The Best of Times: A Dicken's Inn Novel (23 page)

The next day Chas and Jackson watched Logan and Karlee while their mother did some errands and finished her Christmas shopping. They decided to build a snow fort in the backyard, and had a great snowball war, boys against the girls. They had to really bundle up because it was so cold outside, but after the girls won, they went inside for hot chocolate by the fire and another sampling of Christmas goodies. That evening, after the children were gone, Chas and Jackson shared a nice dinner with Polly, then they all watched another Christmas movie. They had to pause it twice for carolers that came to the door with music and home-baked offerings, but then they had different goodies to sample during the rest of the film. Chas kept Jackson’s hand in hers as much as possible, silently thanking God at regular intervals for bringing him into her life and for allowing him to stay through the holidays. She simply pushed away any thought of his inevitably having to go when the new year came.

The following morning Jackson went into town in search of the perfect gift for less than ten dollars. The only good thing about his shopping excursion was how much he thought of Chas and how she’d warmed his life while he looked with apparent futility for something that would be appropriate. He had to go home for lunch, since he knew Chas was expecting him, then he went out again, being purposely vague, even though he knew that she knew what he was up to.

He
did
find some simple gifts for his mother and sister that he mailed off while he was out, and some silly ones for Charlotte and Polly that were cheap and meaningless but would provoke a good laugh. He enjoyed finding something for the children, since kids were easy to buy for and he’d gotten to know Logan and Karlee well enough that he could get them gifts that were not ostentatious or presumptuous, but would still be fun. Still he struggled to find something for Chas, but when he
did
find it, he knew it was perfect. The little porcelain statue of an angel had a Victorian look to it, and for some strange reason it reminded him of Granny. He held his breath and looked at the price, thinking he would cheat if it was beyond the limit. $9.99. Perfect! He had it wrapped so that there was no chance of Chas seeing it before Christmas, then he took all of his purchases back to the inn. When he came in the back door, he became aware of Chas in the parlor visiting with some women. He took his things upstairs, including the wrapping paper he’d purchased, and wrapped the gifts. When he saw from the window that the ladies were leaving, he took his wrapped packages downstairs and put them under the tree, loving Chas’s curiosity as she read the tags.

“Who was here?” he asked.

“My visiting teachers,” she said, and he responded with silent confusion. “Like home teachers, only it’s women visiting women. You know how we women need someone to talk to.”

“Yes, I do know that,” he said with a chuckle, then he noticed a
very
large package beside the tree with a tag that indicated it was for him from Chas.

“That cost less than ten dollars?”

“It did,” she said proudly.

“Can I get it in my luggage when I leave?”

“If you can’t, you might have to leave it here . . . and then you’ll have to come back and get it.” She let out a mischievous chuckle. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.”

“This isn’t one of those tiny little gifts with lots and lots of packing is it?” he asked, and she just laughed. He silenced her laughter with a kiss and refused to think about the day he would have to go back to Virginia without her.

Amidst the Christmas preparations, while Chas was busy doing other things, Jackson took note of some minor repairs that needed to be done around the inn. He went into town and found the hardware and other materials he needed, then he took it upon himself to fix two slightly dripping faucets, some broken baseboards in the hall, and a cupboard door in the kitchen. He replaced some light bulbs that required a ladder in order to reach them, and some that didn’t. And he kept shoveling snow from the walks and steps whenever it fell; with the series of storms they were having, that was almost daily. Chas was ridiculously grateful for his efforts, and told him more than once that she was impressed with his handyman skills. He told her it was the only thing he’d gotten from his father that was of any value. The man could fix anything, and Jackson hadn’t hired anyone to do a repair on his behalf in all his adult life. Chas told him he’d make a perfect innkeeper. He agreed and kissed her, and they both ignored the uncertainty of whether or not that would ever come to pass.

On Sunday they went to church together, where they enjoyed a lovely Christmas program during sacrament meeting. Jackson went to Sunday School with Chas, and then Ron, one of her home teachers, invited him to come to priesthood meeting with him while Chas went to Relief Society. Jackson gave her a glance that was somewhere between amused and panicked, but he said to Ron, “I’d love to. Thank you.” At least he liked Ron; that was a good thing. Chas prayed that it would go well, then focused on the Relief Society lesson. Afterward, Jackson made no comment beyond, “It was fine.” She just left it at that and thanked him for going to church with her.

The last night of the year that Chas kept the inn open was December 23. The final guests left the morning of the twenty-fourth, and the remainder of the day was spent preparing for tomorrow’s great Christmas feast and putting together some charity baskets that would be delivered secretly after dark to some struggling families in town. They wrapped gifts and sorted food according to lists that Chas had been compiling and planning for days. Charlotte and the kids came over for supper, and they all enjoyed soup and cornbread and a Jell-O salad layered in white, red, and green. After they had eaten supper and cleaned up the dishes, they made their deliveries and were successful at not getting caught. Charlotte took her kids home to try to get them to bed, and Polly made popcorn so the three of them could watch
It’s a Wonderful Life
before they went to bed themselves. Chas cried at the end of the movie, then she had trouble stopping when she was struck with a wave of missing Granny so much that it hurt. But Jackson allowed her to use his shoulder and offered words of comfort and assurance while she got it out of her system. They finally kissed goodnight at the foot of the stairs, and the next morning they awoke to falling snow. Chas fixed waffles and bacon for breakfast while Jackson went out for his run in spite of the weather. Then they sat to eat with Polly, and Jackson teased her and Chas for wearing funny flannel pajamas.

“Oh, we’ll be in them all day,” Polly said. “It’s tradition.”

“I see,” Jackson said and chuckled.

A little while later Charlotte and her kids showed up, all wearing funny flannel pajamas. “I would have gotten you some,” Chas said to Jackson, “but it was over the ten-dollar limit.”

“How tragic,” he said with sarcasm.

Karlee and Logan had obviously been up very early and had already opened their Christmas gifts at home. They eagerly showed Jackson, Chas, and Polly what Santa had brought them before the group all gathered in the parlor to open the gifts under the tree—except that the one Chas was giving to Jackson wouldn’t fit
under
the tree.

The gifts were all a big hit, and Jackson enjoyed the silly gifts that Polly, Charlotte, and the children gave him. He assured them that a pair of Christmas socks with reindeer on them and a tie with Charles Dickens on it were exactly what he’d always wanted. The ten-dollar gifts that Chas and Jackson exchanged were saved until last, and he noted how Polly and Charlotte seemed to magically distract the children and usher them from the room when it came time to open them.

“They thought we might like a private, romantic moment,” Chas said to him.

Jackson glanced at the huge box with his name on it. “Is that meant to be romantic?”

“Use your imagination,” she said.

“Okay, but you go first,” he insisted and handed her the beautifully wrapped package. “It was wrapped at the store,” he said, as if she might not know. “I could never do something like that with a bow.”

“It’s lovely,” she said and removed the tag. “But I like this part better.” She held it up, pointing to how he’d written,
To Chas, with all my love for Christmas, Jackson.
“I’m going to save it forever.”

“You do that. Just open the present.”

He wasn’t disappointed by her reaction, and he didn’t even have to explain it. She took one look at the little angel statue and said, “It’s Granny.”

She got tears in her eyes and cooed over it, declaring that she would put it in her bedroom to watch over her always. Then she put Jackson to work opening the huge gift. And sure enough, it was a package, inside of a package, inside of a package. They laughed together as he kept unloading wads of newspaper and other packing materials only to find another wrapped gift, and another. When he finally came to a small box that was wrapped with more care and beauty than the others, she put her hand over his so he would hesitate. “I have to explain,” she said. “I didn’t actually go out and buy this. It’s something I came across in a drawer last week; something we used to sell here at the inn, and yes, it sold for $9.95. I actually had some made especially for the inn as a marketing thing at one time, but this was the only one left. I knew it was perfect, so I hope that’s okay.”

“It’s more than okay,” he said and kissed her before she made him open the package. In it he found a key ring. Attached to the ring was a silver oval with an engraving on one side of an image of the Dickensian Inn. On the other side were the words,
God bless us, every one.

Jackson was surprised at how emotional he felt when he looked at it, and when he thought of being able to carry it with him wherever he went. As if she’d read his mind, she said, “Keys are something that go with a man nearly everywhere he goes. I want you to always be reminded of your time here, and your time with me, of course. And every time you look at it, I want you to remember that there’s always room at the inn.”

Chas was surprised to have him look up, a glisten of moisture in his eyes. “Thank you,” he said and hugged her tightly. “It’s perfect.” He slipped the key ring over one finger and took her face in his hands to kiss her before he murmured against her lips, “It’s been a perfect Christmas; everything has been perfect—especially being with you.” He kissed her again. “The only thing that could make it better would be having Granny here with us.”

“Yes,” she said, “but somehow I think she is.”

“Yes, I think she is.”

Hearing the children nearby brought them back to the moment, and they worked together to clean up the mess from the wrappings and put all the paper and boxes into the recycling can outside. They all worked together to put on Christmas dinner, although it wasn’t much work with all the preparations they had done previously. After sharing a beautiful meal in the family dining room, then cleaning it up, they all gathered around the table to play games until it was time to pull out leftovers for supper. After eating and having some hot chocolate along with remnants of their Christmas goodies, Charlotte and the children went home, and Polly went to visit some friends. Chas and Jackson sat down together to watch one of the many versions of
A Christmas Carol
. Again Chas cried, then they talked until late about the depth and magnitude of the story, and what an amazing miracle Dickens had been a part of in writing it.

“He
was
an amazing man,” Chas said.

“You inherited your grandmother’s admiration for him,” Jackson said. “Although I agree completely—speaking from his writings, that is. I think the writings are a testament of a great man, even though I know very little about him personally.”

“They say that
David Copperfield
is highly autobiographical. Some things are right out of his life, and some things seem to be how he would have liked his life to turn out. I’ve read a few different biographies, actually.”

“That’s impressive,” he said.

“I figured if I was going to run an inn with his name on it, I should know something about the man. I wanted to read multiple biographies so I could see what the different viewpoints might be, and what facts appeared in all of them. I think I got a pretty good overview of the man.”

“Really?” Jackson turned more toward her. “I’m very interested. Tell me.”

“Well, obviously it’s late and there’s far too much to tell in one conversation, but I can let you borrow the books—or perhaps just the best of the three.”

“I’d like that,” he said, “but I want to hear your summary of Charles Dickens.”

“I believe he was terribly unhappy. His childhood was difficult, and I believe it traumatized him emotionally in ways from which he never recovered. He wasn’t perfect, by any means, and I don’t agree with all of the choices he made, but I can understand why he made them, given his baggage, so to speak. What I believe is truly remarkable is that he actually devoted an enormous amount of time and energy to promoting the causes he wrote about. His influence effected a great many changes in prisons and schools and workhouses. No matter what mistakes he may have made in his life, he did a lot of good. As you said, his writings stand as a testament to the man. But he did a lot of writing for periodicals that had nothing to do with his novels, and he did a lot of good through that and many other avenues. He truly is one of my heroes.”

“As he should be,” Jackson said. “Who are your other heroes?”

“I don’t have many.”

“Tell me.”

“Martin,” she said.

“Of course. He’s one of my heroes, too.”

“Really?”

“He took good care of you, and you loved him. He died a hero’s death.”

“I didn’t look at it that way until you said what you did when we first talked about him. I’ve been grateful for the perspective you’ve given me.”

“Who else?”

“Joseph Smith,” she said.

“Ah, the first Mormon Prophet.”

“In the latter days,” she corrected. “You
have
been listening at church.”