A Krissmas Karole

"Here, when it gets slippery, put these on over your shoes," Lanh told her. "I learned this in Germany from our landlady Frau Grolisch. They look funny but I could walk up an ice-covered hill with them!" Karole could still remember the smile on Lanh's face when she shoved the "snow tires" into her purse where they lay buried in Karole's large purse for a year. Karole reached into her large purse and pulled out a pair of woolen hunting socks.

Now is no time to be a fashion model, Karole pulled the socks on over her flats as quickly as possible then tried to get up, and she found that Lan was right, the wool socks actually stuck to the ice. She gathered up her purse and headed out across the skating rink slick parking lot as fast as she dared and when she found that she could walk fast, she started to run.

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Fortified with a margarita and a half each Mai and Lanh realized it was after five PM, they had promised to be home long before five. "Are you ready má? We should get going."

"These people," started Mai, she waved her hand toward a large holiday party over by the bar. "They are điên say!" (crazy drunk) laughed Mai who was feeling the tequila herself.

"I think those are the people Karole works with. I can see why she chose not to come to the party," said Lanh. As a military wife, she's seen some crazy parties. Military people need to blow off steam on occasion, and sometimes it's not pretty.

"You should pack her up and send her to me!" said Mai. Karole has proved herself to be a great waitress and business is so good at their noodle shop that they need more help. Karole has filled in as a waitress every time she comes to visit with Don and Lanh, even when she was pregnant with Krissy. Mai's customers constantly ask for "the waitress that sounds like a truck driver."

"That's my Christmas present to Don and Karole!" said Lanh as she pulled on her parka, "I got the position at Bemidji State! UNC said that they will release me from my contract at the end of this semester, we'll be home by June!"

"Tuyệt!" (Wonderful!) cried Mai, she is happiest when all of her chicks are near her. "Donovan will be ecstatic!" She knows that Don likes Colorado but now that he can't tour the mountains, the luster has worn off living here. He really wants to come home, but he promised Lanh that he would support her, and Colorado is where her profession has led her...

"Karole needs to come too," said Lanh as she led the way through the holiday revelers. She started creating a moving checklist in her head then paused and said, "Mom, can you call Don? My phone is dead."

"Again," sighed Mai as she dug out her phone and saw that there were seven missed calls.

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Bradley Davis was a team leader for Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting, his dad was a frat brother with company founder Halvar Torgeson, and it seemed like Bradley could get away with anything. Most people said he sucked as a team leader, he shouldn't be in that position, but he gets away with all kinds of inexcusable behaviors at work and yet he keeps his job. He shows up to work drunk, he's disrespectful to customers, and he's an utter drag on employee morale, but he is a riot at parties, so he's got that going for him.

Right now, Brad-o, as the kool kids call him, was so drunk that he was seeing double, but he promised to show these "pilgrims" that moved to Colorado recently how to have fun on the ice. The "Californiacs" who just moved to Colorado from L.A. and San Diego were terrified of driving in the snow, but Brad was going to teach them. He was going to instruct them on the fine art of "The Donut."

He got behind the wheel of his fully restored 1976 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible - 18 feet, 8 inches long (5.69 meters), 5,153 lbs of Detroit iron, 500 cubic inch (8.2 liter) V8 engine harnessing 235 horses. Fully adjustable leather seats with six preset positions, and an actual 8-Track tape player, if you can't get laid in this love shack on wheels, you can't get laid! What the hell, it's 32 degrees, (0 C) so it's barely chilly. As the Big 500 started to pump out warm air he lowered the ragtop and eased the beast out of its parking berth. It's show time!

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Don's line was busy, but Mai finally got through. She was following Lanh through the crowd of people who had gathered in front of Don Pollo's to watch Bradley Davis's version of Miracle on Ice. "Don? It Mai, Lanh wants you to know that we are heading home now, too many drunk here! Guy is spinning his car in circles on the ice."

Don chuckled, just like Lanh, when she gets excited or stressed Mai's Vietnamese accent get very pronounced. When he got a chance to speak, he said, "Karole called, she said to wait, she's walking over from work, she should be there soon.

That was when Mai started screaming "Lanh! Dừng lại! Dừng lại!" (Stop! Stop!)

Lanh was lost in her own world listing all the things they would need to do to start the move back to Minnesota. They have to start packing now, they need to call a real estate agent, they need to get rid of the furniture, they'll have plenty of furniture at home, and Karole, maybe they can convert one of the Jack and Jill suites to a little room for her and Krissy and what is mom screaming about?

Lanh looked up in time to see the grill of a 1976 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible coming straight at her. She had no time to move, the ice under her feet prevented any sudden moves. She realized that her last thought would be that she knows what a deer in the headlights feels like.

With a sudden jerk Lanh was flying through the air and she landed on Mai. The car lurched to a halt when it struck a security post in front of Don Pollo's Margarita Bar and Brad passed out. The security pole saved over a dozen lives including Mai Nguyen and her daughter Lanh Campbell. A streak of blond hair appeared at the last moment and shoved Lanh just enough to miss being run over by the land yacht.

Lanh looked up at the bumper that almost killed her for a moment, she was laying with her head on her mother's lap like she was a little girl. Then she felt a horrible pain in her leg, when she turned her head to look, she saw something else under the car and started crying "Oh no! OH NO! NOOOO!"

"Mom! What's going on?" called Don, "What's wrong with Lanh?"

"I ok," said Mai, her voice weak.

"Ok? What happened? What's happening?" came Don's voice from Mai's phone.

Lanh looked under the car and saw the twisted, broken body of her dear friend Karole Krigbaum and began to wail. "Karole! Karole, please talk to me! Karole!"

"Mai! What's going on?" demanded Don. The fear in his voice set Krissy off and she began wailing for her mommy.

"Turn off speaker!" demanded Mai. When she heard Don's voice clearer, she started to explain. "A drunk sliding car on ice..." she cried out then started speaking in Vietnamese and explained how a drunk was spinning his car around in circles and came right at them. He was going to hit Lanh, but Karole somehow ran up and pushed Lanh out of the way. Lanh was hurt but Karole was under the car.

Don caught most of that, he understands Vietnamese so much better than he speaks it. He could hear Lanh's anguished wailing in the background and suddenly something happened... just a few years ago, he was trapped, crushed under the wreckage of a truck that was blown off the edge of the End of Runway ramp, a purple mist started to fill his tiny breathing space. The purple mist was from the potassium bicarbonate-based extinguishing agent of a 150 lbs. extinguisher that got blown off the ramp and exploded almost on top of him.

Through those long terror filled minutes as he fought a battle with death, he was ready to give up when he heard the voice of "Lanh's Angel" who pleaded with him over and over to stay alive. She reminded him of the love he shared with Lanh and the good times they had together. Now he heard Lanh's angel again, but this time the angel was talking to Krissy. "It's ok babykins, your mommy loves you, you're going to be ok with Mister Don and Miss Lanh..." Krissy's wails continued but the voice kept on... "It's ok babykins, mommy loves you, but you have to be good for Mister Don." Don turned in terror and there was a hint of a person crouching by the weeping toddler, there was a hint of purple on the edges of the vision's hair.

Don felt cold sweat breakout and his gut was twisted with the memories of his agony in Saudi Arabia... it was the same voice! This can't be real; this can't be happening...

He lifted the phone to his ear and said in a shaking voice, "Mai, tell Lanh to remind Karole of all the good times we've had, remind her about Krissy, keep going, over and over... maybe it will help..."

Under the car Karole was in a world that existed solely of pain, she was able to see narrowly, and her vision was fading. "Reggie..." she gasped... "Mommy's sorry honey..."

"Karole! Stay with me little sister!" cried Lanh. "Remember when you showed us how to fish on the river for catfish and Don got scared of them? Karole, we love you! Karole, stay with us..."

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Don and Lanh spent Christmas Eve, their most precious day in their calendar, in the hospital. Lanh had a crushed leg and a sprained wrist, Mai hit her head when she fell and was being held for observation. Don was sitting in the recliner next to Lanh's bed, she had surgery scheduled on her femur on the day after Christmas. Lanh's mother, Mai, was sleeping on the couch. She had a room nearby, but she refused to remain in bed so the fold down couch in Lanh's room was made up for her. Right now, they're waiting for word on Karole's condition, she's been in emergency surgery for four hours. Little Krissy finally cried herself to sleep on Don's lap. Lanh groaned in pain as Don sat by her side, holding her hand, shocked at the turn their Christmas Eve took. When he wasn't by her side he was in the ICU begging Karole to live

Mai spoke with her husband Duong who let their family in Minnesota know what had happened. Mai and Duong's children and grandchildren all loved Karole, she was a new sister to them all and the news came as a shock. Duong, Hui, and Kim-ly would soon be on the way to be with them and bring Mai home.

"This must be what it was like for you when I was injured in Saudi Arabia," whispered Don.

"No," said Lanh in one of her lucid moments, "I was on an airplane and people brought me coffee." Her attempt at humor fell flat. "I think reminding her of all the good times we had helped her whe... when she was under..." Lanh started weeping trying desperately to do it quietly, trying urgently not to wake Krissy.

"I've never told this to anyone," said Don very softly. "When I was in that truck being crushed, I heard a voice reminding me of you and reminding me of our love and telling me that you were waiting for me... I think that was your angel and she helped me stay alive. I heard her today talking to Krissy."

Lanh suddenly stiffened, "I heard her too... she was telling Karole to remember about us and Krissy, but also someone named Norma, and someone named Reggie."

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Note to readers: this story is the genesis of my multi-chapter, award winning series We're a Wonderful Wife. When I finished the first draft of A Krissmas Karole over a year ago, I didn't want to say goodbye to the characters that I built, so I started We're a Wonderful Wife just to hold on to them a little bit longer. If you enjoy these characters, We're a Wonderful Wife explores them in much more detail and depth and there are several side stories, all branded with the tag "WaWW." We're a Wonderful Wife continues on after this, there's more story to come.