Member-only story
CHAPTER 10
The Ringo Effect
It’s Christmas morning and all is well…so far
CHAPTER 10
Christmas morning is sunny and bright. The Ringo house is almost full for the first time since Richard’s funeral with RJ, his wife Clarice, Little Tre, and Maya asleep in their old bedrooms.
Dahlia awakens early and heads downstairs. From the control pad on the wall in the family room, she flips on the heat and the Christmas tree lights before thinking twice and turning off the lights. No reason to burn that bit of electricity. Wait until the rest of the family comes down.
Pouring a cup of coffee, she marvels over how well things have gone since the children arrived in town. Her charade, as Penelope calls it, has been successful and no one appears the wiser. She’s had to do some things differently from years past, like dialing way back on Christmas decorations. This year, there are no outside lights trimming the house. And only one tree in the family room. Usually she dresses three trees, one in the dining room and another in the great hall as well. But not this year. Forced to cancel the Ringo’s big, splashy, annual holiday party really stung. And for the first time she passed along the duties of the JPBSS annual Toy Drive and Christmas Tea to Sandy Stewart, the neighborhood association’s vice president.
