MK paused to take a breath before entering Harmony Gardens, she hoped everything would go as planned. She entered the shop, flowers, vines, and a few shrubs dotted the shop with color. There were a few aisles of gardening supplies and seed packets further ahead, but MK turned her attention to the counter. There was no one anywhere, as far as she could tell. They were probably in the back, taking care of inventory, so MK resorted herself to looking around at the different plants. She was almost glad she had, she had no idea that there were so many! Many of the flowers showcased and sold as seeds were plants she had never even heard of, like gardenia, columbine, soldanella, zinnia, wisteria, layia, starflower, delphinium, cosmos, bluet, snowflake, and bloomeria. All the different kinds of roses was making her head spin as well as the lengthier vine names.
"Hello, welcome to Harmony Gardens. I'm sorry for not coming out sooner, we had a lot of inventory come in," stated the blonde as she approached MK.
MK smiled, "That's alright, I actually figured as much."
"Did you find what that you were looking for?"
"Oh, I'm not looking for anything particular, just browsing. I never knew there were so many flowers, and different kinds of roses."
The blonde chuckled, "Well, basically only botanists, florists, and gardeners know about the various kinds. Most people tend to stick with the basics because it's a lot easier to remember."
"I can see why," chuckled MK. She took a glance at the name tag on the girl. "Linda Green?"
"Yup, that's me, my friend and co-owner, Alexa Leafe, is still in the back taking of some merchandise," replied Linda.
"Oh, that's funny."
"What?"
"I have a friend named Alexa, and I was just thinking of her the other day, but she's not a Leafe," MK grinned.
Linda laughed, "Oh, I see. Are you looking to get something for her?"
MK shrugged, "I'm not sure, she's more of a book person than a gardening person, that would be more of her aunt. Oh, speaking of relatives, are you by any chance related to James Green?"
"Oh, yes, we're cousins. And he's actually our main supplier. Did you two meet?"
"Yes, we did, it was a strange incident, actually."
"Oh? How so?"
"Well, I overheard the conversation he was having with Jason Knightly at the grocer's, Jason was pretty loud so I couldn't help but overhear, at least his part. He kept going on and on about the evils of winter, but when I asked him why he didn't like winter, he clammed up and walked away. James didn't get to tell me much as they were leaving soon. Um, do you know why Jason really, really, hates winter? I'm just curious, I've never really met a person who didn't like winter," shrugged MK.
"Oh, Jason hates everything about winter, he hates the cold, he hates the snow, he hates the ice, I'd even go so far as to say he hates Christmas. He's never really festive during Christmas."
"You see him often for Christmas?"
"Yes, our families spend Christmas together every year."
"H-has he lost anyone around Christmas, anyone close to him?"
"Hmm . . . I don't think so, his mother died of malaria in the summer before his tenth birthday. If anything, you'd think he'd hate summer and the heat, but he hates winter. We really don't know why, sometimes winter is the season most looked forward to. Jason is really the only person in all of Cedar Grove who hates winter," Linda shrugged.
"Huh, that's interesting," MK said out loud. Looks like here's another mystery to solve; one at a time, MK, one at a time, she told herself. "Well, thanks for clearing some of that up, I might have to talk to Jason face to face to clear up why he really doesn't like winter. Maybe he has some silly reason for it and doesn't want to let anyone know out of fear of being laughed at. My friend Alexa does the same thing for dancing or parties, she gets chickened out by the prospect of it all and claims that it just isn't her thing. I finally convinced her to tell me her real reason for not liking dancing and parties, and to be honest, it really is silly. I'm not at liberty to go into details, but once I helped her to see just how ridiculous her reasons were, she started to think that maybe, just maybe, she could do it after all. She certainly has gotten a bit better, but she's going to need all the practice she can get for the practice she skipped. And now knowing that she can do it, she's now afraid that she can't because she skipped out on a lot."
"Wow, I hope you can talk to Jason, James is just miserable trying to cheer him up every year, and having to hang out with him most of the time, they work together at the same farm."
MK smiled, she knew which farm, "Oh, I see, then I hope I can help in some way to relieve your cousin of some stress."
"That would be so wonderful, thank you. So, your friend Alexa's aunt, she likes gardening?"
MK nodded, she knew where this was going, might as well go with the flow, "Yes, and I do want to get her something, I'm just not sure what." Linda smiled knowingly and asked MK a few things about Alexa's aunt's garden and helped her select a few flowers based on that knowledge. MK left the store with a pack of gardenia seeds, a pack of wisteria seeds, a book about gardens and gardening, and a book about flowers. The cool part about the garden book was that it was told in a story format while the other book consisted of flower poems, and MK knew that Alexa would just devour them. She placed her purchases in her car, and walked over to Sandy's, the corner drugstore. Upon entering the place, MK noticed that it looked like a mix of the more modern Walgreens with the more older drugstores. The front half was stocked high with shelves of medications, candy, little woodcarvings, and lots of miscellaneous items that weren't found at some of the other stores. MK peeked at the candy aisle, everything was set out, ready for the Halloween trick-or-treaters. Even the woodcarvings were reminiscent of the upcoming holiday with witches on brooms, ghosts, vampires, and the like, all frozen in wood. MK heard the store door open, and saw Dr. Lupei glide softly by her to the counter. He rang a little bell, and an elderly woman came to the counter from the back of the store. MK wasn't near enough to see what was on the other side of the door when the woman opened it, but she did wonder if the cauldron Jamie spoke of was being set up in the back for Halloween.
"Hello Doc, what do you need this fine day?"
"Hello Sandy, I need the regular batch today, and I'm going to start stacking up on candy for Halloween."
"Good idea, get them while we still have them! I'll be right back with the batch, if you don't mind picking out some candy yourself. Sandy and I are kinda busy today."
"I understand, meet back here in, say, ten minutes?"
"That'll work!" Sandy dashed into the back, closing the door behind her, while Lupei walked towards the candy aisle. MK had moved to the other side of the store when their backs were turned, so Lupei didn't see her until he turned, his arms full of candy.
"Ah, MK! How are you doing this fine day? I would shake your hand, but, as you can see, my arms are kind of full."
MK grinned, "Oh, that's alright. I'm doing well this fine day, thank you. Found a few gifts for some friends of mine."
"Ah, wonderful, wonderful! And what, may I ask, are you doing here at Sandy's?"
"Eh, needed to pick up a few essentials," she showed him the packs in her hand.
"Ah, I see."
"Though I am thinking about getting some candy now."
Lupei laughed, "Well, now is one of the best times to get candy, when you have a quite the selection to choose from. The other best time, is afterwards, when everything is on sale, but there's not as much to choose from."
"Right."
"So, I hear from Sarah May that you will be joining her on this expedition of yours tomorrow, along with Jamie, Richard, and Mr. Overland."
"Uh, yes, yes I will."
"Great! I know I can trust Sarah May with the care of my patient, but you never know if she might need help when things go wrong, so I am glad, for her sake and his. I think a bit of open air will do you all good, not just Richard. Though I am also glad that he getting away from that abusive wife of his."
MK blinked, "Sh-she's been back to see him?"
Lupei sighed and nodded, "Yes, when Sarah May wasn't there, or any of us, for that matter. I caught her one day while doing my rounds, had to call the sheriff to get her out because she was endangering my patient. That is another reason why I am glad that the three of you are joining them on the outing, Sarah May can certainly hold her ground against the biggest opponent, you can thank her dad for that, but Esther isn't just big, she's sly as well. And she'd probably have Mavis on her side. But if Jamie tells his mother otherwise, things could go differently, we shall see. But, enough dreary talk, you should enjoy yourselves tomorrow! Especially you since you're on vacation!"
MK laughed, "That I am."
"Oh, done already, Doc? Well, let me ring this up for ya, and then I can take care of you, young lady."
"Oh, actually, I was just talking with Dr. Lupei, I'm not quite finished shopping yet."
"OK," Sandy shrugged, and quickly totalled up the doctor's items. "That'll be 45.67, Doc." Lupei handed her a $50 bill. "Out of fifty . . . 4.33 is your change. Have a good week, Doc!"
"Thank you Sandy, see you next week!" The two waved as the Doctor walked out the door.
"Alright, miss, if you're not ready right now, I'll head to the back. Just ring the bell when you're ready."
"Thanks." Sandy went to the back, and MK did catch a glimpse of a cauldron, it looked like it was boiling something. MK shrugged as she went back to the shelves, maybe they did have the cauldron set up all year round, and used it for making homemade medicines and candy. That would certainly explain a lot. She went back through the store, adding a couple of bags of candy and a wooden haunted house to her pile. She rang the bell when she returned to the counter. This time, a golden-haired man about the same size as Sandy came to the front with her.
"Alright, you ready this time, miss?"
"Um, yeah," stated MK, glancing at the little man.
"OK, your total is 23.74." MK gave her a couple of bills. "Out of twenty-five . . . your change is 1.26." Sandy handed her the change.
"Thank you," MK said as she pocketed the change. She took her bags off the counter and was preparing to leave when Jamie's voice came into her head. Hearth pounding, she turned back to the counter. She really did not want to do this, but it might be the only way to prove Jamie wrong about this whole fairy tale conspiracy idea of his. "Um, Jamie wanted me to tell you that Jack Frost is back and he could use your company." MK's spirits sank at their reaction. At first their eyes had widened, and then they burst out into silly grins and began jumping about.
"He's back, he's back!" laughed Sandy with excitement, her male companion just bouncing up and down, the biggest smile of pure joy on his face. "Wait! How do you know he's back?"
"I-I don't, my son Jamie told me to tell you that." The golden-blond tapped Sandy's shoulder and did some sign language. Sandy did some thinking before replying in sign language. "Um, can someone please tell me what's going on? Was this some sort of joke?" Sandy's co-worker shook his head and did a few more signs for Sandy.
"Sorry, my friend Sandy here says that we can't tell you anything."
"What? Why not? I'm . . ."
"Because you don't believe. And until you believe, you can't see anything."
"What? Jackson Overland said something similar to that."
Sandy let out a gasp, "He is back. We must see him tonight!"
"But what? What do I need to believe?"
"You already know what you need to believe in to see what's in front of you. But I can tell you this, the fate of this town rests on your belief. So, unless you are willing to open your heart and your mind to believing in what you deem is impossible, this town is doomed."