Chapter Nine
Darkness came early in winter. When the sun would set in the middle of June, hard workers such as Slim and Jess often were still sweating with the strain and toil of a long day's labor. As the days inched towards the end of December, the same setting sun would find these two men by the fireplace, the day's work already done. It should have been the same on this evening, made even more peaceable that it was Christmas Eve, but the chairs in front of the fireplace remained empty. Slim and Jess weren't home, yet outside, the storm still raged on.
"Aunt Daisy, it's getting dark out. What if Slim and Jess can't make it home?" Mike turned away from the snow splattered window where he'd been pressed against for the past two hours to look at Daisy, feeling as low as he'd felt in many months. "Where do you think they are?"
"Don't be afraid, Mike," Daisy patted her lap, instructing the boy to step away from the window and come to her. When he stepped up to her side, she wrapped her arms around him, and even though he was too big to curl up on her lap, he leaned close to her, putting his head on her shoulder. "Slim and Jess know what to do in all kinds of circumstances, including this storm. Most likely they decided to wait the storm out in town for the night and if that's the case, they are just as safe and snug as we are. Sheriff Cory will probably lasso them into being a part of the nativity scene in the morning, perhaps even be able to talk Jess into putting on some angel wings."
"Jess as an angel. Now that'd be a somethin' to see," Mike chuckled and then his eyes dropped down, the fearful expression returning to his face. "But what if they started home before the storm hit? Then they wouldn't be safe in Laramie at all, but out there somewhere."
"Well," Daisy answered, pausing before she continued, since this was exactly what she feared as well. "If Slim and Jess are out in the thick of all that wind and snow, they'll stay together and find shelter. They won't recklessly risk their lives." Even as Daisy spoke those words to encourage Mike, she wasn't sure she believed them. Slim and Jess, especially Jess, seemed to find a thrill in taking a wild risk. She patted Mike's arm and sighed gently as she added, "in town or in the snow, either way, they'll get home to us as soon as they can."
"But Aunt Daisy," Mike said, not wanting it to sound like he was whining, but he had to continue to implore. "But if they don't come home for tomorrow, there won't be any Christmas."
"It'll still be Christmas, Mike," Daisy said softly, hoping he would understand the meaning of her words.
"But how?" Mike asked, the question mark seemed to hang in the air before he added, "there'll be no presents, no fun, no dinner, no nothing."
"Mike, I know you're young, but I think you're old enough to understand what I'm going to tell you. A long time ago, on that very first Christmas, there weren't any presents wrapped in paper or tied with bows. There weren't any candles lighting a tree. There weren't stockings hung by a fire, or treats hidden in the toes of them. There were no feasts being prepared or anything else that we do today, but it was still Christmas. If Slim and Jess don't come home, it'll be different for sure, but it will still be Christmas tomorrow."
"I guess," Mike tightened his brows together and then relaxed them as he looked in Daisy's calm face, "I guess I understand. But I still can't help but think about the presents that Slim and Jess were going to town to get."
"I suppose that's partly my fault Mike," Daisy said softly, cupping her hand under Mike's chin. "I shouldn't have mentioned that word when I was asking Slim and Jess about them this morning. There are presents that I have hidden here that will be under the tree in the morning and don't forget that Santa Claus knows about a young boy here at the Sherman ranch and certainly has something in his marvelous sack for him."
"I s'pose I shouldn't be thinking about presents when Slim and Jess could be," Mike turned a fearful eye towards the window, "out there."
"I'll tell you something, Mike," Daisy rubbed the child's back comfortingly. "Christmas isn't all about the presents. Sure, it's a wonderful thing to give and to receive, but what's most important is that the real gift was given to us all those years ago, wrapped up in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. So you see, even if some people don't have any presents to unwrap on Christmas day, there'll always be a gift in our hearts. And that gift doesn't stop there. It's continued to be given in the form of love from season to season. You are showing love right now in the way you're concerned about Slim and Jess. I am too. All three of you have a special place inside of my heart and you all give me special gifts every single day. It's love, Mike. Love is a present that has no end and it was there right from the very beginning. Never doubt the power of the perfect present."
"I s'pose I don't really care about the presents anymore," Mike said as he wandered back towards the window. "I don't even want Santa Claus to come. I just want Slim and Jess to come home, that's the only present that I want under the tree for Christmas."
xxx
"I wish we didn't have to use these Christmas presents," Slim said as he still stood partially underneath the tree that they'd stayed beneath until the horse was spooked. He put Mike's new, thick woolen socks over his hands, pulling them up nearly to his elbows. He put his gloves on over the top of the socks and then wrapped a scarf that had Mike's initials sewed in a corner around his neck.
"I know," Jess nodded, wrapping one of Daisy's gifts, a heavy winter shawl over his hat and around his ears. "We ain't got a choice, though. Without using these gifts to help keep us warm, we'll be goners for sure." Jess folded a bright colored patchwork quilt that was to top Daisy's bed and tucked it into his shirt.
"Here, Jess," Slim handed him half of a peppermint stick after Jess finished enclosing his coat over the newer layer. The other half that remained in Slim's gloved hand he put to his mouth and clamped his teeth onto and watched as Jess did the same with his. "The sugar will help keep us going. We'll share the other stick in another hour or so."
"It's getting so dad-blamed dark out," Jess frowned as he worked the peppermint stick around his mouth. "If we ain't careful we might get off course real easy. The snow's so thick I can't see a few feet in front of us anyway and now we're about to lose what little light we had left."
"We'll have to stay close together," Slim said, trying to ignore the pain in his knee but it was nearly impossible to push through the snow without it giving him an agonizing jolt with each step.
"You ain't gonna be moving very fast with that leg," Jess pointed to Slim's slow progress.
"You aren't exactly sprinting yourself," Slim responded, bringing a smile to each other's lips. "Maybe if you walk in front of me, breaking a path through the snow, I can make it more easily."
"I can do that, Pard," Jess nodded, sliding his body to be directly in front of Slim. He looked up at the rapidly darkening sky, his face getting coated in snow and then he stuck his peppermint coated tongue out and licked the snow from around his mouth.
"Are you going to play or walk?" Slim asked, and then did the same with his mouth. The snowflakes tingled on his tongue with the peppermint and for a brief second he felt like a kid Mike's age again.
"All right, I'm going," Jess nodded, not missing the fact that Slim had followed his example. Jess took a deep breath and then slowly started forward, pushing as much snow with his legs aside to help give Slim an easier stride.
But what Jess couldn't see, was that his path was starting to take a turn in the wrong direction, leading him off course. The sky was turning darker as the snow fell harder and the two friends were on a path that would take them to a place best defined as lost.
