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1
Carol grabbed her notebook,the pages filled with plans, drawings, and millions of other little details for the Patton Company Christmas party for the upcoming weekend. For years she had been working toward this goal. She started as just a simple planner in a large corporate office, but quickly worked her way up the ranks to earn a solid clientele. Once her contract was up with that company, Carol’s real dreams began.
Since opening her own event planning business six months ago, this was her biggest client yet, the biggest party she had been responsible for ever in her career. A one-hundred-thousand-dollar budget with over five hundred guests?
To say Carol was stressed would be an understatement.
The good thing was everything was falling into place like the beautiful puzzle it was, the party only mere days away at this point. The catering was completely done, food being shipped to the elaborate mansion the next day for the team of highly skilled chefs to begin their preparations. The mansion was currently being decorated in off-white holiday décor. The space was beautiful—large and open with tons of mirrors, giving the main ballroom a never-ending feel. The guest list was finalized, RSVPs streaming into her website by the minute. This was going to be the holiday party of the year, or so she kept reassuring herself.
If this went off without a hitch, it would definitely put Carol and her solo event planning company on the map, maybe earning her enough additional clients that she could hire a permanent team. The owner of the Patton Company, Beverly Patton, was already immensely impressed with her work and gave her a bonus check ahead of time, when the party wouldn’t even be occurring for a few more days. She promised if things kept going as smoothly as they were, there would be an even bigger bonus afterward and she’d swear by her event planning skills to all of her CEO friends around the city.
That was the ‘in’ she was aiming for, anything to prove to the world that Carol was the best at what she did.
It was now late into the evening, but an unending number of late nights was what came with the life of an event planner. Carol hurried around the room, checking things off the endless to-do lists that she had in her binder.
She checked with Mila, the mansion staff manager, getting the final list of mansion employees who would be working the party. Carl, the security man stationed at the door, confirmed the number of security working the parking lot, outside of the building, and in plainclothes inside the party. She stopped here and there to advise the decorators on different things—move that greenery higher, move that tree over a few feet, don’t get too close to the wall with the candles.
Before she knew it, it was nearly midnight and time for everyone to retire for the night before they would all return bright and early the following day. Even more last-minute touches would happen tomorrow, and Carol was confident that there would be time to get everything perfect before the weekend.
She said goodbye to everyone as they left, making sure to dismiss everyone by name. Carol found in her career that having a personal relationship with every single person she hired made all the difference, so she studied their names and faces religiously before anyone came to work for her, just to be sure that everyone felt welcome and appreciated.
Finally, she and Carl, the security man, were the last two in the building. He locked the door behind her, a jolly smile on his face.
“You have a good night, Miss Mason,” Carl said, walking the few paces toward her car.
“Thanks, Carl, you too. Tell Shania I’m sorry for keeping you so late,” Carol replied, unlocking her car and climbing in. Carl laughed and swatted his hand in the air in dismissal, but she knew he appreciated her comment.
Carol made sure Carl was climbing into his car before she put hers in reverse, turning out of the driveway and into the street. Soft snowflakes began to fall as she left, immediately putting a smile on her face. Carol loved winter; she loved the snow. Snow and Christmas would always go hand in hand in her mind, so the fact that it was snowing as she was preparing for her biggest party ever seemed like a good omen.
The mansion where she was hosting the party was just outside of Mount Vernon, a suburb of New York City, where she lived. She pointed her car south toward home and she began driving practically on autopilot, her mind still ticking through to-do lists.
The streetlights were bright as she drove, snowflakes illuminated in their glow, but that was New York City. The city that never sleeps was a great place for her to be an event planner, as she had an endless number of nights and venues to fill her time with clients wanting parties.
Carol drove on the bridge over the Harlem River and into Manhattan, weaving her way through streetlights and cabs filled with tourists. While her brain was still going through details of the Patton party, her eye was drawn to the people on the street, dressed in festive outfits and obviously ready for the holidays, enjoying the snow flurries around them before they landed and melted on the street.
She was smiling at a young girl spinning in circles, her red coat wrapped around her body and snow-white scarf trailing around her, before something jolted her and all went black.
2
Carol woke up,confused when she felt snow and grass under her skin. She opened her eyes but it was still dark outside, so it took a moment and quite a bit of blinking for her to see in the low light. Above her was a tree, moonlight shining through the branches and the trunk illuminated slightly by a light to her left.
When Carol turned her head to look at where the light was coming from, she saw one of the familiar gray lampposts of Central Park. She sat up, trying to orient herself and figure out why she was lying on the ground in Central Park.
She looked around again, her eyes drawn to a bench just past the streetlamp. There was a man sitting there, wearing a tan trench coat and surrounded by pigeons. He didn’t look homeless, which was always something she was nervous about late at night in New York City. She had taken her fair share of self-defense classes, but being alone in the big city with anyone out and about that she didn’t know always made her nervous, no matter her training.
As she continued to look at the man, she felt a sense of peace wash over her. She wasn’t sure exactly what caused it, for she was still far enough away from him that it wasn’t any recognizable traits that put her at ease, but she felt it all the same. Trusting her gut, she figured she may as well ask him if he saw how she got here.
Carol slowly stood up, patting down her coat and pockets. She was uninjured, but she seemed to have lost her keys, wallet, phone; she had nothing helpful in the least to get her to her car or apartment without asking for someone’s help or walking the couple miles there.
It was too late to be walking that far at night, so toward the man she went.
When Carol got close enough, she saw that he was talking quietly with the pigeons, not feeding them as she had thought. Carol couldn’t hear what he was saying, but it seemed as though he was having a two-way conversation, saying a few words and then listening for a moment before saying something else.
She paused, wondering if the man, while maybe not homeless, was instead crazy and she shouldn’t approach him alone in the park. Before she could make a decision or turn around, though, he looked up and met her eyes.
A smile crossed his face, crow’s feet forming around his eyes. She couldn’t help smiling back at him, taking a couple more tentative steps.
The man stood, pigeons scattering, and held his hands out in greeting.
