Nebula Nights: Love Among The Stars

by Melisse Aires

  “Noelle?” He grabbed her shoulder as she began coughing violently. Turning her away from the wind, he crouched down slightly to shield her from the cold. “Do you have your inhaler?”

  She nodded through the coughing and took it from her pocket, shaking it a few times before inhaling a puff into her lungs. Once the coughing subsided, she offered him a smile as his worried expression hit her heart. “I’m okay. How’d you know about the inhaler?”

  “We saw you using it this morning,” he replied while tucking her scarf more tightly around her neck and mouth. “Is it the cold?”

  “It bothers my asthma.” Her heart was now pounding, not just from the attack but from the way he was looking at her and fidgeting with her scarf and jacket. It was like he wanted to protect her from the cold wind. He really was such a sweet guy, which triggered the previous question of how could he possibly not be taken? “Thank you. I’ve actually been expecting that attack since I walked in to find a fourteen foot pine tree in the gym.”

  His worry compounded. “Oh, shit. Are you allergic?”

  “No!” she laughed. “I meant from the shock. Sorry, I’m not nearly as funny as I think I am.”

  He snorted. “Mike says the same thing about me. He also says I’m funny looking.”

  “Hardly,” she blurted out before going wide eyed and turning sharply towards the bus stop. The lighted bench box was within sight.

  “Hardly funny or funny looking?” Steve grinned at the back of her head then rushed to stabilize her as she stumbled.

  Noelle glanced down at his hand on her elbow, having to take in another deep breath of scarf-filtered air. “Well, I think you’re funny and certainly not funny looking. I’ve never seen eyes like yours before.”

  This time it was Steve who stumbled on a crack in the sidewalk. Maybe Anna had been right about the contacts. He just hated the way they itched, and he figured his eyes were close enough to blue. Apparently not. “Uh, yeah. They’re a family trait.”

  “Neat,” she shuffled along the sidewalk, subconsciously slowing down her pace the closer they came to the bus stop.

  He gladly slowed the pace with her, but wanted a new topic. A topic safely away from his eyes. “How’d you get the name Noelle? It’s very seasonal.”

  “And usually reserved for cats,” she sighed with a laugh. “My birthday is on Christmas Eve and my mom thought it was a good idea.”

  “I think it’s pretty,” he stated honestly and Noelle stopped walking again. “Kind of nice to be able to keep a piece of Christmas with you every day of the year.”

  She looked up at him, into his strange eyes, and smiled. “I’ve never thought about it like that. Thank you.”

  His hand slid from her elbow to her hand as they started walking again. Instead of pulling away like he feared, she pulled his hand into her jacket pocket with her own. They clasped hands inside her pocket and it warmed his entire being.

  “Noelle,” he sat with her under the lighted canopy. “Can I ask…”

  “What happened?” she asked as his words trailed off.

  He nodded but then frowned. “Never mind. It’s none of my business,” but he wanted it to be. “I just… I don’t get it,” he almost growled. “How someone could just give up a child.”

  “Some people suck,” she replied bluntly. “Others think they’re doing the right thing, and others just make poor choices. Mom made some dumb choices, like leaving a five-year-old alone for three days. That five-year-old then made a dumb choice and burned down an apartment building. I just wanted some macaroni, and she was a young mom who wanted to party. Mom by surprise at seventeen, no family of her own. Sometimes life just doesn’t work out the way you plan.”

  Steve understood her reasoning, and he didn’t even hear any bitterness in her voice about it. “She didn’t come get you, though?”

  “She thought I was better off in the system,” Noelle whispered. “Maybe I was. She O.D.’d on cocaine two years later.” She felt his hand tighten its grip on hers and that brought the bus stop back in through the foggy memories. “Oh, goodness, I’m sorry! Walk a girl to the bus stop and you get a sob-story.”

  “Hey, it’s okay,” he frowned as she glanced away. “Really, I get it. Life doesn’t always work out the way you want it to, but you make the best of what you’re given. Like you and those kids.”

  She looked back at him in disbelief. He wasn’t offering her pity like all her ex’s had done. He was offering her understanding. She’d wished for someone who could understand, and here he was sitting next to her on a cold bench with his hand tucked into her pocket. Maybe six years wasn’t so long to wait for a wish to come true, after all, because she could see the real compassionate understanding in his eyes. She wondered what his story was and what had put that understanding in his heart.

  The loud screech of the bus’s airbrakes broke apart the moment. “That’s my ride,” she mumbled.

  “That’s your ride,” he whispered back while reluctantly slipping his hand free of her pocket. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” she smiled and stood. “Goodnight, Steve.”

  “Goodnight, Noelle,” he smiled after her then stood, watching as she boarded the bus, found her seat and the bus rolled away. He stood at the bus stop, unmoving for ten minutes. He stood alone and cursing how cold his hand was without her hand held within it.

  4: Keeping Their Sheep

  Noelle was a nervous wreck, and it had nothing to do with the lack of focus from her sixth-grade art class that was too hyped up on candy canes to finish their decoupages. She was no more able to focus on the glue and colored tissue paper, and it had everything to do with her bus stop conversation and the handsome man who had brought Christmas to a gym full of foster kids. It didn’t help that every time she closed her eyes, she saw Steve’s steely greys staring back at her.

  What had she been thinking last night, spilling her past out to a man she barely knew? She hadn’t been thinking, at least not past the point of swooning over his handsome looks, kind nature and understanding words. It had felt good to really talk to someone again. There was the possibility that her bus stop confessional had scared him to his senses and he wouldn’t show up at the Center today, but her heart insisted he would be there.

  He had to be. He was her Christmas wish, six years overdue.

  “Miss Smith?” a student called from the front row, startling Noelle out of her thoughts.

  She glanced up at the expectant eyes. “Yes, Brent?”

  “The bell rung, Miss Smith,” Brent hinted and pointed at the clock on the wall over the door. “Can we go?”

  “Oh!” Noelle jumped up from her desk. “I’m sorry! I guess all this decoupage ran away with my brain,” she joked and her students laughed. It was easy being an Art Teacher. Kids, no matter their age, liked Art. “Alright. Please be sure to put your name on your work, leave them on your desk and then have a good holiday break!”

  “Thanks, Miss Smith,” Brent grinned. He was one of her favorites, even though she knew she shouldn’t have favorite students. “Merry Christmas!”

  “Merry Christmas!” several other students waved as they exited. Some said Happy Holidays or Happy New Year, and others just quietly rushed out the door towards two weeks of freedom.

  One student, Jacob, lingered and helped clean up. Soon, nine other students appeared in the classroom and went about a normal routine of helping Noelle tidy the classroom. These ten students were her most favorite of all. They would be joining her on the bus and riding with her the whole way to the Center that was supposed to be a temporary home.

  “Thank you,” she smiled at them once it was all finished. “Let’s go home.”

  The bus ride home was filled with laughter. The fosters were looking forward to getting started in the kitchen and two weeks free from homework. Noelle knew part of the real reason for their excitement, though, was because the dinner was an opportunity to meet a family. People seemed more open to opening their doors to a f
oster kid close to the holidays, but she also knew the bitter disappointment that hit just after New Year’s.

  She’d been through it year after year, but she wouldn’t let her own reality stamp out the hope she saw in their eyes, even though she knew the older kids would have the least chance of getting placed. It didn’t seem to matter that they were all well-mannered, that they tried hard in school despite most being bullied, or that they just wanted a hug more than a new smart phone or the latest pair of sneakers. It didn’t matter that they were grateful for everything they had despite having so little. It didn’t matter, because most would only see the age and wonder why no one had picked them when they were younger.

  “Miss Smith?” Alex questioned, standing next to her seat on the bus.

  Noelle blinked out of her thoughts and realized the bus had stopped. “Oh, sorry! So much on my mind with the dinner and everything. I probably would have rode the bus all the way to midtown.”

  Alex grin, sharing a look with several other fosters. “Is Mr. Mason coming tonight?”

  “Who?” Noelle raised an eyebrow as she stood, gathered her things and ushered the kids off the bus.

  “Steve,” Becca giggled. “You know, the tall man with the big tree.”

  Her comment caused all the kids to laugh as Noelle nearly fell out of the bus. Alex and Jacob caught her as her cheeks went crimson. Straightening herself, she tried to put on a serious ‘teacher’ face. “Rebecca Mary Marshall!” she chided the eighth-grader.

  “What?” Becca grinned innocently. “He did have a big pine tree. We decorated it, remember?”

  Noelle rolled her eyes and gave in with a laugh. With the internet and television these days, she knew it was impossible to expect kids her age to tell simple knock-knock jokes. “Yes, I remember Steve. I just didn’t get his last name. Mr. Mason said he would try and be there tonight, but it was short notice.”

  She didn’t want to get the kid’s hopes up that Steve would be at the Center, helping in the kitchen. The kids seemed to really like him, and they already had to deal with enough disappointment in their lives. Her heart also knew she was trying to prepare herself for him not being there. She thought maybe she’d made a friend last night, but the kids had just highlighted the fact that she hadn’t even gotten his last name.

  Steve Mason. Having a last name was not helping one bit to fight off her growing attraction to the man. One day, Noelle. You’ve known him for one day. He’s not your Christmas wish come true. He was just a nice man who wanted to do something nice for the kids.

  She smiled as they walked into the gymnasium. The tree really was stunning, and it had been such a nice donation from their company. Right. Anna’s company. Not necessarily Steve at all. It was a good way to highlight their decorating services to those attending the dinner tonight.

  That thought soured in her stomach as she took her coat off. The decorating team had been wonderful with the kids and she was being rude by turning it into some ulterior motive for their business. It was hard, though, not to think that way about people. It was hard to think that they would just give without expecting some sort of return.

  It was hard to believe that Steve would be in the kitchen, waiting for her, but there he was. Dressed in a pink frilly apron and with an economy bulk can of yams in his hands, Steve turned and smiled at her. Noelle’s head spun. Steve was here. Steve Mason was in the kitchen, blowing all her preconceptions and understandings about the real world out the window.

  “Afternoon, Noelle,” he smiled. “Have a good last day at school?”

  “Y-yes,” Noelle stammered as Becca squeezed past with a giggle.

  “Stop staring at her and give me a hand, ya yimesk,” Garry huffed from behind a stack of boxes he was carrying.

  Yimesk? Noelle tilted her head at the strange word. That, mixed with Steve’s strange eyes, was starting to make her think Steve and the rest of the crew weren’t local. European, maybe?

  “Careful,” Steve warned quietly while taking the top box. “Don’t want to slip.”

  Garry blinked then caught on to his verbal slip. “Oh, yeah. Wouldn’t do any good to drop the pies.”

  “You drop my pies and I’ll serve you to the hungry guests!” Rosalie joked with a serious glare as she appeared behind Garry with another box.

  “Rosa!” Noelle smiled and rushed over to take the box. They set the box down and exchanged a hug. “Thank you so much for donating your pies again this year.”

  “Glad to help, sweetie,” Rosa waved off the thanks. “Besides, according to my math, I owe you at least another five hundred dozen to make up for Larry.”

  “Garry,” Garry corrected with a grin. “And meeting me is worth at least double that.”

  Rosa huffed with a roll of the eyes, but she was fighting a smirk. “Larry was my good for nothing ex-husband. When I hit bottom with Larry after getting tired of Larry hitting me, Noelle gave me a place to stay while I got my life back together. Then she helped me start my business. So,” Rosa turned to Noelle, crossing her arms. “A few pies is the least I can do.”

  Garry scowled. “That’s it. I’m changing my name. I don’t like having a name that rhymes with asshole.”

  “Language,” Steve sighed as Becca stopped unboxing stuffing to giggle with several younger kids helping.

  “Oh, shiiiioot,” Garry flustered, his shoulders slumping as Rosa joined in the laughter.

  Rosa kissed Garry’s cheek. “You’re a sweetheart, like my daughter Mary.”

  Garry’s rueful smile returned as he followed Rosa back out to her delivery van. “Then I’ll keep Garry.”

  Noelle watched them with a gentle sigh, leaning back against the counter next to Steve. “Garry seems nice, but…”

  Steve lowered his voice. “But what?”

  “Rosa’s just been hurt, a lot,” Noelle hated to butt in, but her friend’s heart had been hurt before. Repeatedly. “And her daughter, Mary, is a special needs kid.”

  “Oh,” Steve thought on that for a moment, guessing what Noelle was trying to say. “Well, Garry is kind of a special needs case himself,” he tried a joke first then took on a more serious tone. “He’s a good guy, and it takes a lot to scare him away.”

  “Really?” Noelle glanced up, her heart skipping under Steve’s serious stare. She could tell he really did mean it. “Oh, okay, then. I mean, that’d be great, even for Rosa to have another friend. She works so hard between her business and her daughter.” Noelle lowered her eyes, now slightly embarrassed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to doubt your friend’s intentions.”

  “You were just looking out for the best intentions of your friend,” Steve offered and was relieved to see the smile return to Noelle’s face. “It’s okay. Rosa’s lucky to have a friend like you.”

  Noelle raised her eyes again, realizing just how close Steve was leaning down to her. It would be so easy to just hop onto her tiptoes and kiss his cheek. Rosa had made it look like such a simple thing, giving Garry a peck, and she hadn’t even known him for more than a few minutes. The distance between Noelle’s heart and her head remained a gaping, frightening chasm.

  One of the younger girls made an ‘ooOoo’ noise followed by a gaggle of giggles. Noelle’s gaze dropped as her cheeks caught fire. She cleared her throat then began unboxing the pies. The rest of the afternoon flew by as preparations were made for the night’s dinner. Garry convinced Rosa to come back later and the rest of Steve’s coworkers showed up to help. More decorations were added, including some beautiful table centerpieces made by Amber, and Noelle couldn’t believe how lucky the Center had been this year will all the generosity.

  As six o’clock came near, Noelle ushered Steve and his friends out of the kitchen to go enjoy the meal with all the other arriving guests, but Steve lingered. He ignored her additional attempts, and it became clear his friends weren’t going away, either. They helped the kids serve, then mingled with both the donators and the homeless people who had shown up. Halfway through the meal, the hall went
quiet as Father Nathan approached a microphone that had been set up in front of the tree.

  “Good evening,” Father Nathan began. “I want to thank everyone who came tonight – those that were able to donate and those for whom this meal could be considered a donation. All are welcome, and it brings me great joy to see so much happiness in one place. The children worked very hard to put this meal together, and we had so many generous people helping us this year.”

  He paused and motioned towards the tree. “This beautiful tree, the first we have ever been able to have, was kindly donated by Celestial Seasons Decorating Company.” A round of applause replied before he continued. “The amazing pies you are about to consume are from Rosalie’s Bakery on Garden Street, the hams were donated this year by Schneider’s Meats on Christopher Avenue, the kosher meals were provided by the Jewish Community Center on lower Grand, and the turkeys were donated by Amil Ali Halal Deli on James Ave.”

  He waited for more applause to end, then smiled wider. “You are truly enjoying a meal from the hearts of many, across many life paths and faiths. It is a reminder that Christmas is a time when we may come together and all sit at the same table in a shared joy and love. It is my hope that you will take that with you when you leave and continue to keep your own tables open to others throughout the year. No matter where we come from or where we are going, we are all the same under the stars of the heavens.”

  Father Nathan’s words hit against Steve’s heart as he stood in the doorway to the kitchen. Noelle leaned back against him with a soft, smiling sigh, and he couldn’t help but wrap his arms around her. She glanced up and back at him, they shared a smile then she leaned back further into his embrace.

  “So, with that,” Father Nathan raised his hands. “Let us eat pie!”