A Carol in Her Heart - Part 1

Good morning FFFs!
Look what I have for you today! A story! A real, new, never published before story! Well, it's the first part of the story anyway. ;)  You'll have to come back for the rest of it. Remember that picture of the red truck with the tree? Well, this is the story that came from that picture and idea. And, since no one gave me any ideas, I don't have to design a cover and publish it! (Though I might someday. If I find the right picture.)

How has your December been? Crazy? Yeah, mine too. Some things–like my dad's birthday–have come and gone. But things are about to get even busier! Tomorrow my sister and I are going to help set up and decorate for the fellowship meal that will be after the Christmas program on Sunday evening. Then we have small bell practice, then play practice since the small bell group are part of the play. That will take up all morning. In the evening we have an assisted living center what we're going to go to. After we do our usual singing, we're going to go caroling to all the homes there. :) Should be fun!
Sunday brings practice before church. Then Sunday school, church, and large bell practice. Hopefully I'll get a fairly quiet afternoon before I have to head back over to church for another practice before the Christmas program and play. Then the fellowship meal.
On Monday it's fairly normal until evening. Then I'm in charge of the caroling groups who are going out to sing to the widows and widowers from church. This will be the first time we will be dividing into two groups, but we've added several new people this year, so we have more houses. It should be fun! It always is. :)

Then I should get a break! I think. *looks around and tries not to remember anything but books to read*

Anyway, here's your story. Enjoy! And check out the rest of the 12 Days of Christmas posts! (The bottom of the post has the link.)

A Carol in Her Heart

Part 1

    It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go–
    The song played over the radio in the kitchen where a pan of cookies sat cooling, and drifted into the living room where Miss Molly Kennedy stood at the window, her apron dusted lightly with flour. She was waiting for the mailman, and he was late.
    “Not that it really matters,” she sighed, brushing a few strands of hair off her face. “There’s no one to enjoy Christmas with me this year.” She wasn’t young anymore, though she wasn’t old either. Just in that middle age where she didn’t seem to fit anywhere. Several gray hairs had found their way onto her brown head, and lines around her eyes and mouth showed a little more when she smiled.
    There's a tree in the Grand Hotel– the song continued.
    “But not here,” Miss Kennedy remarked to no one. “I despise fake trees and don’t have money or the strength to lug in a real one.” She lived all alone in the old farmhouse. Not even a cat kept her company because Miss Kennedy didn’t particularly like cats. She preferred dogs–big dogs–if they were well trained.
    Just as she was about to turn from the window and return to her cookies, her still-sharp eyes caught a glimpse of something red out on the distant road where it wound around the base of the hills. It was a truck. Perhaps the same truck she had seen driving by once or twice before in the last few days. She didn’t know who owned the truck, but she liked it. She always had liked red trucks.
    “Is it carrying something,” she whispered to herself, squinting against the afternoon sunlight. A bend in the road and a stand of trees hid the truck for a moment, then it reappeared.
    “Yes, it is. Why, it has a Christmas tree on the back! If there’s one thing I like better than a red truck at Christmas time, it’s a red truck carrying a Christmas tree.” With a smile she watched the truck as it drove along the winding road, sometimes disappearing from sight but always reappearing a moment later. It came closer and closer. As it approached her driveway, it slowed, and–to Miss Kennedy’s astonishment, bewilderment, and consternation–turned into it.
    “What on earth is that man doing?” She backed away from the window, hoping the driver hadn’t caught her staring. “Perhaps he forgot something and has to turn around.”
    Cautiously she peered around the opened curtains again. “Good gracious! He’s stopping in front of the house! Whatever can he want?” A feeling almost like panic welled up inside Miss Kennedy, and she pressed a hand over her heart.
    She heard heavy steps on the porch.
    “No one with a red truck and a Christmas tree is going to murder me,” she told herself firmly, but she still started when the old fashioned door knocker rapped a quick beat on the door.
    Tipping her chin up just to give herself confidence, and smoothing her apron, Miss Kennedy unlocked the door and opened it.
    A young man stood before her. She made a rapid guess that he was in his twenties. “Yes?”
    “Aunt Molly?”
    Miss Kennedy took a slight step back, and then stared at her visitor. He did look familiar. But–
    “Don’t you remember Jackie Osborn, the little boy you used to look after?”
    “Little Jackie? Why you can’t be him! But you do resemble– Where are my manners?” Quickly she stepped aside and motioned him in. “It’s a cold day to be chatting out on the porch. How are you? What are you doing in this part of the country again? Little Jackie. I just can’t believe it!”
    Jack Osborn chuckled.
    Miss Kennedy thought he had a very nice chuckle and told him so, which turned the chuckle into a full laugh.
    “Oh, Aunt Molly, I’ve missed you!”
    “Well, I’ve missed you, Jackie–Jackson–” She shook her head in confusion. “Neither name fits you now. Won’t you take off your coat and stay awhile?”
    “I usually go by Jack. And I wish I could, but I promised to bring the tree home in time for the kids to help decorate it when they get up from naps.”
    “Kids? You’re married? And why wouldn’t you be, it’s been at least fifteen years since I last saw you.”
    The hearty laugh filled the living room once more. “Yes, I’m married. With three kids–two girls and a boy. Can you believe that? We just moved into that country-looking house near the edge of town right after Thanksgiving. I’ve been wanting to stop and see if you still lived here, but I’ve been so busy getting the family settled that I haven’t had a chance. Getting the tree didn’t take as long as I thought it would since we had it picked out already, and so, here I am,” he finished with a grin.
    “Well, I’m mighty glad to see you!”
    Looking around the room, Jack’s face grew puzzled. “Aunt Molly, where are all your Christmas decorations? I remember your house was always decorated from top to bottom. Now there’s nothing except a strand of garland on the mantle and the manger scene.”
    “Oh, I’m getting older, Jackie. My brother moved way off to Idaho, and I only see him once every few years. My parents are both gone, and I don’t have anyone who comes over, so I haven’t bothered to get everything out for the last several years.”
    Jack shook his head. “Not this year, Aunt Molly. Now that I know for sure you’re living here, I’m going to bring the family over. I want my wife to meet the dear woman who practically raised me though she was young herself when she started.”
    “Raised you, huh?” Miss Kennedy gave a dry chuckle. “I babysat you.”
    “And helped me with my homework once I began school. And took me to my basketball and baseball games, taught me how to rake leaves and shovel snow, and ride a bike, took me to church, read stories to me by the hour, let me help in the kitchen, and always had a listening ear for all my woes, kisses for my bumps, and counsel and prayers for my troubles. Aunt Molly, you showed me the Christ of Christmas, and I’ll never forget that. Now, as much as I would love to stay and eat some of your cookies that I smell–” he sniffed the air with a smile “–I must get this tree home. But I promise you, I’m coming back!” With those words, and a firm but gentle hug, Jack Osborn rushed from the house, climbed into his red truck, and drove around the U-shaped drive and back onto the road.
    “Well!” Miss Kennedy exclaimed when the red truck was out of sight. “Of all the people to come knocking on my door a week before Christmas, Jackson Osborn was the last person I’d have expected, if I’d been expecting anyone. And I don’t think he was a dream.”
    Hurrying to the kitchen, she shook her head. “If I’d had my wits about me I would have fixed up a plate of cookies for him to take home with that tree. The old country house at the edge of town? I wonder if he means the old Edwards place?”

Do you like red trucks with Christmas trees?

Have you decorated for Christmas?

Do you want to read the rest of this story?

Yes! I'm participating in the 12 Days of Christmas on this blog too! :D Don't you just love Christmas? Click on the link to head over to Faith's first post and see who else is posting today. Meet you over there!