Chapter 30: Chapter 30
The mayor didn’t have a microphone out in the field, so he had to use a megaphone to get everyone’s attention. The loud blare he used to do so had Memory wishing she’d worn earmuffs. A few kids screamed, so the first thing Mayor Charles said was, “Pardon—pardon me. Didn’t mean to startle everyone. Good afternoon, and welcome to the Christmas Falls twenty-first annual Snowman Build Off!” He paused while everyone cheered, grinning from ear to ear as if he had invented the competition to begin with. Once the crowd died down a bit, he continued. “Teams will have thirty minutes to complete the build of an original, unique snowman—or snowwoman—intended to wow our judges. The only rules are that only two people can compete on each team, you must follow the time guidelines, and the entire snow person must be made of snow, with the exception of the nose, eyes, mouth, arms and/or legs, and any clothing required. Accessories do not have to be made of snow. Now, let’s have a word from my lovely assistant, Karen.”
Karen, who happened to be Mrs. Andrew Charles, took the megaphone out of her husband’s hand, looked at it, held it to her mouth, started to speak, pulled it away, and then timidly said, “Can you hear me?”
“We can hear you, Karen!” someone shouted from the back of the crowd, getting a loud roar of laughter from everyone.
“Good. I don’t really like this thing.” She tittered self-consciously. “The judges this year are three distinguished members of our community. Pastor Jake Conroy from the Christian Church, Lacey Barker, our town librarian, and of course, everyone knows Sheriff Tim Parks. We can all be certain these three will follow the rules and be fair. Now, we didn’t require sign-ups before, so we’ll be coming around to make sure we have everyone on the list during the thirty minutes, so just be ready to give us your names—not that we don’t know pretty much everyone in the entire county—and the name of your snowman creation.” Karen gave everyone a smile and gladly handed the megaphone back over to the mayor.
“Thank you, dear,” he said with a proud grin and a chuckle. “All right, feel free to spread out however you’d like, get snow from wherever you can find it—but no cheating. I’ve got my eye on you Russel Tanner!” That got a roar out of everyone as well, as the mayor pointed to a big guy in the back of the crowd Memory had known since she was a little girl. “We’ll give you two minutes to find a good spot, and when I blow the air horn on this megaphone again, it’ll be time to start! Good luck everyone!”
“Let the best team win!” Kirsten shouted, using her thumbs to point at herself and then, remembering she had a partner, acknowledged Maison, too, who looked a little embarrassed.
Memory bit back the, “Oh, we will,” that was threatening to pop out of her mouth, since she’d been slightly offended when Ellie said she was as competitive as her sister. “Good luck, sis,” she said quietly, gathering the bag of plushes in one hand and waiting for Dak to pick up the bags he’d brought and the snowman kit off of the ground.
“Thanks,” Kirsten called. “But we won’t need luck. We have skill.”
“Good luck, Aunt Memory!” Lorelei called, taking Bryce’s hand and heading out into the field a ways.
“Good luck, sweet girl!”
“Good luck, Uncle Dak!” the child added over her shoulder, and Memory turned and looked at him, her eyes bulging out of her head.
“Uh, good luck, Lorelou.”
“It’s Lorelei!” she corrected him.
“That’s what I said!”
Memory couldn’t help but laugh along with her niece’s melodic giggle as she faded away, even if she had just called her not-a-boyfriend Uncle Dak. “Are you ready?” she said, still smiling, though she was about to get her game face on.
“I was born ready,” he replied, raising and lowering his eyebrows rapidly for effect. “We should probably get as far away from your sister as possible, though. She’s likely to try to steal all of our snow.”
“I heard that!” Kirsten shouted over her shoulder. She grabbed a fist full of the white stuff and started compacting it.
“Oh, no. Now I’ve gone and done it.” Dak grabbed Memory by the arm and took off running. Her feet were moving before she even realized what was happening, and laughter spilled out of her mouth as she struggled to keep up with him. A snowball careened over their heads, and Dak shouted, “You missed!”
“I won’t miss next time! Wait until the annual snowball fight next week!” Kirsten yelled back. Dak and Memory ran faster, looking for a place to build their snowman far away from Kirsten, even if she wasn’t a very good shot. Memory would have enough to worry about, trying to pay attention to the build with Dak around, let alone with her sister’s competitive spirit. She ran on, excited to see what she and Dak could do when they put their minds together.
***
Memory’s lungs were burning as she fought for air. Between the laughing and the running, she couldn’t draw a solid breath, but once there were a few other teams between themselves and Kirsten and Maison, Dak stopped, doubling over as he was also caught in a fit of laughter. He let go of her arm, and it suddenly felt as if Memory were missing a part of herself.
“Focus,” Memory managed to get out. Her cheeks were beginning to ache from so much joking around in the cold. “We don’t even have a game plan.”
“Do we need one?” He was beginning to regain his ability to breathe, still grinning at her.
“Sure,” Memory said, dropping the bag on the ground between them. “Who’s going to make what part of the snowman? Do we have enough snow right here? What is this snowman wearing? How will we make sure the leashes aren’t too heavy for his faux stick arms?”
“Wow—I guess I didn’t realize how much preparation goes into this.”
“Well, you know, if you want to win....”
Dak took a step closer to her, and Memory drew in a deep breath, holding her ground even though her initial reaction was to retreat. “I don’t care if we win or lose, Memory. I just want to have fun building a snowman with you.”
“Right....” He smiled at her and took a step away, and Memory inhaled slowly. Ellie was right—she was too competitive. The fact that this interesting man wanted to spend time with her was definitely reward enough, even if Kirsten did win.
“Besides,” he continued, reaching into one of the bags he had brought with him and pulling out a shirt. “I think this will make it all worth it, win or lose.”
He turned it around so she could see it, and Memory gasped, her gloved hands covering her mouth. “How did you do that?”
A crooked grin broke out as he shrugged. “I know some people.”
The shirt was light blue with a colored logo on front in red, white, and navy that clearly read “Christmas Falls Four Paws Shelter” large enough that people would be able to read it at a distance. Their distinctive logo had two dogs and a cat with a heart around them and the logo, “Come meet your new best friend,” written underneath it.
Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. “That is amazing. How in the world did you get that done so quickly? There’s only one T-shirt printing shop in Christmas Falls, and Teri is always backed up for months.”
He shrugged again and dropped the shirt back in the bag as he pulled out a matching baseball cap. Memory’s smile grew. “Teri’s a dog lover.” He put the hat down, too. “And... I may have offered a little more than her standard fees.”
Shaking her head, Memory said, “That is amazing. If we can help even one animal find a new home for Christmas, or get them some needed donations, it’ll be completely worth any rousing my sister does if she wins.”
“I agree. Anyone who goes in there window shopping is definitely coming away with a new buddy. I was this close to getting a dog.” He held up his thumb and first finger and moved them less than an inch apart. “There’s this little dachshund mix in there—Patches—so cute! Really, if I didn’t travel so much, and live in an apartment building where the owner doesn’t allow pets....”
“Maybe someday,” she said, trying not to let the idea that if he moved to Christmas Falls and bought one of the properties he’d been looking at, he could have a dog—and a wife—and kids—linger.
“Yeah. Maybe. And I should probably change that no-pet policy, too.” He put his hands on his hips and looked around at the ground, clearly moving on to assess the snow while she still pondered if that meant he owned the building he lived in and figured that it did. “Okay, do we have enough snow? I mean, we need our dog-walking volunteer to be snowman shaped, but he doesn’t need to be huge, right?”
“True. I find making the bottom layer squattier is usually a hit with the judges.”
“Squattier?” Dak repeated, amused at her use of the word. “What do you mean?”
“You know—shorter but with a bigger diameter.” She gestured with her hands, trying to show him. Glancing over his shoulder, she could see Mayor Charles was about to blow the horn. There were a few other teams near them, and one right behind them, so if they needed more snow, they’d have to run a little ways to get it without taking it out of the unofficial work zones of the other teams, but it wasn’t all that far.
“Okay. Why don’t you work on the squatty part, and I’ll work on the middle first?” She nodded. “Does that need to be squatty?”
“Well, no, but it can’t be perfectly round, either, if it’s going on top of the squatty part.”
“Naturally.” He held his hands out like he already knew that, and Memory considered throwing a snowball at him for teasing her, but she refrained, not wanting to imitate her sister.
“You may begin!” Mayor Charles shouted and then blew the horn for good measure. Memory looked across the field at Lorelei and saw that her dad had his hands over her ears until the annoying noise had dissipated, and then the little girl jumped up in the air, clapping, and got started on the snowman. Kirsten was frantically rolling the bottom of her snowman while she shouted directions at Maison, and Anson was bouncing on Ellie’s knee on the bottom bleacher, laughing and waving at his parents.
“Mem, you ready?”