Part 11

The holiday season in Salem that year was marked by many as one of the strangest, and yet most comforting they'd known in some time. The town itself seemed likely to burst at its seams, as families felt the need more than ever to reunite for the season and the end of a brutal year. The general feeling seemed to be that many if not all of the things that had divided them in the past had lost their meaning, and the things they cherished in common had grown stronger than ever. Their holidays in both public and private celebrations seemed to echo an ancient theme of peace and the desire for renewal.

"You're lucky." Rivka Cooper was explaining to Will when his school holiday began. "You nearly missed Chanukah by staying in Los Angeles so long. And Chanukah is more for ... the younger set than Purim, even."

"She's right, Will." Benjamin Reardon Carver agreed. "My mom and me converted four years ago and when I was littler, I thought my goy ... I mean my Gentile friends had the short end of the stick. Chanukah goes on for eight days!"

"Eight days?" Will asked, wide eyed. "Kewl. And you get presents every day?"

"Usually just little ones. Otherwise Jewish parents would have to break the bank. But my mom learned how to make latkes, and kugel, and taught me the blessings for lighting the candle each night. They sit in a menorah, and you put it in your front window, so that everyone knows its the Festival of Lights. And ..."

"Benjy, you forgot the jelly donuts." Wendy laughed, walking into the Pub kitchen to collect her talkative son. "Yom tov, Rivka. Happy Holidays, Will."

"Happy Chanukah, all of you." Sami said, walking down from the loft.

"Mom, can we do Chanukah?" Will wanted to know, so eagerly it made Sami laugh.

"Chanukah is a holiday specially for Jewish people, little man. It's meant to celebrate a miracle. An oil lamp in the temple ... Am I getting this right, Rivvy?"

"Close enough. Will, when an enemy tried to destroy Jerusalem, and the temple King Solomon built there, they laid siege to the Holy City. But when the battle was at its lowest point, a group of holy men and warriors for Jerusalem went inside the temple to rededicate it to G-d. Then they were trapped there by their enemies. The miracle of Chanukah was that they only had enough oil left for their lamp to stay lit seven days.  But the lamp remained lit for eight days, by the Lord's hand. And that's what we celebrate, to this day. We feast and rejoice and give presents to mark another time when the Lord showed His favor to our people. Do you understand that?" Rivka asked.

"Yeah, some people wanted to get rid of them, or make them just like everybody else and that's not kewl. But they fought back and they made everybody there safe again." Will nodded.

"I think that's a fair way of looking at it." Rivka agreed. "Now, before I leave for Friday night service, Sami, its already snowing hard. Are you two going to sleep over? No, don't worry, shul's only half a block from here, I checked. I'm meeting my study group here to walk together. And I'll be back soon afterwards." 

Sami nodded. "I just left word with Lucas, he's staying at Kate's place. And the weather has a blizzard watch up already. Nobody who doesn't have to should be out tonight. Will, since you're on school holiday I'm not going to push about schoolwork. But I would like you to help us get ready in case some of our neighbors around here get stranded, too. Wendy, you must remember when my grandparents would open the doors to people in the neighborhood who were down on their luck. It's too cold to leave the door open, but I want to keep running after hours tonight, just in case. Nothing fancy, just chowder and hot chocolate and tea. I think if there wasn't anymore tea in the world, Salem would vanish ... like Brigadoon."

When the high winds hit that night, it seemed for a while that Sami's prediction would come true. Snow that had been on the ground for a week was being blown into drifts, and the drifts that hadn't melted yet were freezing over and becoming snow banks on both sides of the street. Inside the Pub, Sami worked as hard as any of her staffers, the only difference being that when Will frowned at her in a way that matched his father, Sami would sit for a few minutes and relax. Rivka came back early, as her rabbi was concerned that his entire congregation get home safely. And her friends came along to pitch in as an unannounced shelter came to life inside the Pub's brightly lit door. Nothing seemed to worry the owner and operator, until with the wild weather outside, she couldn't reach Lucas' cell and realized he couldn't reach hers. So Sami concentrated on keeping her customers warm and keeping Will's spirits up. Like so many Salem kids this year, any threat to his security grew to nightmare proportions if unchecked.

"Your Dad's fine, and so are Kate and Billie, Phillip, and Cassie, Meems, Belle and Rex, and probably your cousin Andrew is more verschmiltzed by this weather than any of us. He's been living in California since he was eight." Sami encouraged her son.

"Okay." Will moped. "But what if it keeps snowing for a week or somethin? All the presents Dad and I got are in the attic at our house!"

Sami shook her head and laughed. "I should've known it was the loot you were bummed about. In the attic, huh? Why didn't I think to look up there?"

"Cos you're not supposed to do a lot of climbing, Mom! You're ..."

"Will!" Sami cried, taking one of Rivka's jelly donuts and passing them to her child. "You already announced my pregnancy to the whole AP terminal, Are you going to get on the radio, next?"

"Hey, kewl!"

"No, not kewl."

"Why not? Oh, you mean because you're five weeks gone and only four weeks married?"

"I give up!" Sami declared, "Wendy, I've changed my mind, you can have this one!"

"If you don't mind, I'll wait until I can check with my s.o. on that question, But he would look cute in a velvet yarmulke. And unless SUMC was doing things very differently eleven years ago, I'd guess the other part was already taken care of, too."

Will looked even more confused as his mother collapsed in breathless laughter at this remark.

"Will, honey, Do me a big favor, please and hand your mother her tea before she chokes." Wendy asked him, grinning. "And then, see if you can't help Benjy and the others bring out more chairs. I think we're getting another batch of customers."

When Sami could breathe again she looked towards the entry and saw a bedraggled, snow dusted and windblown band, gratefully entering the Pub. When the tallest of them removed his hat and muffler, Sami recognized her stepbrother and called his name.

"Brady! What the heck are you doing out in this?"

"Caroling?" he laughed. "That was the idea when we got started, anyway. Happy Chanukah, Rivka. We're about frozen, what have you got that's hot to drink?"

"Decaf, tea, hot chocolate, spiced cider, sorry, the latte machine is down. Or there's some peach brandy if you think you really got chilled."

"Oh yumm." Chloe Wesley reacted, unwrapping her scarf and pulling off her heavy sueded mittens. ", Sami, I'm so glad you're not closed for the night. It's brutal out there."

As their companions dropped hats, gloves, scarves and coats the rest of the motley crew of would be carolers was revealed, one by one. These were Hope, Shawn, and Stephany who'd come east for the season with Andrew, Andrew Donovan, Cassie, Billie, Mike, Belle, Phillip and most surprisingly, Rex.

"But I see no Meems." Sami noted. "What's up with that?"

"Her mom said she was terrified by the weather reports and wouldn't let Meems take one step out of doors tonight." Cassie explained. "Turns out, Momma Lockhart was right!"

They were still laughing about that truth, when the door slammed open and shut again, admitting a shivering, snow covered Lucas Roberts.

"Sami, it's nearly freaking midnight! Why are you still here?"

"Lucas, Its only ten o'clock, and theres a blizzard going outside, if you didn't notice. I called you hours ago. Why aren't you still at Kate's? And don't try to sell me that she ran out of brandy. Because you don't look anything like a St. Bernard, more like a chocolate lab, to me." Sami laughed.

"Arf! Arf" Lucas obligingly replied, then continued to garner laughs from his relatively small audience by rushing up to Sami and trying to lick her face. "yumm, jelly donuts!" he cracked.

"Say the secret word, get a donut!" Sami responded, fitting one neatly halfway inside his open mouth.

"Oh gosh!" Will mourned. "They're gonna start that stuff again!"

"Don't complain, little man, " Sami laughed when she'd managed to chew and swallow the half a donut Lucas fed her in return. " 'That stuff' is how you and your siblings got here."

"And come July, Those cute little siblings will be here." Lucas smiled, holding his arms as if cradling an infant in each."

"Yes and that will be an end to sleeping all night for the next hundred years." Sami pretended to mourn.

Lucas smirked and winked at his bride in a way she usually found irresistible. But tonight she only found it irresistibly funny. "I know what you're thinking, Lucas Brady-Roberts and I am not spending the next half of my life barefoot and ..."

"Sami, Sami, Sami. I think you know me better than that. In our family, no matter how big or how small, there won't be any baby making that we both don't agree on. Right? That's right, you tell her guys." Lucas had begun patting Sami's stomach which had barely grown, as if she was far enough along for them to feel the twins kick.

"You are a  genuinely twisted, demented person." Sami laughed.

"And that's what you love about me, right? Speaking of making babies, where's our first born?"

"Over there, Shining up to Andrew and Phillip. I think you've dropped to third place again, Pop."

"Fourth place." Billie giggled, walking over to them. "Will just remembered that he used to think my guy was the neatest thing since peanut butter and sliced bread. Whew! I'm glad you didn't lock up too, Sami. We were approaching frostbite level out there."

"Good thing you're close friends with a doctor, huh?" Lucas gibed.

"No," Billie said, grinning as she pulled off her left glove. "Good thing I'm engaged to a doctor. huh?"  Gleaming on her left ring finger was an intricate gold band set with a fiery Ceylon sapphire. It's facets caught and threw back every available bit of light like a living bonfire. "Crazy, huh?"

"Crazy." Sami agreed, admiring the stone's brilliance. "But in a good way. That's majorly kewl, as Will likes to say."

"Yeah, I think so. I mean look at us, Look at all of us. Who'd have thought a year, even six months ago, especially five months ago, that things would turn around so fine?" Billie asked. " I mean. I miss Austin like crazy. We raised each other from pups. And everyone was knocked down ... so hard I wasn't sure we'd ever stand up again. But we are."

"We definitely are." Mike agreed, coming over to greet them, and pull Billie into his arms. "Emphasis on the we."

"And on that note, I propose a toast." Lucas called out, garnering the attention of everyone in the Pub. Lifting his cup of hot cider he grinned at the assemblage and went on. "To the engagement of my sister Billie Reed and my once and future brother, Mike Horton! And to the love of my life, Sami Brady-Roberts, and to our kids and our kin and all our friends who gave us the love and the strength to turn our lives around. What was that, Rivka? Oh no, I remember: Mazeltov!"