RETURN

Jeremy stopped in the street and grabbed Jason's sleeve, as soon as their town home came into sight. Jason stopped when the boy did and looked down at the boy. Joshua also stopped when they did, but he was looking ahead.

"Jason," he said, and Jason looked from Jeremy to Josh, then the direction they were both looking.

"Well."

There was a beribboned candle, lit, in the window, and a ribbon bow on the door. Not excessive decorating, but more than they had seen in the years since their mother had died. The first year, they had been too sad, (with one exception) and when the next year came they had expected nothing.

It had been their mother who made Christmas something more than Da's somber religious holiday. She cooked special things, she brought pine branches into the house and decorated the mantle and the windowsills, she brought out special candles in special silver candlesticks. She hung stockings and helped them make presents for and hide them from one another. She even 'decorated' their clothes with colored buttons or bits of ribbon.

She had started their tradition of reading about Christmases in other places, as soon as the calendar turned to December.

The brothers resumed their walk without another word said and entered the house where Da was waiting for them, in the pine bedecked room.

"You left it late enough, today's coming home. I was thinking you'd been snowed in."

"No, it didn't snow that much. Had to get things put away, that's all," Jason answered easily. He managed to slip out of his coat, but had to pry the sleeve out of Jeremy's grasp.

Da smiled. "It seems I've surprised you."

"You have,"Jason agreed. "Why?" He moved forward to pour coffee for all of them.

"It occurred to me that I may have cheated you boys of a few happy memories the last few years. I canna make up for that, but we can do better going forward."

"I think I understand. Maybe." Jason said. "Jeremy, do you need help getting your coat off?"

Jeremy shook his head, but remained as he had been since they'd come in.

Joshua rolled his eyes and started unbuttoning for his younger brother.

Jeremy, after two buttons, shook him off and finished doing it himself, hung up the coat, and came to the table.

"Have you eaten? I've a pie here, and a bit of whipped cream."

"What kind?" Josh asked suspiciously.

Jeremy scrambled into a chair. "Who cares?"

Da laughed. "That's my boy."

After eating his share of the pie, Jeremy walked around the room, looking at the decorations, and made his way back to his father. "How come?" he asked bluntly.

Da seated the boy on his lap. "With you all gone all the time, I've missed you terribly. I tried to think of something pleasant to surprise you with. And I remembered your own mother, and how she would do the candles and the greens that remind us of the Light and the Love. It was as if she were with me, telling me how to do this thing."

("He can talk almost as good as you when he gets started," Josh said, quietly, to Jason.

Jason smiled. "I've tried to teach him everything I know."

They both laughed.)

Jeremy leaned back against his father, stretching his legs on the man's, and feeling the rising and falling breaths and maybe even his heart beating. The boy sighed. "Maybe she was."

"It could be. Or I could be dreaming memories. No matter. It would not have come to be, then or now, without her."

" 'Cept you can't make cookies."

The man laughed, and stroked his son's head. "No, I canna make cookies. Nor cook a Fabulous Feast, as she used to call it. We'll be having stew and biscuits, the four of us."

"An' open presents? Me 'n' Josh been makin' 'em. Da, can we have stockings? Even without c-cookies?" Jeremy sat forward and twisted himself around to look his father in the face.

"Oh, I think that can be done. What would you like to find in your stocking, besides cookies?"
"Candy."

Josh snorted. "Who'd've guessed that? You silly kid."

"Well, if you don' want any, I'll eat yours, too."

"Anything else?" the father interrupted. "With you being gone, I hardly know what you would like these days. Besides you, little one. If it's sweet, you'll want it. That's a sure thing."

Jeremy and Josh looked at one another and laughed.

"S'prises," Jeremy said.

"That's a good answer," Josh approved.

"And have you any ideas for a gift you would like to find?"

"Uh-huh." Jeremy nodded vigorously. "I want a piano."

Jason choked and coughed, before giving in and laughing long and loud. "Oh, Da! Your face!"

He laughed, too, a bit ruefully. "No doubt. I was thinking something more like the store-bought sleds. They'll not take up so much room."

"Yeah, they'll be outside," Josh said. "Where'd we even put a piano in here, dum- I mean, silly-billy?"

"W-we c-could make an-nother room."

"I think not," Da said, gently.

"Hmph." Jeremy pouted, crossing his arms and leaning back against his father. " 'sides, Jason said he'd help me make mine own sled."

"And you'd like that better than store-bought? Good for you, son."

"Well," Jeremy sat up again. "I like makin' things. I like when Jason makes me things. I like when Jason helps me make my own things. But store things is good, too, 'specially for ones who ain't got Jason, a-cause he's ours.". Jeremy yawned, curled up, and leaned against his father again.

"Canna argue with that, my little one."

"He's going to sleep, Da. You want me to put him to bed?"

"Nae. Not yet. I've missed this."

Jason didn't move the boy to the bed until their father had also fallen deeply asleep, and then he helped his father to his bed.

He hoped it would indeed be a long winter for all four of them.