“Good.” Candy smiled. “I'll need some information.” Candy found a pencil and piece of paper and had Ralphie give her the name and address of the Western Union. “I'll send the money within the hour. When you get the money, call me.”
Something in Candy's voice began to change. Candy no longer sounded like an annoyed interviewer. The woman began to sound like a mother, a loving, concerned mother. Ralphie never had a real mother. “Ayo, I can do that.”
“Good.” Candy checked the time again. She needed to get dressed. “Ralphie, when we end this call, bow your head and pray. Ask God for guidance and truth, okay. I'll do the same.”
“I'll...pray,” Ralphie promised. “Bye.”
“Bye.” Candy ended the call, bowed her head, and began to pray.
Snowball let out a little bark. Candy looked down. Her little friend was at her feet. “You better get dressed, too, Snowball. I have a feeling we're going to have a very long day ahead of us.” Snowball barked again. Candy picked up the little guy, hugged and kissed him, and then called Betty. “We have a new employee.”
“Oh no. Your voice tells me we're getting another orange instead of an apple,” Betty groaned. “Let me have my coffee before you tell me.”
Candy laughed. “The young man I just spoke to is from Brooklyn. He sounds like a silly mafia character from a 1970s movie, but I felt God impress on my heart to hire him...and help him. I heard the same desperation in his voice that I heard in Sandy's. And speaking of Sandy, Betty, she's going to make a great addition to the island. I can't explain it, but I feel such a love for her...the love I felt for her touched my heart when I saw her arrive in Pine Snow.”
“I know what you mean, honey. I feel the same love,” Betty spoke in a tender voice. “If there was ever a lost soul, Sandy is that soul. She's going to need tons of love and care. She is like a broken teddy bear hungering to be loved.”
“Exactly.” Candy checked the time. “I have to get dressed and go send our new employee his...traveling money.”
“Be careful. It's snowing bad outside.”
“I will,” Candy promised. “I know we were going to take Sandy to the island today, but I think we need to wait until our new employee arrives.”
“That's fine, dear. I'm a bit worn out today. Besides, Peppermint called me. The road out to the island is closed. A few trees toppled over on the road and it needs to be cleared,” Betty explained. “I was just about to call you and explain the delay.”
“I think that's God's way of making sure we pick up our new employee.” Candy smiled.
“Maybe...well, not maybe,” Betty corrected herself. “I'm starting to realize that God is at work in this story, dear. I've never seen anything like it in all of my years.”
“Me neither,” Candy told Betty. “I'll call you in a bit. I love you. Bye.” Candy ended the call and then hurried to get dressed. She decided on a simple blue sweater that had a smiling Christmas teddy bear on the front. “Betty will tell me I look like a blueberry. Oh well. Right, Snowball?” Snowball barked out a yes. Candy laughed. “Let's go back to the kitchen.”
Sandy was in the kitchen when Candy arrived. “Like, good morning...I like, made myself a bowl of cereal. Is that okay?”
“Sure.” Candy smiled. “Can you watch Snowball while I run to the store real quick?”
“You're going to leave me alone in your house?” Sandy asked in a shocked voice.
“Honey, if you're going to rob me blind, then do it.” Candy walked over to Sandy and squeezed her hand. “I trust you.” With those words, Candy threw on a warm, white coat and hurried out into the cold snow.
Sandy looked down at Snowball, and he sat down and wagged his tail. “Like, this is all a dream, right, pooch? No one is this loving...right?” Sandy wasn't sure. When Snowball barked, it seemed as if an angel were answering through the dog. “Well...like, maybe this will be rad? We'll see. In the meantime, this cereal, like, isn't so bad...and neither is the bathrobe Candy gave me to wear. Maybe, I'll like, come to like it here in the snow.”
Out in the cold snow, Candy hurried to bring another misfit to Christmas Toy Island.
Chapter 5
Marty Blevins hated being sixty-eight years old. Why? Because the doomedseventywas only two short years away. Where had Marty's youth wandered off to? How did he get so old? Being old stunk eggs. Marty preferred to be young and active. He swam twenty laps every day, walked three miles, stayed active, and ate healthy, yet age was taking its toll. Fatigue struck often. Bones and muscles ached. Naps were needed. Aspirin became a good friend. Yes. Marty wasn't a strapping twenty-one-year-old marathon runner anymore. He was a tired sixty-eight-year-old man who dreaded shoveling snow. A warm fireplace and a soft recliner were far better friends than an old snow shovel. But, Marty was determined to stay active and keep his driveway cleared of snow.
“Blasted snow...always snowing...” Marty mumbled as he scooped a pile of snow onto the snow shovel. Marty wasn't known as the...uh...nicest man on his street. The kids called himMr. Scrooge. Marty hated that name, but he had to admit he was a bit on the grumpy side. After the death of his wife ten years earlier, Marty had resigned himself to hating life. Sure, he fought to stay healthy and active to fight his age, but dying wasn't an option, and death scared Marty. Yet, Marty longed for the day when he would see his beloved wife again. In the meantime, he was just plain angry, grumpy, and ill. Nothing in life pleased him anymore. He had stopped going to church and even praying.
“Blasted snow,” Marty continued to grumble.
A phone sitting in the right coat pocket of his heavy coat came to life. Marty glanced down at his coat pocket. Who would be calling so early in the morning? Probably some irritating telemarketer. Marty walked back to the cold front porch he had recently painted blue (his wife's favorite color), wandered up the five wooden steps covered with ice salt, and found his way to an icy rocking chair. He sat down and checked the call. Peppermint was calling. Peppermint was the only man in the world who could make Marty smile. “Hello, Peppermint,” Marty answered the call with a pleased voice.
“Hello, you old fart!”
“You're not a young pup yourself anymore. You're fifty years old,” Marty pointed out as a blast of icy wind thundered down a street lined with fancy middle-class homes. The street was covered with snow, and all the homes were silent and white. No one was out shoveling their driveways.
“Yeah, but you'll be wearing diapers before me.” Peppermint laughed.
