Page 36 of 5 Golden Flings

ANDREA LAURENCE

CHAPTER 1

“I’m sorry,could you repeat that? I’m having a little trouble hearing out here with the marching band practicing nearby. It sounded like you said Santa Claus is in jail.”

Alice Jordan, assistant to the Mayor of Rosewood, Alabama, pressed her earpiece into her head to try and improve the sound. Unfortunately, the words she was hearing didn’t change. She clutched her tablet to her chest and squeezed her eyes shut tight.

“Leo’s in jail,” she repeated. Of course he was. Where else would the Santa of the Thirty-Seventh Annual Rosewood Christmas parade be on rehearsal day? Certainly not in his sleigh. She looked over to the finale float of the parade. The red velvet seat was conspicuously bare.

Alice had hoped that he was just running behind. Lionel Robinson had been a relatively reliable Santa for the last ten years of the parade. Well, make that eight out of the last ten. The past two years, Leo had become increasingly erratic in his behavior around town. There’d been the incident with the Rosewood High Panthers mascot costume. And no one could forget the time he’d ‘borrowed’ the visiting Oscar Meyer Weiner-mobile for a joyride and police chase that had ended in BoydFoley’s soybean field. She’d heard whispers from time to time that the older man’s drinking was getting worse, but even then, he’d always pulled it together for the Christmas parade. He loved dressing up for the kids and he made an excellent Santa.

But this might be the year she’d been dreading—the year Alice had to find a new Santa Claus. This incident was too close to Christmas to ignore. Even if he made bail in time for the parade, the small-town rumor mill would be working overtime. No one would want to pay for a photo of their child sitting on the lap of a drunken criminal, even if he had a real beard and the perfect “ho, ho, ho.”

“Miss Jordan?”

Alice realized she was standing in the middle of the high school parking lot staring at a papier-mâché reindeer while the man on the call repeated her name trying to get her attention.

“I’m sorry,” Alice said. “Thank you for the information.” She disconnected the call and slipped her phone into the pocket of her wool pea coat.

Looking at the crowd of people, trucks, and trailers lined up around the parking lot, Alice realized that Santa or no Santa, this rehearsal needed to get started and that was her job.

While the Mayor of Rosewood, Otto Gallagher, took credit for everything that took place in town, it was Alice that made it all happen. She was known for her ability to handle any problem, herd all the cats, and do it on time and under budget. Now was her time to shine.

Alice looked down at her tablet one last time, ran her gaze over her checklist, and pasted a smile on her face. No one needed to know there was a problem because she was going to handle it one way or another. She walked with purpose and authority past the crowds to the front where the Rosewood High School color guard was waiting.

“All right, ladies,” she began. “I need you two up here holding the Rosewood Christmas Parade banner. Behind you, I need the rest of you lined up with your flags.”

She continued down the line, getting the various floats and vehicles in the right order. There was the convertible for the mayor and his wife, the ladder truck from the firehouse, some baton twirlers, the Miss Merry Christmas float, the marching band... about twenty-five in all. Toward the end were the mounted police, for obvious sanitary reasons, and then Santa’s sleigh and reindeer, pulled by a big, red, diesel pick-up truck.

“Remember who is in front of you and who is behind you,” Alice spoke into a microphone with a small, portable amplifier. “And line up exactly where you are now, come next Saturday morning. We’re going to walk the route around the park and the courthouse, and then we’ll come down Rosewood Avenue and back here to the high school.”

She sighed and looked down at her watch. It was time to go. The local police didn’t like closing the downtown streets any longer than they had to. “Any questions? Now is the time to ask.”

A hand went up amongst the crowd of teenagers. She couldn’t see their face, but the voice came from somewhere in the trumpet section. “Where’s Santa at, Miss Jordan?”

Alice’s jaw tightened even as she kept her smile firmly in place. “He wasn’t able to make the rehearsal today, but the driver is here for his float, so we should be fine next week.”

“I heard he got arrested!” another voice came from the crowd.

Bad news traveled fast.

“My dad said he climbed up the water tower and shouted for everyone to ‘look at the full moon over Rosewood’ before he dropped his pants and mooned everyone leaving the Panthers football game last night.”

A rumble of laughter traveled through the crowd. Apparently Leo hadn’t taken the loss last night to their rivals, the Asheville Hawks, very well.

“Okay, okay,” Alice said, trying to regain control of the crowd. “It’s my job to worry about Santa. Next week, there will be a jolly ol’ elf sitting in that sleigh, I guarantee it. It’syourjob to maintain your pace along the parade route and keep a smile on your face. Got it?”

“Yes, Miss Jordan,” a choir of voices dutifully responded.

Alice turned off the microphone and started the timer on her watch. She gestured to the color guard, and they started their half-hour-long trip through downtown.

By the time they made it through the route and returned to the high school, Alice had had plenty of time to think about her problem. And every name she came up with to fill in for Leo was crossed off the list just as quickly. Too young, too old, already involved in the parade... She wasn’t sure what she was going to do.

As the teens scattered to their cars and waiting parents, she made her way over to the fire truck. Grant Chamberlain was standing beside the truck chatting with Mack Ryan, the fire chief, as he sat behind the wheel. They wouldn’t be able to pull the ladder truck around until a lot of the cars and trailers had cleared out.

“Hey Alice,” Grant greeted. The Chamberlains were Rosewood’s founding family. Of the six children, Alice had to admit Grant was her favorite. He was the rebellious one of the bunch, the middle son with the Harley Davidson and the devilish smile. Last year he’d gotten engaged to Pepper Anthony, a hairdresser at Curls on the square. She’d seen him wave out the window and honk the horn at her as they’d passed the shop where she worked.

“Hey guys. Do you think you could drop me by the Sheriff’s Department on your way back to the firehouse?”

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