Accidental Christmas Miracle

5.

Miracle

I pressed 'Accept' and waited for the voice on the other end to speak. It didn't take long.

"Hey girl! I better be on speaker phone because I know you wouldn't accept a call that you had to hold the phone while you're driving." My best friend's voice came from the other end of the line.

I laughed. "Thanks for the lecture on car safety but I'm not driving right now. I won't be for a while." I muttered the last part.

"Excuse me? What did you just mutter?"
I sighed and repeated the words again, louder this time.

"And why would that be?"

I didn't respond.

"Are you in jail?! Wait. Am I your one phone call?!" She exclaimed, her mind immediately trying take what I said and run with it.

I raised an eyebrow at her questions even though she couldn't see me. "You were the one who called my phone. I answered." I slowly reminded her.

"Oh. Right." She  let out an over-dramatic sigh of relief. "Then why won't you be driving for a while?"

"I crashed my car."

"What?!" She yelped in my ear and I flinched.

"My god, do you want me to go deaf? Watch your volume or you're paying for my hearing aids when I start losing my hearing." I warned her.

"Sorry." I could imagine her as she said that, her head ducked a bit and grimacing as that's what she did when she got scolded or something of that sort. "But seriously, what happened?"

"Black ice. I slid, bumping into a car and hitting a light post." I explained.

"You hurt at all?" She asked.

"Not really. Just a minor sprain on my right wrist." I told her.

"Good thing you're a lefty then."

"Yeah."

A small silence stretched between us until Meg spoke up again. "Where are you now?"

"With the Taylor family."

"The what family?"

"The Taylor family. They're the family of the girl whose truck I bumped into on my car's way to the light post." I explained.

"They're still strangers. They could be a family of psychopaths." Meg said very seriously.

"Yes. A family of psychopaths, waiting for a girl, like me to hit their car so they can lure her back to their house and kill her." I said sarcastically.

"Whatever. Lemme talk to one of them."

"Why?" I asked.

"To make sure they're not girl-killing psychos, obviously." She told me.

"Okay. Whatever." I got up and walked out to find one of the Taylors.

The first one I found was Sandy.

"Do you need something, darling?" She asked me, not unkindly.

I held my phone out to her. "Umm, there's someone that wants to talk to you."

"Oh? Okay." She took the phone from me. "Hello?"
Something was said on the other end and Sandy's face lit up. "Meg! How are you doing? I haven't seen you in forever, it seems."

I blinked.

They knew each other?

Excited chatter came from the other end and Sandy smiled.

I walked away while they were chatting, knowing that Meg would take a long time. I didn't know that they knew each other. I don't think Meg ever mentioned them to me.

I racked my brain for any Taylors that she might have mentioned.

There was that one family who her mom was close friends with the mom of that family. Last time they visited was...

"Two years ago."

I looked up to see Dot.

"Huh?" I asked, confused.

"Mom told us that she was on the phone with Meg Logan and I heard you mumbling about the last time she visited. It was two years ago."

I blinked at his causal explanation. "So, wait. You know her? Like, know know her?"

Dot laughed. "Yeah. She used to be our neighbor before her family moved."

"Wow. It really is a small world."

"Eh, I suppose. And it just gets smaller."

I nodded and my phone was suddenly handed back to me. "Hi again." I said.

"Omg! You didn't tell me you were staying with Sandy and her family!" Meg exclaimed. She was suddenly on speaker phone and I quickly pulled the phone away from my ear.

"Because I didn't know that you knew them?" I said although it sounded more like a question than a definite answer.

"Well..." She was trying to come up with something else to say back to me but I stopped her.

"Anyways, does that reassure you that I'm not staying with girl-killing psychopaths?"

I heard a choked laugh come from beside me and when I glanced over, Dot was cleaning up the spot on the floor where he had choked on his hot chocolate.

Meg sighed. "Tell Dot to quit drinking an unhealthy amount of hot cocoa."

"How did you-?"

"I lived next to him for years. I would think that I would notice."

I shrugged and turned to Dot. "She said stop drinking-"

He cut me off. "Yeah, yeah. I know, I know. She tells me every time she sees or talks to me." He paused. "Plus I can kinda hear her."

I grinned. "You know, some people would actually do what other people suggest after a while."

"Guess I'm not 'some people' then." He grinned back.

"Hello? If you're going to not talk me, you could at least hang up." Meg's voice made its way to my ear.

"Oh, sorry." I paused. "If you were so worried about it, why didn't you just hang up?"

I could hear the pout in her voice as she answered. "I didn't wanna."

I sighed. "Okay...?"

Christi popped into the area I was in to tell me something.

I gave her my attention for a moment.

"Mom wants to know what you want for dinner or, if you can't think of anything, what you don't like. She specifically told me to tell you not leave anything out."

I shrugged.

"Well, I can't exactly give her that answer or she'll fire me as messenger and then you'll have to deal with one of the other Taylor children." She told me. She laughed. "They're...weird."

I laughed. "Isn't everyone's siblings weird?" I asked her.

"Not mine."  Meg chimed in.

Christi looked at my phone. "Of course yours aren't, Meg. Your little brother is an angel.

Meg laughed. "Sometimes."

Christi shrugged although Meg couldn't see her and looked back at me.

"Anyways...Is there any food that you hate?" She asked me.

I nodded. "I don't like raisins, olives, prunes, asparagus, cooked broccoli or box Mac 'n' cheese."

"Okay." She nodded. "Any allergies?"

I shook my head. "Not food related anyways."

Meg chimed in once more. "Get Sandy to make her pizza. It's amazing!"

She nodded again and spoke to Meg, "Okay, will do." To me, she gave a small smile and then said, "We'll tell you once dinner's done." With that, she left.

Meg hung up short after.