Chapter Ten

Home For The Holidays

December 23

Frank has volunteered to pick up Frances from Carmel Ridge and drive her to Bobby's house for the holidays. He and Michelle leave their new apartment late that afternoon.

They were lucky to find an apartment that he could afford, in the same neighborhood as the Wiley's, which has made the transition a little easier. When she first moved in things were a little awkward but it has been over five weeks since their reconciliation, and they are getting increasingly comfortable with each other.

As they pull into the neighborhood, they notice the house decorated with Christmas lights. In each window is a single candle shining brightly in the night. Frances slowly gets out of the car and smiles at the sight of her old home. It has been years since she has seen it.

"This looks really good," Frank says.

"Has he already decorated the tree?" Frances asks.

"No Uncle Bobby said that he would wait until we all could do it together."

"I like that idea, if I know your uncle it's a big tree."

"It is. Uncle Bobby, Dad and I went about three days ago. We got a tree for our apartment," she says boastfully.

Frances winks at her son and kisses her granddaughter on the cheek. "I want to see your tree and your new apartment."

Frank pushes the doorbell as he opens the door. "We're here."

The aroma of baked goods fills the air. "Wow it smells like a bakery in here."

"Hey guys, Merry Christmas," Bobby says as he greets his brother with handshake. "How was the drive down?"

"Not a problem." Bobby kisses his Mom on the cheek, "Mom, how are you feeling?"

"I feel wonderful."

Alex walks out of the kitchen, "Merry Christmas." She greets all of them with a hug. Frances asks, "What are you baking?"

"I just put an apple pie in the oven."

"Alex and I made gingerbread and butter cookies yesterday. She let me decorate them, it was fun," says Michelle.

"They did a great job they were good," Bobby smiles and reaches for his niece to give her a hug.

"You ate them all. Already," asks Frank.

Bobby picks up his Mom's bag, "No not yet, Mom would you like to go upstairs and lie down for a while?"

"No Bobby, I'm alright, if I could just sit here," she walks over to the couch. "I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" she nods her head. "Alright then, I'll bring this bag upstairs, be right back."

"Do you bake often? Alex," asks Frances.

"No. Not as often as I would like, I always enjoyed it, I would help my Mom bake when I was a girl and having Michelle around to help me, well let's just say we got along great and she seems to enjoy it as well."

"Bobby told me that you are preparing Christmas dinner."

"Yes I am." She smiles. "I have to admit that I am a little scared but my Mom gave me her recipe for her turkey stuffing and Bobby told me that you like ham so I will be serving that also."

"Thank you. If I know my boys they will eat both."

"Yes that's for sure. Good thing I don't have to feed both of them every night. They are both big eaters."

Bobby descends the stairs. "Would any one like a drink? Mom?"

"A ginger ale would be fine."

Bobby points at his brother, "Frank?"

"What are you drinking", coca?"

"No Bailey's on the rocks, goes down smooth and makes you feel the same way."

"I'll have one of those," he says.

"Get me one too Bobby." Alex says as she sits down next to Frances on the couch.

Frances asks, "How many people for dinner tomorrow?"

Bobby returns with her soda, "Why do you ask?"

"Alex seems to be preparing quite a bit of food."

"There will be nine of us for dinner. Do you remember my friend Andy?"

"Andy, Andy Reilly?"

"Yes. He and his wife Rachel and their two kids, his daughter Ashley is fifteen and she and Michelle have met and spent some time together."

"Oh that will be nice, I haven't seen him in years."

"Uncle Bobby can we start on the tree?"

"Sure honey, go right ahead."

Later that Night

"Well we better get going Michelle. Goodnight Mom, see you tomorrow."

"Good night Grandma."

"Frank are you and Michelle going to join us for Mass tomorrow?"

"Mass tomorrow?" Bobby asks.

"Yes, Saint Anthony's use to have a 4 o'clock mass."

"Yes they did Mom, twenty five years ago."

"Well they must still have a Christmas eve service that we can attend."

Silence fills the room. Frances stands up. "It won't kill any of you to go to Mass."

Bobby walks over to his Mom and takes a hold of her hands. "Ok Mom I'll find out what time the Masses are."

"Thank you Bobby."

Christmas Eve

Michelle and Frank have spent Christmas Eve day with Leslie and her family. They arrive at Bobby's a little after 3 PM.

"Merry Christmas Eve everyone." Frank says as he and Michele walk into the house.

"Merry Christmas eve to you both." Says Frances.

Frank and Michelle kiss her on the cheek. "You look very nice Mom."

"Thank you. You both look very nice also. We are going to the 4 o'clock Mass this afternoon."

"Yes I know. Bobby called me this morning."

The church is only a few blocks form the house and the weather is unseasonably mild for December so they deicide to walk. As they enter the church Alex notices' that Bobby keeps looking up at the ceiling. Alex grabs his arm. "What are you looking at?"

"I'm waiting for the ceiling to fall down."

She smiles.

Later that Evening

Bobby's House

"Would anybody care for a cup of coffee?"

"No thanks." Says Bobby.

Frank says, "I'll have a cup."

"Frances how about you?"

"Yes thank you Alex."

"Frank will you be staying over tonight?"

"No. Not tonight, Michelle and I want to spend Christmas morning in our new apartment.

We'll be over early in the afternoon but I've decided that we will stay over tomorrow night, remember we have reservations for brunch at 10 at The Florence Gardens."

"Oh I haven't. I am so looking forward to tomorrow."

Christmas Day

The families sit down to Christmas dinner and Frances asks if she may say grace. No one argues with her request.

"Dear Lord thank you for this wonderful meal prepared by this very sweet young woman and thank you for letting me enjoy this day in the company of my family and friends. Thank you for returning my family to me and having the chance to get to know my granddaughter. Just being able to see that my boys have made amends makes this one of the best Christmas' I will ever have. Amen….

"Amen," is spoken from everyone at the table.

Alex with the help of her little elf Michelle prepared a delicious dinner. Honey ham, turkey, which was very moist, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, mashed potatoes with gravy, assorted vegetables and homemade biscuits. In addition, the apple and pumpkin pies were excellent.

The Reilly family left around eight PM and the excitement of the day took its toll on not only Frances but Alex as well, they along with Michelle were in bed by ten.

As Frank sits down next to his brother, "What a great Christmas. We should have done this years ago."

"And whose fault is that?"

"Again."

"That's the last time, I swear."

"So do you trust me now?"

Silence, "Oh you're taking too long to answer."

"Just kidding, yes I do. You and Michelle seem to be getting along very well."

"With the help of you and Alex, yes she is a very sweet girl and I sometimes I want to kick myself in the ass for not having the courage to take control of life sooner and get my daughter and my family back into my life. Thank you."

"For what?"

"For helping me to find her."

"I have to admit that at first I wasn't doing it for you I was doing it for her I knew exactly what she was going through and I wanted to be there for her."

"I'm glad you were, here I want to give you this."

He hands Bobby an envelope, "What is it?"

"Open it up and find out."

Bobby opens the envelope and counts out two hundred dollars, "What is this for?"

"It's for you and I promise that there will be more."

Bobby places the money back in the envelope and hands it back, keep it."

"No it's yours and I want you to have it."

"Just for the fact that you were able to give it to me is all I need to know, I want you to keep it, buy something for Michelle, something that a thirteen year old doesn't need but wants."

He places the envelope in his breast pocket, "Thanks, just hearing you say that means a lot to me."

"It's cool. You're not going to believe this but I keep thinking about another piece of pie."

"So do I. Gees how many is that?"

"I'm afraid to count."

"Oh what the hell, let's go."

They get up from their chairs and go into the kitchen. "If we stay up any longer and there won't be any leftovers for tomorrow," Bobby says.

They take their desert into the living room and sit down. "I never even knew Alex could bake this good, this is fantastic."

"This is delicious."

They finish their third desert and after they wish, they hadn't. "I bought some cigars, would you like one?"

"Alex lets you smoke these in the house."

Bobby puts his hands on his hips. "Alex lets me smoke these in the house? It's my house."

"You told her that?"

He hands his brother a cigar, "Of course not." They laugh. "Come on let's go out on the deck."

"Good idea."

They light up the cigars and the December evening is cool but comfortable. The men lean up against the railing as they smoke the cigars.

"You know Bobby it was really strange hearing you say something nice about Dad. Comparing the two of us and putting him over me."

"Did that bother you?"

"Yes it did."

"Good, because at the time you deserved it."

"I have to admit that you were right."

"I realized that after our so called dream or whatever it was that I refuse to live the rest of my life being angry with a dead man. There wasn't anything I could do to change him, he was who he was. I was angry with him for so many years and I am ashamed to admit but that anger has clouded my judgment in my job from time to time."

"Really?"

"Yes it has."

Frank takes a long puff on his cigar, "Yeah our dream."

"I've been thinking about the events that lead us to today. It all started on that Friday that we had our dream. Which was the same Friday that Michelle ran away."

"You're right, that was."

"Also Mom was suppose to have her physical that Friday but it was postponed till the next week." Bobby walks closer to his brother a takes a long puff on the cigar. "Do you remember what you said to me that Saturday morning when you came to visit?"

"Sure I do. That when I woke up that morning, after my so called dream. I knew I had to come here, not the next day or the next week but that day."

"Right and if her physical was preformed that Friday they would have told me about the swelling that afternoon and I wouldn't have been able to get in touch with you. Would I?"

Frank shakes his head, "No you wouldn't, that phone number you had for me was from two years ago."

"So since it was postponed a week it gave us time to talk over some things and it gave us time to find Michelle. And we could be there for Mom, all three of us when she really needed her family."

Frank says, "Weird."

"Definatley," they both take the last few puffs on their cigars and then stub them out in the ashtray. In the distance, they can hear church bells ring.

"Man I can't believe it's after midnight already, come on help me turn off the lights."

Bobby asks Frank to turn off the Christmas tree lights while he turns off the outside lights. A familiar odor fills the room, they both stand up at the same time and as they start to look around the room, they catch each other's eye, "Frank do you smell that?"

They slowly walk around the room. "Yes I do. Is it possible?" Frank shakes his head. "It was a dream wasn't it?"

"It had to……………I don't know, maybe it wasn't a dream." He grabs his brother by the arm. "Come on let's go to bed."

"Good idea."

Bobby leads the way with Frank close behind. Bobby suddenly stops and turns around, Frank looks up at him. "Goodnight Dad," he says.

Frank smiles then turns back to face the living room and with a wave of his hand he says, "Night Dad."

"Weird," they say at the same time.

"Let's keep this to ourselves, ok?"

"I'm with you little brother."

The End

Merry Christmas To All

And A Very Happy New Year