The Gift

20

Ornamental Memories

December 20th – Wednesday

"Excuse me."

Ed turned around and looked to where Roy was talking to one of the sales people, an older man with grey hair, who worked on the Christmas tree lot.

"What can I do for you?" the man asked in a cheerful tone.

The colonel folded his arms and looked around for a moment, then said, "Do you have any trees that are smaller than these ones?" Roy gestured with his hand at the trees that surrounded them.

The salesman smiled, waved a hand and said, "Come on with me."

Roy turned and flashed Ed one of those oh-so-charming smiles that the teen just loved and followed after the gray-haired man.

Ed sighed and followed after the two other men. Roy had been gone all day and when he'd gotten home he'd immediately insisted that they go find a tree. It wasn't a bad thing, but the teen had been trying to work up the courage to talk to the man all day about that phone number and what the colonel had been doing all this time.

He'd planned to talk to him when he'd gotten home, but then they'd rushed off to the tree lot, and of course he couldn't talk about that when they were around other people…

"Here we go," the salesman said and stepped next to a tree. "This small enough for you?"

Ed's eyebrow twitched and he said tightly, "That's a small tree?"

The man nodded and said, "Yep, just a tiny one."

The teen marched up to him and glared up at him before staring at the tree. It was taller than he was and the man was calling it tiny...

Of course it was smaller than either the man or Mustang...

This just served to make Ed even more upset.

"Do you have anything sma..." Roy began but he trailed off when Ed directed his glare toward him. "Er...That tree is…um…smaller than the other trees but…perhaps something..." Again Roy trailed off when Ed's glare deepened.

The blond watched as Roy struggled to find something that wasn't going to set him off, and he sighed before waving a hand and saying irritably, "It's fine..."

"Are you sure?" Roy asked.

Ed nodded and felt a little bad at the look of relief on the colonel's face. The salesman, now looking a bit confused, took the money Roy gave him and said, "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas to you too," Roy said, then turned to Ed and asked, "Are you sure this is okay?"

"Yeah...I just..." He just didn't like the man calling the tree short when it was taller than him...

"I understand," Roy said kindly, then leaned over and pecked Ed on the cheek before saying, "Should we pick up some dinner on the way home?"

Ed opened his mouth to say something, then blushed when his stomach rumbled, answering for him.

Ed watched as Roy cut the tape on the dusty cardboard box and opened it. Dust flew up off the box and the teen stepped back a little, then watched as the colonel pulled out a string of colored lights. (1)

"These haven't been used these in a long time. I'm not even sure if they'll work..." Roy muttered, then got up and plugged the strand of lights into the wall. When nothing happened, the older man sighed, unplugged it and began inspecting the lights.

Ed watched interestedly as Mustang twiddled with a bulb here and there, then plugged the string in again. This time the lights lit up brilliantly, and Roy looked up at Ed with a smile that could have rivaled any delighted child's.

"Should we put the lights on the tree?" the colonel asked happily, and Ed couldn't help but smile at the man's enthusiasm.

After the lights were put on the tree, Roy moved the box closer and said, "There are ornaments in the box too."

Ed reached in and pulled a small glass bulb out of the box, and looked at the others that were just like it. "This is nice..." he murmured as he examined it. They were made of very thin glass that reflected iridescent colors. "They look expensive. Do they even make them like this anymore?"

Roy pulled one out and stared at it for a moment before shaking his head. "No...these were my mother's and her mother's before her. They're very old. I think they originally belonged to my great-great grandmother. They pass them down from oldest daughter to oldest daughter..."

"Oh..." Ed said. He'd never even thought about Roy's family before. "So...how did you end up with them...?"

The other man smiled sadly and said softly, "My mother only had one child, and that was me." He sighed. "I'm kind of an odd one, I suppose. I'm the first boy born to my mother's line in ten generations. I know my mother loved me, but I knew she wished that she could have a girl."

Ed frowned. "Well...it's not like she had to only have one kid, right?"

Roy gave a small shake of the head. "My mother was never able to carry another child to full term..."

Ed fidgeted, feeling a little sorry he'd asked.

"I never wanted for anything, but she always seemed a little detached from me. She'd always talk about the traditions she'd shared with her mother growing up, and how even though we continued them on, it wasn't the same since I was a boy..."

Roy sighed again and hooked the glass bulb on one of the braches. The little colored lights reflected off of the smooth surface making it even brighter around the tree. "No matter what I did, it was never good enough. My cousins...all girls...had a much closer relationship with my mother than I did..."

The colonel picked up another ornament and hung this one on the tree too. "But hanging decorating the tree was always a fun and happy time. She was always warm and loving during those times…"

There was silence for a few moments, then Ed asked, "What happened to her?"

Roy frowned. "One night, a few days before Christmas, my mother and father were out and another car crashed into them. They both died instantly." He hung another bulb on the tree and stared at it. "All of my mother's possessions were left to my aunts and cousins. They were very quick to relieve me of them, but this box..." He nodded down to the dusty cardboard. "This box, I hid. I'd always loved the ornaments and I guess I associated them with being loved, since that seemed to be one of the only times my being a boy never bothered my mother."

Ed watched as the colonel reached down and took another glass bulb from the box and held it up. "This is the first time since then that I've pulled this stuff out. After that, Christmas time always seemed to bring out the lonely feelings I had spending that holiday alone. Besides… it just never seemed right to put these beautiful ornaments up without my family there. No point in celebrating by myself."

Ed walked over to him and touched his arm. "Well...You're not alone now..."

Roy hung the ornament, then turned and wrapped his arms around the teen and whispered, "I know..."

1- okay, technically, I know that they probably wouldn't have Christmas lights in the series because of the technology difference (we'll just ignore the fact that they probably don't have Christmas at all…), but I want them to have colored lights; therefore, they will! haha