We had frozen pizza for dinner. It was DJs favorite. Then I took a shower and got ready to go to the ceremony.
“Are you riding with me?” I asked.
“No, we’ll take my car,” she said. “I’ll meet you there about thirty minutes before, okay? Bye babe.”
8 Minutes to Sunday, Episode One
If you haven't read the first Dalton West mystery, find the links here.
New to this story? Follow the bullet links to find the right episode!
I went out to the truck. Leeanne and DJ stood on the porch waving to me. Life was good. I kind of wished Leeanne would stop pushing the wedding stuff so hard, at least until I knew I wasn’t already married somewhere, to someone I’d forgotten along with everything else. But, it had been two months. Let her plan.
As I drove, I rehearsed the list of things I knew about myself, before Dalton West. Or, “BDW” as Leeanne sometimes called it. I’d been an orphan, at a place called The Sisters of the Frozen Rosary Home for Children. Annabelle Murphy had been too, a long time before me. I could remember my mom, a little. I had seen her in a memory, in a bed, dying of something. And I remembered her singing a song to me about my teddy bear.The one in the picture.
I’d bought this truck just a few weeks before I could remember. From a guy I’d met in Weatherford Oklahoma. Someone had taught me how to do carpentry work, but I didn’t know who, or remember learning. I had one other picture of myself, with a group of people in front of this red truck. We were in the driveway of the orphanage. Two of them were my parents, I think. That was it.
Not much for an estimated twenty-seven years of life.
The town square looked great. Fred walked up to the truck.
“Well, what do you think?” he asked.
“I think it’s pretty damned amazing, especially considering what it looked like two hours ago. This is great, Fred! This is going to be the most memorable Christmas this town has ever seen,” I said.
I would live to regret those words.
Fred looked in the back of my truck. “What’s this?” he asked.
“You wanted a 30-foot Santa,” I said.
“Yeah, but it wasn’t in the budget. We don’t have tons of gambling money to launder anymore, remember?” Fred said.
“Well, Merry Christmas, from Leeanne, and me and DJ,” I said.
“Wow, I don’t know what to say,” he said.
“Say you’ll help me carry this heavy ass Santa over to his spot,” I said.
I’d specifically asked Joan to run a single extra extension cord to the right spot. It was right where I’d shown her. Great.
We carried the box to the spot and I opened it. We lifted the cloth Santa, with a plastic motor frame, lout of the box and set him up.
Fred started to plug him in.
“Wait, let’s let it be a surprise,” I said.
He looked at me with pain in his eyes.
“I hate surprises,” he said. “They always have a way of biting me in the butt.”
“Well, we don’t have time now anyway. Here comes the choir. Is Herb ready with the fireworks?” I asked.
As Promised, Mystery of Dalton West Trivia!
1.I'll ask three questions. You may not find them in today's episode, but they are in the Dalton West series, somewhere on my blog! (hint, I posted all 49 episodes of the first book yesterday!)
2. You find the answers, upvote this post, make sure you follow me, then add your answers in the comments!
3. I'll choose one lucky player, with all three correct answers, and an upvote on the post, to win 25% of tomorrow's 8 Minutes to Sunday post on payout, paid directly to your wallet, via Steemplus!
Former Dalton West posts have earned over $100 SBD! So, prizes could be substantial!
Want more entries? Earn up to three, by resteeming the post for one, and tagging a friend for one! Correct answers are required to enter the drawing! GOOD LUCK!
No one got the answers yesterday, so here they are again. You may need to go back to book one, episode one to find the answer for # 1.
Question number one!
Name one place Dalton West discovers he spent part of his childhood in book one.
Question number two!
What color and make is Dalton's truck?
Question number three!
Who was the first person Dalton spoke to in River Grove?
Enter your answers in the comments here to be entered to win!
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