Milt chuckled at the scene that met his eyes. An eight year old Tommy was pretending to fish off the sofa with his new fishing pole.
"I think this was my favorite Christmas present ever," said the ghost.
"Yeah, that was a great pole. We sure did get a lot of use out of it."
"It wasn't the pole Dad, it was all the time I got to spend with you. Everything you taught me. They were the best times of my life."
Nancy walked in then and called the little family to dinner.
Tears sprang to his eyes as Milt saw his wife… young, happy and healthy. He watched himself and Nancy and Tommy sit down and heard Nancy start to say grace.
"It's time to go," said the ghost.
"No, we just got here, can't we stay awhile more?"
"I could show you lots of other Christmases, and every one would be happy. All through my childhood. But, let's see another quite memorable one..."
ooOoo
And suddenly they were outside, in front of the garage. The vette was sitting in its usual place but the hood was dented. Milt could hear his past self yelling.
"You could've been killed! Of all the stupid, lame-brained stunts! I thought you had more brains than that! What were you thinking?" he yelled in a voice that was very similar to the one he'd used so often with McCormick.
Silence.
"Well?"
"All the guys were doing it Dad…" the excuse petered out, apparently even Tommy knew it was a terrible excuse.
"Well, it'll be a long time before you drive a car again Tom, any car."
"I'm sorry Dad," said the boy.
"Go to your room," his father ordered.
After Tommy left, Nancy appeared at Milt's side.
"Christmas is tomorrow Milt," she whispered.
"I won't be in a Christmas frame of mind by tomorrow. Let's celebrate it the day after tomorrow."
"Oh Milt, do you really think we need to do that?"
"He's 16 years old Nancy. He needs to accept the consequences of his actions. Christmas a day late is a hell of a lot better than Christmas in jail."
"Do you want me to tell him?"
"Nope. I'll tell him."
"That was a strange Christmas for me Dad. But even though Christmas was delayed, and you were really angry, I always felt loved. I knew you were upset because I could've been hurt, and I knew deep down that it was a stupid thing to do."
"It was hard to give you that punishment. I was really looking forward to teaching you to shoot."
"When you gave me the rifle the day after Christmas, I knew all was forgiven. And target practice with you was another one of my best memories."
"I've always loved you Tommy, I haven't always known how to show it..."
"We have to go…"