Page 13 - Publishing Inspiration Christmas Card 2023

apples, filling a half-dozen boxes. It was then time to carry them to the root cellar
under the house.
I could tell Mrs. Levi was shivering, and I suggested she go inside. “I
think I have enough moonlight to carry everything,” I said.
She thanked me and went in to get warm. I opened the old doors that led
under the house. It took another twenty minutes to carry the boxes carefully down
the old stairs into the damp cellar. I finished and shut the doors, locking the food
away for winter.
When I stepped into the house, she held out the cookie jar full of cookies.
“Did you have many trick-or-treaters come?” I asked as I grabbed a couple.
“Not a one,” she replied. “I think they prefer store-bought candy, but I
can’t afford it.”
“Not me,” I said. “I’d take your cookies over store candy any day.”
She smiled and held the jar out again. “Make sure you have a bunch,” she
said. “I can’t eat all of these.”
“I love your old cookie jar,” I said. “I don’t think I’ve seen one like it
anywhere else.”
“William gave it to me on our wedding day,” she said. “He knew I liked to
bake cookies.”
When she mentioned her wedding day, her eyes softened. “Have I ever
told you how William and I met?” I shook my head, so she continued. “It’s a long
story.”
I looked at my watch. My friends were probably finishing their party, and
they wouldn’t miss me, anyway. Little did I know, they were in jail. But that’s a
different story.
“Let me call my parents,” I said, “then I’d love to hear it.”
She heated water for hot chocolate while I made the call, then I settled
onto the couch across from her chair, with the cookie jar and a cup of chocolate
beside me. Then I listened to an interesting story.

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