Maybe I’d drive over to the mall today. I could pick up the gift for Mrs. Wilder, maybe have a pretzel and a Coke at Auntie Anne’s, and then go looking for a Christmas tree.
I’d need a crèche, too. Dad and I had bought the lights and decorations and tinsel garlands and a star for the top of the tree on Black Friday, but I hadn’t found a nativity scene that day that called to me.
It was a Saturday, but there were a couple of weeks until Christmas; the mall shouldn’t be too crowded.
* * * *
Wrong.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
The mall parking lot was jammed, and I was tempted to forget about the whole shopping idea.
Still, I was already here.
It was a good thing I wasn’t one of those shoppers who insisted on parking close to the entrance and so drove around and drove around, wasting a tank o
