The chair wobbled back and forth as Kitty stood carefully on her tiptoes and threw another string of popcorn around the tree. "Doc, I need the star." Doc handed her a cut out tin star and she set it at the top, then took the old man's hand as she descended. They stood back to admire the effect as Matt came in.
"Kitty, I think that's the most beautiful tree I've ever seen," said the marshal.
Kitty beamed at him. "Why, thank you, Matt. Buy you a drink?"
Matt smiled back. "I could use something to keep me warm." She raised her eyebrows and he grinned wickedly.
Doc ran his hand over his face. "When you have a minute, Kitty, I could use a drink too."
She laughed. "Sure, Doc." They sat at their favorite table and Sam brought a bottle and glasses and poured drinks all round. "Join us, Sam."
The bartender smiled. "Well, thank you, Miss Kitty." He poured himself a drink and sat down at the table. "What are we drinking to?"
Doc grumbled, "How about Festus not coming back until spring?"
Kitty said reprovingly, "Doc, that's not nice."
"Not nice!" Doc regarded Kitty sternly. "I suppose you think it's nice that he went chasing down to Texas so close to Christmas! He knows how busy things get around here during the holidays, but does he care? No, he goes away and doesn't come back when he's supposed to."
Matt and Kitty exchanged a look and the marshal spoke reassuringly. "Well, Doc, he promised to be back by Christmas Eve and that's still a week away."
"I know what day it is! I'm just pointing out that Festus probably didn't have much of a reason to go in the first place and he should have been back by now in the second place. No sense of responsibility, that's the problem."
Kitty tried. "Doc, I'm sure that Festus is all right."
Doc glared. "Well, of course he's all right. He's a stubborn mule who just enjoys annoying the people around him. You know what? I don't want to talk about him anymore. I don't even want to THINK about him anymore!" The old man smiled suddenly and winked at her. "I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to drink this good whiskey with my friends and just wait. You'll see, if you're handing out free drinks, he'll probably come in the door any minute."
But he didn't.