by D. R. Mather
***
It wasn’t just a dusting of snow; it was over two feet of snow. The power went out around 4:00 a.m. Oddly, it woke Kevin and he lay there counting.
“1, 2, 3, 4, 5.”
The power went back on.
“Okay, about a five second delay before the generators kick in, might be good to know that later.” He rolled on his side and hugged Judy. She must have woken up just enough to grab his arm and pull him in tight. He fell back to sleep.
Everyone seemed to be ‘dragging ass’ in the morning. Barb came out from the kitchen with part of breakfast; it was only 5:40 a.m. Judy followed behind her with more food. Both were heading for the serving area.
“Do you think they’ll be here this morning Barb?”
“I’m actually surprised they haven’t shown up all ready, the power went off early this morning, that house should be getting pretty cold by now.” The words were no sooner out of Barb’s mouth than they heard the front doors open.
“I got it Barb.” Judy ran out to the desk area. “Hi guys, we’ve been expecting you!”
“Hi Judy. Yeah, Bill had us in the truck a little longer than normal, but here we are!”
Katie shooed the kids and told them to find some breakfast. “I’m sure there’s something you guys will just love”
Both kids ran off towards the dining room. Judy could hear the sounds of many shovels scraping the ground. The ‘boys’ had been at it for a while now.
“Katie, go get some breakfast, I have to go chase down the mules and give them a break. Is Bill still in the yard?”
“He was headed over to the garages when he dropped me off, he should still be here somewhere.”
“Got it.” Judy grabbed her coat then headed out the front door. They had cleared the entrance already so she moved out to where she could see the garages. She saw them all clearing out the fronts of the garages. Bill was backing up and making another charge off to the left side. It was still snowing, but seemed to be lighter now.
“GUYS!”
“WHAT?” Alex asked, turning to her. The plow was loud; they had to shout to be heard.
“TAKE A BREAK!” Judy mimed eating and then pointed to Bill’s truck.
“OK GOT IT!”
She saw Alex saying something to the rest, and then she saw Kevin run over to Bill’s plow.
Ten minutes later and everyone was sitting down to pancakes, waffles, sausages, bacon and muffins, as well as home fries and coffee. Everyone seemed relaxed now.
Will looked at Bill; “Bill, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this early before.”
“Now that I have the entire road to do, I stay up through the night making runs up and down; I just finished a pass and turned into yours. By the way,” he turned to Kevin, “I can’t thank you enough for this. The winters get really lean because my construction company closes up for the winter. We try to stretch it out, but you know how that works.”
“I sure do Bill. As a builder I went through it for many years until they started to smarten up and shell everything in by late fall, so we could finish work inside with heaters during the winter months. Of course you run a heavy equipment Bill; I’m guessing there isn’t a good way to shell in a road?”
“Not that I’ve been able to figure out yet, nope.”
“It was the logical solution to both the town’s problem and ours. They had a hard time getting up here because so many other roads were deemed more important. You had a plow big enough for the job. All I did was put two and two together.”
“True, but maintenance and mileage as well as a paycheck? How did you ever manage that one? I know guys who sub out to the town, they never get free maintenance.”
“Oh, let’s just say I persuaded them.”
Bill laughed and drank more coffee, “Well, I best get back to it.” He then looked to Will, “All I have left here is the fuel road Will, and I’ll see what the storm does after that.”
“No problem Bill. If the power’s still out, just head back here, we have everyone safe and warm.”
“Thank you Will, I shall return.” Bill made a ‘Sir Knight’ stance and headed out.
“Well, I suppose I should finish up at the garages,” said Kevin. All the guys followed him out of the dining room.
Cindy piped up, “They look like their marching off to war. Heads hanging down, arms slumped, dragging their feet.”
“You girls want to join us?” Kevin turned and asked them.
“Keep marching soldier boys, just keep marching,” said Judy.
Kevin blew her a kiss then went around the corner, out of sight.
At the coat area, Will asked Kevin, “I can’t help but notice that when you’re around here, you wear a regular winter coat like everyone else does, but I never see you leave the yard unless you’re in that leather thing. Is there a reason for that?”
“Yip, I like to look good for the ladies.” He put on his knitted snow hat and headed through the door.
“Huh? I guess that makes sense.”
Alex and Roland chuckled a little, then headed out with Will.
Two hours later and everyone was in the living room, even Billy, Katie and the kids. Kevin had left Judy to her ‘rag mag’ and had moseyed his way over to Will, who was sitting on a chair next to Barb.
“Will, I wanted to ask you something; is there a reason why there isn’t one television in the place?”
“Yip, we both wanted one in every room and one in here as well, but then we calculated the costs. By the time we added in the cost of each TV and the cost of cable or satellite for each room, it just couldn’t fit into the plan. So we had to leave them out.”
“So it wasn’t ‘the TV is the devil’ or anything like that?”
“No, no, not at all, I enjoy it as much as the next guy; we just couldn’t make it work on our budget.”
“Yeah, I get it Will, that I do.” Kevin wandered off over to Judy again. She was now looking at Kevin with a curious face to say the least.
“Kevin Chase, what are you up to now?”
“Nothing much honey, I just had a few thoughts, that’s all.”
“Okay, don’t tell me, who am I anyway, right?”
Kevin kissed her cheek and began whispering into Judy’s ear. Judy began smiling the minute he started to tell her.
***
Two days later and there was a lift next to the building, three guys on the roof mounting a satellite dish, and eight guys walking all over the place. In the middle of all of this mess, a delivery truck showed up and parked out at the front entrance. Three men were unloading boxes that seemed to be all the same thing, over and over. All except one; which was huge but not too thick. Kevin seemed to be all over the place, talking to one man then another. He was up and down the stairs, inside, outside, in the basement, up on the roof. Judy gave up trying to keep up with him; she just went out to the kitchen where the other women seemed to be keeping themselves busy. Barb was over by the sink with her back to everyone. Judy noticed it first – Barb’s arm kept going up and her hand kept going to her face. Judy quietly walked closer, then heard what she suspected. She turned to the girls, got their attention and told them that Barb was quietly crying. Cindy moved to Barb first, then the rest followed behind. She put her arm around Barb and the sounds coming from her instantly got louder.
“What is it honey, what’s the matter?”
Barb turned to Cindy and saw everyone else close to her.
“Why does he do these things for us? I mean, he’s not related to us. A few months ago we didn’t even know the man existed. Suddenly he’s here, bringing all of us together in a way that Will and I could never have dreamed of, somehow managing to make it so we don’t ever have to pay taxes again, and now he does this with the TVs. Why?”
Judy saw the girls; they all seemed to be nodding because they’d been wondering the same thing. Then it hit Judy that they didn’t know the story. “Everyone, come sit at the work stools, I have something to tell you.”
They all agreed, so Judy sat down and told them the tragic tale of Kevin’s family and some of Kevin’s fall after. When she was done, there wasn’t a dry eye in the kitchen.
“Don’t you see? Kevin sees this as his atonement, because he thinks he should have been able to save his family from what happened. He lives in a hell all of his own because of it. There isn’t anything we can do to help him, other than to love him and to accept him as our family. That’s all Kevin ever wanted, was a family; he lost his, we became his replacement.”
There was total silence in the kitchen.
“You see,” Judy continued, “we have to let him do what he needs to do so that he can heal himself inside.”
Barb said, “But he spends so much – he’ll be broke in a year at this rate.”
Judy smiled, “Listen, Kevin is fine with it, and he knows what he’s doing. Besides, I’ve learned enough about him that I know if you’re all happy because of him, then money means nothing to him.”
“I saw some amazing things Judy,” said Cindy. “How can you explain…?”
Judy put her hand up, “We don’t explain it; we let Kevin be Kevin. Okay? Barb, you’re right, he isn’t your relative, but he is your family. Absolutely he is. He belongs to all of us as sure as if he was our brother. And we in turn all belong to him, and to each other for that matter; we are a family.”
Barb thought to herself, “It seems we found a group of misfits. All that was missing was a family to call their own and a place to warm their bodies and call home.” She started sobbing heavily into her tissue. Everyone followed suit, even Judy.
A Christmas light was lit that day, one that could not be extinguished.
After the food prep work was done and the roasts were in the oven, the women decided to see what had been going on in the rest of the house. As they made their way to the living room entrance they saw Alex, Roland, Will and Kevin in the room. Everything had been moved around except the tree. Sitting in the far right side of the room, to the right of the hallway panel, was a one hundred inch large screen TV, facing diagonally out from the corner. Will was placing a chair; Roland and Alex were moving a sofa; Kevin was standing in the center of the room, directing.
“You guys got that or should I call the girls in?”
“We got, we got,” said Roland, his face a dark pink.
“Are you sure? Because I can go get Judy to lift…”
“WE GOT IT!”
“Well okay, if you think you have it.”
It landed at its destination with a thud. Roland and Alex walked by Kevin. Roland pointed to him as he moved past;
“You’re off my Christmas list next year pal.”
“Same goes for me,” said Alex as he moved past Kevin. They walked over to a coffee table and lifted it. Roland mumbled something about ‘slave driver’, Barb was pretty sure she heard the word ‘dictator’ and ‘bully’ come from Alex.
As the coffee table found its new home, Roland stood up, “There, all moved. Are we done or would you like us to drop the ceiling a few feet to keep it warmer in here too?”
“Ammm……nope, that should do it guys. Good work, go get a cookie.”
If they listened closely, they could all hear the grumbling as Roland and Alex left the room.
Barb slowly walked around while examining the furniture.
“You know Kevin; I should have laid it out this way to begin with. You have a good eye.”
Kevin did a horrible John Wayne impersonation again, “Why thank you ma’am.”
The girls joined them but not before Cindy had turned back and seen that both Roland and Alex were in the dining room. And get this… they were eating a cookie.
She walked into the room thinking, ’Wow, good training Kevin’.
They looked around. All the seating was set up in a semicircular design, and along the windows was a sofa, then a chair, another sofa then a chair, and then a final sofa. Kevin had Barb and Will’s chairs out from the corner so that both of them faced the giant TV.
Kevin took out a remote that was in his pocket and aimed it at the TV. It came to life for all to see. He changed it to the local news for now, and walked over to a sofa, sat, looked at Judy, and tapped the side of the cushion. She was there like a bolt of lightning. He looked over and Will and Barb were just standing as if they weren’t sure what to do.
“Oh, honey, sec, be right back.” Kevin got up, went over and gathered them both together. He brought them over to their seats and sat them down, then took the remote and gave it to Will, “Your sword Sire.”
Will was grinning from ear to ear; Barb was just looking at Kevin like she was star-struck.
“Merry Christmas Barb and Will, may you both enjoy the season.” He bowed and went back to Judy.
Every bedroom now had a television. There were twenty unopened TV boxes sitting in the hall on the third floor as well; it seemed Kevin had ensured the entire house was wired, even the attic’s servant’s quarters.
Beth found a cartoon for the kids and they both lay on a rug watching it. Bill walked in the front door.
“Well, I guess the storm has passed, I saw the sun peek through a few minutes ago. Hey kids, the power’s back on too.”
The kids let out a mighty, “Yay.” They went to get their coats and Katie got up and followed.
”Do you have to leave so soon?” asked April.
“Yeah, I’m behind on my laundry now and I have to set things to rights again. Thank you again Barb, Will, as always.”
“You’re more than welcome,” said Barb.
“Thank you Bill as well,” said Will.
“You’re very welcome, both of you.”
They left and something seemed emptier; there were no children.
The next morning, even before breakfast, Kevin was out the door and had left in the truck. Judy was snoring away in bed. Kevin left her a note telling her he would be home by eleven at the latest. He went to a local heavy equipment store and got a hitch for the truck. As it was being installed, a salesman and helper put a seven hundred and fifty foot spool of rope in the bed of the truck, along with some other items. As soon as the hitch was ready, they backed the truck out of the garage and over to the gas-powered equipment. Kevin picked out just what he was looking for, they hooked the equipment to the new hitch, and then Kevin left. The unit he was towing looked just like any yellow generator you might see at a construction site, only it had a very large pulley sticking out of the front of the housing. When Kevin got back, Judy was nowhere to be found near the entrance.
’Huh, she’s gaining confidence, good for her,’ thought Kevin, and took the truck past the garages, over to where the land started to go down to the valley a mile below.
Kevin ran up to the house to let everyone know he was back. He blew Judy lots of kisses and then told them all he’d be busy for the rest of the day, and that he didn’t want to be disturbed.
Around 4:30 p.m. Kevin walked back in to the Inn. Judy was in the living room reading when she saw him.
“Ooh, baby, mommy’s coming,” she said, running over to him. The snow on him was packed in hard; it was just about everywhere you could get snow. His gloves were almost Popsicle sticks. “Oh you poor baby,” she continued, and helped him take off his outerwear. “Come on, over to the fire snowman.” Kevin wasn’t speaking; he was just too cold to talk.
The evening was Christmas Eve; everyone was in the living room. Barb arranged for a nice little feast for them all. Not only did the girls help, but even the guys were in and out of the kitchen doing things for them. They had all kinds of things to eat: little wieners wrapped in a delicate pastry, mushroom filled pastries, spinach filled pastries, some had shrimp, beef – you name it; something, somewhere was stuffed into Barb’s pastries. There were finger sandwiches filled with tuna, ham, crab or chicken salad
. There were also several pickle and olive trays, several cracker and cheese trays, and even a punch that Judy had made.
Now let’s be clear on one thing – Kevin only ever wore black, dark grey, dark green or dark brown T-shirts and denim pants. Even his dress clothes fit the same description. This was who Kevin was, who he had always been. Take it as a ‘fact of life’.
Tonight all the girls had some type of Christmas sweater on, as did the guys. Will’s one was red with a few large snowflakes on it. Roland’s was red with Santas randomly placed over it. Alex was sporting an off-white sweater with knitted bulbs on it. Kevin was wearing a black T-Shirt.
Roland made a smart ass remark about not having to lift boulders at least.
Kevin retorted with, “I’d rather spend the day lifting boulders than have to wear that thing you have on.”
Alex started to laugh then stopped when Roland pointed out that Beth seemed to have taken care of him as well.
Judy was sitting near the tree, on the floor with her legs crossed in front of her. She heard them making jokes about the sweaters.
“OOO …,” she looked at Kevin, jumped up and dashed from the room.
“Shit, I’m outta here.” Kevin got off the sofa to leave. He felt two hands grab his shoulders from behind as he was making his way to the side hall.
“No you don’t mister.” Beth had his left side, April had his right. Cindy was standing between them. Kevin turned and saw all three.
“You just get your butt back over there and take it like a man, Mister!” Cindy ordered.
“Shit.” He got back, sat down, and prepared for it.
Judy came down the stairs…
Plop, plop…plop, plop…
Then she turned the corner. She stopped at the entrance to the living room and unfolded a sweater. It was white with bright yellow bands around it. Each different colored band had just about everything you could associate with Christmas contained within them. From little knitted Santas to reindeer; Christmas trees to elves. And running down from each shoulder was a single candy cane, each about eight inches long.