Page 68 of Please Send Snow
“Wait,” I say, hating what’s coming but knowing I owe it to them to tell the truth. “I have some bad news.”
“What news?” Eleanor asks.
There isn’t a gentle way to say it, so I just get it all out there.
“My dad… he didn’t leave the business to me,” I tell her. “And my stepmother isn’t really interested in the business, especially since we won’t have any new figurines without my dad. So she’s breaking up the company and selling it for parts. If there were anything I could do about it, I would. You know I love this place. And he loved it too…”
I bite back a sob and wait for them to panic.
But they’re just kind of looking at each other in confusion.
“Maddie,” Eleanor says. “You and I should probably talk privately for a bit. Everyone else, go on and finish up what’s on your table.”
She rises and I follow her into the little office. Eleanorlowers herself into the seat behind the desk and I sit opposite her, noticing that she has one of the drawings I made for her when I was a kid framed and hanging on the wall.
In the drawing, my parents and I are stick figures standing in a room with stick figure ladies at tables holding paintbrushes. Each of us is wearing a smile so big it escapes the confines of our circle faces.
For a moment, Eleanor just looks out the window at the bare branches of the trees that surround the factory. Then she turns her gaze to me.
“Maddie, I think we need to talk about a lot of things,” she says gently. “But first, I have some information that I suspect is going to be news to you.”
“What is it?” I ask.
I can’t imagine how things can get much worse than they are right now, but I do my best to brace myself for whatever she’s about to tell me.
“Maddie, did you know that this factory belongs to you?” she asks.
I blink at her in complete shock, then reality sets in.
“Maybe my dad intended that at one time,” I tell her. “But that was before he remarried. He didn’t leave me anything at all in his will.”
“He didn’t have to leave it to you,” Eleanor explains in a patient voice like she’s still talking to the kid who made that drawing. “It was already yours.”
“It… it…what?” I ask.
“It’s been in your name since you were a child,” she tells me with a warm smile, leaning forward to place her hand on mine again. “He set it all up in a trust and longstory short, since you turned twenty-one it’s been yours free and clear. You can do whatever you like with the factory.”
My dad always told me that Angel Mountain would take care of me, but the words mean something different now. He wasn’t just talking about the people or the fresh mountain air.
“That’s why you wanted to hear from me,” I realize out loud as fresh tears gather in my eyes, threatening to spill over.
“Well, that’s why we thought wewouldhear from you,” Eleanor says with a smile. “Wewantedto hear from you because you’re family around here and we missed you.”
Suddenly the dam bursts and I’m all-out bawling.
Eleanor moves around the desk and sits in the chair beside me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and surrounding me with comfort.
“Now, Maddie,” she says softly. “We know you may not be much interested in running this place. And if he really didn’t leave you anything else then you might need to sell it. But don’t you worry about us for a single minute. We’re scrappy ladies and not one of us would hold it against you.”
“I wouldneversell this place,” I tell her, still sniffling. “He told me this place was my home, and I know now that he meant it. This is what he wanted for me. I’m sure we can keep things going, even if it’s a struggle without new figurines.”
That’s probably easier said than done. I know the new figurines were always the best sellers.
“I have something to show you,” Eleanor says with a twinkly eyed smile. “Two things, really.”
I follow her out to the hall and down to Dad’s old studio. He didn’t have them in any of the other factories, but he used to say that Angel Mountain inspired him. And since this place wasn’t built from the ground up just to replicate the figures in resin, there are plenty of extra rooms.
She throws open the door and I’m amazed at what I see.
