Ghosts of Christmas Past

Chapter Five

Johnson had changed a lot in the ten years since she'd lived here. The places that were landmarks to her in high school were gone now, and new places had popped up. Whole neighborhoods had appeared where before, there were only cornfields. The memory of driving these streets was not as strong as she'd hoped it would be, either.

But, once she reached the downtown, her memories started matching up with the present day and she started to recognize things. One thing she had forgotten about, though, was the Christmas Village. Two blocks were closed off to vehicles, barricaded with Santa's Cottage on one end and a giant Christmas tree on the other. In the streets, between those two places, were food trucks, a reindeer petting stable, and various holiday trinket vendors. The stores downtown—the dress shop, the menswear shop, the music store—all had little displays of sale items outside their entrances. Most of the windows had been painted with winter scenes by the Johnson High School Art Club, just as they had when she was growing up.

It was both comforting and unsettling to see how much and how little it had changed.

She had to park her car on an adjacent street and walk to Gearing's. It was colder today, but at least it wasn't raining. She wrapped herself deeper in her coat and looked up at the banners hanging from all the lightposts—Santa, Christmas trees, stars, ornaments, Rudolph. She almost smiled, but then remembered why she was there.

She had to get a bed. A bed, some sheets, a blanket, a pillow, a lamp, something to sit on in another room, a new job, new friends—basically a whole new life. Because of freakin' Jake. She should have taken some of that from the condo. It was going to be so expensive, trying to start over.

But she didn't want any of it. She'd left it all behind because she didn't want anything of Jake's. She would rather be without something than to have something they'd shared together. She frowned. That applied across the board to a relationship, too.

What she should have done, though, was to take all the Christmas presents she'd bought him and return them for the cash—especially that Tag Heuer watch. It was an expensive piece of jewelry and she'd saved up for it for a long time. It wasn't even opened, just sitting there, under their Christmas tree. She should've returned that for the cash and then used the money to buy a bed.

Freakin' Jake. What kind of a pretentious jerk wears a three thousand dollar watch?

At least he'd be stuck with all the bills for the condo. When they'd first gotten it, a year ago, he'd insisted they only put his name on the mortgage because she didn't have stellar credit, due to some late car payments in the past when she was between jobs. He'd said at the time, they would put her name on at a later date, when her credit score was higher. But they never did. And now she had to wonder if that was just another way Jake had of controlling her. Who knows? Maybe he and Mika laughed behind her back at how stupid she was for letting Jake do this.

"Well, who's laughing now?" she mumbled. "Enjoy that $2500 a month payment. Merry freakin' Christmas, jerk."

She stepped inside Gearing's to warmth, brightness, and Christmas music. A woman with an elf hat on greeted her. She smiled brightly and handed Emily a candy cane. "Welcome to Gearing's! What can I help you find today?"