Christ Returns

While I was working at the ski lift in Lassen Park, I was still living in my camper in the woods behind the Mill Creek Lodge.

The Mill Creek Lodge had a bar and three tables where you could eat pancakes and bacon and eggs in the mornings and chili and hamburgers the rest of the day.  You could buy beer at the bar and watch football on TV with the rest of the townsfolk in the evenings.

The owner of the Lodge was also the bartender and he became a friend of mine.  I did occasional work for him like painting and repairing the cottages he rented out to weekenders.

It was getting on into winter, which comes early and stays late in Mill Creek, when I stopped by the Lodge for coffee one weekend morning.

“Tom”, the owner said, “We’re having a Halloween party here the Saturday before Halloween and you’re invited. One free beer if you wear a costume.”

He had a couple of little kids and there wouldn’t be anything “Halloweeny” for them in the almost empty village (all the summer people had gone and the skiers hadn’t come yet) if he didn’t have a party.

I told him I’d be glad to come and thought about a costume.

I had a gray wool blanket I’d cut a hole in to make it a “poncho” and I thought with a “crown” of evergreen branches and a tallish walking stick I could go as “a druid” since I already had long hair and a full beard.   

Good idea.

A few days later I asked one of the neighbors what day it was since I didn’t want to miss the party and he said, “ Saturday.”

So I went into the forest, picked some leaves, made a "crown" and I was ready for the party.

I thought the party would start about dark since the little kids couldn’t stay up very late, so just as it was getting dark I started walking down the street toward the lodge.

It was dusting snow so I wore my snowmobile boots but other than that I thought I made a pretty convincing "druid".

The narrow country lane between the huge pines was already dark, but the new snow made it easy to follow. 

As I approached the Lodge an automobile pulled out onto the pavement and moved slowly toward me. 

The road was so narrow, I walked as far on the shoulder as I could get—even so the car would have to pass very near me.

The car got closer and moved slower and slower until it almost stopped. Then, skidding a little, it sped up rapidly, passed me and vanished around the curve in the trees. “Crazy driver!” I thought, and went on to the store. First thing I noticed when I walked in was that there was nobody else there.

The little girl of the family started yelling that she wanted to put her costume on too!

And she ran upstairs where the family lived to do it.

“I suppose you want a free beer,” the owner said.

“Sure”, I answered, “I’m in costume.”

“Yeah, you are”, he agreed, “But the party ain’t ‘til next Saturday!”

So I felt a little foolish but drank the free beer and played a while with the kids.  The little girl was dressed as “a ballerina”, and very cute ballerina too.  Her little brother was “a bear” in fuzzy pajamas and a mask.

The next day I was walking past the Lodge and the owner was out in front getting firewood.

“Tom”, he calls, “Thanks to you I’ve lost one of my best out-of-town customers.”

“How’s that?” I said.

 “Well, this guy always came up from the valley to have a few beers here in the quiet,” he says, “but he just phoned that he saw Jesus Christ on the road near here and that was a sign to him that he should stop drinking and fooling around—he says he won’t be coming up any more!”

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