Dear Santa(17)

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When Lindy arrived at Peggy’s, Chloe and Jayne were already there, and the party was about to begin. Peggy was the one with the idea: It seemed as if both of the other women were as much in the dark as Lindy was.

    Lindy added her wrapped white elephant gift to the stack with the others and handed Peggy the bottle of white wine, one her father had recommended.

Peggy had a sly grin, and Lindy had to wonder what her clever friend was up to now. Even when they were children, Peggy was the one who’d had the wild imagination. Lindy had followed gleefully along. Her childhood had been happy, and a lot of that delight had been the times she’d spent with Peggy. This latest adventure told her Peggy hadn’t changed. She was fun, creative, and up for anything.

“Okay, is everyone ready?” Peggy asked. She rubbed her palms together, as if she could hardly wait for this fun evening she had planned.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Lindy said, sharing a look with the other two women.

Peggy passed out a folded sheet of paper to each one. “Okay, read your clue. You have thirty minutes to solve the riddle, and then find and supply the course of the meal described to you. Remember, you have only a half-hour to complete your task. The first one back gets a prize, and the last one back…well, let me put it like this: You don’t want to be last.”

Lindy waited until Peggy’s two other friends each had their sheet before she unfolded hers and read the riddle.

    Roses are red. Violets are blue.

Dessert, my friend, is on you. Make it sweet and easy to eat.

Not Gouda. Not cheddar. This tastes so much better.

It’s a cake most don’t bake. Thirty minutes is all it should take.



It wasn’t hard for Lindy to figure out that Peggy was looking for her to deliver a cheesecake. She could only imagine what the others had been asked to contribute to the meal. What a fun and different idea. Leave it to Peggy.

“The main course is in the Crock-Pot, and I’ll have the wine open and the table set by the time you return. The first one back gets the honor of being the last to choose the white-elephant gift and unable to have anyone take it away.”

“And the last?” Jayne asked.

“The last gets to clean the kitchen.”

All three groaned as they surveyed the area. It seemed Peggy had deliberately used every pan in the house.

Lindy was excited for what was sure to be a fun evening.

Out the door the three of them flew.

Lindy went to her favorite bakery and found that it was far too busy. Seeing the line inside, she automatically drove past. Naturally, the bakery was her first choice. She’d consider herself lucky if they even had a cheesecake left this late in the day. Keeping a close eye on the time, she saw that she’d wasted five minutes.

    Her next stop was Costco. They always had cheesecake, but the parking lot was full. Going inside would be a wasted effort and sure to eat up her time. She should have known. This was the holiday season. Shoppers took every opportunity available to stock up, and this was Christmas week.

Her next guess was the local grocery store. She parked, rushed into the bakery section, and discovered there wasn’t a cheesecake to be found.

Then she remembered the Wine Press had cheesecake on the dessert menu. As she exited the Safeway, she reached for her phone and called the restaurant. The same hostess from the morning answered.

“This is Lindy…Would it be possible to speak to Billy?” she asked, checking the time and fearing she was about to get the booby prize.

It seemed to take forever before he was on the line. “Lindy?”

“I need four slices of cheesecake. Pronto.”

His hesitation was brief. “Is there a cheesecake emergency I didn’t hear about?”

“It’s a food scavenger hunt. Peggy’s idea. If I don’t have it within the next few minutes, I could be stuck washing a sink full of dishes. Can I buy the cheesecake from you?” At this point she didn’t care what it cost. All that was important was that she return with the dessert before Jayne and Chloe.

    “Of course.”

She looked at the time again. “I have less than twelve minutes to get it back to Peggy’s.”

“Where are you now?” he asked.

She gave him her location.

“I’ll meet you halfway.” He gave her the name of the school, the very one they had attended as children. “I’ll meet you in the parking lot by the baseball field.”

“You mean it’s still there?”

“As far as I know. Seems to me I drove past it recently.”

“You’d leave the restaurant and rush me the cheesecake?” She was giddy, knowing this was the only way she’d make it back to Peggy’s within the allotted thirty minutes.

“On it. I’ll be there as soon as I can manage…”

Lindy drove to Mission View Elementary, pulled over, and parked. Sure enough, Billy didn’t keep her waiting long. He pulled up alongside her car. Billy climbed out of his vehicle, and without realizing how close he was, Lindy opened her car door and slammed it into Billy, hitting him in the stomach.

    Billy gasped and bent over.

“Oh no. Billy, I’m so sorry. Are you hurt?” She felt dreadful. Her hands flew to her mouth as she waited for him to straighten.