My Christmas Star

I couldn't help it. I said what I shouldn't

"I love you."

Under me, she froze.

Instantly I felt like such a fool. I had heard her tell me, I had believed her when she said it. "Don't fall in love with me. I'll leave you if you do." And here I had gone and -- in a moment of pleasure release -- confessed to her what I had been feeling. Stupid, stupid fool.

Victoria looked into my face for a moment, then her hand appeared by my cheek and she brushed my hair back from my face.

"I love you too."

What hearing that felt like I can not even begin to describe.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

The party began in stages, but I found myself talking to the first guest to arrive.

William "Slyc Willy" Benson. Always punctual.

"So, Slyc, that's my idea. What'd you think?"

Taking a sip of eggnog that was half rum, the lawyer gave me a grimace. "That you're mad." A slow grin began to appear. "Bonkers. Gone completely round the bend. But then all the best Mayors are. Let me make a few inquiries, Wednesday when I get back in my office. Just off the top of my head, I can't think of any reason why it won't fly. Yeah, there will be obstacles, but getting over them will be possible, hell, even fun." He toasted me with his milky-glass. "I enjoy impossible challenges."

Victoria stepped into our conversation, linking her arm with Slyc's. "Making a hated young man, like this pariah, into a Mayor?"

"Oh, that's an easy one." Slyc smiled down at her. "Getting you, a forty plus divorcee ... redhead ... who's sleeping with a man in his late teens, seen as respectable in this town of bible thumping hypocrites, not that will be a challenge. Realistically, Vicky, you will do good to not be burned as a witch."

She elbowed him and moved over to my arm. "This is my man if the people around here don't like it ... well, they can get over it."

The Lawyer laughed. "That's telling them." He looked into his glass. "I need more eggnog. Or more rum in what I've got left."

When he walked away to the table with the punch bowl and the food, Victoria looked up at my face and snuggled closer to me. Looking over her head, I saw several disapproving looks pass among the other guests, but decided she was right. They could all get over it.

Victoria finally pulled away. "Well, we have the blood-sucking lawyer on our side, now for the rest of my best friends." She tucked her hands into my pockets and pulled me along as she stepped backward. "I've got presents to hand out, come help."

"Sure"

Victoria's friends all eyed me with a certain dislike, I had browbeaten them all into coming here after all. I had pushed their faces into the hard facts and made them see me as I really am, not as the silly rumors around here had made me seem. People don't like being made to see their mistakes. They resent it, and they resent people that make them do it. But ... in a strange yet completely human way, they also would come to respect a person that does that to them ... even as they hate him.

So, yeah. They didn't like me. But they respected me. And they hated me because of that.

With a mental shrug, I handed out small party gifts and I did my honest best to smile at these people.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

"So let me get this straight, we would all be in charge?"

I nodded at Oliver Temple, "That's exactly it. We would be in charge, well, at least till the town can afford to hold an election and, I guess, after that, it will be up to everyone that votes if we stay in charge."

"Why us?"

I looked over at Janet Myers.

A relative newcomer to town compared to the rest, she had lived here for nine years. The go-to lady in town for anything cell phone related, she was as clinically disorganized as the Temple couple were picture straighteners. She despised me and when Victoria told me why my horny teenage mind immediately jumped to a future threesome with me watching Janet lesbian-molesting Victoria between my hardons. Vicky shot down the idea, unspoken, but I have dreams.

"Who else would you pick?" With a shrug, I sat back sipped at my coffee. "We're the people that have the needed skills." I pointed at Oliver. "He knows how to develop the town's organic scenery till we're a picture postcard kind of place." My finger moved to his wife. "She can get the old-paper-crap-storm that is this town's 'normal' operating system and make it not only better but work in this new digital century."

"Yep." Tonya was all but bouncing with eagerness to get at the backlog of town files and organize them. I gave her a smile she returned.

Opening up my arms to include everyone lounging around Victoria's living room I shrugged. "We can do this. Or ... we can watch this town slip away."

A growl from the corner. "So we turn back the clock? All across town? Make the whole place look like it did decades ago?"

"YES!" I pointed at William Prescott the owner of Prescott Hardware, Plumbing, and Tax Service. "Old fashion Floridian look, but modern. It will require the least amount of monetary capital impute to do. Mostly it's just repainting and restoring what is already there or hidden under glitzy plastic."

Janet snapped out a question. "And where will this money be coming from?"

I hid my inner sigh. "A lot of it will come from me. I'm not wealthy, but I do have some money to put behind my words.

"Randal!"

"Nope," I waved off Victoria. "If I'm going to push others to do this, then I have to do my part, and at the moment ... money is all I've got to put forward. So, I will." I looked around the room, the half-familiar faces of people I was trying to convince to join me in trying to save a town we were all born in. "I'm going all in. I have no reason to do that beyond a love of what this town used to be, and a desire to see it come back to that golden time."

The nodding heads were such a sweet sight.

"So when do we start?" Oliver topped off his coffee from the towel wrapped pot in the middle of the table in front of him. "And with what?'

"Tonight." At the many raised eyebrows, I nodded my seriousness. "What is not in the middle of town right now?"

It was Victoria who ventured an answer when the silence drew out. "The town ... Christmas tree?"

"Exactly. There isn't a Christmas tree in the middle of town."

Again the angry-lesbian-gorilla in the room snarled an answer. "You want to go buy a tree? Tonight?"

"Was that what the town used to do?" I looked to William. Mr. Prescott was the oldest man in the room. "Was it?"

"No." A slow nostalgic-remembering smile began to appear on his craggy face. He chuckled. "The Mayor and a few others used to go cut a tree. But everything was wild back then, no one gave a damn."

I sat down my half-empty coffee cup and looked at Oliver. "There is a nice one out off I-95. I saw it when I went to get groceries the other day. You've got a chainsaw, right?"

Oliver tilted his head, a silly grin. "Seriously?" He glanced at his phone. "It's only a few minutes till Midnight?"

I nodded. "Yeah, seriously." I looked over at Victoria and Tonya. "Do you two think that you can locate the decorations? They have to be in a garage down at the Town Hall or somewhere, right? William, isn't there a stand the tree sits in?"

He nodded. "I move it to the center of town each year with my forklift. It's over in a garage behind the town's mowers are stored."

Oliver scooted forward. "Yeah, I've seen it there hundreds of times. I've got the keys to get in there, they're out in my truck. Come to think of it, I think the Christmas decorations are stored in the attic overhead."

William nodded. "Could be, there is a ton of stuff up there."

Mr. Temple looked over at me. "So we going to go get a tree?'

"In just a moment." I nodded. Turning to look at the rest of the room, I stood up and wiped my hands dry on my jeans. "I think the rest of you can put some thoughts into the annual Christmas parade? It should be tomorrow morning, but that may be unrealistic given how much time we have, but how about for late afternoon? Could y'all get that together."

"A parade? Do you really think the people in this town would want to go to a parade?"

I looked at Janet. "Nope, but they need to." My eyes bore their way in. "This town is in the dumps. Maybe a bit of crappy high school band music and looking at a fake Santa waving is like a bandage on a gut shot, but damn it, it's something! And right now anything is better than nothing." I chuckled. "And it's not like we're talking about getting together a Rose Bowl parade."

Slowly, I saw her give me an understanding nod. And for me, that single, reluctantly-given, nod was the signal that I had won.

"Alright people. Let's be about making Christmas happen around here."

Grabbing my jacket, kissing Victoria goodbye, I followed Oliver out to his truck and we headed to go steal a Christmas tree from the state highway department.

Hopefully, we wouldn't get arrested on Christmas day.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

The ride to Oliver's shop to get a trailer and his saw was short. The ride out to where I had seen that nice tree, well that was a good bit further. After all, this towns rumor mill had been reaching further and further with everyone that rolled down the road. More and more often, and at a gradually greater and greater distance, I had found people wanting to refuse me service.

And service with a smile?

Well, that was a pretty much a forgotten thing around here. Lost long before that hotel was ever burned. And, although Oliver didn't know it when he started a conversation with me on that quiet midnight ride up I-95, that long lost smile was what I was discussing.

"So, Randal, why the change of heart?"

Distracted from my contemplation of flashing past up reflectors I looked over at Oliver. "Excuse me?"

"You're suddenly wanting to help the town. What's the change? You've been standing in the town's way for a year or more."

"No, not in the least." With a puzzled look, I blinked a question. "How do you see that?"

"Well -- before we knew the hotel was scamming the town out of money -- we were all happy that it was being built. You, on the other hand, all but left town." He gave a shrug. "I'm sorry about thinking you were the one that burned the hotel, but you have to admit you've been the only one standing against the town's prosperity. Well, since your father died at least."

"Ah, now I understand you." I gathered my thoughts for a second. "Your property taxes just went up, right?"

Oliver nodded. "Yeah, a small bit, but-- "

"No, no... That's an important part of this. See my dad detail all this out for me a while back. Even if that hotel hadn't been a scam, it was going to hurt this town terribly."

"Nonsense."

"Nope." I grinned. "I promise you, we did the research before Dad went before that town hall meeting."

Oliver shook his head. "How could a ton of new job around here be bad?"

"Because they would have been seasonal. With the numbers of people, they were saying they were going to hire there would have been something a hundred local people out of work, right before Christmas time, every year. And then there is the taxes."

He rolled his eyes."It wasn't that big of a tax hike."

"Not yet, true, but next year it would have climbed even more." He started to interrupt but I talked over him. "And, when the hotel opened, it would have skyrocketed. But not just property taxes. Business taxes, sales taxes. Business licenses would have all gone up too."

"Okay, why?"

"Well, for one, think about the roads over where the hotel was going up. Not exactly the best in town are they? And after two years of big trucks rolling over them, they would have been worse. Want to guess who would have had to foot the bill to repave them? How about a new off-ramp? Closer to the hotel, I know I heard that being discussed at Waffle House. They, the owner and a cook, we're talking about him maybe moving to where the new one was placed."

"Yeah, okay it would have gotten pricey, but the tourist dollars--"

"Pennies. Most of the money would have been going into the hotel. I saw the proposed plans, Oliver. It was to have two restaurants on the ground floor. And a bar! Why would anyone staying there want to get in a car and drive into town to eat? And while we're at it lets talk about the people coming to stay."

"Rich people!" Oliver insisted.

"Nonsense. It would be people spending their hard earned money taking their once a year vacation trip to the coast. They would be wanting to relax in the sun on the beach, not flood the town with money." Before he could speak, I again overrode him. "And what about the bad element that always follows money? Huh? What about them? Do you really think Sheriff Tillman could have managed to deal with that? Or hell, just traffic, and pollution. Think of all the people that don't give a flip about this town suddenly riding on the local roads. All the trash thrown out of their windows because they can't be bothered to keep it in their car long enough to find a trash can."

"Okay, yeah ... that could have been a problem."

I knew telling a man that cuts the grass about trash on the side of the road would get his attention.

"Alright, now I got one more for you. What is this town known for?"

Oliver shrugged. "The historic feel, the large deep marina, and the beaches."

"Exactly." I pounced, loaded with a ton of Dad-given knowledge. "The historic feel was already being sacrificed to that hotel and it wasn't even finished. It was going to be so modern and stylish that the whole town was going to look dated and old. Everyone was planning on modernizing. I've heard them talking about it. Just as soon as the money starts rolling in I'm gonna.... How many times have you heard that in the last two years?"

"Dozens." He ruefully admitted.

"And the marina? It's already half-full of rich boy's toys. I live there, remember? I keep an eye out. Half the boats never leave their slips but once or twice a year. What happens when the rent goes up to drive out people like me and it's all mega yachts?" I gave a sad chuckle. "A ghost town of a marina, full of rich boats no one ever checks on. That would attract thieves like honey does bees."

Oliver road in silence for a few miles and I let him think.

"I miss your father. He and I were good friends, once." Oliver shook his head. "You're talking but I swear I can hear Wendel."

I nodded. "I've heard that before. From what I understand though you and Dad argued."

Oliver snorted. "It was a stupid fight over a football game. Gators verse State. We were both a bit drunk and arguing a ref's call. We burned dinner on the barbecue grill and Tonya and I left to go eat at Tom's dinner. Somehow, once Wendel and I sobered up we never could seem to get the same level of friendship back that we had... well, before that argument."

I pointed to an approaching road sign. "Up ahead there. Slow down."

Oliver slowed, then pulled over into the access lane. With me pointing to the tall cedar tree half hidden behind the sign, he pulled off onto the grass shoulder and stopped.

"Nice. That's a red Cedar." Oliver nodded professional approval at my choice. "It will do beautifully."

"Now just to get it cut and loaded without the Highway Patrol showing up."

Oliver chuckled an agreement and hoped out seconds after me. We both rushed up the hill, him carrying his chainsaw.

"You know." He pulled the pull cord. "Starting out our time in charge by doing this -- by that, I mean something illegal -- isn't a good precedent."

I couldn't answer due to the rumbling roar of the Husqvarna chainsaw as it fired up. Oliver ducked under the lowest branches and the saw made quick work of the trunk. I found myself on the receiving end of a mouth full of cedar branches as the tree fell over and hugged me with sappy branches. Stumbling backward, I tripped and went down with the huge tree on top of me and Oliver started laughing his ass off.

Together we lugged the frilly sap-heavy tree down to his trailer and then Oliver and I scrambled into the truck and we took off down the road without taking time to put more than a single strap over it. About a mile down the road, we pulled off and stopped at a Shell gas station long enough to get the tree properly tied down.

I saw myself in the window and shook my head. I looked like I had been mugged and I smelled like a pine car air freshener.

But we had done it. The town had a tree for Christmas.

The boyish grin on Oliver's face told me he felt the same as I did.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

The ride back to town was nervous, to say the least. We were constantly on edge afraid that a set of lights would turn on behind us and we would be asked to present a sales slip for this overgrown tree.

There were several sleepy looking people waiting on us when we pulled into the center of town.

Victoria was looking at me and grinning.

She was standing with Tonya and Janet next to a tall stack of Rubbermaid. And there was the collection of old green plastic wreaths leaned up against a nearby tree. In my oldest childhood memories, I can remember having seen those wreaths. They used to be attached to every lamppost around town. Sometime about ten years back they were suddenly deemed too tacky to put up. I loved that they had been pulled back out.

Victoria came over to me, then stopped and started laughing.

"What happened to you?"

"He was tree raped." Oliver went to the back and began to undo the half-dozen tie-down straps. "It was horrible, there was nothing I could do."

Everyone laughed at that, hell even me.

Working together by street lamp light and the headlights of Oliver's truck we managed to get the large red cedar into the metal stand, lock it down with the built-in spike screws, and then decorate the tree. There were a few friendly arguments as to what decorations to use, given that several generations of people -- which had seen the town's tree decorated in different ways -- were present.

The wreaths we discovered had screw in brackets on the side and there was rust filled holes on the old black-metal lampposts around the town circle. They did take a bit of muscle and some WD40 to persuade, but we did get them all in place.

Even the bent one.

Behind us, to the east, the Sun was only a few hours from dawn when we all, smilingly, wished each other Merry Christmas and departed.

Riding back to Victoria's apartment, I was all but asleep in the passenger seat of her car. When we arrived, she was at my side, leaning against me, but also guiding my steps. When we stumbled inside together she gave me a light push toward the bathroom.

"Shower."

"Um hum," I agreed amid a yawn.

Behind me I could hear her lightly cleaning up, gathering empty coffee cups and red eggnog-smelling solo cups, from the party.

The water felt beyond wonderful.

However, a few minutes later when a delicate feminine hand ran along my wet shoulder and I saw my lady love step naked in behind me, well, that hot water had some competition.

Turning to face her, our lips coming together in an incredibly wet kiss, I felt myself suddenly reinvigorated. As if this whole long day and night hadn't happened and as if the nothing in the world mattered more than pleasing Victoria. Her arms wrapped around me and I pressed her back into the water-warmed tiles. With a smile that was smothered by kissing she didn't protest when I lifted her up and then lowered her down. Slipping within her as easily and as gently as silk in water.

"Um ... Mmmm. A naughty lady can certainly get used to this kind of attention." Victoria nibbled, her teeth brushing those tender places she seemed to love to leave sore and bruised with hickeys. "Oh, the sinful joys of a horny young man. Sex on demand is addictive."

"So are you."