Salsa Book 4: The Chirstmas Mis-Tree
“And it’s done. Irene turn off the lights.” Mom gazed up at the tree.
Just as the lights went off, Dad plugged in the fairy lights, and the tree was illuminated. The family stared in awe at the lush green pine with decorations dangling from every branch. Silver tinsel reflected the fairy lights enveloping the tree in a golden glow . “It’s a beauty, this one is,” Dad declared.
“The tree sure is pretty,” Salsa said, making her way down the stairs with the presents. Irene turned on the lights and the family arranged the gifts.
Irene dashed into her room. She came out with two large red felt stockings to be hung up over the fireplace on the wall behind the Chirstmas tree for Santa.
Mom went to the kitchen and called, “Dinner is ready.”
“The lamb is really good,” Dad commented as he relished his dinner.
“I thought I’d try something different,” Mom replied. “I’m glad you like it.”
“Me too,” said Salsa, while Irene grinned through large mouthfuls.
After dinner, Salsa popped into her room and returned with some gingerbread men cookies. “Since we didn’t have any dessert today, I picked these up from the store near school.”
“Yay!” Irene grabbed the box, and helped herself to several cookies.
“Well, save some for me and your father, because it’s getting quite late, and we have to pick your grandparents up from the airport. We don’t want to them to wait because it’s a long journey from Chicago,” said Mom staring at the pile of cookies on Irene’s plate. “And no Irene you can’t have more than two cookies.”
Irene sadly put the third and fourth cookie she had sneaked out, back into the box. As soon as Irene had beheaded her first gingerbread man, the phone rang.
Salsa went to answer it. “Hello.”
“Hi, this is Violet’s mom,” came a voice from the telephone.
“Hi, Mrs. Walters, this is Salsa.”
“Um… I was wondering if you could do me a huge favor. Violet’s dad and I have some urgent business matter we have to take care of. So, could you ask your mom to let Violet come over to celebrate Christmas with you?” Mrs. Walters sounded worried.
“Sure, I‘ll ask. Can you hold a minute?” Salsa said glancing at her Mom.
“Yeah, sure, Dear.”
“Mrs. Walters wants to know if Violet can come over for Christmas. Her parents have some urgent business matter to take care of.”
Mom gave a thumbs up, and Salsa got back onto the phone. “Yeah, she can come over.”
“Salsa, listen, can your parents come and pick Violet up? She’s too young to come to your house alone and we have a too much to wrap up before we leave.”
“Sure,” Salsa replied.
“Thanks so much Salsa. You’re a doll. Bye.”
“Bye,” Salsa disconnected. “Mrs. Walters needs us to pick up Violet,” she told her parents.
“Okay, now Dad and I have to leave, so Irene and you go pick up Violet okay?” said Mom. “Take the keys, don’t loose them.”
As Mom and Dad shut the main door behind them, Irene asked, “Can I give Violet a cookie?”
“Sure,” Salsa replied
The two left the house chatting and laughing. Irene shut the door behind them.
When they arrived at Violet’s house, she was zipping up her overnight bag. “I know, it’s a mess. I have to clear it up before I can leave the house,” she whined pointing at the table with notes sprawled all over, and a detective game spread across the floor. Pages form a notebook were everywhere. Salsa, Irene and Violet cleared up the room together.
Finally, an hour later,when Salsa and Irene returned with Violet, Salsa jiggled her keys in the lock. “Huh, I must have forgotten to lock the door,” she said, pushing it open. After Salsa shut the door behind them, they took off their shoes in the hallway.
They entered the living room and Salsa stared. “Where did the tree go?” Irene exclaimed.
“I don’t know!” Salsa sounded frantic, as a key turned in the main door lock.
“We’re ho ..” Mom stopped mid-sentence as she stepped into the living room. “Wh-wh…” she exclaimed.
“I’m carrying, the luggage and in kind of a hurry, so – our tree!” Dad stared and accidentally dropped the suitcase on Grandma’s foot.
“Ow! Ted, that wasn’t very nice of you. Move along please. I need to nurse my foot.”
“Oh, so, sorry,” said Dad who rushed out of the way and pushed Mom to the side too. Grandma rushed into the kitchen. “Mary, your fridge doesn’t open.”
“Oops, I put the child lock on. Wait, I’ll come and help you.”
“Why didn’t you all put a tree up here? You do that every Christmas!” Grandpa stared at the corner where the Christmas tree usually stood.
“The tree is gone! It was here before we left the house, and now it’s gone!” Salsa explained.
“Okay, now where can the tree be? Let’s look a round the house,” Mom suggested.
They looked all around the house, but it seemed rather odd that someone would move the tree from one place in the house to another, especially since no one was in the house.
“Did aliens abduct the tree, Mama?” Irene asked, but everyone ignored her.
Once they had searched the verandah, kitchen, living room, french windows, attic, bedrooms, Irene said, “But why would anybody steal our Christmas tree, it doesn’t make any sense?”
“It’s a mystery. We need to solve it like the five Find-Outers. Let’s look for clues.” Violet was delighted at the prospect of her solving a mystery. On Christmas Eve too!
“Maybe, we should look in the backyard,” Mom suggested, running out of ideas. They checked the backyard in vain.
“Okay I’m going to bed,” said an exhausted Salsa.
“I’ll just fall asleep right here,” said Irene, who looked quite comfortable on the sofa.
“Maybe we should take out the fake Christmas tree. It’s better than nothing.” Dad sighed.
“Okey-Dokey,” said Irene, who had no intention of helping.
“I’ll lend a hand,” Salsa offered, reluctantly.
“Me too,” said Violet, excited for her family hadn’t got around to decorating their tree and she had been disappointed.
Once they had started decorating the fake Christmas tree, the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” Mom called from the other room.
“Hello, Mary,” the next door neighbor, Sandra said.
“Hi, Sandra. Come on in. Would you like anything to drink?” Mom asked.
“No, thank you. Actually, I have a favor to ask of you.” Sandra sat down on the couch in the hall.
“Go ahead.” Mom nodded.
“You know, there is a Christmas party going on at an orphanage down town. Yesterday, when I took some toys and clothes, I noticed they had the saddest tree ever. I felt bad for the children there, and so I said they could use my Christmas tree for a party today evening. They said they would pick it up between four and five, and return it by 10:00 sharp. But the pickup has not come to take it, yet. I was wondering if I could borrow your truck to take it there. I need it for my party tomorrow. It’s really urgent, or I wouldn’t have bothered you at all.”
“They didn’t come!” Mom was shocked.
“Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either. I need it back soon so I can prepare for my party at home. So I want to drop it off there as soon as I can.”
“Okay, but I’ll come with you. I need to get some milk from the store and it’s on the way.” Mom.
“Alright,” Sandra replied.
“Can we come too?” Salsa asked. “We need to pick up some decorations for the new tree,” she said sadly looking at the fake tree clad with the scant decorations left over after decorating the real tree, “and we can drop off a box of ginger bread cookies for the orphanage kids.”
“Yes, please.” Violet and Irene chanted.
“Okay, but we need to leave quickly. And we’re going to the orphanage before the decorations store.” Mom helped Sandra load her tree into the truck and secure it with some straps, while Salsa ran into her room to take her pocket money and her second box of cookies.
The kids squeezed in to the backseat of the pickup.
It was around seven-thirty when Mom pulled out of their driveway .
Once they reached, Sandra noticed a receptionist at the front desk. “The name’s Sandra Robinson. I am here to deposit my Christmas tree, as no pickup arrived.”
“Ma’am the pickup was sent to your house at 5:30 PM. No one was at home. The tree was returned at 7:40 PM.” The receptionist flipped through pages of her book.
“But, I was home at till seven thirty. Oh, okay. In that case, I’d better be going. Hope the party was a success.” Sandra was puzzled.
Salsa shrugged. “These cookies are for the children,” she said, handing them to the receptionist. “I hope I am not too late.”
“Not at all, Dear. They’re opening their presents. I give it to them for supper with their milk. They’ll love it. Thanks so much, Dear.” She walked off with the cookies, as Salsa and Sandra returned to the car.
Before they drove back to Salsa’s house, they stopped at the decorations store, while Sandra told them what the receptionist had said. Everyone was bewildered.
Once they reached back, there was a series of gasps, as family saw the Christmas tree was back. Violet said, “Oh, look, a note. It says ‘Thanks for your donation.’”
“Hey,” said Irene. “Do you think it’s possible that there was a mix-up with the address and the charity got the wrong address and came to our house instead of Sandra’s. That explains our missing tree and the fact that Sandra had a tree.”
“That is a good explanation,” Violet pointed out.
“Well, we’ll never know,” Salsa said.
Dad came downstairs, amused. “It seems we have donated our Christmas tree to an orphanage under the name Sandra Robinson.”
“I knew it!” Irene shouted in contentment. Dad smiled.
“They got the address wrong,” Dad explained.
“Hey, I’d better go to sleep,” Irene said jumping with fright as she glanced at her watch, “or Santa won’t come.”
