Graceland Wittman had once been a cherished college professor of business finance and real estate. She'd also served as a member of the school board in a certain student's Dartmouth college days where the said student known as Sarah Williams had graduated with a degree in English Literature.
After graduation Sarah had enjoyed some mild success as a undergrad teacher at the local community college. Unfortunately after only a few semesters the young woman found with some discouragement that the job was not as stimulating as she had originally hoped it would be.
As time went on it slowly became apparent to Sarah Williams that if something didn't change and soon she would be doomed to live a rather humdrum existence lecturing pre-college students who seemed to have little interest in her subject matter other then the college credit it provided them. Though the staff loved her and a few select students had found her to be inspiring; Sarah Williams was, in essence, not very happy with where she was going in her life.
That had changed, however, the night of her thirtieth birthday when Grace Wittman, since retired from teaching and the tedious responsibilities involved in the running of the school, had suddenly approached her with a special business proposition.
It seemed that after the untimely death of her beloved husband and business partner, Edger Paul Wittman, Grace had decided to begin the transition into early retirement. Being the made woman that she was, not only because of her husband assets but of her own business savvy; it happened that Grace had in her possession a prime piece of real estate located in the private business sector of a ideal part of New Hampshire.
Since her husband's business investments had been far reaching and highly successful the property in question which had once been a large high end flower shop in the late fifties had for the most part remained vacant and unused. Grace had wanted to change that and Sarah was just the person she wanted to enlist to help her do it. Thus the Escher room had blossomed into existence.
Between Sarah's imaginative vision of what the shop could be, her selling personality, and Grace's financial contributions; the shop had enjoyed a healthy loving kick of a jump start. Beyond that Sarah had chiefly been responsible for its continued success as a whimsically inspired, privately run and owned, new age shop.
Five years since its creation an older, curvier, but still lovely Sarah Williams was crouched behind the main glass display counter of her shop shining the display glass and carefully arranging a very impressive multi colored geode collection, when without any warning at all, the front door of the Escher Room swung brightly open with a tell tale jingo-ling.
There was no need to look up in order to tell who had entered the shop unannounced. She could have identified her brother Toby's intense, though jovial, presence anywhere.
Sarah smirked as she watched him walk to the counter she was crouched before and lean across the glass in order to watch her intently with his fist propping up his slightly tilted head. For some reason her brother's presence always had a tendency to make the energy in any space crackle to life.
"Good morning, little brother." She muttered affectionately up at him.
As a general rule Sarah didn't like being disturbed before official opening hours, but Toby's usually unexpected arrivals were always a welcome exception. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd be up at the cabin by now."
"Are you kidding? I would never pass up an opportunity to harass you during work hours. You should know me better than that. Besides, I've been putting the trip up off. Why can't mom and dad have Christmas in Miami like normal retirees?" He complained lightheartedly.
"You know how Karen is. Snow and the bitter cold is like...Her natural environment. Besides you know she's been pushing dad to go skiing with her." Sarah tried to imagine her father with a pair of rod like planks strapped to his feet and failed to produce a scenario that didn't involve at least one or two trips to the First Aid hut.
"Well mom will probably ignore him most of the day anyway. You know how she likes to hob-nob with her skiing friends. I imagine dad will likely end up hide in the lodge drinking coffee and watching reruns of Geraldo. So its not like he'll have a terrible time." Toby picked at an invisible thread on his sleeve as he spoke.
Since we're on the subject of planned vacations I don't recall my mother saying you sent her back a confirmation E-mail." Toby mentioned.
"Now. I'm going to assume, my dear sister, that this is just a case of mom being technologically inept and that you just didn't receive her notice about Christmas at the cabin this year. You know? Christmas at the cabin? The holiday retreat that's happened every year since I was ten? That's the other reason I'm here." Toby flashed Sarah a wicked toothy grin.
A grin that proved he knew exactly what she was up to and that said he fully intended to thwart Sarah before she succeeded in weaseling out of another family holiday.
Sarah stood up finally examining her younger half brother before answering him.
In truth, it had been ages since she'd seen Toby or done anything more then have a casual conversation over the phone with him. At least that was how it had been in the last year or so. Sarah couldn't claim to be very proud of neglecting her familial responsibilities. Not that Toby didn't understand that she was busy. It just seemed to always take Sarah by surprise whenever she realize how quickly the time was passing by.
The presence of her brother always served to remind Sarah of just how much time had already passed, simply for the fact that it seemed only yesterday when her brother had been an infant and dependent on other peoples care. Sarah recalled how Toby had still been a mere boy by the time she'd moved out of the family nest in route to college and a life of her own.
Toby Williams had grown into a fine young man in the years she'd been away from home. Tall and lean like his mother Karen; Toby had retained his mother's sharp, somewhat aristocratic, features and, unlike Sarah who had inherited her actress mother's raven hair, his had once been the color of sun ripened wheat. Although light during his early youth his hair had ultimately darkened to an auburn tone which took on various shades of brown when exposed to certain lighting. Toby tended to wear it little longer then was commonly fashionable and his hair tended to curl in an unruly fashion about his ears.
What had been most amazing about Toby's transition into adulthood was the occurrence of a sort of fluid grace about his movements and general mannerisms that had developed over time. It was as if Toby's inner world was accompanied by a kind of sing song melody that set a sort of unique rhythm to everything he did. Sarah had never been nearly as graceful in anything she did by comparison. In her early years it had been a sensitive subject between Sarah and her step mother who was a gracious lady in her own right.
Along with his beautifully defined features and tall broad physique, the single most fascinating thing about Toby's appearance -and perhaps the most unnerving- where his alluring mismatched eyes. The doctors had called it an inherited chromosomal deficiency. Something that her father had claimed ran on his mother's side of the family.
That being said, when Sarah thought about it she could never recall meeting another family member with the same condition. At any rate upon leaving infancy one eye had settled a pale blue and the other had settled a light almost hazel green.
"I know mom and dad where really hoping I'd make it this year and it's not like I wouldn't like to go, but I just can't." Sarah said apologetically. "I can't, Toby. Who will watch the store?"
It was the same excuse Sarah had used for the last five years and with every turn of the seasons the excuse had become less and less buoyant. The Escher Room wasn't new anymore. It had been going strong for the last few years and as far as Toby was concerned the excuse of being busy was no longer going to save her if he had anything to say about it.
"Look I find the idea of mom cooking Christmas dinner in a wood burning stove just as frightening as you do." Toby shrugged.
"Maybe we'll get lucky and she'll just order Chinese like she did last year when she almost burned the kitchen down. Do you remember that?"
Sarah couldn't help but laugh.
"Yeah, I do. I remember her calling me up in a panic because she thought she'd killed dad when she'd thrown the fire extinguisher at his head. I remember she wanted to know how to do CPR." Sarah recalled.
"Even though dad was breathing just fine and was trying in vain to get her attention from the floor." Toby finished with a chuckle.
"Didn't you end up having to smother it out because the fire extinguisher form the cabin was a test model from 1955 and didn't work?" Sarah said as she tried to suppress a huge grin.
Toby nodded slowly. "Oh, that wasn't fun at all. I ended up having to drive dad to the hospital in sub zero temperatures through the snow and ice all with a broken back window. I was sure we'd both freeze to death before I could even got out of the hills."
Toby paused for a moment still reminiscing in his mind's eye. If Sarah had been there the whole thing would never have happened. Finally he schooled his face into a slightly somber scowl and made his plea one more time.
"Come on, Sarah!. You will come to the cabin this year, won't you? You owe me this one. What if I need you to help with damage control or something? I overheard mom threatening to cook fig pudding this year last time I called home." Despite the joking there was an underlining tone of seriousness to Toby's tone that was hidden just underneath the begging and whining. .
This caused Sarah to pause.
It almost seemed as if Toby had other reasons for being so earnest about them spending Christmas together this year. If she hadn't known better Sarah might have almost thought there was something wrong. After all it was rather out of character for Toby to show up in the city without telling her he was in town first.
"Well I can't have that, now can I?" she said with a sigh before coming around the counter to give him a warm hug. "I'll see what Grace can do if that'll make you happy. You over grown brat, you. Deal?"
Sarah offered while trying to dodge any promises as she skirted back behind the counter to prepare the register so that she could open for business.
"Oh no you don't!" Toby scolded with a sudden stern look that only lasted as far as the rim of the counter that he idly followed Sarah around while wagging a long agile finger at her. "You're not getting out of it this time by pawning your excuses off on that poor assistant of yours."
"Besides, it's too late anyway." Toby grinned.
Sarah cocked her brow at him as she moved away from the register to poignantly place her hands on her hips. "Explain now."
"Well, you see Sarah..." Toby put his hands behind his back as he rocked back on his heels to wickedly prolong his explanation.
That is he managed it up until Sarah started threatening a dreaded noogie if he didn't hurry it up and divulge.
"Now don't be mad. It just so happens that I ran into Grace on my way up this last weekend and when I ran into her she just happened to mention to me that your schedule was crystal clear for the next couple of weeks." He finished hastily with an unconcerned shrug.
"Did she now..." Sarah muttered suspiciously as she narrowed her eyes at him.
Sarah knew for a fact that she didn't have any time off for at least another month, if at all.
"Toby, what did you do?" Sarah took one threatening step towards him. Her right hand rose up to press an accusatory pointer finger into his chest.
"Me?" Toby put his nose up in the air in mock indignity. "I didn't do anything."
At that Sarah grinned sweetly before promptly putting him in a rather skillful headlock. Toby might have been a good head taller then her. but she was still the oldest.
"OK! OK, uncle!" Toby yelled with a playful laugh.
"I told her there was a family event coming up and asked if she could do some quick re-arranging of your schedule. You're now free for the next three weeks." He proclaimed still in full headlock mode.
'Why you..." Sarah smirked before releasing him.
"Handsome devil? Brilliant fiend?" He offered for her not missing a beat.
"Dirty cheat is what I was thinking." She muttered unable to suppress a wide grin.
"All right. You've got me. I'm not expected to bring anything am I?" The two looked at each other knowingly as they suddenly said in unison, "Dessert."
A few days later Sarah wrapped up her work at the shop and began to prepare for the day long journey northward to her family's cabin. Toby had left a few days ahead of her and was most likely there already.
Despite her hesitation about leaving her work Grace Wittman was not about to let this opportunity slip through Sarah's fingers.
Graceland Wittman was a broadly built, curvy, eccentric woman with long curly sliver toned hair. Unlike some women who dyed their hair dark when age began to show, Grace had chosen the somewhat unconventional route of embracing the gray streaks by dyeing her strawberry blond locks a pretty sliver.
"Might as well get the whole mess out of the way instead of waiting for all the leaves to turn." Was what she'd said merrily when Sarah had inquired about the woman's hair. To be honest it actually made the nearing fifty-something woman look younger.
"You really didn't have to do this, Grace." Sarah insisted as she was warmly hugged and tucked into her car.
"Nonsense. You deserve a break, Kiddo. You work too hard. I promise I've got everything under control." Grace reassured her lovingly before giving Sarah a pat on the shoulder that said everything would be fine.
Thanks in part to Grace's extensive financial support, during the early days of the shop's life the Escher Room had enjoyed both local and national recognition and had even caught the eyes of some out of country buyers, at which point Grace had completely turned control of the business over to Sarah and only stayed on to assist her with the day to day demands.
Since Grace had single handily helped to bring the Escher Room into being there was no reason to think she wasn't just as capable as Sarah was in handling the business. "You're sure you have everything?"
Sarah checked through the list in her mind. "Yes. No! Crap." Her head come to rest upon the steering wheel. "It was my turn to bring the desserts, I can't believe I forgot."
A little light bulb seemed to turn on behind Grace's eyes. "No worries, dear. You do like pie, don't you? I just got done making a batch this morning. You can have a few if you like. I always end up handing them out anyway." She wrinkled her stout nose. "I don't really like pie actually."
"Then why do you make them?" Sarah laughed. Grace was very much like a grandmother to her and the two had become deeply close over the last ten years.
The older woman shrugged causing the mess of silver ringlets to jingle. "I like to bake, and my cookies always burn."
After a few more minutes of idle conversation Grace gave her a warm hug and checked to make sure Sarah had a scarf before shooing her out of the parking lot a few minutes later. The pies were now packed securely away beside Sarah. As Grace watched her fade into the distance a motherly all knowing smile splayed across the older womans lips and chimes could be heard twinkling somewhere on the air.