Chocolate Cake and Angels (The Ladies on Honeysuckle Road)

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The chill in the air meant only one thing. There was snow in the near future and Christmas was almost here. Marla pulled her coat together tighter as she walked from her car to the back entrance of The Chocolate Kiss. Only five more days until Christmas, the crisp air reminded her that snow could happen any day now. All the children in the elementary school were praying that snow would arrive in time for Santa. How could he land his sleigh on their roof top if there was no snow? Marla heard Christmas carols playing from the speakers Ethel had installed at the mini mall. Most days the music was so faint that she didn’t notice it, but today it seemed that the music was on the loudest volume possible. The words of the familiar Christmas song were blazing inside her head like a lightning bolt. ‘…O Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining…..fall on your knees…….oh, hear the angels’ voices…….’ Usually thinking about angels made Marla feel joyful inside, but today was different. For no particular reason she felt like there was something about to happen that would destroy everything that she’d worked so hard to create. Her dreams last night had been very disturbing. There had been picketers outside The Chocolate Kiss demanding that they close their doors. The signs they carried were hate filled. ‘The work of the devil’-- ‘Don’t shop here’-- the owner is crazy and believes that she is talking to angels. Opening the back door, she stepped inside hoping beyond hope that the serenity of the production room would be seeping into her office. Even Frank had seemed to be in a gloomy mood this morning at the breakfast table. Nothing seemed to be happy in her world today. And it’s only five days until Christmas, what is happening? I so don’t understand. Marla felt herself arguing with a mysterious evil force that was attempting to overtake her normally positive outlook on life. Glancing around her office she prayed she’d see the golden orb that was the sign her guardian angel Ben was around watching over her and the chocolate shoppe. But no matter how many times she looked around the room, there was no sign of Ben anywhere to be found. The shoppe was doing a very good business and sales promised to reach a new high before the year was over. Every one of her employees was happy and excited about the holidays. So she couldn’t blame any of them for this feeling. Even Martha, who only a few weeks ago seemed destined for a nursing home or something even worse, had pulled herself out of a desperate health condition and was one of the happiest women in the production room. She loved making the chocolate angels for the children’s Christmas stockings. Her original idea of working only a few hours a week because of her health had turned into three full days and sometimes four.
Marla sat down at her desk, put her head in her hands and started to softly cry. She didn’t want to allow herself to go full force into a crying jag, but knew that somehow she needed to release this feeling of sadness that was beginning to creep into her heart. This is supposed to be the happiest time of the year, the birth of Jesus, family gatherings, presents, the beginning of winter when everything turned white and beautiful because of the snow. There was a knock at her door and quickly she grabbed a Kleenex and blew her nose hoping that whoever was there would think she had a cold. “Come in.” Putting a fake smile on her face Marla appeared to be happy, at least that was her intention. Georgia entered with a smile on her face but her voice indicated her concern, “Hi, Marla. I don’t want to disturb you but there’s someone out front who would like to speak with you.