Let Me Whisper in Your Ear by Mary Jane Clark Page A

Eve
    T HE ATMOSPHERE AT KEY News on Christmas Eve was festive. Someone had draped strings of colored lights around the ceiling of the Bulletin Center and the largest desk in the room had been cleared to make way for a spread of cakes, cookies and Mike Schultz’s wife’s baklava. The news world was quiet on the day before the anniversary of Christ’s birth and Laura and her co-workers spent a good deal of time joking around, asking each other what their plans were for the holiday, and commiserating with the goats who had to work.
    Laura tried to get some work done on the Yearender. She felt she was in pretty good shape for getting the project completed on time, so she decided to duck out of work a little early. She was eager to get to the Bronners’.
    Not wanting to be tied down to bus schedules, she had decided to splurge and rent a car for two days. Her presents for the Bronners were already in the trunk. So she left the KEY Broadcast Center and headed directly for the Lincoln Tunnel and New Jersey. As she emerged from the tunnel, the winter sky was already darkening. Her foot itched on the accelerator. She wanted to get there before the first star appeared.
    This is my favorite part of Christmas, she thought. The part that I most look forward to. For a moment she felt guilty, wishing she most wanted to spend time with her father. That was how it should be. But it wasn’t.
    The relationship with Emmett was a complicated one. She loved him, to be sure. But the years spent worrying about her father and living in constant anxiety over what he might do next had taken their toll. She never went to see her father without some dread. Would he be sober? Angry? Depressed?
    The Bronners, on the other hand, always welcomed her as family. She knew, because she was not related by blood, she did not have to deal with emotional baggage and issues that would be involved if she actually had been part of the family. She could go to their home and just enjoy the charming, tradition-filled Christmas Eve celebration.
    Laura found a parking spot on the corner of Lafayette and Palisades Avenues. As she unloaded the packages from the trunk, she realized that she was just across the street from what had once been the site of Palisades Amusement Park and blocks away from where the remains of Tommy Cruz had been discovered. She walked up Lafayette toward the Bronners’ house and, as a blast of winter wind bit at her face, she reminded herself to ask Maxine and Alan if they remembered anything from the time the Cruz child disappeared. Climbing the steps to the Bronners’ wreath-bedecked front door, she looked up to the sky and saw a star.
    â€œYou made it! Just in time!” Maxine greeted Laura with open arms. “Come in, come in.”
    The familiar smells of the Bronner Christmas wafted from the kitchen. No meat would be served at dinner. There would be pickled herring, and trout stuffed with apples, mushrooms, onions and celery. A meatless hunter’s stew with sauerkraut and yellow peas simmered on the stove, minutes away from being served with noodles and poppy seeds. And, of course, there would be Laura’s favorite pierogi, those Polish dumplings stuffed with potatoes and cheese.
    As the Bronners called out their welcomes, Laura placed her presents under the Christmas tree, its boughs laden with angels, stars, candy and glittering tinsel. She took off her coat and revealed a new red form-fitting dress she had just bought as a Christmas present to herself.
    â€œLaura, you look wonderful!” Maxine exclaimed.
    â€œSo do you, Mrs. Bronner. You never change.”
    Maxine laughed. “Laura, how many times have I told you to call me Maxine? And I wish that were so, dear heart. But time is marching on.”
    â€œLooking at you, you’d never know it,” said Laura. “You look the same as you did when I walked into your third-grade class. And I guess that’s why I will always think of