Gene's Story or How I Gained a Cousin A novel by Karen Lockhart Copyright 2016

CHAPTER 52

I woke up to find Ginny shaking my shoulder. “Hey, sleepy-head rise and shine,” she said, “Check out our new Christmas tree!”

The first thing I did was check my wrist watch, to see only a hour had gone by. How could she have gone to the store, bought a tree, and come back so soon?

Ginny stood beside my desk, with a big grin in her face. “I found the perfect tree for here. They had a display setup by the doors as you come in. I talked the store manager into selling me one that was already decorated for a great price.”

“How much did you finally spend? How did you talk the store into this deal?”

“One question at a time,” Ginny laughed. “She charged me the cost of the tree and the decorations, minus 10% for an 'out of box' product. That came to $65, minus 10%, only $53.50.”

“I told the manager my boss was a grouch, who only allowed me fifty dollars to buy decorations for our office. When she thought about that longer, she said “Merry Christmas, just pay fifty dollars for the whole thing.”

I looked up at her and said, ”The next time we have union problems, I'll have you negotiate with them.”

I stood and made a cup of coffee to help wake me up. Once that was done, I turned and looked at her Christmas tree.

It was wonderful! The tree was about four feet tall, with multi-colored lights, and a rope of red and silver garland winding from the top around to the bottom branches. There must have been over fifty ornaments hung on the branches, with a little angel on the very top of the tree.

I was flabbergasted,“You got this for fifty dollars? That's amazing, It looks beautiful Ginny, wow, did you do a great job!”

Her face became bright red. I could see I embarrassed her with my praise.

“I have a way of talking people into doing things. Look at us, six months ago did you think things would be like this?”

With that I shook my head and laughed, “You're correct there, cousin, I would have no cares, and peace and quiet at home. I probably would have bought a cat for company; her friends wouldn't have a father crashing my door open at midnight either.”

Ginny started giggling, which of course set me off. At this point, the foreman came into the trailer to say he was heading out. All I heard was “women” said under his breath as he left.

That got us going even more, “If he only knew he'd faint,” Ginny said, “He tried to ask me out last week.”

“I don't think the canteen truck is coming today. What do you want to do for lunch? After we eat I figured we go home early.”

“Good thinking,” she said. “Why not the Porthole? It's on the way, no matter where we would decide to go.”

“Great idea, I've wanted fried clams for awhile, and we could have a drink since we're done for the day, but only if I pay.”

In no time the office was 'lights out', the door locked, and we were on the way to lunch.

After a great lunch and a Margarita apiece, we headed home, with the idea of finishing our decorations. Hopefully, the tree Ginny ordered had arrived.

As we pulled into the driveway at the condo, we spotted a huge box blocking the door.

“The tree, the tree, boss,” she said, copying the actor Herve' Villechaize in 'Fantasy Island'. “It's here.”

We “manhandled” the box inside into the living room. Ginny could hardly wait to remove her coat before opening the box. In no time she had the three piece tree standing up. I do admit, it appeared to be a live tree with strings of small coloured lights already installed.

I found a small round carpet in the hall closet to place the tree on, and together, we slid it into the spot Ginny had selected for it. Perfect! It was visible from the living room, the front through the front bay window, and from the back through the French doors.

Ginny ran into her bedroom and returned with two huge bags, “Now we can start decorating the tree and the house with the things we bought last week.”

She was as excited as a ten year old kid. I took a bag, emptying the contents on the sofa, and said, “Okay Santa, lets get started.”

We had the tree decorated in a short while, with garland ropes and about 200 ornaments hung by supper time. We could enjoy the Christmas tree while eating.

Ginny whipped up a fast supper of macaroni and cheese and baked canned ham, with orange juice and pineapple chunks.

After the dishes were done, a collaborative effort, we started to decorate the condo. First, all the oil lamps, functional and decorative got a small fir and pine cone swag. Ginny had bought small fir candle wreaths. These were perfect slid down over the window candles she placed in each window, each getting a white LED bulb.

I asked why the expensive LED bulbs instead of the normal fifteen cent bulbs. Ginny's answer was the LEDs would last longer than I will and we wouldn't have to worry about turning them on and off, because they don't get hot and cost almost nothing to leave on.

“Umm, are the bulbs on the tree LED also? Is that why the tree cost so much?” I asked out loud.

Ginny heard me and answered both questions at the same time, “Yes and yes. You keep asking multiple questions in the same breath today El.”

I looked at her and said, “HO, HO, HO, must be the season don't you think? Does this sweatshirt make my butt look big? How does Santa really come into my house? How about if I don't have a chimney?”

After the fourth question sentence in two breaths, we both broke out in giggles heading for hiccups.

Once the jocularity stopped, Ginny became serious and asked what the lawyer said. Oh shoot, I had fallen asleep, I didn't call him. After telling her this, Ginny said that tomorrow was another day, and not to worry.

We finally decided to curl up on the couch and watch the evening news. During a commercial, I turned to Ginny and asked her if she remembered the two Boston detectives, and what their names were.

“The young good-looking cop's name was Maroney, I forget his first name. The older guy was a sergeant, I forget his name.”

“Figures you'd know the good-looking guy's name. I got it! The sergeant's name is Spanos, the same as the guy in NCIS that plays the FBI agent.”

Ginny gave me a funny look, “What ever made you think of them, it's been months since they came around looking for Gene.”

“As I was sitting here watching the news about another drug bust, it occurred to me, that just maybe it wasn't Gene they were looking for, but the $50,000 Gene took off with.”

“Oh no, that would mean they weren't working for Morales but someone else.” Ginny paused, “The Mob? Oh my gosh, that's worse, they'll never quit. You still haven't answered me. Why think of them now?”

“Did I ever tell you my mother and grandmother had something like second sight? They'd get a feeling about something and sure enough, it'd come true. I just had one of those 'feelings'.”

“So you have the power of hoodoo?”

“Ginny, don't start that Cary Grant stuff, I'm dead serious about this, maybe we should hold off a bit on the name change.”

“Well, I have to say, this is the most worried I've seen you since this all started. All right, the name change can wait. What else do the tea leaves foretell?”

I wished she would treat this seriously, darn it!

“Just be on your guard, this feeling is rarely wrong.”

We watched the rest of the news, a final warning from the weatherman about over-night frost with a twenty percent chance of light snow by lunch time.

To be continued.