She left her suitcase on the front porch and walked inside. “Hey. It’s me,” Sheila shouted.
“Sheila? Where have you been all day?” Natalie rounded the corner from the kitchen. “Orene is being really evasive about it all.”
“No, she’s not. I didn’t tell her where I was going. I had some things to take care of.”
“That’s what she said.”
Sheila shrugged, a teensy bit of snicker escaping. “Well, that’s all there is to it.”
“She said you might not even be back until morning. Why do I think you’re leaving something out?”
“Is there anything to eat? I’m starving,” Sheila said.
Orene piped up. “You know there’s always something to eat! Spiral-cut ham and sweet potato biscuits. They should still be warm.”
“Perfect,” Sheila said, purposely ignoring Natalie’s questions not just to torture her bestie a little but also because it would make her announcement that much sweeter. “Aren’t we supposed to deliver our Christmas Tree Stroll tree tonight?”
“We are,” said Randy as he walked into the room. “It’s about time for us to head over to the stadium to pick it up.”
“That’s exciting,” Sheila said. “Do you know who it’s going to?”
Natalie pulled a piece of paper out of her back pocket. “A Ms. Ferebee. She’s a widow who lives near the old mill. I’ve got the address right here.”
“Oh gosh. Yes,” Orene said. “It’s her first Christmas alone. Her sister asked to put her on the list even though the deadline had passed. She was so worried about her when she found out she hadn’t decorated.”
“First Christmases without your husband are the hardest,” Natalie said.
“I know.” Sheila hugged her. “So hard.”
“Eli and I will meet you over at Ms. Ferebee’s house to unload the tree and set it up,” Randy said.
“That works. They’ll load it up for us at the stadium. You riding with me, Sheila?”
“I wouldn’t miss this for anything.”
Natalie and Sheila headed for the stadium. A line of trucks was already forming at the stadium gate. They watched the volunteers load the trees.
The line moved surprisingly fast.
Natalie edged up for her turn, handing a red-haired boy in his teens her form with the information on it.
“Be right here, ma’am,” he said with a big smile.
“He called you ‘ma’am,’” Sheila said with a laugh.
“That sucks. We are not that old.” Natalie pursed her lips. “I don’t feel that old.”
“We’re not. He’s just that young. And brought up right!”
“The Chestnut Ridge way,” Natalie said.
“Yeah. It’s a whole different world up here.” She sat back in the seat and watched as two men in red firefighter T-shirts carried a tree out to the truck. “Did they wrap our tree in plastic, or did they just chuck a dead body into the back of your truck?”
Natalie laughed. “It’s that clear moving wrap. They said itkeeps the ornaments mostly in place so we can just unwrap and voilà it’s perfect again.” Natalie crossed her fingers.
“It looks like an alien,” Sheila remarked. “Hopefully it works, and it’ll fluff back out nicely. It looks menacing. I hope we don’t scare this old lady to death when we show up on her doorstep with it.”
“They do it every year.” Natalie handed Sheila the sheet of paper with the address on it. “Can you put this address in your phone?”
