Throwaway People

Christmas is Coming

3:01 PM

About the time the second crowd started to appear at 3:00 PM Crow had dropped Patty back off at the Lost Tea Shop. Patty and Keyote were prepping for their first set. They had practiced some Christmas music. They started off with Rocking around the Christmas Tree, Baby it's Cold Outside, Run, Rudolf, Run, Mama Liked the Roses, and ended that set with Do you Hear What I Hear.

Crow hadn't listen to Christmas music for a long time. She remembered hearing Elvis Presley sing Mama Liked the Roses, two or three decades back. Before the rape had changed her. Made her withdraw from society. Hearing her niece sing the song reminded her of her sister. Who loved the whole Christmas scene.

Kathy would have loved seeing her youngest daughter playing guitar like this. With patrons putting their tips in a jar. Singing their retro-sixties, country, and blues. Knowing Kathy she might have been up there with Keyote and Patty. It was remarkable how much Patty was like Kathy. It might be why Keyote allowed Patty to help her.

Keyote and Patty walked over to the table where Crow sat. They kept their guitars beside them. As though someone would steal them if they left them where they were singing. Which might be true, but Crow doubted it.

"Was our music that bad?" Patty joked.

"What, girl, don't act stupid, that was damned fine singing." Crow said testily.

"You were crying Aunt Crow?" Keyote said. "It was a joke."

"Oh." Was all Crow said. She wiped the tears off her face. "I was thinking about Kathy, your Mother."

"Can I ask what you were thinking about?" Patty said.

"I was thinking how she'd love to see Keyote play and sing for other people. How you resemble Keyote's Mother." Crow said.

"I doubt that I'm anything like Key's Mother." Patty smiled and hung her head.

"You are Key's Mother, as much as Mai will be." Crow told Patty. "You have given Key a stable environment for her to heal. That is why I'm going back. To tell Kiona and Mai that we have to let Key get used to the transition."

"No, don't leave now." Key said. "I'm just getting to know you."

"I have to prepare some things, so that we'll all be ready when the time comes that you have to make that transition." Crow said.

"We'll do anything we need to, to help your family from here." Patty said.

"I know." Crow said.

Key and Patty went back to the table where they sang at . Prepping for their second set. Another series of Christmas songs. Winter Wonderland, Silent Night, Silver Bells, Blue Christmas, and ending with We Wish You a Merry Christmas. As they finished up the crowd began to leave.

Key, Patty, and Crow loaded up into her Jeep. She would spend the night again at the camp. After that Crow knew she had to go to San Francisco and begin coordinating what she was calling a 'transition'. In some ways it felt like she was simply taking Key away from Patty. In a way that was exactly what she planned to do.

5:30 PM Greenacres

Jim sat in his recliner staring at the tinsel Christmas tree sitting in near the stairs that led up to the main room of the apartment. It was decorated with multicolored decorations that dated back to the early sixties. There were no lights on it. There was a ceramic star on the top of the tree. Around the railing over the stairs and the back wall were wreaths and ropes of tinsel. It was wonderful, if a little dated. The thing is, Jim didn't know who did it. He had come home, it was sitting there and Jim didn't know how it got there.

There was this big dog sitting under the tree like he belonged there. Jim had stepped cautiously around the dog at first, then Jim decided if the dog was going to attack him, he would have already. It had been agitated when it attacked before. Or, like the house, the dog had their best interests in mind. If the house seemed alive, malign, perhaps the dog was influenced by the house.

Arriving at the courtyard the women were surprised to find the front of the building decorated with wreaths and tinsel garlands. Two poinsettias stood on either side of the door. In decorative pots. The office was also decorated with tinsel garlands. A sign hung in the large office window.

"Merry Christmas." Keyote read. "Jim must of decorated."

"Maybe Bobbi came back and decorated. I don't think Jim would be so thorough." Patty said.

They came up the stairs to find Jim had turned his recliner around to face a Christmas tree that was set up near the stairs. A large dog lay at his feet. He had fallen asleep in his chair. Patty went over to Jim. Kissed him on the lips.

"Thank you." Patty told him. "It's beautiful."

Jim woke up. "I didn't do it." He told her.

"Who?" Keyote asked. She sat down and petted the dog.

"What are you, an owl, girl." Crow said. "Obviously someone had to do it."

"Had to be Bobbi." Keyote said.

"She might have done this." Jim said. "She must have let the dog in too."

"That dog looks like Wolffie." Crow said. "Do you remember Wolffie, Key?"

"I think so, I thought the dog looked familiar."

Crow sat down and petted the dog. It sighed in it's sleep.

"He disappeared soon after you did. He was old at the time, I thought maybe he went somewhere to die. I never found him." Crow said. "Now, after all of these years I'd almost forgotten about him."

"You should take him with you Keyote." Jim said. "When you leave. Take him to your Aunt Crow's place. We can't care for him properly. Your Aunt Crow and you can."

"Why can't you take care of a dog?" Crow said. "You got this place, it seems to be it's home."

"We don't know for how long. This place seems to have just appeared. It could disappear." Jim said. "Maybe the dog will disappear with it. We don't know. We might even disappear when it does. Who knows where we will go when it happens."

"I don't think we will disappear." Patty said. "I think it will disappear eventually. I don't think it will, until we are ready for it to. If it wanted to disappear and take us with it, it could have done that a long time ago."

"You think the house has some intelligence to it?" Crow laughed. "That it just teleports from place to place. Maybe it put up the decorations itself."

"I don't know, but none of us put these decorations up, and if Bobbi did, she would have stuck around to see us too." Jim said.

After the initial interest in the mystery of the Christmas decorations wore off Jim and Patty started to prepare for their date night. It had a dual purpose of not only giving Patty and Jim time to themselves, but Crow and Keyote time together as well. Since Crow would be going back to San Francisco tomorrow.

Seeing Patty and Jim off, Keyote and Crow stood together with the dog in the courtyard.

"So, what do you usually do when they have their date night?" Crow asked.

"Just hang out." Keyote said. "I think a lot. Read. Play solitaire. Play fetch with Coyote."

"Sounds exciting." Crow said. "Lets go out and get something to eat. I saw a place called Sonny's Barbecue on Lake Worth Avenue. Let's get some ribs or something."

Key smiled. The Jeep was parked on the dirt road that ran along the canal. They climbed in and took off. Leaving a note on the office desk where they were going, in case Patty and Jim came back early.

Jim and Patty had walked down to Military. Spending their date night at Miami Grill.