I emailed my friend Lissa and told her we were coming up the mountain to see where Santa had hidden Christmas. Everyone knows that Christmas is in Idyllwild.....
It was a plan!We were going.
Then somewhere around 3am, I started to feel the need to go to Riverside.
????
When I mentioned it to Bruce, he was all for it.
??????
We lived in Riverside for a while and the Mission Inn, the ice skating on the Civic Center Mall and the Godiva Chocolate store all beckoned.
OKay.....A simple afternoon in our old hometown.
But it turned out to be a rescue mission.
Bruce and I had stopped by Riverside Plaza to lunch at a favorite restaurant and to" oo ahh" at the Christmas pretties.
And that is when we saw her.
She was sitting in a little shop amid her smartly wrapped purchases.
The Carols were floating through the air.
The smell of cider and bayberry and good cheer wafted around her.
And yet she looked so all alone.
We knew she needed a home.
“This lady is going home with us, we told the shopkeeper", brooking no arguments.
And so she did.
