Page 22 of Cross Check Christmas
I hear a voice behind me saying, “These have got to go.” And turn around to find two guys moving my mom’s marble lion statues.
“Hey! You can’t do that.” I cry, but I’m practically bulldozed by two women carrying boxes of ornaments. They dash throughmy front door like they own the place. I follow them inside, teeth chattering.
"Listen, I think you have the wrong house…”
A guy in a beanie barrels past with an armload of wreaths. "Watch it, we're on a schedule here!"
"It's my house!" I yelp, dodging a rolling cart loaded with equipment. "I live here! Sort of."
"Perfect! You can show us where to set up the gingerbread village." A woman thrusts a box of tiny houses into my arms. Her walkie-talkie beeps and a voice says something too muffled for my pre-caffeinated brain to comprehend, and she takes off in the other direction.
"I don't want a… wait, come back!"
I spot a woman with a severe bob and an even more severe expression barking orders into a headset while gesturing with her clipboard. She's got an air of authority that says she's in charge of this invasion.
"Excuse me?—"
"You!" She points her pen at me without looking up. "Extras are in the tent behind the house."
"I'm not…”
"Chop chop!" She makes a shooing motion with her clipboard.
"Listen, I demand to know what's going on here!" I say.
She holds up one perfectly manicured finger, continuing her conversation. "No, we need the snow machine by noon. Yes, all six of them." She clicks off her headset and gives me an impatient look. "Who are you?"
"Who am I? I live here! This is my family house!"
She raises a perfectly sculpted eyebrows as she takes in my bedhead and ratty bathrobe. She flips through her stack of papers, red nail scanning down the page. "This is the Ellis estate... are you… Rainer Ellis?"
"No, I'm his son, Hendrix. There must be some mistake?—"
"KEVIN!" she yells into her headset, making me jump. "What do you mean the reindeer are stuck in customs? Well call the handler back tell him to take care of it or he loses his job." She turns back to me. "Listen, Mister Ellis…”
“Hendrix.”
“Right. Hendrix. We have all the permits and insurance documentation so you don’t need to worry about a thing."
"Insurance for what exactly?"
She rolls her eyes. “The movie.”
“What movie?”
She huffs."Cookie Cutter Christmas.”
"Cookie what now?"
“Look. According to our paperwork, we have full access to the property for the next eight weeks. I don’t know what else to tell you."
"Who approved this? I didn't approve this!" My protests are drowned out by someone yelling abouthaving enough wattage.
“Our contact person is..." She squints at the page. "Marigold Bell."
"Aunt Goldie?" I sputter. "She doesn't even live here!"
Grannie Bell and Aunt Goldie didn't think to mention this tiny detail when I told them I was coming to stay?
