Melody's Next Christmas

by George H. McVey

  “Then mostly a vacation for me, sweet; I’ll take the room upstairs so I can corrupt your girls. With Sara’s help, of course.”

  Tallis laughed. “Good luck with that.”

  One by one the whole clan wandered in with the exception of Nate’s son Reed. “Where’s Reed?

  “He brought his bike with him. Wanted to go check out the University. Said it would give him some independence, yet be close enough to family if he need a good meal or someplace to crash for a weekend.”

  Tallis nodded. “If he decides to go here I’ll keep an eye on him.”

  “Appreciate it.”

  Once they were all seated at the table and his mom and aunt had put out sandwiches and pitchers of tea, Tallis started. “I want to start by thanking you all for coming so quickly. I know it was a lot to ask. Yes I know family is important but I still want you to know I appreciate it. I did want you to meet Melody and you will at supper but I needed to tell you what’s going on and explain a few things and ask a few things. First things first, let me tell you what’s going on.”

  He proceeded to tell the whole story: how he was stuck and needed a historical expert on ranching, how Johnson had showed up and how his Calling had kicked in. He went on to talk about dreaming about a blonde-haired blue-eyed girl and children the night before Melody arrived. How shocked he’d been when the expert Johnson brought him was the spitting image of the woman from his dream. His mom and aunt smiled at each other when he said that. He went on to tell them he knew right then she was the one meant for him and he explained the strange things Johnson said about Melody’s contract and the warning to Melody about keeping the rules of the contract without fail.

  He went on to lay out how he’d tried several times last week to let her know he wanted her to stay and marry him and how she was adamant that her contract had her leaving in six months and was unbreakable. She finally relented to allow him to court her Saturday and he explained how she’d not known anything about modern clothes and how at dinner she’d said something and he jokingly said that maybe she was actually an expert on the 1800s because she was from the 1800s. When he’d explained that his Calling jolted him then his family with the exception of his dad had all exclaimed in surprise. He went on to explain what he realized about Melody’s side of the contract. That she couldn’t tell anyone or even admit that she was from the past. That she had to get his ranch running like an 1800s one. He went on to tell about how she finally admitted that she was his and he was hers. He stopped for a drink and his cousin Hannah spoke up. “So why are we here, Tall? How can we help you fight this time traveling bureaucrat?”

  Tallis nodded. “Some of you can’t directly. But you are all here for a reason. First off, you’re family and we stick together. Secondly, I wanted you all to know what’s going on. None of you can mention any of this to Melody. She knows that I called you all here to tell you everything but she can’t confirm or admit to any of it. We have to be very careful, so not even using your roundabout interrogation tricks, Hannah? Nothing can jeopardize the plan we think God gave us.”

  “What plan?”

  “Yesterday at church Pastor Henderson read Matthew 19 and preached on faithfulness and divorce but what jumped off the page at both me and Melody was verse five and six. We know that the plan is this: We have to be married before the contract ends on December 31, and I mean truly without a doubt before God married. Mom, that’s why you’re here. I need a wedding and I need it by Christmas. I’ll leave most of the details up to you and Melody but there are a few things that aren’t negotiable. It needs to be in a church that worships God through Christ. The officiant needs to be a God ordained minister And absolutely the preacher has to use the following phrase, ‘By the authority given to me by God through Jesus Christ I now pronounce you man and wife. What God has joined together let no man separate’. None of that is negotiable it has to happen. It’s important. The rest of fulfilling that part of the plan is between me and Melody but we have to be man in wife in body mind and spirt. The mind part we know has already happened.” Everyone started to exclaim in excitement, asking him how he knew.

  Tallis explained how she was already exhibiting a Ryder Calling and went on to explain about Cynthia and what he and Sara had figured out last night. “The spirit part, that’s why I’m adamant about the wedding wording and who and where. As for the body part, well Melody and I will take care of that part. But that isn’t all we need. Nate, I need you to keep digging into both Johnson and Melody, only I want you to change your focus. Find me historical proof of what I know. Look for birth records for Melody. I know her ID here says she’s twenty three. I figure age wise that’s about right plus 147 years. I know she came here from around 1870 because of something Johnson said to me in passing. So I figure check 1869,70,71 for a ranch run by a man named Hughes who died and then his daughter disappearing a few weeks later. Look for her birth record around 1847. I want any and everything you can find from Penny’s mention till present day about Reverend Johnson; try to get me some photos if you can. Also on a wider scale anything that feels real about time travelers either past or present. See if you can find any other displaced in time people.”

  His dad spoke up. “Talk to me before you start that part, Nate. I have a couple names in Wyoming for you.”

  Tallis looked at his dad. “You knew, didn’t you; this is what you wanted to talk to me about.”

  “Wasn’t positive, but when I saw that Reverend fella a week ago I knew I’d read a report on him.”

  “You mean Penny and Grace’s journal entries?”

  'No, an official report by Cindy Cody to Bill Pinkerton in the early 1900’s on a time traveler named Johnson.”

  “Do you still have it?”

  “Of course, it’s in the archives.”

  “Nate, I need paper trails too. Of everything, every step you take to get me the answers I need to be able to prove my sources aren’t coming from Melody.”

  “You got it.”

  “Hannah, from you I need your contacts in the Marshal service. I need to know if the current identity Melody has is legal and if it will hold up if she needs it too.”

  “I can do that. Anything else?”

  “If it is, can you see how he got it?”

  “Yep.”

  “For the rest of you. Here’s what I need: welcome my future wife into the family Help out around here so we can get everything ready for our first guest in September. Oh, and plan to be at Fazio’s Saturday night ready to celebrate my engagement. That’s when I’ll propose. Then save the date for our wedding and plan to be here from Christmas to New Years. I wouldn’t be surprised if Johnson shows up a few days early to declare the contract complete.”

  When he was done everyone started buzzing as they do as a family. His mother, aunt, and Hannah demanded he take them and introduce them to Melody and give her some time off to go out for a girls time with them. “Umm Mom, she really hates automobiles. Like, really hates them.”

  “You took her out Saturday, how did you do that then?”

  “Umm.”

  “You took her on that death bike, didn’t you?”

  “She likes it, she says it’s like riding a horse only faster.”

  “We haven’t even met her and it’s already plain she really is your forever love.” His aunt cackled.

  He smiled as he walked the three of them over to the training ring. He could see that Melody had Diablo walking around on a lead with bridle and saddle on. “Honey, is that your father’s unbreakable horse that young woman’s leading around?”

  “Yes ma’am. That’s Melody.”

  “She’s beautiful and amazingly talented too.”

  “Your father was talking about how miraculous she had been with that beast but he was sure she’d never get a saddle on him.”

  As they watched from where they stood halfway to the training area, Melody stopped the horse and rubbed his side before climbing into the saddle. Tallis started to step forward and then s
topped as the horse calmly walked around the ring answering to every move that Melody made. “Well I’ll be.” He heard his father exclaim from behind him. ‘She actually did it. She trained that untrainable horse.”

  Quietly they all crossed and sat calmly on the spectators benches as she took Diablo around a few more times and then stopped him and slid off his back. “Thank you, my handsome fellow.” She patted his neck and then gave him a sugar cube before turning to Cynthia. “You think you can get him unsaddled and back in his stall and rubbed down?”

  “Sure, if he’s ready to go back.”

  “Okay then. Show me.”

  She handed the reins to the younger girl and came out of the ring and walked right up to Tallis, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, not passionately but not quickly either. “I’ve missed working with you today.”

  “Me too, love. Come meet some of my family.”

  Introductions were made and surprisingly, when his mother suggested the four of them getting Sara and Cynthia and going into town for some tea and wedding planning, Melody readily agreed. His mom smiled at his open mouthed stare and the four of them left him and his father standing there shocked.

  “Well I guess we’ve been dismissed.” His father slapped him on the back. “How goes the rest of the ranching business?”

  They headed back to the house talking business the whole way as Tallis wondered what in the world was going on.

  The week flew by. Melody was busier than she’d ever been. When she wasn’t training Diablo she was either teaching Cynthia something else about training horses or meeting with Tallis’ Mom, who had a million and one questions about the wedding that she need Melody’s input on. Melody wondered when getting married had become so complex. Back in her time a young man courted you for a time. Then he asked your father or oldest male relative for your hand in marriage. Then he proposed and the bans were read in church and three weeks later you were married. If your family was rich you might have a special dress but usually you just stuck on your nicest go-to-meeting dress and got married.

  Now it seemed like she had to pick colors and invitations and then flowers and dresses for the bridesmaids and flower girl, then tie colors and something called cummerbunds, she still didn’t even know what they were. There were the vows to be spoken or would you write your own? If spoken which set did you want? It was enough to drive her crazy. Yet every time she thought she couldn’t take one second more, Tallis would show up and whisk her away on the back of his bike to some place he wanted to show her. He finally brought her to the Giddy Up Club in the middle of the week when it was less crazy and she’d had a great time dancing with him and when Sara, Cynthia and Hannah had shown up to hang out and line dance with them, she’d end up having a great time. Every night ended the same with her and Tallis holding tight to each other, lips pressed together until either Sara, Hannah or worst of all Mister or Missus Ryder, sending them to their rooms with orders to not come out until morning.

  It felt funny to be planning a wedding when Tallis hadn’t officially asked her to marry him. She was worried that he wasn’t as sure of his plan as he’d sounded. If he was, why hadn’t he asked her?” She understood a modern proposal very well because Hannah, Sara and Cynthia had made sure she got educated. They had taken her up to the Welcome center on Thursday and Friday night and watched a bunch of moving pictures called movies about love, romance and weddings. In almost every one of them was a part where the hero would take the girl somewhere special and then get down on one knee and make some flowery speech before pulling a box out of his pocket with a ring in it and asking her to be his wife or do him the honor of marrying him. Yet Tallis hadn’t done that or anything even remotely like it. They’d not even really talked about it since that night at Fazio’s when she’d admitted she belonged to him and he’d told her he belonged to her. She did remember later that night him telling her she’d know when he proposed to her and yet here she was planning a wedding but without a proposal that she knew of.

  Saturday came and it seemed that everyone had plans for the day and none of them included her. On one hand she was kind of upset about that. She’d felt like she was part of the family and for all of them to make plans without her made her feel left out. Then on the other hand, after the constant activity, she was tired and had allowed herself to sleep in and then just be lazy. She’d talked with the ranch’s new foreman, Dalton Hayes for a while and he’d asked her to demonstrate the things she wanted to teach the hands the next week to him. She done that and he told her that he thought if it was alright with her and the boss, they’d just make that a regular thing and then he could teach the hands, freeing up some more time for her. She thought it was a nice idea and one that would make things less hectic for her. As she came in from that chat she met Tallis at the front door holding a big white box in his hand. “Melody, my love. I have something for you.”

  “What’s this, Tallis?”

  ‘It’s Saturday my love, time for our weekly courting outing.”

  “Oh, I guess it is. But what does that have to do with the box?”

  “I got you something special to wear tonight. I’ve drawn you a bubble bath upstairs; will you go bathe and dress in this gift for me?”

  She took the box and opened it. Inside was a pale blue ball gown, there was no other word for it. “I can’t ride on the back of your motorcycle with this one, Tallis.”

  He smiled. “I know love, I’ve arranged a special courting night for us with special transportation.”

  She sighed, she still didn’t like cars or trucks but she knew come winter they couldn’t ride his motorcycle so she was trying to learn to tolerate them. The ride with his aunt and mom had been hard but the two had talked to her so much that she’d almost forgotten she was in one of those terrible machines. For Tallis she would endure it. “For you, Tallis, I’ll wear this gown. It’s very fancy, is there a ball or something?”

  “Something like that.”

  She took the dress and box and went up to her room. Sure enough there was a large bubble bath scented with honeysuckle. She knew he thought she smelled like that flower, he’d told her several times that week while kissing her neck or below her ears. She blushed just thinking of those kisses and the things they did to her.

  She soaked in the tub and then walked to the shower and rinsed the bubbles off her skin. She heard a knock at her door and Sara called to her. “Are you out of the tub yet?”

  She opened the door and her near sister slipped inside the room. “I’m supposed to help you get dressed and do your hair for you.”

  “Do you know what’s going on?”

  “All I know is my brother is taking you somewhere special and he asked me to help you get ready.”

  “Oh, this is all so mysterious”

  Sara smiled at her. “Well one thing’s for certain, no one can say my brother isn’t romantic.”

  “No, I guess not. I feel like that princess in that movie with the talking animals you showed me. Now if you were just old and fat and said bippity bobbity boo my fantasy would be complete.”

  Sara laughed. “let’s get you ready for the ball then, Cinderella.”

  They giggled and soon she was in the gown, her hair in something called an up-do on her head, and under the dress they had found a smaller box, inside was a pair of long white gloves and a jeweled thing Sara had called a tiara, which they put into her hair. “Now you do look just like that fairy tale princess.”

  Melody looked and gasped, she was right, it was as if she’d stepped right out of the fairy tale.

  She wiped her eyes to keep from crying and then hugged her friend. “Thank you for helping me.”

  “You’re welcome. Have a good time. I want to hear all about it later.”

  “I will. Only please be here when we get home. After this I’m not sure I would be able to resist any advance your brother might make.”

  Sara smiled. “I think tonight of all nights, Tall will be a perfect gentleman. But
I’ll be back before you are.”

  They hugged again and Melody left the room and walked to the top of the stairs. She heard Tallis suck in a breath when she appeared at the top of the stairs and she blushed at the look on his face. He’d dressed up too, wearing a suit and tie with the tie the exact shade of her dress. She glided down the stairs to him and he stood looking at her. “You look beautiful, love. More beautiful than ever. How is that possible?”

  “Stop it, you’re going to make me blush.”

  He leaned close and brushed a kiss just under her ear on her jawline, sending shivers through her as he whispered. “But I love it when you blush so prettily for me.”

  Which of course caused her to do exactly that. He turned and held an arm out for her. “Shall we go? We don’t want to be late.”

  She placed her hand on his arm and he escorted her out the door where a white and glass coach waited for them, driver seated high behind two matching white horses. “Tallis, what is this?”

  “It’s our transportation tonight, my dear. A coach fit for a princess.”

  “But I’m not a princess.”

  “You’re my princess, love, and don’t you forget it.”

  A footman opened the door and Tallis helped her into the coach before climbing in himself. The footman returned to a seat on the back of the coach and they took off. They rode through town as the sun was setting and soon enough arrived, of course, at Fazio’s. “I think I’m a bit too fancy for Mama’s place tonight.”

  “This is just our first stop of the night, love. Mama would be so upset if she couldn’t see you in this lovely gown.”

  She nodded, knowing he was right and allowed him to help her down. Tallis looked at the driver. “Two hours.”

  “Yes sir.”

  There was a snap of reins and then the coach was moving away. Once again Tallis took her arm and they entered the restaurant. Mama made all over her and her lovely gown and of course she also made over Tallis and his handsome suit. Then she led them to a table in the center of the restaurant. That’s when Melody realized that his whole family was there seated around them. People she’d met were seated around the family and she knew. This was it. This was her proposal and Tallis’ words from last Saturday came back to her. “When I propose there will be no question that I’m asking for your hand as well as your heart.” This was why her friends had spent the last two nights showing her proposal movies. They wanted her to realize what was happening.