Merry Christmas from South Lake

It's been a long time since I wrote any new Shannon and Dwayne stories. Get ready my murderers, there are NEW TALES COMING!!!

Merry Christmas from South Lake is just a snippet of a tale that I dreamed up this morning. I hope you will make plans to get the reissue of the first Shannon Wallace Mystery re-titled Deadly Array coming in 2015.

And Merry Christmas to you and yours this holiday season. I hope it is a good one

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Merry Christmas from South Lake by Kim Smith

"What is that on your head?" I asked. A gust of wind from the front door disturbed papers on the front desk.

"It's a hat, Wall-ass," Dwayne answered, tapping the black monstrosity. It sat on his head like it would fall if he did anything close to a tilt of his neck. "I found it."

"Well, you better take it back to whatever homeless shelter you found it at."

He took it off and brushed at the brim. "It's made of silk, I think. Probably really expensive. I found it just sitting in the middle of the path around the lake at the park. It needed me to pick it up. It kinda called to me."

I shook my head. "And you had to answer? Ugh."

"I get that you don't like it. But I do. It's Christmas, and my head is cold. I need this hat." And he plopped it back onto his head and turned into his office.

I followed him, not really wanting to continue this tirade but curious over his choice of park in the early morning. "What were you doing at South Lake Park so early?"

He shrugged. "Getting some fitness in. You'd do well to do that too, Ms. I-eat-at-buffets."

I sniffed. "I am not getting fat, Dee. I have to jog after you. Let me see that hat."

He handed it to me, and I looked at it closely. It was a stovepipe style, like Abe Lincoln wore. It had the remains of a red feather in the hatband. "Not bad." I handed it back to him. "But don't wear it indoors. It's bad manners."

He snatched it from me and growled. I turned and walked out. My buddy, Dwayne Brown, the hat aficionado. Who woulda thunk it?

We worked at Video Angels, a video production company that had been Dwayne's brainchild. In the last few months we'd kept ourselves alive by shooting plays, but with summer coming, I longed to do a wedding. I booted up my laptop and scoured sites where other people had their webpages filled with wedding images.

Dwayne interrupted my drooling. He stood in my doorway, his silly hat in hand. "Hey, I'm going downtown to get something to eat. You wanna come with?"

My stomach growled. The oatmeal I'd consumed was long gone. "Do I have to sit with you wearing that hat?"

He stuck it on his head and grinned.

I sighed. "Fine. But if anyone calls you Frosty the Snowman, I'm going to laugh."

I pulled on my hooded coat. He wrapped a Christmas red scarf around his neck. If he'd stuck a pipe in his mouth, he really would look like a black version of the jolly snowman.

He held the door open for me as we left. "Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas."

I grinned. "That's what I love about you Dee, you say the sweetest things."