Valise in the Attic (3 page)

Annie laughed. “I guess you don’t know why I would do it either. Well, on the upside, at least there’s no mystery about it. I know I’m going to freeze to death.”

3

Annie pulled open the Community Center door and smiled at the warmth that flowed out. That was one of her favorite things about winter. Every time she stepped indoors somewhere, it was like getting a warm hug from the building.

Just inside the door, several cheerful teens stood holding piles of clipboards. Annie recognized two of them from the unfortunate mum school fundraiser when she’d ended up buying so many pots of mums she couldn’t get on her front porch until Ian had found someone to take them off her hands.

“Hi, Mrs. Dawson!” A grinning red-haired boy named Jeremy handed her a clipboard. Jeremy had sold mums to her too, but she forgave him since he was the shoveling angel who kept the driveway and porch clear at Grey Gables. Without him, Annie would just have to huddle inside until spring like a groundhog. “You’re supposed to fill this out,” Jeremy said.

“Thank you, Jeremy. And thank you for the last shoveling. You must get out in the middle of the night.”

Jeremy shrugged. “I have several houses I clear,” he said. “I don’t want anyone to slip and fall because they had to go out before I got around to them. Besides,” he grinned, “you guys pay great.”

“And it’s worth every penny,” Annie said. Her eyes swept over the form, and then she nodded and walked on, looking around the room.

The Community Center was mostly one huge room. At one end of the long room, a small kitchenette was separated from the rest of the space by a half-wall topped with a counter. The rest of that end of the building was taken up with two small restrooms. The other end of the building held a small stage.

When the Community Center was used for classes, temporary walls were pulled on ceiling tracks to separate the one large room into two smaller ones. Today the canvas-covered walls were folded back neatly. Rows of chairs filled most of the large space, and Annie spotted a number of people she knew who were already seated.

Vanessa and her best friend Mackenzie turned just then and waved at Annie, which triggered waving from several others. Annie smiled. It was nice to feel like part of the community.

She continued to scan the crowd for Alice’s auburn hair and spotted her friend in one of the front rows. She was glad to see an empty seat beside Alice and headed to it. “Nice crowd,” she said as she slipped into the seat.

Alice looked around. “Peggy seems to have done a great job of spreading the word. The movie crew should hire her to do all their advance publicity.”

“I didn’t see Peggy in the crowd,” Annie said. “Has she made it?”

“Not yet,” Alice said. “But you know her boss. He won’t let her go from the diner until the last possible second. Peggy’s his best waitress.”

Annie nodded. “I just hope she makes it. She was so excited. She’d wilt like a lily in the desert if she didn’t get to take part.”

Annie twisted in her seat to look over the crowd again. Vanessa gave her another big smile before leaning close to whisper something to Mackenzie. The two girls reminded Annie a bit of her and Alice. They tended to get into a lot more trouble together than they ever did alone, but they enjoyed every second of it.

Then she spotted Peggy hurrying in the front door, her thick coat hanging loose over her waitress uniform. Annie sighed in relief as she turned back around. “Peggy made it!”

“And just in time.” Alice nodded toward the stage.

A young woman in a crisp, well-tailored suit and heels briskly climbed the steps up to the stage, followed by two men. One of the men was Ian, but the other was a complete stranger.

Annie would have bet the young woman and Peggy were the only two women in the room who weren’t in their warmest possible pants. Annie suddenly wondered if this was the woman Stella had seen stuck in a snowbank off the road. This time of year, that neat suit and heels definitely would have qualified as being dressed ridiculously.

The woman walked to the middle of the stage and tapped the microphone, producing the soft thump that proved the microphone was on. She unseated it from the stand and spoke. “Thank you all for coming out on such short notice. I am Kathleen Kensington, the casting agent. I’ll be choosing who will take part in the movie. We have need for two different crowd scenes, so most, if not all of you will be invited to take part. We pay a hundred dollars a day.”

The crowd began to murmur, and Annie knew the prospect of getting a hundred dollars for something that they would have done for free was welcome news. Kathleen Kensington waited patiently for the room to quiet.

“Please fill out the form you were given at the door,” Ms. Kensington said. “If anyone missed getting a form, please raise your hand, and we’ll get you one right now.” A few hands came up, and the young woman waited until those people had their clipboards.

“After you finish filling out the form, just turn it in at the door on your way out,” Ms Kensington said. “We’ll get back to you by tomorrow about whether we’ll need you for the film. If you have an email address, we’ll email. Otherwise, we’ll call. Our first day of shooting will be Thursday.”

People began to shuffle in their seats a bit, and Ms. Kensington held up her hand to indicate she wasn’t finished. “I also want to thank Mayor Butler for allowing us to come to Stony Point and film
A Very Maine Christmas
. He really saved us from a difficult spot.” Ms. Kensington spoke her thanks in the same brisk cool tone as every other remark.

The crowd clapped politely for Ian, and he bowed with a sparkling grin.

“I have one other person who would like to speak to you,” Ms. Kensington said as the applause died off. “This is our prop master Samuel Ely.”

A young man stepped up to the microphone and pushed his wire-rim glasses up his nose. He was long-legged and thin, giving him the gangly look of a boy who had not yet filled out. “I have a favor to ask of you,” he said. “Our first scene will be a ferry unloading passengers, so some of you will be coming off the ferry, and some will be greeting it. Those coming off will need to be holding small suitcases. Since this scene was a last-minute addition, I’m looking for older suitcases from at least the 1950s. I have picked up a number of workable pieces of luggage from local thrift stores, but if you could check your attics for any older pieces, there will be an extra pay of twenty dollars a day for any cases you can let us borrow.”

Alice poked Annie gently. “A trip to the attic!”

“I will be staying at Maplehurst Inn,” he said. “If you find a case and want to know if it will work for the film, simply bring it by the inn and show it to me. You can be paid for the use of your luggage even if you aren’t in the scene on Thursday. If you are in the scene, you can simply bring your luggage then, and someone in wardrobe will tell you then whether it will work.”

He turned then and walked to a small pile of suitcases near the curtain. He picked up several and carried them back to the mike. “These are the sort of pieces we’re looking for.” He held them up one by one. They were all small—more overnight bags than full-sized luggage. Some were covered in canvas and some in leather. One tattered black case was plastered with travel stickers. “If you find pieces like this, please be sure to bring them.”

The young man stepped back and let Kathleen Kensington finish up, thanking the group again for coming out and repeating her directions about the form. Annie took the pen from the clip and began filling out her form. She frowned over questions about her height and weight, but she guessed that sort of thing was important to movie makers.

“It’s a good thing Stella decided not to take part,” Alice whispered. “She would blow a gasket over this form.”

Annie smiled. “The age question alone would bring on a rant, I expect.”

“You know it.” Alice bumped shoulders playfully with Annie. “I’m glad you’re taking part in this. We’ll have fun.”

“We’ll freeze!” Annie said, and then she smiled. “But in the most enjoyable way, I’m sure.”

“So,” Alice said as she finished up her form, “when shall we search Betsy’s attic for luggage? You’ve seen my attic at the carriage house. There’s one steamer trunk and that’s about it for luggage. No one has the kind of stash Betsy did.”

Annie smiled. Her grandmother Betsy Holden had never thrown away anything she considered valuable. And Betsy’s kind heart and loyalty meant she ended up storing more than a few things for others as well. The attic of Grey Gables was crammed with years of memories—and more than a few mysteries. Annie definitely remembered having seen some small suitcases up there. “We’ll take a look whenever you want,” she said.

“Let’s do it early tomorrow morning,” Alice said. “I’ll bring over something good for breakfast, and then we’ll head up to the attic.”

“You know I’m always in favor of Alice MacFarlane’s baked goods,” Annie said. “I think that’s a great idea. But not too early; I don’t want you falling. Wait until the sun is bright enough to melt the icy patches.”

Alice laughed. “That might be spring.” Then she held up a hand as Annie started to comment. “No, I know what you mean. I’ll be over after nine; does that sound OK?”

“That would be just perfect.”

Annie and Alice stood and moved toward the door. It was a slow process since the excited crowd kept stopping to form small groups and chatter. More than once, someone tugged on Annie’s arm to whisper, “Isn’t this amazing?”

Finally, they handed in their clipboards. They stepped out into the icy wind and gasped at the cold. “Whew! Every time I do this today, I wonder why I’m going along with the movie idea,” Annie said.

Alice grinned as she wrapped her long scarf tighter around her neck. “You’re doing it for the adventure.”

“Right. Adventure.”

“Oh, you might as well admit it,” Alice said. “You like adventure as much as I do. And I think you’re even more curious. You’d be miserable if you were left out.”

“Probably,” Annie admitted. “See you in the morning.”

The two women hurried through the parking lot separately. Annie was glad her car heater warmed up quickly. By the time she pulled out of the lot, she could already feel her fingers again. She had a fleeting hope that she simply wouldn’t be picked to be in the movie. But then she had to admit that Alice was right. She really wouldn’t want to miss finding out what it was like to be a movie extra. And she did wonder a bit about which actors might be in the film.

Annie spent the rest of the day cozy at home. She finished Joanna’s scarf and the cute little shark for John. She slipped a wrapped candy into the shark’s closed mouth, and then tied him on the outside of the package she’d already wrapped for John. She’d found him a perfect captain’s hat in his size and knew he would be crazy about it.

Annie laid the pink fluffy scarf in a bed of white tissue embedded with pink sequins inside a long box. Then she wrapped the present and put both of the gifts into the larger shipping box along with LeeAnn’s present.

Annie had spent months on the crocheted coverlet for LeeAnn. It was a simple granny square pattern done in black yarn with jewel-tone centers. The result had been striking and Annie knew it would be a perfect complement for the daring colors LeeAnn had used to decorate their home. Annie only wished she had a gift idea that matched as perfectly for Herb. She made a mental note to ask LeeAnn about Herb’s taste in books.

Annie looked back down at the mostly filled shipping box. She wondered if she should go ahead and seal the box so she could get it in the mail. She could always ship Herb’s separately. At the rate she was going, at least LeeAnn and the kids would have their gifts on time. Annie dashed off a quick note about Herb’s present being in a separate package. Then she added a tin of Christmas cookies she’d baked for the twins and sealed the box. She’d go out to the post office later.

Sighing, Annie decided to spend a while crocheting the lovely filet crochet table runner she had been working on for weeks. The dresser in the upstairs guest room was a beautiful antique piece that was a bit battered on top. It would look gorgeous with the runner draped across it. Annie had charted the crocket design herself, basing it on the pattern in the window drapes. She was very proud of the detail, but it required total concentration, so she would probably still be working on it well into the spring.

The evening passed quickly as Annie slipped into the zone with her crocheting. It wasn’t until Boots jumped into her lap with a chorus of demanding meows that she realized it had grown late. Annie put away her project carefully, remembering to put the project bag in a cupboard away from curious cat paws. Then she carried Boots off to bed with the comfortable feeling of a day well spent.

As she walked down the hall, she paused to turn down the thermostat. As much as Annie didn’t enjoy being cold, she loved that winter let her pile quilts on her bed for sleeping. As Annie snuggled under the handmade quilts from Betsy Holden’s collection, she always felt close to her grandmother.

Betsy had loved beautiful things, but even more than that, she had loved things made by hand. “When someone creates something with her hands,” Betsy had told her, “with each stitch she sews part of herself into every piece. The same goes for knitting or crocheting. Everything you make will have a bit of you in it. And when you pass it on, you make connections from your heart.”

Betsy had certainly made many connections with her own handwork. Though Annie’s grandmother loved trying many crafts, the one she was really known for was cross-stitch. She created worlds with her needle, and those worlds had lived on. “Proving that Gram was right,” Annie told the sleepy cat in her arms.

Wednesday dawned clear and bright. The morning sun on the snow was nearly dazzling as Annie looked out. She hoped this weather would settle in for as long as the film crew was in town. Not only would it be more comfortable, it was just safer, especially since they were going to be filming around the water. Ian had told her how treacherous the waterfront piers got in icy conditions.

Annie made a full pot of coffee to welcome Alice. She stood at the front windows sipping from her favorite mug and watching for her friend. Soon she spotted Alice crossing the yard. Alice lived in what had once been the carriage house for Grey Gables, back in the days when both properties belonged to just one family.