O Holy Night, a bonanza fanfic

O Holy Night!

Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

In honour of anybody who has ever written, performed in, coached kids through, sewn costumes for or dealt with the aftermath of a nativity play. They rarely go to script and have often provided some hilarious moments – usually unintended. As they say in showbiz, never work with kids or animals!

Joe tugged at the accursed string tie and tried to stop fidgeting beside his father. The ride into Virginia City had been unusually quiet as Joe had tried protesting one last time for good measure that he was too old for the school nativity pageant. Ben would have none of it and had chastised his youngest son into compliance by reminding him that he owed Miss Jones his very best efforts.

"Joseph, your teacher hasn't forgotten last year."

"Or the year before," Adam muttered to Hoss as they rode alongside the wagon. Hoss rolled his eyes and had to look away to stifle a laugh.

The words echoed in Joe's thoughts and he stared at his polished boots and tried to contain a groan. Nobody in the whole of Virginia City had forgotten last year! Least of all the ladies from the church guild. Last year was the reason that Joe had been relegated to a narrator's role instead of an acting part this year. It suited Joe just fine that he was done with putting on those dumb kids' costumes that Miss Jones seemed to gleefully rustle up out of their nightshirts and tablecloths. Still, a string tie was a little more than he'd bargained for in terms of being dressed enough, but Pa had insisted. And when Pa insisted, there was no point arguing. If he had known what Miss Jones had in mind for him and Mitch, he would have been perfectly happy with a string tie and polished boots. And probably would have bolted into the woods before Pa could catch him.

As Ben pulled the wagon in alongside the building, Joe was pleased to see the Devlin's buggy not too far off up the road. At least he had Mitch to stand alongside him as he endured the embarrassment, hopefully for the last time. Next year he planned to be all done with school and that would mean somebody else would have to fill Miss Jones' places in her annual nativity pageant.

It didn't take long to get the baskets from the back of the wagon and Hoss was only too eager to get them inside to join the pre-nativity supper. Hop Sing had outdone himself and Joe had already decided it would be the only good part of the night. He walked along the length of the trestle tables and picked at various goodies while Mitch looked equally subdued. As the oldest two students in the school, Miss Jones had made a point of reminding them both that she was expecting exemplary behaviour from them and she would settle for nothing less. The fact she felt the need to reinforce that message multiple times was not lost on either of them. She still hadn't forgiven them or at least had not forgotten last year's humiliating moment of glory.

Eventually it was time for the ladies to round up the children and get them into their costumes while the men went about setting out seats in the open area. A makeshift curtain had been rigged across on a rope to make a designated stage area and two crates had been set up for the narrators to stand on.

Adam and Hoss settled themselves in to a row and kept a space ready for their father to sit in when he was done getting Joe sorted.

"You reckon Pa's givin' Little Joe a last minute reminder to behave himself?" Hoss nodded towards the outer room that served as the boys' dressing room.

"I still can't believe Miss Jones thought it was a good idea to make Joe and Mitch into angels! Of all things."

Hoss caught the glint of a laugh in his brother's eyes and laughed to himself.

"Maybe she was hopin' it'd rub off on 'em!"

"Hmmm." Adam crossed his arms and leaned back into his seat. "We'll soon see."

The look on his older brother's face told Hoss that he was less than convinced.

As Ben hurried back to his seat, the rest of the families were getting settled and Miss Jones made her way out to the front of the curtain. She cleared her throat and looked around as the audience began to quieten.

"Thank you ladies and gentlemen for coming along tonight to celebrate our nativity pageant with us. The children have been working hard to prepare their parts and are very excited to share this blessed story with you all."

She paused and waited as Mitch and Joe appeared from the back of the room. Both boys were draped in white fabric with cords wrapped around their waists. Wings fashioned from wire and cloth were covered with white chicken feathers and as the boys solemnly walked up the centre aisle, they left a random trail of feathers behind them. Both boys refused to make eye contact with anybody and Hoss chewed on his lower lip as he watched Joe. His usually chipper little brother looked like he wanted to bolt from the room. The twisted wire halo on each boy's head was the final ironic touch. Joe hadn't said anything about having to wear a costume and he glanced at Adam who just smiled that irritating little smile that said he knew something that others didn't. Hoss narrowed his eyes at his older brother and Adam just raised a questioning eyebrow.

"You knew Miss Jones had them getups for those two?"

Adam shrugged slightly in a very non-committal way, which to Hoss, was enough to prove his brother's guilt.

"Call it payback," he whispered.

As Joe and Mitch climbed up onto the crates, each boy still hadn't looked up and Miss Jones cleared her throat. They glanced at each other before finally facing the audience. Joe dared not look at his brothers and possibly see laughter on their faces, so he looked over the heads of those closest and stared at the people in the back row. He wasn't sure, but he thought they might have been Timmy Olsen's folks. Timmy had only been in school for the past three weeks since his family had just arrived in town. Timmy was barely just gone six and his first day of school had not gone well. He was dressed in clothes that were clearly too small and he looked kind of tatty around the edges. Suzy Jackson had taken an instant dislike to him and made it very plain what she thought of him. At the ripe old age of eleven, Suzy had already learned that money brought her a measure of power and she was quickly learning how to wield it. When Miss Jones had first suggested that Eleanor Clark would take the role of Mary in the nativity pageant, Suzy had somehow managed to get Eleanor to convince their teacher that Suzy would be a much better Mary. After all, it was the staring role and who better to star than her?

Joe had his suspicions about how Suzy had pulled that off, but Eleanor wasn't talking other than to say that she was quite happy being a backup angel in the heavenly host that would appear to the shepherds. Her wistful looks at Suzy's costume told another story.

Things were moving along reasonably well with only two children needing a whispered prompt from Miss Jones and Joe and Mitch behaving as respectable angels and narrating the story in turns. Abigail was beginning to think that just maybe this year would be different and her adaptation of the gospel would be a success. It might have been if Timmy's mother had not tried to help her son look his best for the pageant and allowed him to wear his everyday boots. Since he had only been at the school for such a short time, it was too late to give him a speaking part so Abigail had put him in charge of one side of the curtain. Each time a scene changed, Timmy and Mark Allen would pull the curtains across and stand guard on them until it was time to pull them back again, revealing the next scene.

If Timmy had just worn his usual boots, the scene may have ended uneventfully. But Margie Olsen had insisted that Timmy's boots were too shabby and made him wear his older cousin's new boots after pleading with the boy's mother to be allowed to borrow them. They had been polished and shone as best as they could, but they were two sizes too big, even with extra socks stuffed into the toes. As Suzy prepared for her big moment of presenting the newborn child and stood behind the curtain, waiting in anticipation, Timmy stumbled on one of his boots and tripped, headfirst, into the curtain. He tried to right himself, but his hands met flimsy material and he plunged straight through it. Suzy shrieked in righteous indignation as Timmy pushed her backwards and the whole curtain came down on top of her and her Joseph. She kicked and shouted as she tried to crawl out from under the curtain and only managed to entangle herself further. Paul Clark had known that somehow Suzy had stolen his sister's role as Mary and was only too pleased to stand on the edge of the curtain, along with the rest of the lowly shepherds, thereby preventing Suzy's escape.

Timmy pulled himself upright and scooted off the top of the curtain as quickly as he could. He watched in horror as Suzy finally crawled out from under the curtain and she began to scream and point her finger at him. Her hair was dishevelled and the usually pristine Suzy looked like some kind of wild thing coming at him. She flung the baby Jesus ragdoll to the floor as she marched towards him, oblivious of the audience still watching in fascinated horror.

Before she could reach him, Timmy turned and bolted for the door with tears of shame streaming down his face. Behind him, chaos had taken over as several of the smaller children had begun to cry and Abigail Jones looked like she may have a fit of the vapours. Parents hurried forward to settle things down and Ben was too busy trying to help untangle the shredded curtain to see his youngest son had also left the room, along with his fellow angel.

Mitch and Joe weren't certain, but it was a fair bet that Timmy would run to his usual hiding place. In the few short weeks he had been in town, he had attracted the attention of two of the older boys and more than once he'd been seen running towards the livery stable. It was big enough in the loft for one small boy to stay well hidden.

The last few days had seen the town dusted with just enough snow to create a muddy sludge and by the time they made it to the livery, both Joe and Mitch were well and truly splattered with mud. They pulled up short as they heard the sound of sobbing coming from the upper loft and with a silent nod of agreement, they began to climb up to where Timmy was hiding. When he spotted them coming, he tried to burrow into the grain sacks and ignore them. When that didn't work and it was clear they weren't going anywhere, he tried kicking them. Both boys had enough experience around horses to easily sidestep the kicks and they settled themselves on either side of the distraught little boy.

"Go 'way!"

"Nope. We ain't leavin' you out here in the cold." Joe was beginning to wish he'd brought along a jacket.

"Well, I ain't never goin' back in there."

"Nobody said you had to, did they, Joe?"

"Nope. Nobody did."

Timmy rubbed a fist across his face and tried valiantly to stop his tears. Neither boy had paid him much nevermind, but neither of them had been mean to him either. Unlike his older cousin, who looked down his nose at his poor kinfolk and taunted the child with awful names.

"She's really gonna hate me now!"

"Who? Miss Jones?"

"Suzy! She said … she said … I'm just a dumb little poor kid. And now I …" Timmy sucked in a gulp of air as he considered what lay ahead of him.

"Don't you worry none about Suzy. Besides, I think I still hold the record for the most biggest disaster in one of Miss Jones' nativities." Joe tried to smile at Timmy as the little boy frowned at the idea.

"Can't be as bad as what I just did."

"You wanna bet?" Mitch laughed as Joe scowled at him.

Timmy looked between the two boys and shook his head. He didn't have anything to bet with and besides, his papa would tan him if he knew he was making bets.

"Last year, I managed to set everything on fire."

"What?" Timmy's eyes grew rounder as he stared at Joe's face. There was no trace of a smile.

"Well … Miss Jones thought it would be a good idea for me to play Joseph. She said since it was my name, I'd be a natural for the part. Except I didn't want to be Joseph. I wanted to be a shepherd since they got to bring the lambs in."

Mitch laughed as he recalled how Miss Jones had given his best friend a stern lecture on playing his role with enthusiasm since it was such a major part. She had rambled about Adam's stage presence when he quoted poetry and surely something of his brother had rubbed off on him. Joe then explained how he wanted to argue with her that he didn't have any such presence, but his pa had told him to do as he was told and play the role as his teacher asked. He had been a little too eager with picking up straw to fill up the manger while Mary's back was turned and she was busy finding the baby Jesus doll that was hidden under her shawl. Joe was enthusiastically tossing the hay across the stage when several bits came too close to the angels holding candles and well … Mitch laughed as he told Timmy that somehow the play ended a bit sooner than the gospel version.

"Miss Jones said I nearly burned the place down."

"Well, it weren't gonna come to that since Sherriff Coffee threw that bucket of water over everything."

"And everyone!" Joe looked at Mitch and laughed as they recalled the startled ladies from the church guild who had pride of place in the front row. Both boys could still hear their shrieks as the freezing trough water splattered over each of them.

As the two of them continued to regale Timmy with several more stories of how they had crossed over onto Miss jones' bad side and lived to tell the tale, they were finally interrupted by voices below them. Joe peeked over the side of the loft to see a small crowd gathered below them. His father's relieved face was better than the face he had seen last year. That face didn't bear remembering.

"Son, why don't you bring Timmy down here? His folks are worried about him."

It took a little coaxing, but finally all three boys were out of the loft and Timmy was enveloped in his mother's arms as she stroked his hair and plucked bits of straw from it.

Joe and Mitch stood to one side and Hoss nudged at Joe's elbow. "Don't let Miss Jones see what you two done to them purty costumes of hers. She ain't gonna be happy."

Adam leaned against the railing and tried not to laugh. Two more bedraggled-looking angels did not exist. He'd wondered aloud on the way to town about his brother playing an angel and Joe hadn't disappointed him. Their wings had been discarded on the road outside the hall and would clearly never be used again. The robes would take some serious laundering if they were ever going to be white again. Nope, Joe looked exactly how Adam had first envisaged him as an angel - less than squeaky clean and with no halo to be found.

The ride home from town was even more subdued than the ride in as Joe huddled under a blanket and pretended to be asleep. It was easier than joining the conversation and reliving the whole horrible mess.

"That poor little tyke couldn't help trippin' over them huge boots. What was his mama thinkin' makin' him wear them?'

Ben turned towards his middle son as Hoss rode along beside the wagon.

"She was trying to put her son in the best she could manage. It was just unfortunate that it went the way it did. The Olsens have had a hard time of it in recent months and money is very tight."

"Is that why you told her they were invited to Christmas dinner tomorrow night?" Hoss had heard his father asking, but wasn't sure of the outcome.

"Well, she was reluctant to take what they thought was charity, but it seems that Adam managed to charm her and Timmy's pa into saying yes. They'll be arriving by four."

The group rode on in silence for a while longer until Hoss began to laugh. At first, it was a muffled noise as he buried his nose in his scarf, but it quickly grew into a full belly laugh.

"What's so funny?" Adam watched as Hoss struggled to hold himself upright in the saddle.

"I was just thinkin'. Joe and Mitch forgot one story that we'll have to share with the Olsens tomorrow."

Joe huddled under the blanket, his fists balling together as he wondered just what his older brother could be talking about.

"Remember little brother's first nativity?" *

Adam glanced at his father's face, knowing that day was still firmly set in all of their memories. It was a story he and Hoss enjoyed teasing Joe with from time to time.

"Could we ever forget?" Ben had an inkling his youngest son was awake under the blanket and his suspicion was confirmed as Joe shot upright, looking indignantly around at the trio.

"I was a baby!"

Hoss guffawed at his brother's face while Adam turned aside to avoid eye contact.

"Your mother thought it was a good idea." Ben patted Joe's arm, trying to settle his son before things turned the wrong way. "And she said that with Adam's help, all's well that ends well."

"You know, I can't hear that song without thinkin' on Little Joe's hollerin' in front of all them important folks!"

Hoss laughed again as Joe scowled at him. Before his brother could say anything further, Adam's rich, deep voice carried over the crisp night air.

"Hark, the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king."

Soon another voice joined in and another and even Joe finally found himself singing the beautiful carol as the horses made their way home.

On the outer edge of town, another family was getting ready for bed after a long and eventful night. Margie tucked the blanket up around Timmy's chin and leaned forward to kiss her son on the forehead. His eyes gleamed with laughter as he looked up at her.

"Mama, did you know what Hoss did one time in his nativity pageant?"

Margie sat back and tried to think of Hoss being small enough to be in a school play.

"No, but I'm sure you will tell me, darling." They had stood under the loft and listened for some time before making their presence known as Joe and Mitch had tried to cheer her son up with their own tales of disaster.

"Joe said that when Hoss was in his pageant, he was a shepherd. His dog had just had pups and Hoss brought the littlest one of them with him, inside his jacket. His pa didn't know and he didn't think anyone would see it, 'cause it was so little. Joe said that the puppy got loose and peed on the floor, right by the manger. When they tried to catch the puppy, it ran off and Hoss slipped over on the floor and hurt his nose. Joe said shepherds ain't supposed to have bloody noses and Hoss had to go and sit off the side of the stage with a bag of snow on his nose."

"Did Hoss get his puppy back?"

Timmy frowned at his mother's question.

"I don't know. Joe didn't say that bit."

"Well, perhaps you can ask Hoss tomorrow. After all, some things are more important than others."

Once again, Margie leaned forward and kissed her son goodnight.

After she pulled the door closed behind her, she leaned against it and smiled. As she thought on all the things that they had heard and seen since arriving in the town with barely two coins to rub together and a vague promise of a fresh start, she smiled as she recalled the words they had overheard in the livery. Two boys, who were clearly no angels, in spite of their attire, had taken her son under their wings and given him hope. On this holy night, of all nights, hope was a gift she would treasure.

Hope is a gift and as I was writing this, I was listening to O Holy Night. It is my favourite Christmas carol. I've included a link to one beautiful version of it, sung by Josh Groban.

www. youtube watch?v=4Zh-yR0pbmU (take out the spaces)

May your Christmas be blessed and your heart be full.

Merry Christmas

Joyeux Noël

Fröhliche Weihnachten

Feliz Navidad

God jul

Feliz Natal

Any other language of members that I have missed!

Just for one final laugh – see what happens when roles are reversed!