Author: amo

The Third Day of Christmas

Mary-Lou didn’t think so either when I talked to her. We have an affinity—we bonded over both of us being named Mary-Something. My full name is Mary-Claire, which I think makes me sound like either a Southern belle or a Catholic nun. Fortunately nobody but my grandmother has ever called me anything but the short version.

“No, Mac,” said Mary-Lou, who had known Tom all his life. “He’s not a cheat. He won’t pull an Eldon; the only vanishing tricks he does are slight-of-hand in his magic shows.”

“Pulling an Eldon”—now there’s a local phrase for you. Until Mary-Lou said it, I hadn’t even realized that that’s what I was worried about. It referred to Eldon “Elvis” Lynn, who disappeared in 1971, which his old girlfriend Celia Whitewell would tell anyone who was willing to listen and a few other people besides. The town thought that most likely he’d just run off with another woman; there were rumours of a pretty blonde he’d been seen with just before he vanished. And as he’d been an Elvis impersonator—his party piece that year being Elvis’ new release “I’ll Be Home on Christmas Day”—he’d had his fair share of groupies. But Celia wasn’t having any of it. It was kind of sad: nearly fifty years later she was still waiting for Eldon to come back, kept doing her now-grey hair in a Priscilla Presley style because she thought he would like it, and wouldn’t hear a word against him. He was kidnapped, she insisted. By what—aliens? This time of year she always got worse than usual because it was around Christmas that he’d vanished. She should really just accept that Eldon had left her and skipped town.

But then… For the first time I got an inkling of where she was coming from. I still hadn’t heard from Tom, and it was now going on three days.

“Are you sure Tom hasn’t just gone AWOL or something?” I said.

“Sure I’m sure,” Mary-Lou said comfortably. “I’ve known the guy since Kindergarten, remember.”

We were out in her barn, where she was feeding her chickens. Mary-Lou collects fancy breeds of farmyard fowl.

“Why do you think he hasn’t texted?” I said, absentmindedly staring at a fat white chicken. It had a brown back that had the most comical ruff of feathers around its neck, like people in seventeenth-century paintings, and even funnier “socks” on its feet, as if it was wearing pants with long lace cuffs peeping out of the leg bottoms.

“Oh, you know him. Communication isn’t his strong suit.” Mary-Lou scattered another handful of chicken feed, and two more of those funny-looking chickens with the neck ruffs came running up, clucking madly. Mary-Lou chuckled at the sight of them. “Those are my newest girls,” she said proudly. “I got them for Christmas. They’re Faverelles; it’s a French breed—supposed to be good layers.” She checked the level of water in the watering dish. “Didn’t you say Tom did send you a text?”

“Just the once, on Christmas Eve, but I can’t make heads or tails of it.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket, thumbed open the message, and held it out to her.

She took a look and shook her head. “No, makes no sense to me either,” she said. “Maybe he meant that he’s going to be gone for twelve days this time?”

“Maybe.” I pulled my shoe out of the way of the pecking beak of one of Mary-Lou’s fancy new beruffled chickens. “I just wish he’d have said so.” Now all three of the French hens were clustered around my feet. I turned on the phone camera and snapped a photo; they were such funny-looking things.

Suddenly my phone buzzed in my hand. Tom!

“pls keep tryi”

“I lv u”

What on earth was going on?

The Second Day of Christmas

I went over to Tom’s house first thing in the morning on Boxing Day, before it was even light—not that that means much this time of year; sunrise doesn’t come until almost nine o’clock. His truck wasn’t parked at the curb where he usually leaves it. I used the key he’d hidden on top of the lintel—he figured that was safer than under the door mat—and let myself into his basement suite.

There was no sign of Tom. The bed looked slept in, but that didn’t mean anything—he never made it, so it always looked slept in. The real clue was the coffee maker. The dregs in the bottom were stone-cold, so he definitely had not been home that morning; he would never leave the house without at least one cup of fresh-brewed coffee.

A while ago, he had been making some vague noises about going ice fishing on Boxing Day with a buddy—I couldn’t remember who—but surely he would at least have let me know?

I checked the time on my phone. Seven thirty—I could probably get away with going upstairs to talk to his landlady.

“No, haven’t seen Tom,” Lilian, who was still in her housecoat, said cheerfully. “Not since Christmas Eve morning. But guess what I did see?” Suddenly she gasped. “There! There they are again!” She rushed towards her patio door, then stopped a few feet short of it and crept slowly closer, waving at me to follow.

“Look!” she whispered, pointing out the door. “A pair of turtle doves!”

Through the door I could hear the distinctive hooting call of the grey-brown birds that were perched on the edge of Lilian’s bird feeder. I knew that hoot well, as Tom liked to copy it—he could make all sorts of noises by blowing into his cupped hands. He tried to teach me, but I could never pull it off. I have to stick with beatboxing, which I’m not too bad at, even if I do say it myself.

“I saw them yesterday, during the Christmas bird count!” Lilian said, enraptured. “They don’t usually stay around for the winter, but this year they did! They’re so beautiful! I had to list them as mourning doves, of course; that’s what they insist on calling them in the records—but my family’s always called them turtle doves. Two turtle doves—that’s really unusual this time of year. Maybe I’ll win birder of the month with that!”

“Nice,” I said, pulled out my phone and shook it to open the camera. Even in the low early morning light the birds came out clearly in the photo; that could be nice on Instagram. “So, look,” I said, “could you do me a favour and let me know if you hear from Tom?”

“Oh, sure.” She nodded, her dyed red curls bobbing. “Maybe that lady out at Carson’s Landing knows something; I think that’s who he was talking to Tuesday morning.”

“What lady?”

Her eyes were back on the birds out on the patio, and she answered absentmindedly.

“Oh, you know, that sexy one in the fancy new house they built at Jimbo Carson’s old place. Her and Tom were standing out by the street, and Tom looked real smitten with her. Oops—I didn’t mean…” She looked around at me and giggled sheepishly. “I’m sure he isn’t—didn’t—”

No, probably not. Tom wouldn’t cheat on me—would he?