Casey Cartwright was a full grown child. All the years I'd known her, I had no idea. But here it was, staring me in the face. Quite literally, in fact, at six-thirty in the morning I was woken by her jumping on the bed, animatedly telling me it was Christmas and I had to wake up.
I groaned and rolled over since I'd only been asleep about two hours and buried my head under my pillow. It was abruptly pulled away from me and thrown across the room where it landed with a thump.
" I want my present. " she demanded, jumping up and down on the bed again.
Finally I sighed in defeat and sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. " Alright, I'm up. "
A knocking at the door drew our attention. Casey and I looked at each other quickly.
She grabbed her shirt from the floor and put it on while I wrangled my pants from under the bed. She looked me over and tried for a moment to straighten the comforter on the bed before calling to whoever was at the door that she'd just be a minute.
Rusty's voice made us both relax instantly as he called that it was just him through the door.
She opened the door and he barged through it coming to jump around me on the bed as well.
" Oh, my God, you're both children. " I declared as they squealed and bounced around me.
" We have to go wake up Mom and Dad. " Rusty said, ignoring me.
" You are really going to go and wake those nice people up at six-thirty in the morning ? " I asked, stunned by their immaturity.
They looked at each other with a huge smile and nodded before tearing out the door and disappearing. I heard something that sounded like elephants trouping down the stairs and smiled after them.
This was definitely not something I was expecting. We were all well beyond the age of tearing through the house to see what Santa had brought us. It was a side of both of them that I had never seen before and it would have been hilarious if I wasn't so sleep deprived.
I stood and stretched, before making my way down to the living room.
I barely made it to the bottom stair when I heard Christmas music playing and the sound of several voices talking at once. The house was up and bustling. I couldn't believe it. Not even seven in the morning. Mr and Mrs Cartwright didn't appear the least bit phased by having their grown children wake them up so early. I could already smell coffee brewing in the kitchen.
I shook my head as I entered the living room and stopped as soon as my eyes scanned the room. The entire room had been magically transformed. Santa had indeed visited in the night. Presents were abounding pouring out into the floor around the tree. Muffins and donuts sat on plates on the tables. Christmas music poured from the stereo in the entertainment center. A fire was already roaring in the fireplace. It was the perfect picture of Christmas morning.
Casey grabbed me dragging me over to the love seat. Then she disappeared into kitchen, returning only a moment later with a steaming cup of coffee. I took a careful sip and smiled at how perfectly made it was, just the right amount of sugar. I looked up at her sitting on the arm of the love seat beside me and smiled.
" You really are expecting something good. " I teased her.
She settled in beside me and kissed my check. " No, I just love you. "
" Okay, I love you, too. " I said, kissing her back.
" Alright, enough of that. " Rusty announced. " Can we hand out the presents now ? "
Twenty minutes later we were surrounded by boxes and torn paper. I had a new watch from Rusty, a gift certificate for Starbucks from Mr. Cartwright and Mrs. Cartwright had sat down and made up a recipe box, complete with all of her favorites.
I looked over at Casey and smiled as I saw the box she was holding. It was mine. And she was just now ripping into it with relish.
First, she pulled out a medium sized box which she tore the paper from quickly and snatched opened. Inside were twelve scented candles with matching bubble bath. Casey loved taking baths. It was one of her favorite ways to relieve stress. She smiled at me as she sat it aside and pulled out the next box. This one was smaller. Inside it was a pair a microwaveable pink bunny slippers, because she always complained that that her feet were always cold and the Kappa Tau house had hard wood floors. She hated walking around my room in her bare feet.
Next was a group of three DVD's with the words movies to drive me crazy with written across the front. Gone with the Wind, Wizard of Oz and Moulin Rouge. Her favorite chick movies.
Then came a small jewelry sized box. I saw her eyes light up as she ripped the paper away and opened it slowly. Inside, a gold Claddash ring with a heart shaped emerald, her birthstone.
Another jewelry sized box reveled a pink butterfly key chain with two keys hanging from it. She looked at me questioningly and I smiled.
" It's the house keys. " I told her.
Finally she pulled out an envelope from the bottom of the box and slid the paper from inside. It told her that she was now a member of the Pie of the Month club and a new pie would be delivered to her at the first of each month.
She quickly unburied herself from all of her gifts and crawled over to kiss me. " It's all prefect. Thank you. "
I kissed her back, proud of myself. I had driven myself crazy for the last few days trying to decide what to get her. I watched her face as she slid the ring on her finger and knew I had done well.
I glanced around me and noticed the I had a gift from everyone in the room except for Casey sitting around me.
Mr and Mrs Cartwright were in the kitchen already, getting everything together for the family dinner that would be happening around lunch time.
Rusty was on his new cellphone talking to Jenn. Oscar was sleeping in front of the fire and Casey was sitting on the other side of the love seat looking at me.
I smiled at the expression on her face. She looked like she was sizing me up for something. I wasn't sure what she was thinking.
" What ? " I said finally.
She reached to her feet and handed me a box. " Mom helped with your present. " she told me as she watched me removing the paper from the box.
I looked inside and took out two dog dishes, a collar and a leash. " Okay, like I said before, I'm going to have to be drunk before I try the dominatrix thing. " I laughed as I eyed the boxes contents.
" Those aren't for you. " She laughed with me.
I picked up the collar and held it my neck. " That's good, because this is entirely too small for me. "
She got up and went to the back of the house without saying anything else. Then she returned a few minutes later with her hands behind her back.
" I checked in all the handbooks and made sure and there are no rules against pets in the Frat houses, just in the dorms. And I remembered you telling me once that you always wanted a dog but never got one when you were younger. " She pulled a squirming, wiggling tan puppy from behind her back. A miniature Oscar complete with black mask and wagging tail.
She thrust the dog at me and I stared at it in disbelief. " You got me a puppy. " I finally said.
" Well, like I said, Mom helped. I told you she studs Oscar and she gets a fee usually but she can also get the pick of the litter. And this is the one I picked from his last litter. " She told me, sitting next to me.
The puppy was already bounding towards my face licking me with his cold wet tongue. I laughed out at its enthusiasm.
Oscar had woken up and was thrusting his nose at the wiggling ball in my arms, checking him out for me, making sure he was okay. Apparently he approved because he started licking at the puppy. The puppy wasn't fond of the attention and turned in my arms and perked his ears up at the bigger dog.
" I can't believe you got me a puppy. " I told Casey as she shooed Oscar away and sat down beside me.
" So, you like him ? I wasn't sure it would be okay with you, but I took the chance. " she asked, nervously.
" Are you kidding me ? He's prefect. " I assured her as the puppy went back to licking at me again. Obviously he liked me as well.
I don't think I'd ever gotten a better Christmas present. I couldn't stop laughing as he breathed his 'puppy breath' into my face.
We made the new puppy a spot my room before going back downstairs to clean up all the paper in the living room and help with dinner.
Grandma Cartwright and Rosa, another Aunt, showed up not long after we finished our cleaning.
The oldest living member of the Cartwright clan was a tiny, little lady with white hair and glasses and a sweet smile. At eighty-one she moved faster than most her age and her eyes took everything in with an alert gaze that belied her age.
Aunt Rosa was Mrs. Cartwright's sister, her twin sister though you couldn't tell from looking at her. She was taller than Casey's Mom and thin and lithe with blond hair, cut it a short bob that didn't move when she shook her head. It looked more like a helmet than actual hair and as she leaned in to hug Casey, who was standing beside me, the smell of perfume and hair product just about knocked me over.
Joe, Gloria and the kids weren't far behind and soon there were so many bodies in the living room it was becoming crowded.
I wondered where we were all going to sit for dinner as I went about helping with the cooking. I was in charge of the mashed potatoes and two pies baking in the oven.
Casey got the chore of setting the tables, one for adults and one for the kids. I laughed as I heard Mrs. Cartwright tell her that Rusty would be sitting at the kid's table again this year, simply because there was no room at the adult table.
Rusty had disappeared right after the clean up and no one had seen him since. So, after mashing the potatoes and checking the pies once again, I took off to find him.
I started with his room. When I didn't find him there, I started a systemic search of the entire upstairs, starting with my room. Which is exactly where I found him, sitting in the floor with my puppy in his lap.
" Hey, Man, you okay ? " I asked as I shut the door behind me.
" She isn't pregnant. She called this morning to tell me. " He said with a bright smile over his shoulder.
I sat down on the side of the bed with a relieved sigh and a smile in return.
" Wow, that's great, Russ. I had no idea how we were going to make that work. " I told him.
He let the puppy go and it ran to me, trying to climb up my jean's leg. I reached down to scoop it up and cradled it against me.
" I want you to know how much I appreciate all you were willing to do for me. It wasn't' your problem but you made it that way, so thank you. " He said, turning towards me.
" Of course it was my problem. I wasn't going to let you deal with it all on your own. I told you before, you are part of something bigger now. We got your back. " I assured him.
" Well, thank you. I think you were going a little above and beyond the whole frat brother thing."
I shrugged, " Well maybe a little, but you are also Casey's brother. That makes you more than just a little brother. " I snatched my hand away from the sharp pointy teeth of the beast in my arms.
" He's vicious, Man. Gotta watch those teeth. " he smiled at me. " Does he have a name yet ? "
" I haven't really thought about it actually. But I'm open to suggestions. "
I sat the puppy on the floor as a sudden headache pounded against my temples.
" You're grandma's here by the way. And the entire rest of the family. " I told him. " Do you have any aspirin ? "
I followed him down the hall to the bathroom where he handed me a bottle. I took two out of the bottle and downed them quickly, hoping they were the fast acting kind. The noise from downstairs was already drifting up the stairs, causing the throbbing to increase.
By the end of dinner, I was working on a full on migraine. My head hurts so bad it was distracting and I noticed a bit of soreness in my throat every time I swallowed.
I excused myself as politely and went up stairs as quickly as I could.
Throwing myself down on the bed, I pulled my new puppy against me and fell asleep almost immediately.