The Ghostly Hideaway (16 page)

“Yes, but I didn’t say that’s where we were going.
Baby, we started something in the car on Thanksgiving and, unless
you don’t want to, I’d like to finish it tonight. I love you,
Sweetheart, and I need you to be mine, completely.”

“Oh, Johnny, I want to belong to you, body and heart
and soul. I won’t lie and say I’m not a little scared but it’s what
I want, too. And I love you, too, Honey!”

Johnny was sweet and gentle and when the evening was
almost over, Chrissy loved him even more than before. They were
sitting on the edge of the bed still kissing and preparing to
leave.

Before they left the room, Johnny took a small
square box out of his pocket and opened it to show Chrissy her
engagement ring.

“I had meant to wait to give this to you for
Christmas, but you’re truly mine now, and I belong to you
completely. I want you to have this as a part of this night to
remember." He knelt down in front of her and said earnestly,
“Chrissy, I love you more than anything in the world and I will for
the rest of my life. Will you be my sweetheart and my bride and my
wife for all of time, my love?”

“Oh, yes, Johnny." He slipped it on her finger,
kissed her lovingly, and held her tight. “It’s beautiful and you’re
wonderful, Johnny. Thank you for making this the most wonderful day
of my life.”

“The most wonderful, so far, Chrissy. I plan for you
to have a lot more wonderful days even better than this one;
although, this one will always be extremely special to me, too. Now
let’s get you home before your folks are worried. I love you,
Christina Marie O’Reilly (almost O’Reilly).”

They got home about fifteen minutes before ten
o’clock and Ed and Penny were waiting up as she expected.

“How was the movie? Did you have a good time?" Her
folks noticed the flush on both their faces and they didn’t think
it was just from the cold.

“I don’t really know, Mom. Was there a movie? After
Johnny gave me this,” she held out her hand so they could see her
ring, “I didn’t see much of anything else the rest of the evening
but the ring and Johnny." Penny ooohed and aaaahed over the ring
and her parents understood—or thought they understood—the starry
eyes and flushed faces.

And then they were both talking at once telling them
about the new trailer they had bought.

“It is the most beautiful home in the world, Mom. I
fell in love with it the minute I saw it.”

“Now don’t fall too much in love with it, Chrissy,”
Johnny said. “I plan on living there while we build our house.
We’ll do something else with it and live in our new home when it's
completed.”

“Oh, oh, a new house, too? Oh, Johnny, I’ll never
get used to all this.”

The next few days went as fast as lightning for Ed,
Penny, and Lydia; but there's no way it could come fast enough for
the young people and especially the twins. It seemed as if their
birthday would never ever get there. Of course, Johnny and Chrissy
couldn’t wait to be together all the time. Nevertheless, it did
arrive and Saturday, December 13 was a day to be filled with
unbelievable excitement for everybody.

Lydia was still torn between looking forward to the
“family outing” and being somewhat apprehensive about getting that
far from home. It had been such a long time since she had had much
of anything to look forward to; but since Chrissy and Penny had
visited her the first time, she had found more and more things to
enjoy. She had been working overtime to get as many of her recipes
as possible copied into a scrapbook that she wanted to give Chrissy
for a wedding present. She had asked Johnny to get the blank
scrapbook for her to work with and she was relatively sure he would
probably figure out what it was for but when he had asked, she had
told him that nobody needed to know that right now but herself. She
was finding old magazines and cutting out pictures to put in with
the recipes and she was adding little flowers and ribbons here and
there. She hoped Chrissy would enjoy it as much as she was enjoying
making it for her.

She had thought a few times about begging off from
the trip but when she said something about it to Johnny, he had a
fit. He told her how disappointed the twins would be and it was for
their birthday and asking Lydia had been their idea, he told her,
so she just had to go. She said no more about staying home.

The following day, they saw the grader and the
backhoe begin work on preparing the ground to set the mobile home
on. Chrissy and Johnny walked over there and watched a while. They
didn’t stay too long, though because it was still quite cold. The
ground was solid but not completely frozen so it was workable.
Another crew had begun putting in the septic system and still other
workers were preparing to dig a well. Everything was in the works
if the weather would hold.

Ed and Penny had made a special trip to Hartford to
find something extraordinary for a gift for them. Their birthday
was close enough to Christmas; they felt they had to work hard to
make their birthday even more exceptional. They got Andy a new suit
and Candy a new party dress. Both of them would probably serve as
clothes to wear to Johnny and Chrissy’s wedding, too, but they
would still be enjoyable. They got a Leap Frog Learning Game for
each of them, a reading one and one for math. If things went the
way they hoped, they would put the twins in kindergarten next fall
and they didn’t want them to be behind the other kids who had gone
to head start. Their other gift was a hand held electronic game
that Chrissy suggested. Penny had to go into the library and lock
the door in order to be sure she didn’t get caught wrapping them.
Ed had made each of them a beautiful toy box, too, to keep all
their toys in. Penny had them all locked up in the library so they
would be a surprise. The toy boxes would set at the ends of their
twin beds as the hope chest Ed had made for Chrissy’s birthday set
in her room.

Of course, the kids were up early and got dressed
without being told. It was almost nine o’clock when Johnny drove up
out front with Grandmother.

They brought out all the gifts and let them see
them. They were thrilled with all their stuff. Andy made noises
about the “monkey suit” but he did look cute in it and he knew it.
Candy looked like a real little princess in her pretty dress and
Penny took pictures of the two of them in their new outfits.

They liked their toy boxes, too. Candy said her toy
box was going to be her hope chest like Chrissy’s. Johnny and
Chrissy showed the kids how to play their games and then it was
time to take off for McDonald’s. They took their Leap Frog games
along to play with on the thirty-minute trip.

They decided it would be handier to ride in the big
Buick Rendezvous because they would have three rows of seats. Ed
and Penny would ride in front; Grandmother, Johnny, and Chrissy
rode in the second seat, and the twins had plenty of room in the
back. They spent some time deciding what they were going to eat
when they got to McDonald’s. Andy said he wanted a Big Mac, large
fries, a Coke, and a large chocolate milkshake to finish up on.
Candy decided she wanted McNuggets, fries, an apple turnover and
ice cream.

“As we told you, you can eat whatever you want, but
you eat all of whatever you order before you start playing,”
Chrissy reminded them. “And, Grandmother, you remember not to
overload your stomach or you might get sick going down the slide
later." Everyone laughed. The kids toned down their orders
considerably when they understood they couldn’t play until they’d
eaten. They still hadn’t told the kids they were going to the
movies or the mall. That was still going to be a surprise.

It was almost two-thirty when the kids finally
decided they were tired.

“We are tired but we’re still not ready to go home."
Andy didn’t want the fun to end.

“May we sit here for a little while and maybe have
some ice cream or something before we leave?" Candy didn’t want the
day to be over, either.

“Well,” Grandmother winked at Johnny, “I guess we
could go see a movie or something, couldn’t we, Johnny?”

“Oh, oh, oh, could we; could we?" The twins were
especially thrilled about that.

“Well, I guess we could go see, “Herbie: Fully
Loaded." Isn’t that what’s playing, Chrissy?”

“It sure is.”

“Man, oh, man! What a birthday!" Andy could hardly
believe it.

Neither could Candy but she was delighted. It was a
Disney cartoon movie and everybody laughed until their sides hurt.
Grandmother Lydia insisted it was the funniest thing she had ever
seen.

“Well,” Penny said, “I guess we could go over to the
mall for a while.”

“Shopping?”

“Yuck." Those were the little one’s reactions.

“Well, you never know. We might find something
interesting." Ed couldn’t keep the grin off his face.

“Well.”

“Okay." The twins reluctantly agreed.

The traffic was at a crawl when it was moving at all
on Frederica Street out near the mall most of the time, but it
seemed even worse than usual tonight. The huge parking lot was full
to overflowing, too. Ed circled and circled and was about ready to
give up when a parked vehicle indicated that it was leaving by
putting the car in reverse and the back-up lights came on. Ed had
barely enough room to sit still while it backed out and let Ed
slide right into the vacated spot. It was fairly close to the door,
too, which was wonderful because of Lydia.

They managed to get her inside the mall and luck was
still with them. Someone was waiting to return a wheel chair and
Johnny rented it quickly for Lydia. She tried to insist that she
didn’t need it, but she was already breathing hard from walking in
from the parking lot.

“It’s still almost two weeks until Christmas. I
wonder what all the crowds are about." Chrissy remarked innocently.
But when they got to the center of the mall and the kids could see
through the group of people gathered around, their eyes got as big
as saucers.

“Look, Candy! It’s Santa Claus."

“Yeah, that’s why there's a bunch of people.”

“Can you believe we’re getting to see Santa? This
birthday gets better and better.”

“You knew this all along, didn’t you, Johnny. You
all planned this, right?”

“Yeah, we confess. We thought seeing Santa would be
a special event for your birthday celebration. We told you about
the trip to McDonald’s so you’d have something to look forward to
but we also wanted to surprise you. The movie and mall visit we
kept a secret for you. Are you happy? Has your birthday been a
happy one?”

“It’s been terrific." “Fantastic!" They both
shouted.

“You’d better get in line if you want to tell him
what you want for Christmas,” Lydia teased.

“Do we really have time to do that, too?”

“I thought just seeing Santa was our surprise. Oh,
dear, I didn’t think to bring my wish list, but I think I can
remember most of it. Let’s get in line, Andy.”

“Yeah, Sis, I’m with you. Man, this is great!”

“Grandmother, do you see any stores you’d like to
visit while we’re waiting for the kids?" Chrissy wanted Lydia to
have a good time, too.

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do, Chrissy. Could we
go into J.C. Penny’s and look around some.”

Chrissy wheeled her in and Lydia went crazy
shopping. She bought a new Christmas tablecloth, napkins,
placemats, a bunch of decorations and a new dress for herself.
Next, she went to the clothing section for children and bought a
new Disney sweatshirt for each of the twins.

“You didn’t have to do that, Grandmother." Chrissy
didn’t know if Lydia could actually afford to do that or not.

“Don’t you worry about that, girl. I do what I want
to. It’s been a long time since I had a chance to spend any money,
I’m afraid it might evaporate if I don’t use it." Lydia chuckled
again and the sound still thrilled Johnny. “I’d like to come back
before Christmas, maybe just us ladies, and get a few more
things.”

“Absolutely, Grandmother, we’ll make plans to do
that. I still need to do some shopping for Christmas and I’m sure
Mom does, too. Have you heard from Mom and Dad O’Reilly whether or
not they will be able to come for our wedding? Johnny said you had
called them several days ago.”

“Oh, I’m surprised he hasn’t told you. Yes, they do
plan to be here and several of the others, too. I am looking
forward to their visit. I haven’t seen my daughter for more than
twenty-five years. I have two grandchildren I’ve never seen and
it’s all been because of my stubbornness. However, I’m sure
planning to make up for all of it that I possibly can. I’m all
through sitting up there on that hill and feeling sorry for myself.
I still have a lot of living to do and no one knows how long they
have to do it in; and it’s all because of your love, Chrissy. I’ll
always be grateful to you for that.”

“I’ve been blessed with a bunch of new people to
love and the first and foremost, of course, is Johnny; but you sure
do come in a close second. I know I’ll love the rest of his family,
too, and I hope they’ll like me." They hugged each other and got
out the Kleenex.

“We seem to do a lot of this these days, don’t we?"
Lydia was smiling through her tears.

“And it’s great!”

The twins were asleep almost before they got out of
Owensboro after they talked to Santa. It had been a wonderful day
and everyone seemed to have enjoyed it tremendously. Actually,
though, Lydia was asleep almost by the time the twins were. With
the two kids and Lydia all asleep, Johnny and Chrissy almost had
the back seat to themselves and they enjoyed the ride home as much
or more than the rest of the day.

After everybody got home and everybody was
asleep—everybody, that is, except Johnny and Chrissy—Johnny called
Chrissy and he repeated the news that his parents were planning to
be at their wedding. Then he told her the even more wonderful news:
they were planning to come for Christmas, too.