Jeremy would not remember what he dreamed that night, but he rested well and woke up feeling safe and loved. (Not that he normally felt unsafe or unloved – he knew better than that.)

He felt so safe, in fact, that he asked Josh if he could play his (Josh's) guitar.

"What's wrong with yours?"

"B-broke alla the strings."

"Did you forget how to change them?"

"B-broke alla them, t-too."

"I guess I'm lucky you didn't help yourself to mine!"

Jeremy shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "G-guess you are. I th-thought ab-bout it, but it wasn't right. You were t-trusting me."

Josh ran his fingers through Jeremy's hair. "You're a weird kid. But thank you for that. Glad one of my brothers knows the meaning of the word. Bring me the stuff, and I'll fix you up. But if you break all my strings, you're the one who has to replace them. Order them yourself and everything. Got it?"

"G-got it."

Jason occasionally turned a page in his book and watched (stealthily) as his brothers restrung and retuned Jeremy's guitar, heads and hands together, with questions, answers, and laughter.

So Josh was still holding a little bit of a grudge.

That was fair enough, even with having accepted Jason's apology. After all, Jason still felt some resentment for whatever separation the boys had put over on him. He'd have to do something about that, but couldn't until he knew exactly what they had done.

Didn't they know he was trying to do his best for them?

No, not HIS best. He meant THE best.

Didn't he?

Damn, this parenting thing was hard when you weren't a parent!

"Well, HELL!" he exclaimed, standing up, grabbing his coat and going out. He could never think straight indoors.

"I don't think we want to know what that was about," Josh told Jeremy, who had gone wide-eyed.

Jeremy nodded agreement, and turned his attention back to his guitar and Josh's instructions.

When Jason finally returned, the cabin was warm and supper – a stew – was ready, the table laid and the coffee fresh. The musical instruments had been put away, at least for now, and his brothers, though they stopped their chatter, looked up and smiled as he came in, stomping his feet and shaking snow off his coat.

"It's snowing again."

"Oh, we thought you ran into a swarm of molting swans," Josh said.

"Funny." Jason hung up his coat and took off his boots. From his coat pocket he took out a napkin wrapped bundle and put it on the table. "Bread," he said, unnecessarily, as Jeremy already had it unwrapped and was plating it.

"You went to town?" Josh asked.

"I had a lot of thinking to do. And energy to burn." Jason pulled out a chair and sat down.

"D-did you yell at anyb-body?" Jeremy was carefully pouring coffee around the table.

Jason grinned. "I might have. You got a problem with that?"

"D-did it m-make you f-feel b-better?"

"Some. A good fight would have felt better, but for some reason no one – else – wanted to argue with me." Jason's lips twitched. "Next time I walk off a temper, maybe I should wait until the drinkers have had time to have a few. Then they'll not be so cautious."

"If we was w-working, you c-could've m-murdered a t-tree."

"Or ten."

Jason laughed. "Harvested, Jeremy, not murdered. Do you think you're committing murder when you pull carrots out of the ground?"

"S-somet-times when I b-bite them." Jeremy seated himself as Josh slid bowls in front of his brothers. Jeremy flashed a quick smile. "But then th-they taste so g-good I d-don't think ab-bout it no more."

"I'd hate to think you think our family business is akin to murder."

"Some families are in that line of work," Josh pointed out.

"We are not."There were a lot of possible responses to that true observation, but Jason decided against using any of them. No sense getting into an involved conversation that would probably just get him worked up again. "Unless Jeremy persists in his ideas."

Jeremy smiled, shook his head, and applied himself to his meal.

Jason looked at him fondly, and smiled. The younger boy was so endearing.

When they were getting ready for bed, Jeremy said suddenly, "J-jason, wh-why don't you t-tell us a st-tory t-tonight? You haven't f-for a l-long t-time."

Josh snorted.

"You haven't asked for one. I thought maybe you were outgrowing them."

"S-sometimes. But not alw-ways."

"And tonight is one of the exceptions? Alright. What kind of story do you want?"

"Y-your k-kind." Jeremy pulled his bedcovers up to his chin and turned on his side.

"That's – a big help. What about you, Josh?"

"No forsooths or prithees or any of that nonsense."

"Josh, I read Shakespeare; I don't create it."

"Thank god." Josh made himself comfortable. "Go ahead. I'll listen."

Jeremy chuckled.

"I'm honored." Jason mock-bowed in his brothers' direction. "Where shall I start?"

"R-right h-here. In a sn-nowy c-cabin, on a sn-nowy c-cold m-mountain was th-three broth-thers, all by theirself."

"Oh, I see. One of those real stories."

"Uh-huh."

Josh laughed. "One of these days he's going to be telling you the story. Probably better than you do."

"If it's his story, he should tell it best. What are these brothers doing on their cold snowy mountain, Jeremy?"

"One's r-reading, one's s-singing, and one's th-thinking."

"What's he thinking about?"

"D-dunno. How b-boring w-winter is."

"Ah. And he's – what? Trying to think of ways to shorten it?"

"Th-that's the story."

"I see. Why doesn't he read or sing?"

"Boring."

"My goodness, he is an unhappy young fellow, isn't he?"

"J-just bored."

"I'm surprised he hasn't started a fight with his brothers. That would be entertaining. For him. Wouldn't it?"

"He's b-bored, not stupid."

Josh laughed.

Jason smiled. "I see. Well, he decided, or maybe his brothers decided for him, that moping around being bored wasn't helping any, so he went, or was sent, outside. At first, it was for mundane, ordinary things like bringing in more firewood, but since there wasn't any real hurry for it – they had plenty –" for some reason Joshua and Jeremy both snorted at that detail "- so he took his bored time looking around. After he dug out the woodpile, of course, because he was an honorable young man and he wasn't going to do half a job."

"I'd like to order one of those brothers," Josh said.

Jeremy kicked Josh's mattress overhead. It was easier this time. Huh. Probably a bad habit to get into, though.

Jason smiled at Josh's absurdity, and wondered when Jeremy's legs had got so long, but didn't stop spinning his story. "While he was out there, he noticed how crisp and clean the new-fallen snow sparkled in the sunlight. He looked up, and the sky was the palest blue it could be, and still have any color at all. No gray though. Blue sky, pale as it was, and warm(ish) white sunshine. Maybe it wasn't going to be boring winter forever."

Jason talked on, sending the bored brother out following rabbit tracks, and encountering other tracks, melted enough by the sunshine he couldn't be sure what kind they were. He'd have to ask his brothers. Jason described in detail the way the snow lay and softened, the way the evergreens – mostly pine at that elevation – stood in contrast with the sky, but somehow lending their brightness to that palest of skies.

Eventually the bored brother made his way back to the snug welcoming cabin, with a rabbit that had been snared, and a few feathers that he'd found, just as night was falling. He stood on the porch, supper in one hand and feathers in the other, and watched the stars come out. Each star brighter and higher than the last one. There was nothing boring in that universe.

Maybe he should think about how he could be a shining star. Every day.

Jason turned the lamp down for the final time. Jeremy and Joshua were more asleep than awake, and he himself couldn't remember the last time he had been so relaxed.