“Well, it was...until I fell asleep.” Chris laughed some. “I fell asleep right next to a plate full of cookies and a glass full of milk. Before I fell asleep...Candy, I can't really explain it, but my heart actually traveled to the North Pole. I saw the village, the toy workshops, the reindeer, and a beautiful castle. I remember feeling so much awe and wonder...and a sense of...belonging. Does that sound strange?”
“Not at all.” Candy smiled.
Chris's eyes continued to glow. “I remember actually feeling as if I were there at the North Pole. I felt as if I was home. I never really fit in anywhere. I made friends during my school and college years and managed to get along. I even got married, but nothing ever felt right. And as you can see, where are all my friends now?” Chris shook his head. “But Candy, that little nine-year-old boy, he knew...he knew where he belonged. That's why...well, when my heart saw what you and Aunt Betty wanted to do, I felt like I went home. I guess that sounds strange coming from a grown man, huh?”
“Why should it? I feel the same way,” Candy promised him. “I'm not standing here in this castle because I'm waiting to buy a fancy jet plane, Chris. I'm standing here because I know where my heart belongs...and so does God. I'm meant to keep the toys alive and create a place for children to believe in. And someday, when those children grow old like us, they'll be able to remember and teach their children. The heart of Christmas...and the toys...will remain alive.”
“Ayo!” Ralphie stuck his head out of the library door. He spotted Candy and Chris standing at the end of the long hallway. “You two gonna get in here or what? Peppermint said he's going to tell us a story about when he was a boy way down there in hillbilly land—”
“In Georgia, Ralphie!” Peppermint's laughing voice boomed out into the hallway.
“I said what I said.” Ralphie’s head disappeared back into the library.
Candy and Chris both laughed. “I think Ralphie is going to be very good for us,” Candy told Chris. “I don't know why, but he will be.”
“Maybe he's the fruit we need for our fruitcake.” Chris laughed.
“Maybe.” Candy laughed along with Chris. “We’d better get to the library before theCalzonecomes and gets us.”
“TheCalzone.” Chris shook his head. “Of all the names to give yourself.”
Candy led Chris to the library feeling as if she had truly walked into a doorway that led her to the North Pole. Surely, she felt—and believed—God was going to work many amazing miracles on the little island surrounded by the waters of Lake Ontario. Maybe the island wasn't the North Pole...but inside the heart and imagination...the road to the island could change into a doorway that opened up to the North Pole. Candy could only pray.
Chapter 3
“Iwas a ten-year-old boy,” Peppermint began to speak in a relaxed voice as he tossed a log onto a burning fire inside of the large cobblestone fireplace. The fire hummed and cackled lazily, throwing peaceful shadows across the large library glowing with Christmas lights wrapped around jolly Christmas trees, staircase banisters, and bookshelves. Overhead, a vast wonderland of toys hanging from a towering ceiling played and giggled. “I was walking home from school. School had been let out, and the first day of Christmas break had begun.”
Candy, Chris, and Ralphie were all huddled around the fireplace, each one resting on a comfortable chair. Peppermint had everyone's complete attention. “Yeah, so...you were walking home from school. Then what? Did some no-goods jump you and beat you to a bloody pulp and then steal your wallet?”
“No.” Peppermint shook his head. Obviously, it was clear Ralphie had suffered his share of beatings at the hands of cruel bullies. “I decided to take a shortcut through Wind Willow Woods. My daddy's farm sat on the other side of the woods, and the road I usually walked to get home went around them. Cutting through the woods took a good five minutes off my walk. The only thing was the woods were off-limits.”
“So you trespassed?”
“I sure did.” Peppermint nodded. “The woods were off-limits because there was an open well in the woods. One boy−Randy Powell was his name−had fell into the well and nearly drowned. Randy's brother was with him. There was a rope lying close to the well...divine providence? You tell me, but Randy Powell made it out of the well alive.”
“Ayo, I read that God works in mysterious ways. Randy Powell lived because God wanted him to. Botta bing.”
Candy and Chris smiled. Ralphie was like a kid in a candy store. “You're right, Ralphie, but that didn't change the fact that the well was still dangerous. Why no one ever covered up that well is beyond me. Anyway, I decided to take a shortcut through the woods because I wanted to get home. It was cold, and it was snowing. Now, in north Georgia, where I used to live, snow isn't rare, but snow isn't like the snow you get here in New York. When it snows in Georgia...well, the world changes for a little while. To me, at that time, the snow was amazing and exciting. I wanted to get home as fast as I could and find my brother.”
“What for?” Ralphie asked. “Did he owe you money?”
Candy nearly spit out some of her coffee. “I don't think that's the reason, honey.” She laughed.
“I wanted to find my brother because I wanted to build a snowman with him,” Peppermint explained. He smiled at Ralphie and then pulled a chair in front of the fireplace and sat down. “I was close to my brother growing up. We're still close, but my brother has his family now, and well, I have my life. Anyway, I was in a hurry, so I cut through the woods.”
“And you fell into the well, right?” Ralphie burst out. “You nearly drowned. Your brother saved you. Your parents tore your backside off. Botta bing. The end.”
“Well, yes and no.” Peppermint was growing fond of Ralphie. He was twenty-five, but he seemed to have the mind of a sixteen-year-old. “I did fall into the well. I was so caught up in the snow that I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking. Suddenly, all I remember was that I was looking up at a snowy, gray sky, holding my arms up in the air, and the next, I was falling into a dark hole.”
“How awful,” Candy gasped.
“Well, it would have been, and I probably wouldn't be sitting here today telling you this story, except Randy Powell's brother never untied the rope he had tied to the tree and threw down into the well. The rope was still hanging down in the well. Boy, when my body hit the sea of dark, cold water, I thought that was it. I don't know how deep that well was, but my feet never touched the bottom. When I popped my head up and felt a rope hit my face, I grabbed that rope like I was on fire. You never saw a boy crawl out of a well so fast.”
“So, the rope saved two boys,” Chris pointed out.
“Yep.” Peppermint nodded. “Randy Powell ended up becoming a surgeon and me...well, here I am. God has His reasons.”
“Did your parents beat you senseless for falling into the well?” Ralphie demanded.
