Chapter Thirteen

"Slim! Jess!" Mike shouted at the top of his lungs. "Aunt Daisy! It's Slim and Jess! They're home!"

Daisy ran from the kitchen, her hands on her cheeks as her tears started to spill, but the grin on her face showed that there was no sadness, only immense relief. "I was so afraid you weren't going to make it."

"We wondered that some ourselves," Jess said as he wriggled free from Mike's tight grip and watched as the boy bounded towards Slim. "Careful with Slim, Tiger, he's a might banged up."

"Oh, Slim, are you hurt badly?" Daisy's eyes instinctively went to Slim's knee by the way he put most of his weight on his opposite leg.

"It's not too bad, Daisy," Slim said as Daisy quickly ushered Slim into the chair by the blazing fire. "It'll be fine now that I'm home."

Daisy examined Slim, giving him a careful probing touch, she then proclaimed that the injury wasn't severe but instructed him to keep the wound elevated for the rest of the evening. Slim, although grateful for Daisy's pampering care, after a while of warming and recuperating, he decided he'd take a lesson from Jess' usual reaction to medical instructions. When Daisy dashed into her room to work on the "secrets" that she had whispered in his ear, Slim was back on his feet again, limping, but up sampling the goodies that Daisy had placed around the kitchen.

After Slim vacated the seat closest to the fireplace, Jess sat down in his chair, propping his feet up close to the fire, the warmth covering him like a comforting embrace. He leaned back, feeling content, and closed his eyes but soon fluttered them open when a popcorn ball hit his chest. He wrapped his hand around it and looked at Slim who stood nearby, leaning against a chair with a mischievous grin on his face.

"Thanks, Pard," Jess held the sugary popcorn to his mouth, ready to take a bite, "now I don't gotta get up to get one myself."

Jess put the popcorn ball to his lips and watched as Slim frowned and then turned towards the kitchen. With Slim's back to him, Jess hurled the popcorn into the air, hitting Slim between the shoulders. He whirled around, a wide grin on his face as he picked the popcorn up from the ground and sent it flying back in Jess' direction. Catching it with both hands, Jess jumped from his chair and charged after Slim who limped towards the kitchen to get a handful of ammunition. Soon Mike followed and all three hurled popcorn balls all around the house.

"Boys!" Daisy came running from her bedroom where she was putting Mike's stocking gifts together and put her hands to her mouth as she saw the sugar coated popcorn flying back and forth through the house. She started to reprimand, saying, "there are real snowballs outside," but the more she watched the happy scene, grateful that they were all home and safe, she started to giggle until rounds of laughter burst from her throat, making her three boys join her in exuberant merry mirth together as the popcorn balls flew throughout the room.

Jess dodged a shot from Slim but took one in the thigh from Mike and he rolled across the floor, gathering enough return fire to keep Slim and Mike pinned behind the table. Daisy picked up a chunk of popcorn that rolled to a stop near her feet and tossed it at an unsuspecting Jess who turned sharply in her direction to see her wink. He smiled, feeling like he was back at home, but, Jess realized, this was home now and it was more perfect than he could ever imagine a home could be. He saw Mike gently tackle Slim, avoiding his injured knee, and rushed over to claim victory.

"I give up, I give up!" Slim laughed as he lay on the floor with Mike sitting on his chest while Jess threatened to dump an armful of popcorn on his head. "I guess we're never too old for tomfoolery, right Jess?"

"You got that right, Pard," Jess answered with a wink.

"My goodness," Daisy patted her throat as her swells of laughter started to subside and then she leaned over to pick up a wayward piece of popcorn near her feet. "I haven't had that much fun in a long time. There are more snowballs outside than one could ever imagine, but I guess it would never do to have that kind of fight inside, but I'm not sure it did these goodies much good."

"Don't you worry none about it, Daisy," Jess said as he held two large popcorn balls in his hands. "I'm not particular. I'll eat 'em, dirt and all!" To prove his point, he stuffed a good portion of the treat in his mouth and removed a large bite from its side with his teeth. "Best I ever ate!"

"All right," Daisy chuckled, as Slim and Mike started eating their share of the popcorn. "Get it all picked up off of the floor while I finish up in my room with something I'm working on and then I'll get out the fudge."

"Fudge," Slim, Mike and Jess said in unison, although from Mike it came out as a question, from Slim it came out rather dreamily as he elongated the word, but from Jess it was a loud exclamation.

With a large portion of the sweet treats devoured, it was nearing time to retire for the night as Mike knew he needed to crawl under his covers and wait for the magic of Christmas Eve to turn into the excitement of Christmas morning. Daisy opened the desk drawer and pulled out the Sherman family Bible, and called Mike by her side.

"Before you go to bed, I'm going to read the Christmas story," Daisy opened the Book and turned the pages to the proper place. "I decided it was just as fitting tonight as tomorrow since Slim and Jess made it home together safely. We have much to be thankful for this Christmas."

Slim and Jess looked at each other and shared a smile, as they hadn't told Daisy the entire story yet, she didn't know just how close they'd come several times at not coming home together at all. Being thankful was a sentiment that would carry them throughout Christmas day and several days beyond. Daisy started retelling the story, capturing the attention of the young boy with the truth of the blessed birth.

Jess walked to the window, leaned down on the couch and looked out at the deep snow. He couldn't see much beyond the soft glow that the lamp cast from the window, but as he listened to Daisy tell the Christmas story to Mike, the very same words, with the same loving tone in her voice as his Ma had shared so many years ago, for perhaps the first time in the same amount of time, he felt the truth enter his heart. Jess smiled, watching the snow coming down in a more gentle tone and from somewhere on high, the soft tinkling notes of a melody still played with a host of angelic voices in the heavens.

THE END

A few notes: "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!" was written by Charles Wesley. It first appeared in 1739 in the collection Hymns and Sacred Poems. The popular version known today and presumably in Laramie's time frame was altered by various hands, most notably by Wesley's co-worker, George Whitefield. The parson's rendition of the song is truly the parson's, or, uh… mine.

Even though this story is based in season three, I borrow the character of the parson from season four's episode, Gun Duel. He was credited as Parson Hawks, but after watching the episode, I only heard the Laramie characters address him as "Parson" (the name) and the parson (presumably an occupation) so I decided that was the only name I was going to give him. Somehow, adding a last name doesn't look as good in print, maybe that's just me though. Anyway, I found his character most interesting and I hope I wrote him fairly accurately.

One of the first recipes for popcorn balls was printed in an 1861 cookbook, although it is likely that the treat existed long before the first publishing of its ingredients. During the Civil War, newspaper articles began to circulate with variations on the first popcorn ball recipe, called sugar balls and corn balls, but all included some form of sugar, molasses being the most common form, being poured over the popped kernels before being rolled into balls. In my research I found several accounts of people telling about their great-great grandparents making popcorn balls every year for Christmas and I'm deciding that Mrs. Harper and then later, Daisy, was one of those who shared in this tradition with her family, although the "snowball" fight likely isn't involved in every household!

To all of my readers and all Laramie fans out there, I hope you have a very blessed and merry Christmas. May God grant you peace and a true gift that doesn't come from a package wrapped in pretty paper, but one that comes from the heart. Merry Christmas! CW