“Cap’n! Miss Katherine’s here!” Tommy shouted as she gingerly tried the Harborside’s doorknob and found it unlocked. She smiled and entered the shop, greeted by its familiar dusty fragrance.
“Well, then. I wondered if you would show up on yer day off.” Captain Braddock limped into the shop holding an antique hatbox. “Yer just in time to help put the nativity pieces away.”
“Sure! You’re a day late, aren’t you?” Katherine said with a wink. “What would Grandma Braddock say?”
Captain Braddock set the box on the counter with a chuckle. “She’d say we had better get to work.” Turning, he called out, “Tommy, did you find that box down there?”
There was a faint mumble, and a thump, and a distant sound of falling cardboard.
“Oh, those must be the boxes I left down there last Thursday.” Katherine headed towards the storeroom door.
“I’m ok.” Tommy called up the stairs. “The big pile of boxes fell over, but they’re empty anyway.”
“Can you manage the box the Captain sent you for?” Katherine asked, peering down into the dim light of the storeroom.
“Yup.” Tommy replied confidently.
“All right, then. Let me know if you want me to help.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Katherine returned to the shopfront and opened the hatbox. Taking out a piece of tissue paper, she picked up the shepherd from the nativity set and wound the tissue paper around him. Reaching for another piece, she suddenly stopped.
“Captain?”
“Yes, Katherine?” Captain Braddock looked up from the ornaments he was carefully removing from the tree in the window.
“The angel… it’s here! Wherever did you find it?”
“Serena brought it when she came to visit last year. Said she kept it with her when she moved away as sort of a tie to the Harborside. She figured it would always give her a reason to come back.”
“I suppose that explains why we couldn’t find it last year.”
They worked on in silence for a while, then Katherine ventured, “I was just wondering as I walked here this morning, do you know who owns the rest of the warehouses on this block?”
“I think the Braddocks originally sold to a friend who ran some sort of shipping company, but I’ve never heard about anyone selling it more recently, so it’s probably still his, or his descendants, more likely. Not that they’ve done anything with it.” Captain Braddock’s brow furrowed up as he turned back to the box of ornaments.
“Here’s the box!” Tommy triumphantly burst into the shop with the exuberance of a small boy who has just done something the grownups thought he couldn’t.
The three worked cheerfully on. With Tommy’s help, Captain Braddock got the ornaments put away and the tree taken out to the dumpster. Katherine took a few of the boxes down to the storeroom while the other two worked to take down the garlands from the windows.
As Katherine turned to start up the stairs, she heard a crash, a sickening thud, then a soft moan and a panicked yelp from Tommy. Heart racing, Katherine ran up the stairs and rounded the corner.
Captain Braddock lay motionless on the floor, bits of broken glass and pottery around him. A chair lay on its side nearby, and Tommy stood trembling by the door, eyes wide and pleading as he looked up at Katherine. Recognizing that he needed something to do, Katherine forced calmness into her tone and put her hand on his shoulder.
“Tommy, I need you to get a glass of water from the kitchen in case we need it.”
Tommy nodded and dashed away.
“Captain?” Katherine knelt next to his motionless form and laid a hand on his chest. Relief flooded through her—he was still breathing.
“Is he…” Tommy asked from the doorway, glass of water spilling in his trembling hand.
“No, but I think he’s hurt. Can you bring my bag from the coatrack?”
Tommy did, and Katherine rummaged for her phone, thankful for the unnatural calm that had settled over her in the wake of the initial shock. “Tommy, I’m going to call for help. I want you to go find the broom and dustpan and have them ready so we can clean up the broken glass and sharp things from the floor by him.”
While they waited for the paramedics to arrive, Katherine and Tommy carefully cleared the broken shards and scattered tea leaves away from the floor where the captain still lay unconscious.
“Can’t we put something under his head? It isn’t nice to lie on the floor like that.” Tommy's voice wavered, and tears filled his eyes.
“No, Tommy. We mustn’t move him. I know it seems wrong to just leave him on the floor, but we don’t know what’s wrong. If we move him, we might hurt him more without realizing.”
Tommy nodded, and a tear trickled down one cheek.
Katherine held out an arm. “Come sit by me. I’m sure help is almost here.”
The boy sat next to her and buried his head in her shoulder. Katherine felt sobs shake his little body as she wrapped him in a hug, trying to stay strong for him. After a few minutes, the sobs subsided and Katherine broke the silence.
“Tommy, there is one thing we can do for the captain while we wait.”
The boy lifted his tear-stained face, alert and ready for action. “What’s that?”
“We can pray,” Katherine said simply.
“I don’t know how,” Tommy dropped his head again.
