Page 2 of Soldier's Chrismas Hope
She lowered him to the floor, and he was galloping around the apartment the moment his feet touched the marble tile.
Pixie laughed and joined him, and Nora allowed herself ten seconds to just watch and enjoy them. This kind of energy normally meant John-John was super sleepy and he was going to crash soon.
It’s good that we had dinner and bath time before we went shopping, she reminded herself.All I have to do is get these groceries away while he burns off a bit of energy and I’ll have them in bed while they’re still feeling happy.
She had just about all the cold stuff put away when John-John suddenly started to cry.
“What’s wrong?” Pixie asked, running right over to him and patting his back.
Nora felt a wave of gratitude for the little girl’s kindness, followed by another twinge of guilt. A six-year-old shouldn’t have to feel responsible for her little brother’s happiness.
Nora threw the last bag of cold things into the fridge, planning to unpack it properly once the kids were tucked in.
“Who’s ready to brush our teeth?” she asked calmly. “As soon as we do that, we can have a nice story. Which story did you choose again, Pixie?”
“Farmer Bear’s Christmas,”John-John said right away, his tears forgotten.
“Oh, that’s right,” Nora said with a smile. “I love that one. Let’s go get ready to read.”
Nora had put a mattress on the floor of the small office for herself, and replaced the king bed in the condo’sonly bedroom with two twin beds for the kids. But they always wound up in the same bed by the end of the night, and Nora couldn’t bring herself to mind. She was sure that as they healed from losing their mom they would become more independent. For now, it comforted them to be together, and that was just fine.
Once they were all ready, John-John scrambled into bed, and then Nora grabbed the book from the shelf and joined him. Pixie followed, snuggling into Nora’s other side.
“Aunt Nora sandwich,” John-John laughed, smushing himself against her.
“Aunt Nora sandwich,” Pixie agreed with a big smile on her face, also pressing against Nora, but more gently.
“Oh, that’s so cozy,” Nora said with a big smile of her own.
John-John patted the book, as if to remind her to stay on track.
“Okay,” Nora said. “Here we go.”
By the time the book was half-finished, John-John was asleep on his pillow. They had read it so many times before that she practically had it memorized.
It told a sweet but simple story about a family of bears who lived on a farm called Bear Haven. The bears were in a hurry to complete all their Christmas traditions before it was time to hibernate.
Most of the traditions on the bears’ farm were probably unfamiliar to the pair of city kids. But Nora figured that just made it all seem more exotic and interesting to them.
And of course, after a close call with failure, the bearsdid manage to finish their list of Christmas activities before falling fast asleep for the winter, so everyone was happy in the end when they managed to make it through the whole story.
“Thank you for being such a help today,” Nora whispered to Pixie when the book was done.
“You’re welcome,” Pixie said, looking proud.
“Is there anything special you’d like to do this weekend?” Nora asked.
Pixie hesitated, her eyes on the book.
“Can we go to the old park?” she asked after a moment.
“Of course,” Nora told her.
She made a mental note to check in with the mom of one of Pixie’s friends from her old neighborhood. The kid was Sophie, but Nora wasn’t a hundred-percent sure on the name of the mom—something that started with “L” she thought. Either way, she had the woman’s number, along with her assurance that they would “love to get the kids together sometime,” even though she seemed to have an excuse every time Nora reached out.
Maybe if you actually learned her name…
But Nora didn’t think that was it. It had been harder than she’d imagined getting anyone they knew to spend time with the kids. She wasn’t sure if it was a natural aversion to tragedy, or something more. At any rate, she wasn’t going to stop trying. It wasn’t right for the kids to be isolated from their old life any more than they already were.
