Christmas Down Under (Single Wide Female: Happily Ever After #1) Read online

  “Let’s check it out.” I led Abby out of the taxi.

  When we approached the door of the wildlife sanctuary, an older man, who looked as if he’d just been taking his afternoon nap, nodded to us.

  “How many?”

  “One adult, one child.”

  “Alright.” He printed some tickets and told me the price.

  Once we paid, he gestured to the door. “Just follow the yellow footsteps. They take you through the whole place. Oh, and make sure that you don’t have any food in your pockets. Those koalas are thieves.”

  “Oh, how funny.” I grinned as I steered Abby through the door. “Of course the koalas will be in enclosures.”

  At least that was what I’d expected.

  But when we walked in, it was a completely open area. To my surprise, there was a koala perched on a tree not far from us.

  “Wow! Mommy, look!” Abby jumped up and down as she pointed.

  I snapped a picture, but kept her close to me. I was sure there had to be some kind of barrier between us and them.

  Weren’t koalas dangerous?

  Chapter 4

  I grasped Abby’s hand tightly as we followed the yellow footsteps. About halfway through, I began to relax. The koalas didn’t seem to be the least bit interested in us. I even let Abby walk a few feet ahead of me so that she could get a closer look.

  We were almost to the end of the tour when Abby shrieked and drew my attention to her.

  Images of my child being attacked or even stolen by a koala flashed through my mind in the split second it took me to look in her direction.

  There she stood, unharmed but bawling.

  “Abby, what is it? What’s wrong?”

  “The koala stole my koala!” She pointed at a fleeing koala bear and wailed.

  Sure enough, the cute animal cradled the stuffed bear in its arms.

  “Hey! Get back here!” It occurred to me that the koala had no idea what I was saying, but with Abby’s devastated moans in the background, it was all I could think to say.

  All of my shouting must have drawn the attention of one of the attendants.

  A tall thin man jogged up to us. “What’s wrong? What’s happened? Is she hurt?”

  “No, she’s not hurt, but one of the koalas took her stuffed animal.”

  “What does it look like?”

  “Uh—like a koala actually.”

  “Oh.” He scratched his head. “The koala probably thought it was her baby. She probably thought your daughter stole it.”

  “I didn’t even think about that.” I sighed as I realized what a big mommy fail it was for me to let Abby bring the stuffed animal along with her for the visit.

  “Well, you could go and look for it if you want, but you’ll have to watch your step and make sure not to touch any of the animals.”

  “How am I supposed to find it?”

  “If it’s the koala I think it is, she’ll be over there in that clump of trees.” He pointed toward a thick area of brush and trees.

  I shifted from one foot to the other and looked down at Abby. I didn’t want to go hunt through the trees, but I could see in her tear-filled eyes that she would be heartbroken if I didn’t get it for her—or at least attempt to. Maybe she would get over it, but for the rest of her life—somewhere in my mind, I was certain—she’d remember that her mother had let a koala steal her stuffed animal.

  “Okay, I’ll take a look.” I took a deep breath, then closed my hand around Abby’s. “We might not be able to find it, but we can certainly try.”

  “We’re going to find that mean koala!” She swung her fist in the air.

  “Now don’t get so upset. The koala thought you stole her baby.”

  “Aw, that would make her sad. We’re going to find that sad koala!”

  “Okay, let’s go before it gets too late.”

  We picked our way through the foliage with the attendant a few feet behind us. Why he couldn’t look for the stuffed animal himself, I didn’t know, but he didn’t offer. Maybe he was getting some amusement from the tourists dodging piles of poo and ducking koala claws.

  When we reached the clump of trees, I spotted the culprit. She was huddled behind some brush with the stuffed bear hugged tight in her arms.

  When Abby saw it, she began to cry again. “She’s not going to give it back. That’s my koala! Please give it back!” She held out her hand to the koala.

  The koala seemed entranced by Abby’s crying.

  “It’s not your baby, it’s my baby. Please give it back.” She held out both hands.

  The koala turned toward her.

  I put my hands on Abby’s shoulders, ready to pull her back if the animal made a move toward her.

  The koala unwrapped her arms and held the bear out to Abby.

  I reached out to take it, but the koala snatched it back.

  “She wants to give it to your little girl. She’s not going to let you take it.” The man behind us smiled. “Go ahead, sweetie, she won’t hurt you.”

  “Are you sure?” I looked at him with wide eyes.

  “I’m sure. She’s one of the friendliest koalas here. She’s become more like a pet. That’s why she’s not afraid of humans.”

  “Can I, Mommy?” Abby looked at me with eager eyes.

  “Yes, go ahead.” I still remained very close to her, ready to protect her if I needed to.

  She looked into the koala’s eyes. “Please give me my baby back.” She held out her hand.

  The koala held out the bear and remained still as Abby took it from her.

  Abby hugged it tight and smiled. “Thank you!”

  The koala seemed to smile in return, then took off.

  “Wow, what an amazing experience you’ve just had.” I looked at Abby. “Now you have a stuffed koala bear that’s been hugged by a real koala.”

  “It’s even better now!” She giggled and sniffed the stuffed animal. “It smells like koala!”

  As we left the sanctuary, I reviewed in my mind what had occurred. I realized that if I had refused to look for Abby’s stuffed animal, if I’d demanded that she accept that her favorite toy was gone, she would have missed that entire experience.

  Now she could remember for the rest of her life that amazing connection with a koala bear. How many people could claim that kind of memory?

  It reminded me to not be so protective or controlling. Her instincts had told her to look for her toy, and I’d honored them.

  Chapter 5

  When we returned to the house, Abby knocked Max over onto the couch and told him all about her experience.

  “I bet Mommy had a lot of fun looking for that koala.” He laughed.

  “Fun, and I brought home a souvenir of my own.” I stuck my shoes outside the door. “Not sure if they’re cleanable.”

  “Ugh—we’ll just buy you some new ones.” Max laughed.

  “Okay, that’s probably the best plan.”

  We shared an early dinner, then headed to the beach to check it out.

  “Wow, look at the sand!” Abby ran ahead and kicked off her flip-flops so that she could dig her bare feet into the white sand.

  “It’s gorgeous, Max, look at this.” I slipped my arm through his and held onto it tight as we followed after Abby.

  The water stretched out before us like a beautiful gem, glossy and sparkling. Then I noticed the waves and the surfers that rode them. “Look at them!”

  “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Max smiled. “I’ve always wanted to learn.”

  “Why haven’t you?”

  “I guess I’ve always been too busy and—well, never lived close enough to the ocean to bother.”

  “It would be a great activity for us to do together. It would get some exercise in for me and be a new experience for all of us to try.”

  “If you’re game, I am.” He grinned. “I’ll check out where we can get lessons.”

  As Max jogged off, I took Abby’s hand. We waded into the edge of the water and I was a
mazed to think that back home we’d be facing snowy weather right now. But here we were, with the water around our feet and the sun on our skin.

  Abby kicked her feet and sent splashes of water flying.

  “Are you having fun?”

  “Yes! This is great! Let’s live here forever.”

  “Forever?” I grinned. “What about other places? Wouldn’t you like to see other places too?”

  “Yes, I want to see everything. I want to live everywhere!”

  I smiled at her enthusiasm. She had such a wide imagination. It was hard to believe that her teacher couldn’t understand that. What I saw as great qualities in Abby, her teacher pointed out as not so great in the classroom.

  Sure, she was talkative, but I liked that. It wasn’t that long ago that I’d been worried if she would ever talk. Now she could talk for hours. It filled my heart with joy to know that she had such passion and curiosity about everything. And yes, she would leap from topic to topic on a whim, but that only made our chats more entertaining.

  I could see the teacher’s point when she’d explained how disruptive it was to the other kids in the classroom. Abby just wasn’t built to sit still. She was built to splash, to run, to squeal, to leap as high as she could. Unfortunately, there weren’t classes in school for that.

  As enthusiastic as my daughter was, that didn’t translate into very good behavior behind a desk.

  I pushed the thoughts from my mind. This was Abby’s break, her time away from everything that caused her to come home with tears in her eyes. I didn’t want to focus on it any more than I had to.

  “Abby, can we build a sandcastle together?” I held out the bucket I’d brought along with us from the rental house.

  “No way!”

  “No?”

  “I want to build a sand city!”

  “A city?” I grinned. “Now that’s thinking big.”

  “Yes, and I want to make sure that it’s as close to the water as can be. Everyone will want to live in it.”

  “But we can’t let it get too close or the waves will knock it down.”

  “Then we can just build another one.” She shrugged.

  “That’s a good point.” I laughed.

  As we set about building our sand city, Max jogged back over to us.

  “Great news! I have us set up for private surfing classes starting tomorrow.”

  “Wonderful, I can’t wait.”

  “What’s surfing?” Abby looked up at us.

  “See out there.” I pointed to a man who stood on a colorful board and rode the top of a wave.

  “Oh yes!” She nodded. “I want to do that! Can I please?”

  “We have to learn how first. Max, do you want to help us with our sand city?”

  “Sure.” He sat down with us, and we all began to carve little houses and roads out of the sand.

  Not long after, two little girls walked up to us.

  “What are you building?” One of the girls scrunched up her nose.

  “It’s a sand city!” Abby beamed.

  “Oh. Cool.” She sat down on her knees and peered at the center of the city. “Where’s the courthouse?”

  “Courthouse?’

  “Every city has a courthouse.” The smaller of the two girls sat on her knees as well. “So where is it?”

  “I don’t have one.” Abby frowned.

  “Would you like to build one for us?” I smiled at the little girls. Beyond them, I spotted a man and a woman along with an older boy. The woman waved to me with a smile.

  “Sure! Can we?” The older girl looked into Abby’s eyes. “You don’t mind?”

  “No! I’d love it. Can you teach me?”

  “Sure, first it needs to be a big building.” As the two girls began to instruct Abby on how to build a courthouse, it struck me as a beautiful moment. They weren’t just building a castle for a princess, they were creating something that reflected a real structure.

  Chapter 6

  The parents of the two girls walked toward us with their son a few feet behind them.

  “Hello, thanks for letting the girls join in.” The woman was short, with bright red curls and a full figure.

  “I’m so glad they did. Abby’s loving building the addition of a courthouse.”

  “Oh yes, we just learned about government structure, so I guess they have it on their mind. I’m Cheryl.” She offered her hand.

  I shook it and smiled. “I’m Samantha. It’s nice to meet you. I didn’t realize school was in.”

  The man beside Cheryl laughed. “Oh, it’s always in for us.”

  He was tall, thin and had just a few wisps of hair left on the top of his head.

  “I’m Jerome.” He offered his hand to Max, who shook it with a smile.

  “Max.”

  “We’re home-schooled.” The boy with them spoke up.

  He looked to be around eleven or twelve and shared his mother’s red hair.

  “More like road-schooled.” Cheryl laughed. “We travel a lot.”

  “Oh, I see.” I smiled. “How interesting that must be.”

  “We enjoy it.” Cheryl shrugged. “It’s not for everyone, but it works for us. We’re spending the month here in Sydney for the holidays.”

  “We’re visiting for Christmas too.” I stood up and brushed the sand from my shorts. “We just arrived.”

  “Oh, you’re going to love it. There’s so much to see and do.”

  Cheryl began to give me the rundown of museums and places to visit. After a long conversation, she waved to her daughters.

  “Apple, Blossom, it’s time to get going. We still have to scrounge up some dinner.”

  “I’m cooking tonight, remember, Mom?” The boy smiled.

  “Oh no!” The girls groaned.

  The little girl called Apple chimed in with a frown. “Oh, that’s right, Hawk is cooking tonight. I almost forgot. Please tell me it’s not going to be sushi again.”

  “My night, my choice.” He grinned and rubbed his hands together.

  “I want to make dinner too.” Abby smiled.

  “Well, we already had dinner, but maybe tomorrow night.” I patted her head.

  We waved goodbye to the family.

  “What nice people.” Max said as we watched them disappear down the beach.

  “I think so too. Maybe we’ll have a chance to see them again sometime.”

  As the sun began to set Max offered me his hand. “How about a walk along the beach?”

  “Sounds good to me. How about you, Abby?”

  “Sure!” She jumped up and took my hand, then Max’s.

  I smiled as we began to walk. It felt like paradise to be so far from the pressures of our regular life with so much love flowing between all of us.

  After we’d walk exactly two minutes, however, Abby flopped down in the sand. “I’m tired!”

  “I’ll carry you.” Max reached down and picked her up. He set her on his shoulders.

  “No! It’s too high! I’m scared!”

  Max set her back down in the sand. “Abby, you usually love to ride on my shoulders.”

  “I don’t want to!” She stomped her feet in the sand.

  “Okay, okay.” I sighed and took her hand in mine. “Let’s get you back to the house. It’s been a long day.”

  “So much for our walk.” Max quirked a brow as Abby clung to my arm.

  “She’s tired, Max.”

  “I know. I’ll get the bucket.” He walked back off to the sand city to retrieve the bucket.

  “Daddy’s mad at me.” Abby sniffled.

  “He’s not mad, sweetie. But you have to remember that this is our family vacation. We can’t always do just what you want to do.”

  “But I’m tired.”

  “I know you are. Tomorrow we’ll start our surfing lessons. It’ll be a lot of fun.”

  “I want to build another sand city.”

  “Well, we can spend a little time on the beach but we have other things to see and do
too.”

  “No!” She whined and hung on my arm. “I don’t want to do anything else.”

  “We’ll talk about it in the morning.”

  Max returned with the bucket and met my eyes as Abby continued to whine.

  “It’s a phase, right?”

  “We’ll talk about it later.” I put my finger to my lips.

  The last thing I wanted was to set Abby off even more than she was. So many times I felt defeated as a mother because I tiptoed around her moods. But when it came to her tantrums, I was at a loss. I had no idea how to reach her once she started to flail and scream. Of course other people in my life had plenty of ideas. But none of them felt right to me.

  When I saw my little girl, I saw a small person, not a child that needed to be punished. I wondered if I threw a fit, would it be acceptable for Max to sit me in a corner or make me stare at a wall? If Max was in a bad mood, would it be acceptable to take away his computer privileges? My mother warned me that I was being a friend instead of a mother, but I didn’t know what else to be.

  When we reached the house, I ran a bath for Abby while Max read her a book.

  I could hear her arguing through several pages about the way he read it and the parts that he’d missed.

  “You’re reading too fast!”

  “I’m not reading any faster than normal, honey.”

  “Now you’re reading too slow!”

  “Abby, why don’t you read it?”

  “You know I can’t read!” I heard a thump as the book hit the floor.

  “That’s it!” Max’s voice rose. “You don’t act like that with me, young lady!”

  I cringed as his words crawled up along my spine.

  I rushed to the living room, but by then it was too late.

  Max and Abby were in a standoff.

  Chapter 7

  Abby had her hands on her hips. Max had his feet shoulder-width apart, and they glared at each other so fiercely that I was sure one of them would explode.

  “What’s going on here?”

  “Pick up the book!” Max pointed his hand at the book on the floor.