugged Hannah. "I'm so glad it has worked
out. Oh, your kids are going to be happy that everything is alright."

"Sheriff Merritt has already taken care of that,”
Hannah said. “He spent some time with Sammy and Emma and told them there was a
misunderstanding and they shouldn't worry anymore. Neither of the kids was sure
what to do with him, but since he didn't have his uniform on tonight, he wasn't
quite so scary," she laughed, a little uncomfortably.

Lydia poked Polly, "See, I told you.
A Christmas miracle."

Polly smiled and said, "You guys can stay here
until you figure out where you're going to live. I haven't been able to finish
decorating those rooms yet, so there's no reason you shouldn't have the room.
And it's Christmas time, for heaven's sake. There's room in this inn."

Lydia squeezed her and said, "You're a good girl,
Polly."

"Now that this is over, I'll start looking for a
job on Monday," Bruce said. "Maybe I can find something to do around
here." His lips turned down. "I just wish
... "
then he stopped. "Nope.
I'm going to be happy this is behind me and my family
has a warm place to sleep. Everything else will come in time.
Thank you Polly.
I
can't believe that of all places for me to be pulled over, it was in your lane."

"I know. It’s kind of unbelievable. But, like
Lydia keeps reminding me, Christmas miracles happen!"

Hannah looked up, "I need to get in the kitchen.
Sylvie has to be going crazy," and she took off. She turned around, hugged
Polly tightly, then hugged Aaron, then Lydia. "Thank you all for
everything! This
is
a Christmas miracle!" With that, she bolted out
the door of the office and headed for the kitchen.

"Are you all coming in now?" Polly asked. "We
can't hide out in here all evening." She strode out of the office and went
back into the auditorium, where people were chattering and working away to
decorate the trees in the room.

As she walked around the room, commenting on the trees
and the strings of decorations that were filling them, she was stopped several
times as cards were pressed into her hands. Many people complimented her on the
renovation of the old school. She stopped to talk to some of the women she had
met at Lydia's slumber party a couple of months ago, when she heard her name
being spoken behind her. She nearly turned around, but stopped as she realized
they weren't necessarily being complimentary.

"I heard she got involved with the mob in Boston
and is hiding here in Iowa. Can you believe she's going to bring that type of
trouble out here?

"Well, I can't believe anyone would spend all of
that money to fix this old place up. I thought her daddy was a farmer and would
have given her more sense than that.

"What does she think she's doing giving away
these trees? People can buy their own trees; they don't need to get free trees
that we decorate. That's just stupid.

"Have you even seen her downtown very much? I'll
bet she does all her shopping online or in the big cities. Did you see that
dress she's wearing? She probably spent more on it than I did on groceries for
the last two years. Imagine.

"I think that Jeff Lyndsay is homosexual. Did you
see how flashy he is? Can you believe she brought one of those to town?

Polly's ire began to rise and then she felt a cool
hand on her forearm. She looked up and it was Henry.

"Ignore them or confront them, but don't let them
get to you," he said quietly.

"Are you kidding me? They come here and eat my
food and listen to my music and think they can say those terrible things? And
so what if Jeff is gay, does that mean he's poison? I'm getting angry, Henry. I
want to kick them out."

"Breathe, just breathe. Then think about how you
want to handle them. You are always going to find these people around you. This
probably isn't the only table of people here who are saying bad things."

Polly took a couple of deep breaths,
then
said, "Okay. You're right. I know this type of
person. I went to school with these people. I worked with these people. I even
went to church with these people. It still doesn't make me like them, but
you're right."

She took another deep breath, then stood up a little
taller and walked over to a table filled with several couples. Both men and
women had been spewing ugly gossip and she had finally figured out how she
would handle it. "Good evening! I'm so glad you're here. I don't think I
caught your names earlier."

Henry was standing beside her as she walked around the
table and greeted each person as they introduced themselves to her. "Are
you enjoying yourselves?" she asked.

"Oh yes," said one woman, "You've done
a beautiful job with the old place. We were talking about how much you've
invested in it."

"Were you!"
Polly said. "Well, I hope the investment pays
off soon. My father would have been so happy to see the money he left me used
to make this dream come true."

Polly zeroed in on one of the more snide looking
women. "What a lovely dress you're wearing this evening! That shade of
green looks wonderful on you!" she gushed.

"Do you think so?" the woman responded. "My
husband here never tells me what he thinks about my clothes. You have a very
nice dress, too."

"Did any of you come up with someone you thought
should get a Christmas tree? Surely you know people in town who aren't going to
be able to have a tree this year? Wouldn’t it be just awful for there to be
kids with no Christmas tree when we could help them out?" Polly went on.

"Well, if you think of someone, please write it
down and hand the card either to myself or to Jeff over there. Isn't he
gorgeous?"

She spun away and walked off and heard Henry giggling
in her ear.

"Now, that's the way to handle a group, Polly. You're
good at that," Henry said.

"It was either that or
kick
their chairs out from under them, but I wasn't ready
to pay for eight new hips and at their age, I'm guessing every one of them
would have broken when they hit the floor."

"Well, they aren't sure what just hit them, and
they're going to be very confused for a while." He turned around and
glanced back at the table. "Look, they're working on the popcorn string
now. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you get a card with a name on it from
them before the end of the evening."

"Oh, that reminds me,” Polly said. “I have a few
here. Tell me if these names are all good ideas." She pulled the cards up
and handed them to Henry.

He glanced over them and said, "Yeah, these are
all good."

"Let's see what Jeff has," she said and
walked over to her associate.

"Have you gotten any names of people to receive
trees?" she asked.

"I have. I don't know if we're going to have any
extra trees to give away," he said.

"That's fine. I'd rather they all went to someone
who could use a tree." she responded.

He slipped the cards into her hand and passed them on
to Henry, who glanced at them and nodding, handed them back.

"How are you doing, Jeff?" Henry asked.

"I think we're doing well. There was a stack of
brochures about hosting events here at Sycamore House out by the front door and
those are nearly gone. The business cards I left on the counter are also gone,
so maybe we'll start getting some calls. And Polly, the food is great. Your
friends have done a fabulous job."

"I'm going to talk to Sylvie. She needs to think
bigger about her life. Working in a grocery store doesn't nearly begin to tap
into her talent." Polly remarked.

They chatted for a few more minutes until Lydia walked
up to Polly and said, "You aren't going to believe it, but I need you
again."

Polly turned to Henry and Jeff, "I'm sorry. I'll
be back in a bit. Hold down the fort, okay?"

Stepping out into the foyer, Polly asked, "What's
going on? Is something wrong?"

"No, just someone who wants to see you and I
figured it was easier for you to come out rather than bring them in." Lydia
giggled a little. "I'm beginning to think you might have a new career
ahead of you!"

"What!" Polly exclaimed. As they entered the
hall, she recognized two people she hadn't seen for a while.

"Brad! Lee! I'm so glad you were able to make it
up this evening!" she said.

"We would have been here earlier, but Brad
decided at the last minute he needed to transfer some hay around and then he
lost all sense of time. He drives me nuts sometimes," Lee said, while
shaking her head. Brad just smiled.

"You don't say much, do you Brad?" Polly
laughed.

"Maybe not," he replied. "But we
brought you a gift!"

He held out a large covered basket. The blanket moved
around a little and Lydia stood beside Polly snickering.

"What did you do?" Polly asked,
then
made a sound in the back of her throat as she pulled
back the blanket. Two kittens were wrestling with each other in the warmth of
the covered basket. One was black and white and the other predominantly white
with a little color on her ears and as Polly saw when she lifted her out of the
basket, her tail.

Lee said, "The boy is already been neutered and
they have their first year shots. We didn't want to take them away from their
mama right away, but I know that little boys need to be neutered early so they
don't turn into tom cats."

"They're adorable! Have you named them?"

Lydia snickered again.

"What? What do you know?" Polly demanded.

"I might have been talking to them for a while
about this little gift," she responded. "They named them Luke and
Leia."

Polly snorted as she laughed out loud. "Oh, I'm
already getting a reputation, aren't I? That's perfect. I wonder what Obiwan’s
going to do with these little guys!"

She put her foot on the first step, "I've got a
few minutes. Let's go upstairs and find them a home and you can see the wood
floors. They are beautiful, but thank you so much! This is a wonderful gift!"

As they walked up the steps, Lee laughingly said,
"We weren't sure if you would be happy getting two kittens after you
already had a dog, but Lydia told us it would be alright. Brad had called Henry
to make sure and he hooked us up with her and well, it's been a plan in the
works, I guess. I hope you have fun with them."

"I'm going to have a blast with them. The more
furry little things in my life, the better, I guess,
" Polly
said as they stopped in front of the door to her apartment. "I think Jason
is in here with Obiwan, so, he should be in good shape."