Carats and Coconuts Read Online Free PDF

Mr. and Mrs. Claus then headed up the gingerbread
house’s grand staircase to my old bedroom.
    “ This house really is
terrific,” he said.
    Following at our heels, Vinnie ouffed
his agreement.
    “ It was a rather wonderful
place to grow-up,” I said, meaning every word of it.
    Despite my parents’ delusional
hang-ups – well, actually, my father’s hang-up – my childhood
really was beyond wonderful.
    My mom doesn’t suffer from any mental
illness. She simply loves my father too much to not play along with
his beliefs.
    Maybe that’s why I’ve never stopped
believing in true, unconditional love. I’ve lived in its warmth and
generous spirit most of my life.
    Reaching my room, I was surrounded by
even more reminders of the kind of love the Witherspoons so
generously handed out…always expecting nothing in
return.
    “ I’m the one who’s the
Prince by birth, and all this time, it’s you who lived in a real
life castle,” Roman said, squeezing my hand as he pulled me into
the room.
    He was so excited. You’d think Santa
had just left him the gift he’d wanted more than any other under my
tree.
    “ This is simply amazing,
Zoey!”
    As we sat on the floor underneath the
eight-foot tree in my room, I had to agree with my
prince.
    Not many children grew up in a holiday
version of Never Never Land like I had. There simply was no good
reason to grow up at all here in Witherspoon Whoville. It was
perfectly acceptable, actually preferred, that you maintained a
childlike exuberance about this special season all year
long.
    For a moment, we sat in silence. Both
of us were lost in the gazillion ornaments my mother had made for
me over the years. Ornaments that now filled almost every branch of
my tree.
    I immediately looked past the
thousands of pink lights covering the evergreen boughs and zeroed
in on the exact spots where my favorite ornaments were
hung.
    Ahhh…there it was…just about perfectly
centered in the middle of the tree. My all-time fave.
    The bejeweled, glitter-saturated, and
sequined, pink dress form on its very own equally sparkly black
stand. My mom gave me that one on my seventh Christmas. I’d just
gotten back from a children’s camp for fashion designer wanna-be’s,
and my mom thought it was a good reminder of never letting my
dreams go unrealized.
    Just to the right of that glistening
beauty was my second favorite, my tenth Christmas gift.
    A miniature, shadowboxed replica of a
boutique storefront. It was as if you could look into the window
display of my future. That’s what my mother had said when I
unwrapped it. And sure enough, inside the boutique, you could see a
miniature version of the dress form ornament as well as a glorious
chandelier, racks full of clothes and miniature shoes and
boxes.
    And finally, number three. There it
was. Just a tad bit down the tree and to the right.
    The little elf that looked just like
Wanda Lu.
    My mother had everything that meant
the most to me, now in ornament form, on my tree.
    “ Shall we hang Vinnie’s
ornament together?” Roman asked, his eyes full of a warm twinkling
of light, probably a reflection of the bedazzled tree.
    I suspected, however, that his glow
also radiated from the happiness inside him. My parents had a way
of making that kind of joy just appear in people.
    “ That would be great,” I
said, so enjoying this moment with him.
    “ How about right here next
to Minnie Mouse?” he suggested, holding Vinnie, in blown-glass
form, up to the spot he had in mind.
    “ Perfect.”
    I opened up the drawer in the
child-sized play table next to the tree where I kept extra ornament
hooks.
    Roman held Vinnie’s look-alike while I
slipped a hook through the shiny gold-threaded loop my mother had
attached to the ornamental rendition of our little pot-bellied
sidekick.
    Roman closed his hand around mine. We
lifted our arms toward the branch he’d chosen.
    With Vinnie now on the tree, we
stepped back and made our way to the edge of my bed where