CAROLING FOR STEPHEN CARD
by
CHRISTINE EDWARDS
Anna Lee’s youngest son pretended he was too sick to go Christmas shopping with his father. The delay pushed the women’s departure time into late afternoon, but if they skipped Starbucks they could still pull off their ever important mission. The mission they had been plotting for weeks. The mission that kept them on the phone hours after their kids were in bed. Planning had cut into their writing time, but the women knew their careers as best-selling authors hinged on this mission’s success. Their plot: under the cover identities of neighborhood carolers, they would pitch their manuscripts to best-selling author, Stephen Card, in hopes of receiving endorsements.
Bethany appeared to be a normal woman as she paced her driveway waiting for her best friend’s minivan to appear. Normal aside from the Victorian era getup she boasted. It wasn’t until she bum-rushed Anna Lee’s van, as it crept up the road, that her neighbor abandoned his snow shoveling to take in the view.
Anna Lee rolled her window down and unlocked the passenger door. “Costume? You didn’t tell me you were wearing a costume.”
Bethany pulled the side door of the minivan open and tossed her bags inside. “You dress up to go caroling. Everyone knows that.”
Anna Lee looked down at her lap and frowned at her unsuitable attire. “I didn’t dress up. I just wore red and green.”
“What should we do?”
“Dress you down. Lose some of the costume.”
Bethany shed her red cape.
“No leave that. It’s super cute. Lose the furry thing.”
Anna Lee withdrew one hand from her leopard print hand warmer. Somehow the action made her look deflated. “That was my favorite part. I never get an excuse to wear that thing.”
“Today isn’t the day either. But the rest looks good. I love, love, love the boots.”
Bethany tossed the hand warmer into the back of the minivan. Her shot skimmed the edge of a car seat, sending the hand warmer flipping through the air before the back seat caught it. “You ready?” Anna Lee asked.
“Oh absolutely. I can’t believe it. Stephen Card lives just two counties over. Who would’ve thought we lived so close to the best author and screen writer in the history of ever?”
“I know right? I can’t wait to meet The King of Suspense in person.”
The minivan took careful turns until it was out of Bethany’s subdivision and on open road. Even then it never approached the speed limit the six lane interstate boasted.
“This is perfect, especially since this is the time of year when it’s perfectly normal to knock on a stranger’s door,” Bethany said.
“I don’t know how normal that really is,” Anna Lee said.
“Well, all the carols are about caroling. Why do we sing about it if we don’t do it?”
“I don’t know, but speaking of caroling, you do know all the words to the songs right?”
“Sure I do. Well, not all of them.”
“Just try one.”
“Which one?”
“An easy one. Sing Jingle Bells.”
Bethany got through three lines of Jingle Bells then started humming.
