December 20, The Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National Forest

           It had been a rainy sloppy fall, with floods in the lowlands, but now there was snow in the forest park where Marge did camp host duty. It wasn’t a great deal of snow, and it melted during the daytime, leaving drifts in the shadows. A few hardy types still came up, in campers to spend the night or a few hours in the forest. No tent campers had come lately.

            Marge had helped her mom, Enid, decorate for Christmas at her house over on the dirt road near Ooog and Thaga’s place. That done, she brought a string of multi-colored outdoor lights to the park and arranged them on the outside of her tiny mobile. Then, when she was in town, she went to the Walmart store and bought a very small artificial Christmas tree and set it up in her window where anyone could see it, which was the idea, after all. It came with small white lights attached, but she added some trinkets, shiny balls and a string of glittery stuff.
            She went outside when she was done to have a look. The light was fading, it being 4PM. It looked great in the dim light she thought. Her own Christmas décor. She wished that Twigg would wander over and slip into the park to have a look at her work.
            The next day dawned, colder than the one before, and with a fresh six inches of snow on the ground. Marge dressed warmly, parka and all, and put on her boots. She thought she would just walk around the campground to make sure everything looked OK.
            When she got outside she found big bare footprints around her mobile. So, maybe Twigg had seen her handiwork. She had to assume it was he, because who else would come into the park and walk straight to her home?
            But why didn’t he knock or something, she wondered. While she was wondering she messed up a lot of the prints by stomping around. This involved leaving the campground and walking clear to the ranger station and through the parking lot and over to the area of the dumpster where the tracks went on into the forest. She quit there.
            Right as she was about to go back to her place, an old gray Honda Civic pulled in and parked. She knew the driver alright, but they hadn’t talked. It was Dexter, the National Forest trainee coming to work.
            “Hi,” said Dexter when he got out of the Honda. Then he blushed and walked quickly to the station door and went inside. Rick was already there; his truck was parked in its usual spot. All was quiet again in the parking lot.
            “Hi!” Marge had said to his retreating back.
            “Funny guy,” Marge said to the silent air. Then she forgot about Dexter. It was so pretty outside, so crispy and cold. Clumps of snow fell out of some of the firs making soft landings on the snow covered ground.
            Inside the office, Dexter watched at the window as she walked away. He felt like a total clown.
            Rick walked out of the kitchen nook with a coffee mug in his hand.
            “Good morning,” he said absently and plopped down at his desk. “I made the coffee. Help yourself.”
            Dexter did help himself. With his coffee, he took a seat silently.
            Rick glanced up at him, and then down to his laptop, which he was fiddling with.
            “I want you to go up and tell Marge that I’m going to close the camp for January and February. Her mom lives close. We’ll play March by ear depending on the weather,” said Rick.
            To tell the truth, Marge kind of scared Dexter. He hadn’t ever been good at conversing with girls, even at school. But, he manfully got up to follow directions.
            Ranger Rick smiled a little after Dexter left the office.
            On the way up to see Marge, he noticed a whole string of scuffed out foot prints leading from the edge of the forest. It seemed odd. The strange trail continued all the way to the camp mobile.
            As Dexter approached he saw that the mobile had been decorated for Christmas. All his memories of Christmas past crowded into his mind. He loved the lights. He loved how it transformed the world, just by putting up those colored lights. He saw her little fake tree in the window, shining bravely. He stopped and looked for a moment, then walked on.
            Dexter knocked on her door and waited.
            The door opened and there she was. Hair pinned up, Carhartt overalls, a long sleeved black t-shirt with the sleeves shoved up to her elbows. Sharp blue eyes asking a question.
            “Hi, Dexter. Do you want to come in? Are you here on business?” she laughed.
            “Yeah. Both. I’ll come in and I’m here on business,” he said.
            There were two kitchen chairs beside a truly tiny table, the one with the little tree on it. So they sat there by the Christmas tree.
            “When I walked up I thought what you did looked really pretty,” said Dexter.
            “Thank you,” said Marge.
            “The business is that Rick wanted me to tell you that he’s going to close the campground for January and February, and maybe March if the snow is too deep for campers,” said Dexter.
            “I wondered. I was going to go talk to him about winter. I guess, I’ll go stay with mom and her husband for the winter. I guess I’ll still be around in the spring. I think,” she said.
            “I thought you might be upset,” said Dexter. “Hey, I followed some really weird tracks up here. I bet you know something about them. Looked like somebody was obscuring someone’s trail.”
            “Well, yeah. You remember Twigg? I guess he came up here to see me in the middle of the night and I was already asleep,” she said. “So, I messed up his footprints, just in case anyone but one of you guys saw them. There aren’t any Forest People here, by definition, and I mean to help keep it that way.”
            “Can I ask you a question,” said Dexter.
            “I guess so, how bad can it be?” said Marge.
            “Are you and Twigg together, you know?” he blurted out.
            She looked at him for a count or two and then said, “Nah! Me and Twigg are like we had the same mommy and daddy!” Then she giggled like it was a pretty funny idea.
            “I just wondered!” said Dexter. Then he laughed.
            “Alright, I’ll go tell Rick you’ve got the message,” said Dexter. “See ya!”
            And off he went!

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