CHRISTMAS COMPLICATIONS

Part II

A Just for Fun Fiction by Celia Jolley

Having Holly there as the babysitter was a piece of cake, only sweeter, especially when she made Christmas cookies with his kids.  But if it wasn't cookie sprinkles, it was glitter.  It was everywhere.

She and Madge, his ex-mother-in-law, were like a comfortable matching pair of slippers as they moved around the house.  There was a pile of Christmas books from the library strewn all over the couch as they took turns reading to his kids while the television stayed off.  Holly was quick to bundle his kids up to take them outside to play in the snow as well.  But, one of the best things was the aroma of a delicious dinner cooking when he walked in after work. His ex-wife had never been much of a cook, but it reminded him of his mom's magic in the kitchen.

"Hmm, smells great!  Is that a roast I smell?"

"Yes, it will be ready in a minute," Madge called. 

Over dinner the kids talked with their mouths full.  "We wrote our letters to Santa today," Maisie announced.  "I told him I wanted a new mommy."

"Me too," little Chris said.

"Nah uh.  You asked for monster trucks and a superman cape."

Gabriel groaned.  "I already talked to you about that, wise guys."

Madge and Holly stifled their laughter.

"We'll see what Santa has to say about that!" Maisie said smugly.  Evidently, she thought Santa overruled dads.

"I also asked for a puppy. If I don't get a new mommy, at least I want to get a puppy!" she went on.

"I asked for a puppy too," Chris piped up.

"He did.  I helped him write that, "D-O-G." Maisie shook her head vigorously.

"Don't look at me," Madge said laughing.  "I just wrote down what they said."

"Well, kids, I already told you.  Santa won't have a puppy in his sack this year."

"Humf.  We'll see about that!" his daughter said again with her arms crossed.

"After dinner you can show your dad the new ornaments you made for the tree," Holly said, redirecting their attention.

The kids jumped up and down in their seats. "Wait till you see them daddy!  They're so pretty!"

"Thank you," he mouthed to her.

"Have you heard from your parents, I mean your mother and step-father lately, Gabriel?" Madge asked.

"Not much, just a letter now and then.  It seems mom has taken to the jungle like a monkey to a coconut.  I know they are serving the Lord as missionaries and doing what they are called to do, I just wish my kids and Michael's could know them better.  I don't think my kids even remember her."

"Won't they be on furlough soon?" 

That surprised him.  He'd lost track.  "I'm not sure," he said.

"Is everything ready for the company Christmas party Saturday?" Holly asked?

"Don't make me think about that.  It gives me a headache.  It's my least favorite thing I do all year."

"After dinner, would you mind helping me wrap the children's Christmas presents, Holly?" he whispered behind his hand.  "I'm not very skilled with wrapping paper and tape. I flunked Origami too."

"Sure."

"Let me do the dishes, then and you go help him," Madge said smiling.

He went in to see the ornaments his kids were so proud of and showed the appropriate appreciation, then put another Christmas movie on for them.

"This way," he said with his hand on Holly's back.  It was weird ushering her into his bedroom locking the door.  When she looked at him oddly, he shrugged, "I don't want the kids to come in and see their gifts." Maybe this wasn't a good idea after all.  But he took all the bags off the shelf and set them on his bed.  She began peeking inside.

First she pulled out a three piece suit complete with a bow-tie.  "Do you really think little Chris will want to wear this?"

"No, but I can see the wrestling match now trying to get him into that monkey suit.  I don't remember buying that."

"Well, the tags are still on it," she said.  "We can take it back."

Then out of another bag she held up a woman's make-up kit.  "Is this for Maisie?  Don't you think this is rushing things?  I don't think it's age appropriate for a little girl."

"Of course not.  We'll take that back too.  I didn't see Pamela purchasing it."

"And these heels?  Do you think little girls should wear these?  And this?"  She held up a slinky Miss America replica of an evening gown covered in sequins. 

"That's horrendous.  It goes back too."

"Did you buy anything on your children's Christmas list?" She looked disappointedly at him like he was the father to Elf in the movie.

"No, I guess not.  I might have gone out and sat on the bench in the middle of the mall and scrolled through my phone while she picked things out.  I didn't pay attention to what she was buying and just handed over my card," he shrugged unable to offer a defense.  He was afflicted with Christmas ineptness.

"And did you remember to get any stocking stuffers?" 

He shook his head feeling like a father failure.

"Well, Madge loves to shop, so I'm sure she won't mind returning these and picking up some of the things they want instead and stocking stuffers too."

He heaved a sigh of relief and wanted to kiss her, but knew that wouldn't go over big.  Instead he said,  "Thanks, Holly. You're a lifesaver!  Can you ask Madge for me?"  He began picking up the bags to take his car for when he drove his ex-mother-in-law to the mall. 

Madge was willing, lifting a weight off his shoulders.  He'd felt like Santa lugging around a load of coal in his sack.  He didn't want any more Christmas complications.  He liked things taken care of properly.  Now, if only his company party would go smoothly, he could enjoy Christmas.

Saturday morning, Houston showed up with his suitcases.  "Mind if I crash at your house?  I'm going to fly out Monday to head to my parents."

"Sure, buddy.  I need you to have my back at this party tonight, though," Gabriel said.

"You got it," Houston said clapping him on the shoulder.

That night when Holly walked in, Gabriel turned into a cotton headed ninny muggings and stopped dancing to Jingle Bells with his daughter.  When he finally swallowed the cotton back down his throat, he said, "You look beautiful, Miss Holly." She beamed a smile at him, a rare gift, better than anything she could give him under the tree. 

"Thank you.  You clean up nicely yourself."

"Come dance with us, Miss Holly!" Maisie's enthusiastic invitation could not be denied.  Little Chris looked more like the Easter bunny hopping around while his sister did what little ballerinas do.

Soon a dance party was going on.  Even Madge joined in dancing with the kids.  When the music changed to a slower song, somehow, Gabriel found himself reaching his hand out to the pretty lady.  She took it and he pulled her closer.  Bad idea.  He'd soon be dead with the electric current coursing through him.   He felt someone tapping his shoulder.  Houston.

"Can I cut in?"

He stepped back.  "Sure."

But Madge who had been watching smiling said, "Don't you have a Christmas party to go to?"

His collar was getting tighter and tighter the closer he got to Pamela's house.  One yank on his tie and he'd be dead.  He took a deep breath, manned-up and went to knock on her door.  She did look exactly like she'd planned, gorgeous in an eye-grabbing, over the top dress using her allure to her best advantage. That meant his eyes would have to go anywhere else but at where things plunged or split halfway up to tomorrow, or clung as tightly  as a second sequin-sparkly skin.

When all of them arrived at the party, his employees clapped.  He waved and went around the room in the obligatory circuit making introductions with her on his arm.  He watched Houston dancing with Holly out of the corner of his eye.  At least they were having fun.  He finally got Pamela unglued from his arm and went to get a glass of sparkling cider and a plate of who knows what.  He couldn't taste a thing as he watched his best friend laughing with Holly.

Pamela walked back up.  "I can't believe you let him bring your babysitter.  Isn't he robbing the cradle or something?"

That got his ire up.  He glared at her.  "She's a well-respected company employee who recently transferred up here to help me out.  She's twenty-six, only two years younger than Suzette, but that is quite a bit younger than you isn't it."  He walked off steamed.

When Houston led her off the dance floor finally, Gabriel offered to dance, but Holly turned him down.  "My feet are killing me."  Houston was smirking.

He kept checking his watch in between talking shop with his employees.  Pamela had given up on him and hung around the no-host bar flirting.  It reminded him so much of his ex-wife that it made him sick.

"I'm ready to go when you are," he said as he shouldered up next to Houston.

"Already?  Sure.  Are you okay with that, Holly?"

"More than ready," she said unsmiling.

"Now if I can peel Pamela away from the bar..."

It was quiet on the ride home.  Her perfume had permeated the car giving him a headache again.  On top of that was the alcohol on her breath.  He was still a gentleman and walked her up to her door.  She grabbed his lapels and said, "You can come in for awhile, can't you Gabe?  Houston won't mind driving your babysitter back to your house, and I can take you back no matter how late it is."

He disengaged her hands and said, "No thanks, Pam. It was just a company party.  That's all that was between us.  If you thought it was more, I apologize."

He practically vaulted over her hedge and ran to the car.  Once he was back inside, he felt like he could fly around the interior like a balloon with the hot air let out.  "Freedom!" he yelled as he drove away. 

Houston chuckled.  "I don't know how you ditched a goodnight kiss.  That was the biggest ball of mistletoe hanging over her door that I've ever seen!"

"What?  Thankfully, I missed it." 

Gabriel kept his eye on the two of them from his rear view mirror as he was chauffeuring them home.  Holly looked almost as miserable as he felt, but then a smile played on her lips.  "She was stuck to you like yesterday's gum on your shoe on a hot day in July!"

They all laughed letting the tension disappear.  He drove carefully through the spitting snow.  He thought ahead that tomorrow was Sunday and church.  Then he'd take Houston to the airport early on Monday.  After that he would enjoy a small, quiet Christmas Eve with just his little family, well and Madge and Holly.  He looked forward to their big dinner.  Everything was planned out.  He would let the kids open one present that night, then the rest on Christmas morning.  He gave a satisfied sigh.

But back home, he collapsed onto the couch loosening his tie.  "I am so glad that's over!  Next year I'm turning it into a family party with Santa and stuff.  I'm the boss, right?  I can do that.  By the way, thanks Madge for watching the kids.  I'll take you to your hotel in just a minute."

"Hey, you're on my bed," Houston said with a playful shove. 

"Where's Holly?" Gabe asked.

"She ran off to her apartment like a scared rabbit," Madge said.  "What did you two do?"

He shrugged.  "You got me?  Do you know Houston?"

"Maybe she got scared when I tried to hold her hand.  I mean, we are in eighth grade aren't we?"

Gabe couldn't help but laugh at his friend's frustration.  Houston socked him with his pillow.

"I'd like to see you try it," Houston growled.

His friend wasn't far off.  He'd thought of trying a zillion times.  He sobered.  "Are you ready to go, Madge?"

All the lights were turned off in his house when he got back, but he couldn't help but see her lights were still on up in her apartment. 

He went to bed exhausted, but sleep eluded him for hours it seemed.  He was still dancing in his living room in his mind.

The next morning he drove everyone carefully to church through a heavy snowfall  picking Madge up on the way. 

"Dang, my  flight is cancelled in the morning!" Houston said in frustration after reading his phone in the car.  "It looks like I will be hanging out with you a little longer."

"You know you are always welcome, Houston."  Gabe was closer to his friend than to his own brother.

The children participated in the simple nativity scene.  Maisie was an angel and Chris, a shepherd, except his son had snuck his favorite stuffed animal in, a puppy, to hold in the play instead of a lamb. As the carols were sung their beauty settled over the sanctuary.  But the electricity went out before the closing prayer making the kids scream
.

When they got home, he and Houston went around turning things off or on as needed and lighting candles.  The kids were jumping up and down with excitement until they saw that there were no lights twinkling on their tree and no Christmas movies to be watched.  Madge was putting out cold sandwich fixings.  As he went out to get wood to build a fire, he almost ran into Holly as she was coming in with an arm full.  "Thanks," he said.  He went out anyway to bring more in.  He dumped it in the wood box as Houston worked to get a fire going.

Then Houston settled on the couch and kept calling the airport to check on the status of his flight.  "At this rate, I might be here through Christmas.  I know my folks won't be happy about that.  I hate to think that I'd be forced to buy you a present, Gabe."

"That'd be the day," Gabriel laughed.  "I might give you a candy cane though."

"Thanks, buddy.  Seriously though, I hope the power comes on in time for your women to make that big dinner they're promising.  It might be worth changing my flight even."

"Yeah, I'd hate for the outage to complicate their plans."

Since the power was still out that night, Gabriel said, "You better stay here in the house tonight, Holly.  Your apartment is only heated by electricity and will be freezing, literally.  I can let the kids sleep with me and you can use Maisie's bed, and Houston, you can have little Chris'bed.  I'm sure it will be more comfortable than another night on my couch. 

Little Chris said sincerely, "You can sleep in my bed, Houston.  If I had hay, I'd let baby Jesus spend the night too."

That grabbed all of their hearts and squeezed.

When his voice was steady again, he said, "Madge, I'll take you to your hotel now.  I'm sure they have back-up generators there."

"I hope it's not too dangerous for you to drive in, Gabriel.  This is quite a storm."

As they were leaving, Holly put her hand on his sleeve.  "Be careful, Gabriel."  He'd rather get  got lost in her eyes, but Madge was waiting.

Soon, his kids were tucked into his bed, and Houston was sawing logs in his son's bedroom.  But Gabriel wandered out to the living room to sit in from of the fire.  He found Holly there.  When he sat by her on the couch, she threw part of the throw over him. "Cold?" He took that as an invitation to move closer. 

"I see Madge gave you socks too," she smiled.  "I've never met someone like her, so nice and generous," Holly said.  "The kids are blessed to have her for a grandma."

"Yes, they certainly are."  Then he paused before asking, "Is all this what you expected when you moved here, Holly?"  He turned and looked into her eyes.

"I have to admit that it is much more than I'd hoped.  I feel like it's not just a job, but you've welcomed me into your family.  Family holidays have always been kind of weird for me before this.  I've always had such mixed emotions, strangely missing my messed up family."

When he reached for her hand, she did not pull away. "I'm glad you're happy, 'cause I like you being here," was all he said.  But boy, howdy, he'd gotten all he wanted for Christmas already, just having her hand in his.  He tried to calm down and savor the moment.   Soon they were talking about anything and everything until the wee hours of the morning.

When he woke up in his bed and was warm, he realized that the electricity had come on sometime in the night.  He stretched with a huge grin on his face.  It would be an uncomplicated Christmas after all and mighty sweet!.  In fact, it was turning out better than he could have imagined.  But he needed to go get Madge.  So he went out to the kitchen to drink a cup of coffee first and came up behind Holly. 

"Hi."  He gave her a side-ways hug from taking a whiff of her hair.  She gave him a smile, but turned away as Houston walked in.  He let go of her quickly not sure if Houston had seen or not.  He half hoped that his buddy would fly away today.  It would uncomplicate things between Houston, Holly, and himself.

"Well, I'll go get Madge," he announced after draining his cup.

"Good, because she's going to teach me how to do the turkey.  We need to get it in the oven soon," Holly said.

It didn't take long for the aroma of a turkey to fill the house.  The kids were playing Candy Land having forgotten that the electricity was back on and the T.V. would work again.  Holly was setting the table.  He'd put the leaves in so they would have room for all the food.   He'd never felt so at home in his own home before.  Gratitude filled his chest.

Finally, they sat down at the table and joined hands as he prayed.  He liked how it felt to have her hand in his and rubbed his thumb over hers before saying, "Amen."  He had just stood to carve the turkey when the doorbell rang.  "I'll get it ," Houston said.  Then he heard men's unhappy voices.  His heart sank.  It was his brother Michael.  Houston came in scowling behind him.

"I didn't know what to do, Gabriel.  Sharon won't let me come spend the holidays with her and our kids."  His brother looked pathetic.

Gabriel glanced over at Holly.  Her eyes were downcast, but she nodded.  He sighed and said, you can eat with us, but you can't stay here, understood?" 

Madge jumped up and got another table setting.

He had just sent the turkey platter around when the doorbell rang again.  Everyone looked at each other in surprise.  "Were any of you expecting someone?"  Everyone shook their heads.  I'll get it this time," he said.
 

He was shocked to find his ex-wife at the door.  "What are you doing here Suzette?"  His voice must have raised.

She started crying.  "He dumped me.  And I miss my kids."

She walked in past him.  The kids jumped up yelling, "Mommy's here!"

Madge stood and asked, "What's going on, Suzette?"

"I came back from Hawaii early.  I didn't want to spend Christmas away from my kids,"  she smiled looking around the table. "Hello, Houston. Hi, Michael."  Then she saw Holly.  "Who are you?  Houston's girlfriend?"

He made the introduction leaving off her title as the babysitter because Holly was so much more.

It made him sick how his ex was already twisting the truth.  She'd gotten dumped or she'd still be a turtle on the beach.  Yet he looked over nervously at Holly who shrugged. "You might as well sit and eat with us then."  He sighed thinking, "What a mess!"

Suzette said, "Go ahead and sit down, mom.  I know where the dishes are.  Houston went and brought in another chair.

Before all the dishes got passed around, the doorbell rang again.  He threw his hands up in the air and huffed.  This day was not going as planned.  Far from it.  He couldn't imagine who else might be showing up.

"I'll get it," Madge said jumping up.  Her pleasant voice greeted someone joyfully at the door.

"Surprise!"  In walked his mother and stepfather.  He was shocked, but went over to hug her and shook Bob's hand.  Michael seemed extra glad to see them.

"What are you doing here?"

His mother hugged him closely and whispered, "We thought your brother needed us."  Then she stepped back and said, "And look at your beautiful children!"

Houston went and got more chairs and Madge, more plates.  Everyone squeezed in. 

"Who are they, daddy?" little Chris whispered loudly.

"They are your grandparents, son.  But they've lived far away over the ocean since you've been born." He explained.

"Why?" little Chris asked.

"We live there so we can tell people about Jesus, people who have never heard about Him, not even the grown-ups, Chris," Bob answered.

His mother had kissed them, but he had seen the confusion on his children's faces.  Not even Maisie would remember them.

But before he could have seconds, the doorbell rang again.

"Unbelievable!  I'll get it," he said resignedly.

He was certainly surprised when he opened the door and found a young man wearing leather and covered in tattoos with his motorcycle helmet under his arm.  "May I help you?"

"I'm looking for Holly Peterson.  "Is she here?"

"And who are you?"  his guard was up.

"I'm her brother."  Now that shocked him speechless for a moment.

"Sure, come in.  She'll be excited to see you.

As soon as he walked in, Gabe watched Holly rise slowly as if her brother was an apparition.  Then she gave a small scream and ran to hug him.  Everyone looked to him as he was grinning ear to ear.  Gabriel was so happy for her.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Holly's brother Sam."

Her brother  explained how he'd searched for his sister which led him to her old roommate who then had given him her new address.  "My club was doing a toy run at the regional children's hospital in town, so I thought I'd swing by and surprise her for Christmas."  Holly gave him another hug.

It took awhile before the hubbub settled down and another place was set.

The dessert was served and Gabriel was finally relaxing regaining his peace of mind when the doorbell rang again.  Everyone burst out laughing.

His brother Michael did the honor of going to the door.  He hollered, "Did anyone here order a puppy?"

His kids screamed and ran to the door.  Maisie came back in hugging a little brown dog.

"Wait a minute..." but he was obviously outnumbered as everyone jumped up to pet the little thing.

"I just want to know who brought the puppy."  He looked around the table as everyone shrugged.

"Santa brought him!" his kids chimed together.

His eyes went around the room and ended with Holly.  She snuck a hand halfway up and mouthed.  "I did it."

He was dumbfounded but everyone burst out laughing again.  Somehow he felt like the joke was on him.

"I'll take the kids into the kitchen with their doggie," Suzette offered.

Holly put her hand on his.  "Are you mad at me"

He leaned over and said in her ear, "A little, but maybe we can make up later."

She blushed like a Christmas rose.

Bob went and found his Bible while his mother brought the kids and his ex back in from the kitchen.  Maisie was still hugging her dog who was asleep in her arms while little Chris clung to its leash.  His stepfather cleared his throat and said,  "You know, this day sounds a little like the first Christmas.  It wasn't as uncomplicated as a young couple starting out in life would have wished.  In fact, the first Christmas had many complications.  I mean who would want to find their fiancé with child before they'd ever been together?  And who would want to travel seventy miles while very pregnant riding on a donkey just to pay taxes?  And who would have wanted to be desperate for lodging, but only finding a stable when Mary's time came?  And who would have wanted only a manger of hay to lay their newborn in?  Who would have wanted the smelly shepherds to be their first visitors?  Who would have wanted to have to flee to Egypt. a couple hundred miles away, in order to escape Herod who sought to kill their baby?  It was a very complicated Christmas from beginning to end with visitors from angels to shepherds, Wise Men to temple prophets, a strange mix indeed.  Then he read the Christmas story. 

"While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth,

  And she gave birth to her firstborn son;

and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger,

because there was no room for them in the inn."

(Luke 2:6-7)

Well, Gabriel, I know we all complicated your Christmas Eve surprising you by dropping in unannounced, but I want to express how grateful I am that you allowed each of us to join you, that you made room for us one and all in your home and around your table.  Merry Christmas!"

He had quite a lump in his throat after that.  "Thanks, Bob.  I'm glad you all are here, believe it or not."  He smiled over at Holly.

After that, the younger people went outside to walk off their big dinner, only a rousing snowball fight ensued.  The kids chased their puppy in circles.  Finally, everyone was thoroughly chilled and worn out enough to go back inside.

The best part had been when he caught Holly drawing a heart in the snow.

No one could take the smile off his face now.

Amazingly enough, after the dishes had all been done by the gentlemen since the women had cooked, everyone dissipated.  Houston's flight had been rescheduled so his brother Michael dropped him off at the airport.   Their folks left with him.  They evidently planned to stay awhile with his troubled brother since Sharon had moved out to stay with her parents.  Madge left with Suzette.  He allowed the children to spend time with their mother at Madge's hotel room with the promise that they'd be returned by nine.  He trusted Madge when she promised to see to it.  Even Sam said he had to leave to join his group and then roared off.
 

That left him alone with Holly.  They went and sat before the fire again.  She kept getting the giggles over their complicated celebration.  "You should have seen your face every time the doorbell rang!" Then she laughed some more.  He could think of only one way to stop her.  So he did.  Mistletoe was not required.

IT WAS A BRIGHT AND STARRY NIGHT

A new Christmas story by Celia Jolley

Astrid closed the door leaving the noise inside and stepped out into a silent, glistening winter scape.  The new snow was an extravagant mantel over the hills and dales only hinting at the curves that lay beneath which were tucked under a sparkling blanket.  It was incandescent.   The drape of clouds had been pulled back to reveal stars as brilliant pieces of the same dazzling scene though flung far up into the night sky and left hanging there.  Yet, in spite of the stunning beauty, her heart was left cold.  The sigh she made froze into a small cloud which swiftly dissipated into thin air.

Oh the stories the man in the moon could tell of those who became enamored and enthralled under his shinning light, but he kept those secrets well.  At least she hoped he did.  His smiling face  taunted her as she remembered another year when she had stood here just like this waiting in all her naivete.  Her hopes and dreams had been as pure as the driven snow, but blew away like her frozen breaths.  

 

Suddenly, the door burst opened as elbows were thrust into coats, galoshes were left unbuckled while feet were shoved into them.  It was a hurry scurry search for mittens, scarves and hats.  Then there was a mad dash out into the first deep snow of the year.  The quiet was shattered by happy voices laughing and calling across the drifts.   All was trampled by her joyous siblings as they rolled tubby stomachs, full chests and small heads to make snowmen. Others were busy making snow angels sweeping their arms to create wings.  Her older brothers had begun a snowball fight quickly building snow forts to hide behind.  Astrid slipped back inside before she became a target.  Oh the joys of a large family!  

Her mutter cast her a glance before rubbing the window to create a peephole into the play scene, enjoying her children's antics.   "Ahh, it reminds me of the old country.  It's why your vatter choose Wisconsin to set up a sawmill."

Then her mother teased, "You're not taking part this year, Astrid?  Isn't there a little child left inside you to tempt you to join them? Or have you grown into an old lady?"

Astrid chuckled.  "I got my turn savoring the beauty before the spell was broken.  I'm satisfied just to watch them now while staying warm, same as you." 

Astrid rubbed her mitten on the frosty window to widen the view.   It was happy chaos.   She and her mutter laughed until they cried as the snowman's head fell when Gwenie tried to hide behind it to take cover from an onslaught of snowballs.  Those who had built it took revenge on those who had toppled it. 

The snow angels were trampled, and a full on battle ensued with the older boys protecting the littles from the middle lads who had much to prove.  Their dead-on aim showed  no mercy.  Suddenly Arnie bolted out and sprinted to grab the big boys' flag, Johann's scarf tied to a stick.  With a roar, the older boys burst out from protection and tackled and trounced the brave lad.   Riotous glee broke out with laughter all around.  Leif, with a show of good sportsmanship, pulled Arnie up on his shoulders as he deemed him the snowball champion, even though Leif's team had lost.  

The youngest came in with rosy cheeks and noses, eyes all aglow.  Pulling their hats off, static  caused their hair to amusingly stand on end.  Unable to hold it in any longer, she and her mother joined a  chorus of laughter.

"Mutter, did you see me?"

"Mutter, they knocked over our snow man, but we showed them!  Aren't you proud of me?"

"Leif protected me like a Viking king!  Did you watch Mutter?"

Soon the demands upon their mother's attention turned into cries of hunger, and they almost began howling like a pack of wolves.  

"Here, eat this before you turn savage!" Astrid said grinning. placing a platter in the middle of the table.  

Forks stabbed slices of ham and chunks of cheese.  The hot cocoa and the meat and cheese plate along with warm bread were partaken with much gusto and gratitude.  A silence momentarily fell on these hungry beasties as they gulped down the food.  All fended for themselves and growled if anyone tried to snatch their food away.   But no one dared.  Arnie still had the scar from a fork wound from last year.   Who would have thought that little Gwenie could be so fierce?

Afterwords, the boys pulled out games of checkers or chess.  The littles brought out their dolls and carved farm animals to play quietly before the fire lost in a world of imagination.  

Doing dishes beside her mutter, Astrid finally asked, "How do you do it? I'm always amazed at what a wonderful mutter you are with ten children."

"Well, to tell the truth, when it is too much I send them all outside.  Even the youngest can play in the barn with kittens or their toys.  Then I can get a lot done in blissful solitude.  Especially now since it has been nearly five years without a baby in the household."  A veil of grief momentarily fell across her mutter's countenance but was swiftly swept away.  Astrid knew her mutter missed her vatter terribly.

"Babies can be little dictators all by themselves, you know.  Their every wish was my command.  But as you recall, you older girls were all little mutters to your younger siblings as well.  But the measure of how well one has raised up a family is to brave sending them out into the world.  Nicholas aside, I only had to take a step back when your older sister Elsa married.  Even you left to become a school teacher two years ago.  I wouldn't be surprised, however, if Leif sprouted wings and flew the coop when the spring thaw comes.  There's something restless that pulses through the blood, a call of the wild that separates children from their parents.  Instead of taking baby steps, there comes a time when they are secure enough to take a giant leap right over that threshold and away."

"Leif?  Oh, I hope not!" Astrid cried causing the littles to pause in their play.

"Shh." 

"Who would help Johann run the sawmill without him?" she asked.  "Johann must have help!"  Her vatter had been gone a little over two years, killed in a freak hunting accident.  Since then the boys had manned up and taken over the load to support their large family.

Her mutter wiped a tear.  Astrid knew she was thinking of her son who now had been gone for over two years with no news of his whereabouts, not once in all that time.  Nicholas had not written one little note, so they did not truly know if he was dead or alive. 

"The other boys are growing up.  Leif helps.  Arnie is also learning how to run the sawmill.  Of course Johann is still here and is very responsible.  I don't think he'll ever leave, thank goodness, since he knows he will eventually inherit it someday.  But the most important thing is what the apostle John wrote in his third letter, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." 

That was a fierce reminder when Astrid had almost walked away from that truth.  A stab of regret went through her remembering that other beautiful bright and starry night two years ago when she had stood under the midnight moon's mocking light waiting for Eric to swoop her up and carry her away.  Her bags had been packed.  She stood by them until too frozen to wait any longer.  She had begun to shiver uncontrollably with icy crystal tears freezing on her cheeks.   She gave up.  Her heart was broken.  Back in her bedroom where her little sisters slept, she quietly unpacked her suitcase though fumbling with frozen fingers.   She knew realized that it would have been a disaster.

Instead, the next morning when the family woke they found that her Eric and her brother Nicholas had left without a word, without her.  A bright and starry night no longer beckoned her.  In fact, her heart had never completely thawed since that time.  Rather, it had hardened to pure ice.

Her students knew that hard glare quite well, and she had no trouble controlling her classroom.  The school where she taught was only a day's ride away, but she did not get to come home as oft as she wished.  Going from the silence living by herself in a drafty teacher's place tacked onto the backside of her one-room school house to this cacophony of a lively household was rattling, but endearing. 

There were more than enough siblings to fill their own schoolhouse.  For that reason, most particularly, their local schoolboard had chosen to upgrade to a two-room school, much to the older boys' satisfaction.   There was nothing so unmanly than to be in school with babies.

Her mutter brought Astrid out of her sad thoughts.  "What?  Did you say something?"

Her mutter simply sighed and said, "I asked you to go to the neighbors and see if they would be willing."

"Willing to do what?"

"Weren't you listening at all?  I asked if you would see if they have heard from Eric, and if so would they be willing to share their letter with us for one night.  Promise them that I'll repay them with a pie.  I just cannot give up hope that the boys would write to us during the holy holiday."

"Ahh, Mutter.  Don't.  I hate to see you clinging to that hope.  I certainly never want to hear from Eric ever again, that's for sure."

"But your brother?  You can't say that you don't pray for him every night like I do.  We have to hope."

"I'm sorry, yes, I do pray for him.  And yes, we must continue to hope that Nicholas will return to us or at least to let us know how he is faring."  She sighed.  "I'll go as soon as I'm done here.  Can Gwenie go with me?"

"As long as you come right back.  That woman will keep you wrapped up so tightly with her busy tongue that it's hard to break her momentum."

Astrid chuckled.  "Yes, I know what you mean, especially since her daughters are all married and Eric is gone.  She's lonely."  Those thoughts made her swallow a lump down.  "At least they have Soren there with them to help run the dairy with his Vatter."

They went out wrapped up to their eyeballs with their breath puffing little white clouds.  The two young maidens, one tall and one small, tried to find cow tracks to follow through the deep drifts.

Astrid saw her sister was tiring.  "We're almost there, Gwenie.  I'm sorry I made you come, sweetling.  Snow is not nearly as much fun after the first few hours of play, is it?"  She saw her sister nodding though she kept her eyes down while fighting to stay in her sister's footsteps through the deep snow.  They both gathered sticks for kindling as they went.   Astrid knew it was selfish of her to ask her little sister to come with her, but heaven knew she hated to face Eric's mother alone.   That woman could talk paint off a barn.  Whenever Astrid visited, she incessantly spoke of her missing son, working herself up into a frenzy of worry.

Astrid forced her face to smile as she knocked on the door.  When it opened, she yelped, took a step back and fell off the porch step into a deep drift.

Eric stood there as plain as day boldly laughing at her while she fumed,   She slapped his hand away when he offered to help her get up.  He was the last face she expected to see, or wanted to see.

"Is my brother here with you?"  Astrid tried to look around him as she dusted snow off her backside.

He put his hand on her arm, but she shook it off.  "Don't," she growled fiercely without meeting his eyes.

Once inside, he tried once again to hug her but she stepped away and ran to hug her brother.

"Nicholas!  Do you have any idea of how much you have been missed?  Mutter has been beside herself with worry!  How long have you been here?  We must hurry home to see her and the others."

"We just arrived.  I thought to warm myself before going the rest of the way home."

"Mutter sent me to find out if there was any news of you, and here you stand!"  Looking him over, she could see a leanness he'd not had before as well as dark circles under his eyes.  "Are you well?"

"As soon as I get some of Mutter's cooking under my belt, I'll be right as rain," he stated grinning and swinging a squealing Gwenie in a circle.

"Let's go then."  She ignored Eric's attempts to gain her attention.

"I'll walk them home, Mutter," the young man told his mother.  "But I'll be right back."

"Hurry back," his mutter cried wringing her hands.

Gwenie kept up a chatter with her brother Nicholas who had swung her up in his arms.  But Astrid kept her lips tightly closed even though Eric plied her with questions.  She continuously threw his arm off hers.

"Aren't you happy to see me, Astrid?  You look more beautiful now than ever.  Why won't you talk to me? Why are you so angry?"

She spun around and blurted out, "Why am I angry?  You broke your promise of marriage. You abandoned me.  Not one single letter came to tell us if you were dead or alive!  And you dare ask me what's wrong!  Don't ever come near me again, Eric.  I want nothing more to do with you."

As soon as the door to their home opened, it was total chaos of pure joy.  Her mother cried and hugged her lost son tightly.  The big boys slapped him on the back while the littles hugged his legs or grabbed his hands.  

Johann was a little stand-offish since his younger brother had unexpectantly left him in the lurch.  All the responsibilities had fallen heavily on his shoulders.  When Nicholas saw him, he walked over with his hand out to shake like grown men.  

"I owe you an apology, Johann.  I'm sorry for leaving you high and dry.  I'm ready to go to work now though, if you'll have me."

"Of course.  We're brothers," he graciously stated.

Suddenly, Astrid noticed that another neighbor was here.  It was Gunner who had stepped in time and again to help her family since their vatter had died.  He was standing now to shake Nicholas and Eric's hands.  Yet, he kept glancing between her and Eric with a questioning look.

"I'm sorry I left you, Mutter," Nicholas hung his head.  "I thought life here was hard, but it was nothing like what we faced out there.  We tried hunting, trapping and fishing, but could barely feed ourselves on the pittance we made.   The only job we could find to make enough money to return was in logging.  I might as well have stayed here working in our own sawmill.  Johann's ten times the boss than any we came across."

It was good to hear Johann laugh.  Soon everyone was talking at once.  But Eric kept pulling on her sleeve to drag her to the door.

"Come outside with me, Astrid.  I have something to say," he pleaded.

"There is nothing you could say that would interest me, Eric," she hissed.  "You should go home.  Your mutter is anxiously waiting your return."

"Give me just one minute, please?"

"No." 

By then their neighbor Gunner strode over putting on his coat, hat and gloves.  "I'll walk you out, Eric.  Nice to see everyone so happy, Astrid."  

Usually Gunner ignored her completely, talking with everyone but her whenever she was home. But now he stared at her as if he'd not seen her before, though he still darted glances at Eric's stricken face.

"Yes it is.  Christmas will be all the happier for Nicholas' return," she tried to smile though refusing to so much as look at Eric."

Before he left, her mutter cried over the babble, "Don't forget to come for Christmas dinner, Gunner."

"I won't, ma'am.  Thank you," he beamed.  "I'd never turn down a meal prepared by your hands."

He followed a defeated Eric out the door.  Now Astrid could relax and enjoy her brother's homecoming.

As she sat back and absorbed the family scene, she still ached for her vatter.  Nicholas had left shortly after he died.  Maybe it was his way of handling his grief.  She studied her brother.  He looked underfed though taller and stronger than before.  She noticed her mutter was swiftly heating soup and slicing bread.  She walked over to help.  The little girls set the table, but kept looking over their shoulders to make sure their brother was still there.  He had been sorely missed.

As she stirred the soup, she pondered the shock of seeing Eric again.  It made her wonder what she had ever seen in him.  Now he appeared as a spindly, immature weakling who had abandoned his family just when he was needed for their dairy.  It made her shudder to think of how close she came to running off with him to get married.  They probably would have been forced to return to his home to live, spare the thought!  Living with his mother?  Unthinkable.

After Nicholas had eaten three bowls of soup, the household quieted into pleasant chatter.  Her brother slid over on the bench to where she sat.  "So tell me you are not still in love with him."

She almost choked on her piece of bread.  After coughing she finally was able to whisper, "No!  Thank you for taking him away before I made the worst mistake of my life.  You saved me, Nicholas."

He grinned.  "That was my plan, sis.   I knew he was itching to leave and somehow saw you as his ride out of here, though I don't know how he expected to support you.  So, when I caught wind of your plans, I absconded with him.  Sorry you were hurt though."

"It hurt Mutter the most, the not knowing if you were dead or alive."

"I already apologized to her, but I knew if I wrote, you'd write back to us.  The last thing Eric needed was for you to fan his fancy for you back into flame.  He's not right for you, Astrid.  Believe me.  I've spent the last two years with him and saw him flirt with every gal we crossed paths with.  He's also picked up some other bad habits along the way.  I managed to save a little money, but he wasted all his wages on drink.  I tried, but couldn't keep him from it."

She only nodded, so he went on, "I had a lot of time to read the Bible.  The book of Jude warns of, 'Clouds...without water, carried about by winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the root; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness for ever.'"

"Eric?" she looked alarmed at what her brother was telling her.

He went on, "But remember Jude also said,  'And of some have compassion making a difference.'  That's what I was trying to do, Astrid.  Make a difference."

She shook her head and softly continued the rest of the verses, "'And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.'  Oh, Nicholas, thank you for saving me from all that!"

"Of course.  I knew him better than you did, sis.  I would never allow him to deceive you with false promises."

Astrid could feel her cheeks heat.  "Thanks for telling me, Nicholas.  I think I've really grown up the last two years."  She said changing the subject,  "I'm teaching over in Forest Glen, you know."

"Really?  That's wonderful."  He gave her hand a squeeze.

"How about you?  Did you find any gals to flirt with?" she winked.

"Nah, I won't go back for any girl no matter how pretty she is."

"I'm not ready to confess to Mutter how close I came to throwing my life away, so if you don't mind, please wait to explain your  real reason for leaving for a wee bit longer, promise?" Astrid begged.

"I've been quiet for two years, I can wait until you are ready.  But perhaps we don't need to say anything beyond what has already been said."

She gave him another hug and choked up, "Thank you, Nicholas.  It is so good to have you back!"

The next night was Christmas Eve.  The children found pleasure in offering the animals in the stable extra fodder, though the youngest still looked warily about a little afraid of hobgoblins.  Their tummies were full of sweetened rice pudding.  Finn was still gloating over finding the almond in his so that he'd gotten the pink marzipan pig.  He let his twin Fiona eat its snout and little Claus to nibble the pig's feet, but the rest he gobbled up all by himself.

Since it was a frozen world out there, they all bundled up to fit into two sleighs to glide over the deep snow to church.  Candles were handed out at the door, and the sanctuary was a holy place of flickering light.  The Christmas carols were sung with reverence.  

Astrid accidently snagged Eric's eyes, but quickly looked away never glancing his way again.  But she could hear Gunner's deep voice behind her without having to look back to know it was him.  

Scripture was read illuminating the true Christmas story.   Finally the service drew to a close at midnight.   The littles had fallen asleep and were carried out to the sleigh in their big brothers' arms to be tucked under piles of wool blankets.  They would find sweet dreams as they glided across the bright and starry night.  Astrid, however, was wide awake taking in the glistening drifts lit by gleaming moonlight.   The cold nearly caused her eyes to tear up.  As she sighed, it was as if she let out the old and breathed in the new, even though the icy air burned in her lungs.

On Christmas morn, the little ones threw off covers and opened the curtains to let in the brilliance. Astrid could only laugh as Gwenie and Fiona exclaimed, "Wake up!  Christmas is here!  God Jul!"  She was sure that the loft full of boys was already stirring.  

With hot mugs in their hands, they followed the tradition of sitting around the Christmas tree by age.  Johann, Nicholas, Astrid, Leif, Arnie, Gwenie, twins Finn and Fiona, followed by little four year old Claus, all here except Elsa.  It was Johann's job to pass out the stockings filled with nuts and candy to the little ones along with a gift for each, from youngest to the oldest.  

A breakfast of traditional Julekake sweet bread was relished but leaving plenty of room for the coming Christmas dinner.   As their mutter began reading another Gospel's telling of the Nativity, a knock on the door interrupted them.  It was Gunner bearing gifts.  He entered and crossed the room to put his bulging sack under the tree.  Their mother invited him to join them at the table and nodded to Astrid to bring him a mug and what was left of their breakfast bread.  

"We were just about to read the story.  You are welcome to join us," Mutter beamed, "God Jule, Gunner."

"Takk and Gledelig Jul to your household.  Your home is always a welcoming place to me.  It means the world to this bachelor."  His glance went around the table but came to rest on Astrid.  Her cheeks blushed for no apparent reason and embarrassed her completely.

The littles barely kept their seats with the lumpy bundle under the tree beckoning.  As soon as their mutter closed the Bible and Johann prayed a blessing, they jumped up and scrambled back to sit under the tree.  Astrid avoided looking at Gunner, instead gazed at the pretty Julekurer paper baskets shaped like hearts which hung from the Christmas tree's limbs.

Gunner threw back his head and laughed after seeing the eager anticipation of the littles.  "Julenisse must have gotten mixed up and left a bag at my cabin.  But I'm pretty sure it was meant for you.  Shall we see what he brought?"

He passed out hand carved toys to each of the young ones, from farm animals to a little gnome painted with a red hat, white beard, and green vest for Gwenie.  The older brothers got store- bought presents from a Jews harps for Johann and Nicholas, and harmonicas for Leif and Arnie.  Then he handed a beautifully carved and polished serving spoon for Mutter.  Tears filled her eyes as she accepted his gift.  Astrid was becoming nervous, squirming on the inside.  

"This is for you, Astrid," Gunner said softly.  His eyes, as deeply blue as a fiord, settled on her.

 It was another carved spoon, but more lovely than anything she could ever imagine.  Its handle had been carved with a heart entwined with intricately worked vines and flowers.  Her cheeks bloomed.  

"You made this?" she gasped.  "It's exquisite."

Her mutter leaned over to look and expressed her appreciation for each and every gift for her large family.

"You have been too good to us, Gunner.  But, I have one present kept back for you."

Astrid was surprised to see it was one of the scarves she had helped her mother to weave last summer.

"Takk, I appreciate it so much.  It means a lot," he said humbly.

But soon Jews harps and a couple of harmonicas joined the raucous, joyous noise in an attempt at Christmas carols that left them all chortling.

"I think you need a little more practice, but perhaps you should move into the barn," Astrid suggested while still chuckling.

Arnie blurted out, "No, it would hurt the beasts ears!"

"But what about ours?  Little Fiona cried with her hands over her ears.

More laughter ensued, but Astrid rose to go help her mutter finish preparing their special dinner of not one, but two roast geese.  The savory smells almost made all of them groan before they were called to the table.

Gunner waited until Astrid sat, then lifted his long legs over the bench to squeeze in beside her.  Gwenie scooted down happily announcing, "Oh, good! I get to sit by Gunner!"  It was obvious she practically worshipped the giant Norwegian.

Just then there was another knock on the door.  Everyone groaned.  They were forced to wait since no blessing had been prayed over the special meal.  Johann rose from the foot of the table to open the door.

Now Astrid groaned inside.  It was Eric.  Fortunately, their mutter asked Gwenie, not her, to rise and give their guest a plate, but there was no squishing another body in around the table.  With relief, she saw out of the corner of her eye that he had sat by the fire in her mother's rocker.  She sighed with relief.

Gunner whispered in her ear, "Do I detect that his presence is not met with your welcome?"

She glanced up at him as his breath had sent a tickle when a whisp of hair moved across her neck.  "He may be my brothers' friend, but I have no patience for his presence."

"Good.  I worried for two years that your heart was broken.  In part, that's why I wanted to gift you with a symbol of a whole heart."

Astrid studied his handsome face before answering.  "For a short time I might have thought it was, but it was only slightly cracked, not broken in two.  It has long since mended, and he has no claim upon me and never will."

The man's smile spread across his face.  "Perhaps another might have a chance then?  I'd take that as a special gift this Christmas if you'd accept me as someone you could trust not to break your heart."

Astrid was bold enough to touch his hand under the table.  "Yes, I think I could open my heart to such a man.  I have long admired you, Gunner, but had no idea you ever had thoughts of me."

"I have kicked myself for nearly three years thinking I missed my chance to claim you.  I forced myself  to look away since Johann warned me that you still had feelings for Eric and perhaps were even promised to him."

"Hardly. The only thing he did was cause my heart to freeze into a lump of cold ice."

Gunner looked over his shoulder where Eric was glaring at him.  "May I be so bold as to hold your hand for all to see my intentions?  Perhaps that would help to melt that ice."


She had moved her hand away after touching his, but allowed him to find it again intertwining their fingers with a warmth that spread up her arm to her chest making it hard to breathe.
Their shoulders were also touching creating heat in the crush of those gathered around the table.  He raised their hands on top of the embroidered tablecloth.  Recognition spread as eyes grew round and elbows poked each other, one brother to the next.  Her mutter beamed.  

Suddenly, Eric stood and choked out his thanks for the food before stalking out slamming the door behind him.  Nicholas burst into laughter.

"What's so funny, Nick?" Gwenie demanded. 

He was barely able to stop chuckling as he blurted, "Oh, poor Eric was hoping for a special gift from the Nissen in the sack, but found it empty.  He must have been naughty the past couple of years to have the hobgoblins visit him."  

The littles all gasped and stared wide-eyed at each other.  Finally, Finn said, "I'm glad we've been good, huh Fiona."  She seriously nodded in agreement, relieved that the Nissen-the little gnomes-had brought them presents they all had anticipated.  The simply wrapped gifts were left to be opened on Christmas morn.  Nobody wanted a visit from the hobgoblins.

"Me too," prattled little Claus.  "I be good, Mutter."  She smiled and tousled his curls.

Arnie especially hooted.  "Who better than you, Nicholas, to know if Eric has been naughty or nice."

"Definitely naughty," he responded. "But we won't tell his mutter, will we?  That would be naughty of us if we did."

Even their mutter smiled at that.  "We have too many blessings to rob our neighbor of her's having her son home once again.  I know that having Nicholas back with us has been the best Christmas gift ever, along with other blessings," she added looking at Gunner with her eyebrow crooked.

Johann chortled, "I must say, Gunner, I admire your persistence."

"Purr sis...what?" one of the littles asked.  

"It's no secret," Gunner spoke up looking the child in the eye, "that I've waited a long time to catch your sister Astrid's heart.  I don't plan on letting her go.  That's what persistence means."  He raised their joined hands to his lips with a kiss.  He looked questioningly at her before daring to continue, "In fact, perhaps  Astrid would be willing to remain at home rather than going back to that freezing little shack they call a teacher's house."

The family cheered.

Astrid looked around the table at all those she loved which now included Gunner, a man she had always highly respected and admired, but whom she thought would never look twice at her.  " I can't imagine leaving here ever again," she admitted.

"I'll write to the school district and say that we are not willing to allow you to finish the year," Johann said as man of the house.  "Too risky with blizzards and such."  His word was final.  But Johann continued with a wink, "I'm sorry I ever listened to Eric, poor fellow, and that it caused me to discourage Gunner.  I admit that I warned him to stay away from you." His grin lit his face as he added, "But all's well that ends well, yah?"

It was a cherished Christmas day.  When Arnie picked up their father's fiddle, they all were astonished at his natural ability to play.  They all sang the carols once again, without the harmonicas and Jews harps.  When it was time for chores, Gunner had to take his leave. 

"Takk for maten.  It was delicious," Gunner said.  "God Jule, one and all."  All responded in kind.

She put on her coat and hat to walk out with him into the bright and starry night.  But stars  now glittered in her own eyes as well.  

When the boys disappeared into the barn,  Astrid looked with wonder at the intense glimmer in Gunner's eyes as he lowered to mingle the puffy clouds of their breaths.  His lips brought such warmth that she forgot they stood in the still, chilly night.  But soon they broke apart hearing the stomping and slapping of gloves to warm hands, the racket her brothers were making to warn them that they were coming out.

Gunner grinned.  "I guess they are letting me know I'd better get home to do my own chores.  It has been the best Christmas of my life, Astrid.  I think we could keep each other warm before this winter disappears.  What would you say, beautiful, if we make plans to join our hands forever soon, very soon.  I have waited more than three years to be able to say that to you and have just about used up all my patience waiting."

"I agree.  Just look!"  She swept her arm around.  "Perhaps the wintery world  has donned her white glittering bridal gown of snow with icicles hanging down like a veil.  It seems all are in concert to suggest it is time to let that happen."

"Jeg elsker deg fortsatt," Gunner whispered.  "I love you, Astrid."

"Jeg er fortsatt glad I deg, Gunner."  "I love you too."

And the man in the moon peeked out with perhaps a bit of a smug look upon his beaming face.








   


















 

-

ADVENT

Sometimes I think Christmas is my middle name.

I hoped to share some stories and Advent Devotionals

from the past.  However, Facebook has a different idea.

So, here I am, seeing if I can get a post to go thru.

MORE THAN SKIN DEEP

A Thanksgiving fiction
by Celia Jolley

"I can't believe the boss kicked me off his spread," Jude spat in disgust.  His tobacco juice left an ugly puddle in the dust between Colt's boots.

"Watch where your aiming that!  So what happened?"

"He didn't like me sidling up to his daughter.  I mean she's still just a Mexican like most gals in these parts, nothing special.  Why, she's just as brown as her mama."

"Hey, you shouldn't talk like that!  It's wrong, just plain wrong."  

"Can I help it if she followed me into the barn."

"But what did you do?"  Colt was beginning to be alarmed.

"I kissed her, but her pa came up just then and caught her struggling against me.  She probably did that just 'cause she heard him coming."

"Still, I mean, that's the boss' daughter.  You know how protective he's always been about her."

"She's not a little girl anymore, Colt.  Shoot, she's ripe for the picking."

"No wonder he's sending you down the road.  You don't get it, do you?"

"The boss got him a purty woman who has the glossiest black hair, dark eyes and brown skin.  But I'm not good enough for his daughter?"  He spat again.  This time it splashed on Colt's boot.  "No skin off my back."

"Stop that!  You must have really made him mad since he's letting you go right before the round-up.  We'll be short-handed now." Colt added, "Maybe you can find another rancher who'll at least sign you on for their round-up."

"Yeah, well, I'll see you around.  But I might just show the boss he can't treat me like this," the fired hired hand glowered.

Colt watched his friend, mount his horse and kick up dust riding away like his tail was on fire.  He shook his head in disgust.  Colt had thought better of Jude than that.   But it was time to pick up the slack.  They'd all have to work harder now that they would be short-handed.

"Colt."  He jerked his head up and saw his boss striding over to him.  

"Yes sir?"

"I know you and Jared were friends, but I'm putting you and all the other cowboys on notice that my daughter is off limits.  If I ever find you in the barn at the same time as Star or even within a hundred feet of my house, you'll be fired immediately, understand?"

"Yes sir," Colt said trying to keep a poker face.  He resented his boss automatically roping him in the same loop as Jared.  Of course he'd noticed how pretty Star was from afar, but he was too smart to start messing with the boss' daughter.   Besides, there were plenty of Mexican girls this close to the border if he was so drawn, which he wasn't.  Give him a girl with blonde hair, fair skin and blue eyes like the German immigrants who settled around here, a gal like Heidi.  Now there was girl who caught his eye.

By the next week, Colt was surprised that his boss found a couple of new cowhands in town just in time for round-up.  Since they looked like they knew the right way to swing a lasso, he was relieved to know they wouldn't be facing an uphill battle moving and branding the cattle.  

After a few days sweet-talking stubborn cows up out of ravines and from hiding in the junipers,  he came in covered with dust and muck just in time to get in line at the cook's wagon for supper.  But he was surprised to see the boss' wife and daughter had come into camp with a wagon bringing more supplies.  

"Colt!"  

He jerked around to see his boss waving him over.  "I want you and Joe to unpack this load and put it wherever the cook says."

"Yes sir," he answered smartly.  Yet he was chagrined to be found so dirty and smelling of cow  dung when Star directed them which crates were to be transferred to the cook wagon and which were for their supper.  The big pots smelled so good, it made him weak in the knees, but not as much as looking up into his boss' daughter's eyes.  Green?  His throat turned so dry he could barely swallow.  

It didn't take him and Joe long to unload the  wagon, so they booted it  back to the chow line.  He didn't know what the women had brought in the cast iron kettles, but he couldn't wait to taste it.

"What's this?" one cowboy looked down at his plate.  "I ain't never seen anything like this, but it sure smells good."

"She called it spittoodles and meaty balls, or something like that," another cowpoke added.

"If you don't want to eat it, hand it over.  I don't care what it looks like, I'm hungry enough to eat a skunk.  But this smells a whole lot better than a pole cat," a third cowhand declared.

Colt jerked his eyes up as one of the new cowboys in line started spouting off some strange language that Colt had never heard spoken before.  The boss laughed while his wife beamed and answered back in the same foreign tongue.  Anyway, the man got a double serving as his reward.  

Old Jip poked Colt in the ribs whispering loud enough to be heard by half the circle of squatted cowboys, "That's how they talk in 'talian, I 'spect.  I know the boss didn't find his 'talian wife 'round these parts, so I'm sure surprised one of the new cowboys is spouting off  like that.  Shoot, I wish I could learn me some 'talian right quick so I could earn me a second plateful."

Guffaws sounded and many chimed in their assent.

"She's Italian?  I thought she was Mexican," Colt whispered back to the old timer.  

"Can't you tell the difference?"

"I guess not.  So that's where his daughter gets her dark looks from."

Jip tried to straighten his hunched back in order to glare at him.  "Are you pulling my leg, kid?  Don't you know nuthin'?  Star is his daughter from his first wife, a Ute woman from up Colorado way."

"She's not Mexican either?"  Colt said in disbelief, asking him before thinking better of it.

"You're about as thick-headed as that cow we had to drag out of the mud today.  Just 'cause a skin color is darker than yours, don't mean it's all from south of the border.  By the way, let me see your arm.  Yep, you're as brown as any injun I've ever seen."

Glancing down, Colt was surprised to see how darkly tanned his skin was and wondered what his face looked like since he seldom saw a mirror except for shaving while looking into a small cracked one.  Even then, he never noticed how he looked. 

"I jest never took you for a stiff-necked judgmental sort, thought better of you than that.  Guess I was just dad-blamed wrong."

"I'm just surprised is all," but Colt shut his mouth since they had moved up in line holding out their tin plates.  He was also startled to see balls of meat plopped on some kind of noodles that looked like a pile of skinny worms.  It all was covered in a red sauce.  It may look strange, but the aroma was enough to make him salivate and left him wondering when his stomach had caved in.  He followed Jip over to where he squatted on the ground.  Their conversation was not over.

"This must be some kind of 'talian fixin's," Jip remarked as he stuffed a ball of meat into his mouth making him look like a chipmunk.   The man's eyes rolled back in his head.  "I don't care where it come from, but this is some kind of tasty!"  Then he started jamming his mouth full as fast as he could, hardly chewing.

Colt timidly tried to get some of the noodles on his fork's three tines, but they kept falling off.  He looked around and saw other cowboys holding their plates near their mouths and shoveling it in with sauce dripping off their chins.

"When I was a pup, my ma would never allow us to grow any tomatoes in our garden," Jip talked with his mouth full.  "She was raised up to believe they were as poisonous as the forbidden fruit in the Garden.  So before now I've always been suspicious of the tomatoes too."  Jip paused to bulge his cheek with another huge bite of a ball of meat. "But if this is poison, this is how I'd choose to die.  I don't know what the missus calls this, but it sure beats the usual slop cook makes us.  I mean a man can get right tired of the same ol' beef stew every meal out here."

Colt had to agree.  He was sucking in the noodles as best he could, only lowering his plate to fork in one of those balls there before it rolled off into the dirt.  He saw one cowboy lose his and had come near to crying before he plucked it up off the ground, picked a few little sticks and small stones off  and popped it in his mouth with a grin.

"So you think this is Italian cooking?" Colt finally managed to say between bites.  I wonder if there's enough for seconds?  I see a line started again.  He stood up as he was still slurping his food into his mouth."

"Give me a hand up, boy.  My knees don't work like they used to after a day in the saddle."

Colt did so before they both found themselves back in line.  If the boss' wife and daughter weren't here, he'd lick his plate.  However, he couldn't help running his finger around it to wipe up the remaining sauce before licking his fingers clean.  At least he had the sense to pull his bandana off and use it to wipe off his chin.  But when it was their turn, it wasn't more of the noodles offered, but a blackberry cobbler of which a heaping helping was plopped onto their plates.  Star herself was helping to serve it up.  For one second, their eyes glanced off each other.  Colt could only mumble, "Thanks."

Once again seated in the dirt, Colt asked Jip, "What were you saying about the boss' daughter, Jip?  She's an Indian?"

"Her mother's a Ute Indian, so she's a half-breed.  Before he came down here to ranch, he made his money in the mines up in the San Juan mountains, Ute country.  He told me that his wife died when his little girl was only three or four, and he needed a mother for her.  He didn't want to leave her with the tribe forever.  Anyhow, there were a whole lot of Italians hired on to work the mines for one of those big companies there.   That's where he met his second wife.  Her first husband was killed in a mine cave-in."

Colt glanced up to see Star scraping out the last of the cobbler for one forlorn cowboy who didn't get much more than a couple bites.  "I never heard about it, I guess, not that it means anything to me.  The boss warned all us cowboys off from getting anywhere near his daughter."

"I'm surprised you've never heard about them since cowboys in the bunk house can gossip worse than a whole churchyard full of old biddies," Jip remarked.

"Nope.  It's just that Jude told me she was Mexican, and like an idiot I believed him."

"Jude," the old man curled his lip.  "I know you were kind of partners with that worthless piece of work, but I'd have branded him as trouble for you from a mile away.  Me? I weren't sorry he got the boot."

"Yeah, you're probably right.  I thought I could be a Christian witness, but he wanted nothing to do with it."

"That fella named John, the one in the Good Book, warned that many deceivers are out there walking around in this ol' world, but we are to walk in the way we learnt.  I was a-feared Jude, the one on the ranch, might trip you up and lead you astray."

Colt could only nod thinking about how close he had come to slipping from the narrow way.  "Yeah, Jude was up to no good.  But I'll also admit that I haven't been going to church like I should.  My ma would be ashamed."

"Right before that Jude in the Bible , John said in his letter to some woman that he was glad to find out that some of her children were walking in truth, meaning that some weren't."

"I guess so.  I know it would kill my mama if any of her kids wandered from the straight and narrow."

"I once had a mama who was like that, believe it or not," the old cowboy added.  

Changing the subject, Colt said wistfully, "Well, I wish that the boss' wife could stay here at the roundup and keep cooking for us.  That was some good eatin'."

"I see he's having a couple of the men setting up a tent for them for the night.  I reckon they'll be headed home in the morning," Jip observed.

"I'm surprised he didn't have one of his cowpokes ride guard along side of them."

"Nah, he knows his wife's handy with a rifle," Jip stated.

"I have first watch, so I'll see you in the morning," was all Colt had to say as he strode away to go sing lullabies to the herd of cattle.

Jip had given him plenty to think about, like was he truly prejudiced?  His mama had tried to raise her children to be color-blind, he knew for a fact.   His kin fought for the North to end slavery, though here in Texas had mostly supported the South.  His grandparents had even been part of the Underground Railroad.   But he wondered, did he look down on some of his Mexican neighbors?  

He knew that a couple of the boys working the ranch were half-breeds.  It hadn't mattered to him as they were the best at breaking horses.  But if he thought about it, most he knew were as hard working as anybody else.  In fact, he didn't think any different about their Mexican cowpokes on the ranch.  He hardly ever thought about it unless they spoke Spanish, and he couldn't understand what they were saying with his limited knowledge of the language.  Shoot, he admired them for being able to speak two languages, just like the boss' wife did.  Maybe he had let Jude poison his thinking.

"Search my heart, O God, and see if there is any wicked way in me," he prayed.

The next day, he looked up from branding and saw the boss' wife and daughter leave.  But the longer he worked, the more sick to his stomach he felt.  Colt felt almost heart sick and couldn't figure out the heaviness he felt in his chest.  It wasn't about missing more of her good spaghetti.  He wasn't sure why, but he was uneasy about the women.  Finally, it got so bad that he set his branding iron down and sought out the boss.  

"Sir, for some reason I'm worried about your wife and daughter.  I was just remembering something that Jude said when he was leaving, that 'he'd show the boss that he can't treat me like this.'  I'd hate for anything bad to happen to your women and think maybe you should have sent a guard along with them while returning back to the ranch house."

The boss rubbed his chin staring at Colt.  "Think so, huh?  How 'bout you get on your horse and catch up with their wagon and escort them back home yourself.  Then when they are safe and sound, come back and help us finish our work here."

"Yes sir," Colt replied.

But the man gripped his shoulder and didn't let go of him yet.  It seemed the boss was still chewing on the idea before he finally admitted, "Maybe I'll catch up with them in a bit myself.  But you know Jude better than anybody.  If you think he'd make good on his threat, I want to make sure they are safe.  This ranch ain't worth nothing without my womenfolk.  But it will take me longer to shake loose here, so you go on ahead."

Colt's horse was still saddled, so he jumped on and pounding dirt riding out of there.  His heart was beating fast.  Maybe it was nothing.  Maybe it was silly, but his ma had told him once that when she felt a heaviness of heart, to pray and pay attention to what God was telling her to do.  Maybe that's what he was feeling."

When he came to a part of the ranch where the trail meandered near a thick stand of trees, he suddenly drew back on his reigns.  It was Jude.  He had stopped the ladies' wagon and was pointing his pistol at them.  

"Oh Lord, you led me here so, so help me please to protect these women."  He tied his horse to a tree, and crept up closer on foot through the pines with his rifle drawn.  

"Tie your ma up in the bed of the wagon then get down here with me.  Go on, now.  Do as I say or I'll have to plug a bullet in your mama to convince you I'm serious.  No man is going to treat me like your pa did.  I promised I'd make him pay, so here we are,"  Jude laughed nervously.  

Star's eyes grew big when she saw Colt creeping up on Jude, but he shook his head, so she looked back at the crazy cowboy while her mother climbed in the back.   


Her ma whispered, "Go ahead, but try to pass me back my rifle hidden with the blanket.  Act like you are trying to make the bed of the wagon more comfortable with it for me or something."  

"Hurry up.  Quit talking to your ma, and do what I said," Jude demanded.

She wound the rope loosely around her ma's shoulders making sure her hands were free to grab the rifle.  That was when quick as a snake, he grabbed her and half dragged her off into the trees.  With a pounding heart, Colt moved as swiftly as he could without being detected.

But Jude was so wired and nervous that he didn't hear Colt sneak up on him out of a stand of pines from behind.  Without warning, Colt stuck his rifle in his former friend's back, and  said in a deadly serious voice, "Put down your gun, Jude, and your hands up!"

Jude tried to turn around but Colt only poked him harder.  "Drop it now!"

"Colt, you know you wouldn't shoot me, your old pal," Jude whined.

The perverted man wavered.  Jude's gun was still in his hand but was no longer pointing at Star.   When Colt nodded, she took off like lightning running back to the wagon.  Then he heard her yell, "Yee haw!" as she surely slapped the reigns on the horses' backs making them break into a run.  He quickly glanced over and saw her ma had pulled out her rifle and  was pointing it back at the crazed man.

However in that split second, Jude raised his pistol aiming once again at the fleeing women, Colt shot him in the arm before he could think twice.

Jude bellowed like a mad mama cow.  "You shouldn't have done that, Colt.  I'll get you back for that."  But he had dropped his pistol and fell to his knees grabbing his arm.


Just then the boss came pounding up yelling, are my girls alright?"

"Yeah, I happened on them at the right moment.  This coward had drawn his gun on the women.   But maybe you can hand me your rope so I can tie him up before I take him to the sheriff in town."  Colt kicked  Jude's pistol away out of his reach.

"I think I'd like the privilege of trying up this skunk myself.  You just make sure both holsters are empty, and that he doesn't have a knife in his boot."

While he frisked him, the man hollered, "Can't you see I'm bleeding here?  I need a doctor."

Colt jerked Jude's wounded arm up and checked the back of it.  "Be thankful that the bullet went clear through and the doctor won't have to dig it out for you," he said unsympathetically while dropping the arm.  Nevertheless, he used  the man's bandana to tie around his arm to staunch the bleeding.  All the while, the worthless man yelled every swear word ever known to mankind.  

Colt finally untied his own bandana and stuffed it the vile man's mouth. "Quit yer belly-aching and shut up, Jude.  You better pray and ask God to forgive your bitter, black heart."

The boss worked his jaw before saying, "I don't know how to thank you, Colt.  I owe you for saving my women."

"I'm glad I obeyed God's nudging.  I'd never felt something like that before, but I just couldn't shrug it off as nothing."

"I'm sure glad you did.  I'd appreciate it if you could take the despicable man and hand him over to the sheriff while I go check on my girls."

"Just  give me a minute to go back and get my horse,"  Colt replied.

"If he gives me any trouble, I'll just throw him across his saddle like the dead man he's going to be," the boss quipped leading up the man's nearby horse."

Finally the boss got Jude's uncooperative hide on the horse.  Just to be extra sure he couldn't get loose, the boss tied his hands to the saddle horn.


Even with a cloth stuffed in his mouth, Jude moaned and groaned and hollered the whole ride into town, though muffled.  Colt ignored him as much as he could and was extremely relieved to hand him over and give his statement to the sheriff.  He was never so relieved to be riding away from town.  He even ignored some gal waving at him, figuring later it might have been Heidi.  When he got back to the roundup, he was exhausted.  He took the proffered stew and sank to the ground anxious to hit the hay.

"Where'd you go like a wet cat streaking away?  But when the boss lit out right after you, I got a tad worried," Jip wondered.

"Jude.  He tried to assault the boss' family.  I just had a niggling fear that something might happen remembering what the skunk had said the day the boss kicked him off the ranch.  Thankfully I got there in time."

Jip whistled.  "If you weren't a God-fearing man, they wouldn't have been spared."  He pounded Colt on the back until his stew slopped over to drip on his boots.

"Hey there, watch what yer doing!"

Jip only chortled, "You sure suddenly made yourself the top dog of the pack.  Rescuing his women?  There's nothin' the man gots to think of more highly than that!'

Colt shrugged.  "I just couldn't ignore the heaviness in my gut that I felt after they left."  He lowered his voice.  "It was just plain weird, Jip.  I've never felt something like that, but had heard my ma talk about it happening to her before."

The old cowboy kept chuckling and looking over at him.  "In all my live-long days, I've never seen something like this.  You're a hero, you know."

Colt snorted.  "Hardly.  I wanted to plug him dead, but just shot Jude in his shooting arm before he could pull the trigger."

Jip shook his head in disbelief.  "It jist gets better and better.  So what did you do with that polecat?"

"The boss showed up with some rope.  Then I took him in to the sheriff before I came back here.  I'm beat."

Finally Jip let him eat.  But before he left to find a soft patch of grass on which to lay his bedroll, he heard the old cowboy quote, "Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good.  He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God."  Must be more of that book of John he's quoting again, was his last thought before falling asleep.

The boss rode up when Colt was pouring his coffee the next morning.  The man looked at him approvingly as he crossed his arms across the saddle while bending forward.  

"Get him locked up?"

"Sure did."

"Good.  We'll talk about this some more when we get back to the ranch."

But when the roundup was over, it was Sunday.  Colt washed up, shaved and rode into town feeling as frisky as a calf freed from branding.   He grinned real big when he saw Heidi entering the church ahead of him.  She looked over her shoulder and smiled flirtatiously back at him.  Colt patted his pocket thick with money he'd earned at payday thinking perhaps he could rent a buggy after church and invite Heidi for a ride.

The cowboys and other single men sat in the back where their squirming was out of sight of most of the matrons sitting primly forward.  Yet, there were still those with eyes in the back of their heads who cleared their throats meaningfully.  Colt squeezed in between Joe and old Jip.  The singing was enthusiastic, even from the bases and tenors on the back row.   He tried to keep his mind on the sermon, but his eyes kept drifting over to that wheat blonde hair plaited prettily just so.  

When the pastor finished up with the benediction from Jip's favorite, the book of Jude, the old man poked him in the ribs to make sure Colt was listening. "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.  Amen."

Jip was blissfully contemplating those last verses, when Colt stepped around him and fought his way upstream to find Miss Heidi at the front of the church.  A half circle of young women were surrounding Star speaking in scornful tones, "We heard about the attack, Star,"  Miss Heidi said.  "Weren't you scared, or was he one of your cowpoke boyfriends meeting up with you in the woods?  Who would have thought Jude  preferred half-breeds?  Imagine that." 

Colt was shocked to hear those mocking taunts coming from his favored Heidi, making him sick to his stomach.  Nevertheless, he pushed forward to reach Star almost feeling as protective as when Jude was looking down his barrel at her.

"Excuse me ladies," he said when he reached them.

"Colt!  How are you?  We heard how brave you were capturing Jude this past week."  

It was Heidi purring as she cozied up and put her hand on his arm while gazing up at him adoringly.  If it had been a few minutes earlier, he might have relished it.  But now?  He could only look with disgust at her while noticing a calculating, even cruel gleam in her eye disguised by her sickeningly sweet smile.  

Instead, he removed her hand and stepped forward to take Star gently by the arm.  "Can I escort you out to your family, miss?"

She looked up at him, green eyes pooling with tears, saying, "Yes, please." Her voice was so soft he could barely hear her.  Once away from the crush of others cramming the aisle, he kept her hand in the crook of his arm and led her outside.

They both overheard the callous whispering behind them.  He just tucked her up more tightly against him.  When he glanced down, Colt saw her chin bravely lift in an almost regal manner.

Once out in the churchyard, he delivered her to her father, but not before saying words for her ear only.  "That is not how Christians should act.  I'm ashamed of them.  If they were men, I would call them out."

Star only looked up at him with open-mouth wonder while her father looked back and forth between them.

"Colt, the wife and I would like to ask you to join us for our Sunday dinner.  We wish to show you our deepest gratitude."

"Is it meatballs and noodles," he grinned?

Star's mother laughed, "No, but I can guarantee you won't go hungry."

Even the boss chuckled, but Star could only shyly tilt one corner of her mouth up though sadness was still in her eyes.

If he was not mistaken, the huffing he heard going by was that of a certain blonde woman with her plaits done just so, but Colt didn't bother to look.  He suddenly found himself admiring the gleam of sunshine across glistening black hair tied back with a simple blue ribbon.  When he looked up, the boss was assaying him making Colt come near to blushing, something he'd never done before in his life!

The Sunday dinner reminded him so much of what it was like around his ma's table.  He savored it nearly as much as the food.

  

"So, what brought you out West, Colt?" the boss's wife asked.

"My oldest brother got the farm after my pa died.  There wasn't much need for all us boys to stick around.  I'd just be another mouth to feed.  So since I knew he'd take good care of my ma, I headed to Texas."

"I know all about younger sons," the boss replied.  "I took off to mine in Colorado."

They politely didn't dig into his past too deeply, and allowed him to just eat in peace.  Colt hadn't enjoyed such a fine time since he left home.  Though he tried, he'd not been able to keep from glancing over at a pair of green eyes that quickly hid behind dark lashes whenever she caught him looking.  He kind of got a kick out of the way she pinked up every time it happened though.  It kept him grinning most of the next day though Jip harassed him with teasing.

Chores were always a little lighter after roundup, so most caught up with things needing doing around the ranch.  Still, it surprised Colt to hear the boss call his name.

"Colt?"

He walked out of the barn into the fall sunshine.  "I'm here, sir."

The man strode over to him and grabbed his shoulder like he usually did to his men.  It probably meant pay close attention, Colt figured.

"I need you to ride into town with Star.  I understand that there are some who can be mighty unkind to my daughter.  Though she usually won't tell us, she  did mention how you stood up for her last Sunday in church.  It saddens our hearts that she hates to go anywhere, always afraid of snide remarks.  But with you along, I think she'd be willing."

Colt could have had a puny east wind knock him over.  "Yes, sir.  I'll go saddle her horse and mine."

The boss lowered his voice and asked, "Was it bad, Colt?  It's like an arrow to my heart every time some fool hurts her."

"I just heard some mean girl talk after church.  It surprised me, 'cause I had thought  better of them, of her.  Now, I wouldn't give them the time of day."

"That's what I thought.  But it's like a burr under her saddle making her buck every time we go to town.  It's hard enough getting her to church, but after  this I don't know if we  can.  Maybe we'll just have family worship here.  But a gal's got to pick out her own fabric, thread, ribbons and such.  Her mama is making her do this.  We hope she'll be more willing if you take her."

He could only nod but was once again furious with Heidi and her friends.  The ride was mostly quiet with only exclamations over the changing colors in a few of the trees or the flit of a bird across their path.   When they startled a flock of wild turkeys, Colt was able to whip his rifle out and shoot a Tom, a welcome gift for the boss' Thanksgiving table.  He tied it on his saddle.

Of course, it couldn't have been worse timing when they walked in the mercantile only to run into Heidi.  The curl of her lip displayed an unchanged heart as well as her look of disdain.   

"Well look who the cat dragged in," she snarled before she noticed Colt joining Star. 

"Yeah, Miss Star convinced me I needed a trip to town, though I wouldn't say that she dragged me here," he quipped with a smirk before putting his hand on the small of Star's back protectively.  He even walked with her over to the bolts of fabric, something he'd never done before, not even with his mother.  

Heidi stiffened and swirled her skirt out the door.  

"Is it just me or is it suddenly nicer in here?" Colt grinned.

Star looked up at him startled, but smiled back.  "Somehow I find it more pleasant shopping now."  Then she tucked her head down examining a brown sprigged cotton before saying, "Thank you, Colt, for standing up for me again.  I know you had favored her."

"Ancient history now," he responded, once again questioning what he had ever seen in the gal.
"I find myself preferring dark hair over blonde these days anyway."

She jerked her head up to stare at him warily in disbelief.

He only met her gaze and willed her to believe him.  When she turned pink under her dusky skin, it made her glow.  Finally, he pulled his eyes away to look down at a red calico and unrolled it.  "This would look nice with your coloring."

She fingered it timidly.  "I like it."

"Me too," he smiled with a swell of satisfaction in his chest.

By the time they arrived back at the ranch, Colt had shared more of himself with Star than he'd ever spoken of with anyone else, like how he bristled under his oldest brother bossing him around.  He loved his mama, but decided every man needed to find his own way.  Likewise, she revealed the painful childhood growing up here being ostracized as a half-breed.  

Colt was incensed and found his fists tightened on his reigns.  His jaw was taunt as spat through gritted teeth, "I wish I could pull a few tail feathers out of some of their bustles."

Star shrugged and replied, "It's why I love my pa and step-mother.  They love me unconditionally."

"It's what you deserve and more," he growled.  

She laughed as he helped her down from her horse though he knew she was perfectly able to do so without his help.  Her parents stood waiting on the porch.

"Say, Colt, looks like you've brought us a turkey.  Jip shot a couple for the bunkhouse, but I thought I'd have to go beat the bushes for our own Thanksgiving dinner.  You know we'll expect you now to join us."

"Yes sir," he grinned.  "I'd be honored."

When that morning came, he washed up, dressed in a pair of clean jeans and shirt, wiped his boots and beat the dust off his hat before striding to the big house.  His stomach rolled over thinking of the honor bestowed on him.  

Star met him out on the porch wearing her new dress.

"You certainly sewed that up in a hurry.  It looks prettier on you than I had even imagined."

She blushed before replying, "Thank you.  My ma helped."

When she turned to go inside, his hand once again found its place at the small of her back as natural as could be.

Once inside, he hung his hat and shook the boss' hand who said, "Come in my office, Colt, while the women finish up preparing our dinner.  There's something I want to ask you."

"Sir?"  

Once the door shut, his boss went and sat behind his desk.  He leaned forward resting his elbows on it while tenting his fingers over his chin as he stared intensely at Colt.   

"I want to know your intentions towards my daughter," the man shocked him by saying such a thing.

"Sir?" Colt sputtered again.

"I mean, if you have no interest in her, then I'm mistaken.  However, the last thing I want you to do is to toy with her feelings.  You have to know that she admires you.  You are her hero, Colt."

"Truly?"  But one glance at her father assured him that his boss was as serious as sin.

He cleared his throat and stammered, "I never thought much of it before since I rarely had any call to get to know her.  But I must admit that this past couple of weeks, I've come to admire her.  But being your daughter, I've know to steer clear of her with no expectations."

"I'm not asking you to do that anymore.  If it hadn't been for you, I might not have my wife and daughter here unharmed today because of what that worm Jude had plotted.   I can never thank you enough, especially on this holiday.  You've proved yourself to be an honorable man, Colt, one I could even trust my ranch to."

The humble cowpoke's eyes grew round.  "Sir?"  He knew he kept stammering, but didn't know how to stop.

"Well, I'm asking you again, what are your intentions toward my daughter?"

Colt looked down scuffing his boot in the worn carpet before meeting the man's eyes.  "I have to say that I've recently come to see her in a new light such as appreciating her courage in spite of the abuse she's had to endure.  It's not just that she's a pretty little thing, but that she has a purer heart than anyone I've ever met before.  Though I haven't dared give it much countenance, I do find myself rather drawn to her."  He looked up to see the man sigh looking satisfied.

"Good.  You have my blessing to pursue my daughter as long as she wishes it."

"Truly?"

"Well, do you wish to pursue her, Colt?"

"I do, sir."  Colt was surprised at himself but couldn't help grinning in spite of his heart flopping like a fish landed on a bank.  He was hooked alright and realized he didn't mind a bit.

Just then there was a knock on the door as Star called, "Dinner's ready."

As they stepped out, Colt could only find himself lost in her curious gaze.

"Is everything alright?  Did my pa say something to stir you up?" she whispered.

"You might say that, Miss Star.  But I've never felt better about being stirred up in my whole life.  Jip likes to quote the Good Book where it says in John, 'Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.' That's kind of a pretty good Scripture for Thanksgiving, don't you think?  In fact, I've never felt my soul prospering better than it is right now."

She looked up with her head cocked trying to read his expression, but was perplexed.  Yet Colt was not confused at all.  When he went after something he wanted, he knew how to swing a lasso to catch what he pursued.  This was one thing he was beginning to be convinced of: he was going to pursue a little miss who was half Ute Indian and half white, a gal who had an Italian mother and lived on a ranch among Apaches and Mexicans, Italians and crusty ol' cowboys near a community of German settlers.  He grabbed her hand, squeezed it and did not let it go.  After all, a more grateful man couldn't be found across the wide open space of Texas this Thanksgiving Day.

"Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health

and that all may go well with you,

even as your soul is getting along well."

III John verse 2