Chapter 35

If the Fates Allow

Part One

…Christmas Eve

The older Drake Parker got the more that Christmas lost its magic. He stopped

believing in Santa Claus when he was eight because he found all of his presents in the

hall closet and his mother was too overly excited two days later asking if he liked what

Santa brought him? Plus, why would Santa if he had a workshop with all of the busy,

busy, busy happy elves making these things send boxes to his house with K B Toys

price stickers on them?

It was the holiday with hyped meaning. Much like Valentine's Day. If he knew he had a

chance to get laid or at least a little "almost third base" action he'd have purchased

Whitman's Samplers for all the "hot girls" of Belleview. Christmas was the same except

the family was involved. It's not like Drake didn't care about his family. It just seemed so

forced to him. Like if you didn't buy what Madison Avenue dictated that you buy you

were somehow less of a person. But that was before cancer entered his body and

before he met Emme. Now, he was sitting at his desk with his headphones on humming

along to The Pretenders version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. He

wrapped one of Emme's presents with Mom's special silver and purple wrapping

paper. He liked that the candy cane shapes were purple and silver. It was different. He

was different. Josh was going to pick up Emme tomorrow so she could have Christmas

dinner with them. Because it was Christmas and Drake didn't want to fight with his

mother due to the fact that he had a chemo treatment two days ago she felt better if

Josh picked Emme up instead.

Drake knew it was difficult for her to leave her mother alone on Christmas Day, but

Drake promised they'd go back to her house as soon as they opened their presents

and had finished dinner. At the moment though the thought of a honey glazed Christmas

ham was making Drake feel woozy. Even the thought of having a small piece of turkey

was making him lose his concentration. Which was why Audrey wanted Josh to do the

driving.

Josh walked in the room and let Drake be content with listening to holiday music

(something he rarely did, unless it was a rock cover version) and wrap his gift to Emme.

"Hey," Drake turned off the radio, "I need more scotch tape."

Josh went to the end table by his bed to give Drake his tape dispenser that he

purchased at Office Max.

"Thanks."

"Don't use it all. I have to wrap Mindy's present."

"Relax, Josh. Like I live to sabotage you wrapping your Christmas presents." He

finished wrapping his gift and handed Josh the tape dispenser before his brother had a

heart attack over something so stupid.

Drake opened the drawer and took out a big purple bow with silvery curled tails and

peeled off the adhesive and stuck it proudly on the center of the box.

"I know. I just want the holidays to be perfect."

Drake briefly wondered if Mindy put out on their dates but he didn't want to completely

lose his lunch altogether.

"Make sure you pick up Emme tomorrow early."

"Drake, am I ever late for things?"

"Good."

For the first time Drake wanted to go with Dad and Josh to pick out the family

Christmas tree but he was going to be stuck inside helping Mom and Megan bake the

Christmas cookies.

He wanted the house to be spectacular for Emme. The Nichols-Parker family may not

have had the immense wealth of the Watson's, but that didn't mean they couldn't put

together a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses' display.

Drake unbent a paper clip thinking that if there were decorations on the Watson

property it would only be if Mrs. Watson got out of her drunken fog long enough to hire

someone to do it.

"Are you okay, bro?" Josh asked tripping over the obvious rolls of wrapping paper

causing Drake to crack a small smile.

His brother was quite the klutz.

"I'm fine. Are you?"

"Ha ha. What did you buy Emme?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"Hmm," Drake looked at the Frosty the Snowman name tag, "It says To: Emme, From:

(which he crossed out with black pen and wrote 'With Love') Drake. It doesn't say Josh

anywhere on here."

"Do you want to know what I got Mindy?"

Do I have to?

"I can't stop you from telling me."

"The hardcover edition of Championship Science Fair Projects: 100 Sure-to-Win

Experiments."

"Wow." Drake hoped that didn't sound too mean.

"Mindy will love it."

Josh also got her a set of naughty pink underwear from Victoria's Secret. That

contained a thong and push-up bra. But there was no way he was going to tell his

brother that. That'd just be giving him ammo to rib him with for the rest of his life.

"I'm sure she will."

"She didn't win all those Science Fairs for nothing."

When Josh wasn't paying attention Drake took a small box out of the top desk drawer

and got up and placed it on the computer keyboard that he was sure Josh would see

when he was done wrapping up Mindy's dork book.

"I'm going downstairs to get a glass of orange juice. Pick up a nice tree when you go

with Dad later. I want to put the angel topper on it for Emme."

Josh smiled. Emme was making such a difference in his brother's life. If only they didn't

have the burdens of their respective cancers and her drunken mother then their lives

would have been perfect. If Josh could've done the ultimate magic trick and made all

the negative forces go away he would have in a heartbeat.

"Will do, Drake."

A few minutes later Josh was looking like a lost puppy for his homemade Christmas gift

tags then he realized he left them in the printer.

"What's this?" Josh picked up the petite box and looked at the Frosty the Snowman tag.

To: Josh From: Drake

Josh smiled as he carefully opened the red wrapping paper with the computerized

green Christmas trees design.

He recognized the box.

It was a square shaped Oprah signature key chain with the light feature. Too bad Josh

had about four of these. Two he bought himself and one Mindy gave him for his

birthday, along with his first oral stimulation.

But even through his cancer Drake thought of his brother, which meant a great deal to

him. Josh couldn't help getting misty eyed as he took his tags out of the printer.

"I love you, too, Drake."

Author's Note: To be continued…

I really don't want to muli part this, but there are a few major scenes coming up during

the Christmas umbrella that I have to make separate sections for them. A few people

know exactly what those scenes are. They will be coming up shortly.