December 2
Rosalind worked until six o'clock and then took a taxi to Rockefeller Center to attend the tree-lighting ceremony. After buying a hot dog and a can of Coke from a street vendor, she made her way through the throng of people to the location where the festivities were to be held.
As she watched the figure skaters performing on the ice rink to the music of the latest pop band, she was reminded of the previous year's Christmas. She and Brett had stood in the same plaza, watching a similar tree being lit. Although the temperature had been at least ten degrees colder then, Rosalind hadn't minded it so much since for the first time in her life she had been in love.
No! she thought. I won't torture myself with memories of Brett. I won't let one failed love affair ruin my life.
After nine o'clock, the crowds began to break up. With no one waiting for her at home, Rosalind had no reason to hurry back to the apartment. Instead, she stood shivering in the cold and staring up at the towering tree for another twenty minutes before hailing a cab.
When she walked into her empty apartment, she checked her answering machine to see if there were any messages. Not surprisingly, there were none. There usually wasn't. Then she opened her mail, most of which was sales circulars and pre-sorted junk mail. Finally, Rosalind walked into her living room and sat down on the sofa.
We came back here after the tree-lighting ceremony last year.
Why did these painful thoughts insist on coming unbidden to her brain? She didn't want to remember that night, wonderful though it had been at the time. The affair was over; it had been over for more than three months already, even though Brett telephoned her in November to wish her a happy Thanksgiving and express his love for her.
Rosalind tried to concentrate on writing her Christmas shopping list or on anything else that would temporarily take her mind off Brett McCord. Then she looked up and saw the advent calendar on her fireplace mantel.
It's mine, she reasoned. I might as well open the next drawer and see what's inside.
In the compartment marked with the number two, Rosalind found a single piece of candy.
Godiva, not Hershey. I knew this advent calendar was expensive.
Rosalind unwrapped the gold foil and popped the chocolate into her mouth.
Someone might have tampered with it.
She hesitated only a moment before chewing and swallowing the delicious candy.
What have I got to worry about anyway? I don't have any enemies, and I'm sure no one would go to so much trouble and expense to poison a complete stranger.
