Chapter 2

© Copyright 2006 by Elizabeth Delayne

arter paced the living room until he heard the stampede of his family on the front porch. There was Gracie–the age between him and Dave—home from college. Next came Drew, a year younger, Becca, at twelve, then Charlie and Lee, at nine and eight.

That made for seven children in all.

Seven–did they even have a chance to get Noel to stick around?

His grandparents were the last to come through the door. He went to stand in front of the stairs and stopped everyone from going up.

“We need to have a family meeting.”

Becca frowned at him and fisted her hands on her hips. “You can’t call a family meeting.”

Gracie stepped around him, her frown obvious as she looked at him. “Sure he can–if he has reason. What’s wrong, Carter?”

She always seemed to know him better than the rest. In fact, he almost hadn’t been able to get rid of her that afternoon.

“I don’t know–something big. Why don’t we sit down and I’ll tell you.”

“What is it, Carter?” Charlie asked. “I need to call Jason.”

“Look, just sit and I’ll tell you,” he pointed toward the sofa. “The faster I can get it out, the faster, well … the faster we can all deal with it.”

They turned back to the family room, squabbling a bit as they shrugged out of their winter coats and draped them every which way. Carter watched them sit.

He stood, with his back to the Christmas tree and studied his family for a moment. His grandparents had sat down on the love seat. Lee had settled between them.

That was good. He would definitely need their advice.

He drew a deep breath. “Look, this is important. Noel came by today. I think...well, I think she and Dave broke up.”

“What?!”

The statement was like a collective shout, followed by a chorus of disagreement, one after the other making statements of denial.

“Noel wouldn’t do that–”

”Dave’s crazy about Noel.”

“Noel’s crazy about Dave … hey, maybe she is crazy.”

“This is serious,” Carter muttered and leaned down to open the box he placed on the coffee table. “She brought this by this morning. And then she went to her car and...well, she just sat there and cried.”

“Did you see her cry?” Charlie asked and muttered something under his breath when Gracie popped him in the back of the head.

Pops held up a hand. “Don’t you think this is between Dave and Noel?”

“No,” Carter shook his head. “It’s between all of us. Before mom and dad ... before it all happened Dave had a ring. I saw it. He showed it to me–I think he and dad even went to pick it out together. He was going to ask Noel back...well, way back in the fall. He hasn’t asked her yet. Then ... it all got thrown off. And now he broke up with her.”

“Or she broke up with him,” Becca pointed out, clearly worried. “There are two sides to this.”

“Or three,” Gracie interjected. “They could have made the decision together.”

Carter shook his head. “I don’t know if how is as important as why or when. They were together on Sunday. We were all together after church, watching the game. Everything was fine.”

But even as he said the words, he realized that he didn’t know. He hadn’t wanted to know … and if either Dave or Noel had asked him on Sunday, he wasn’t sure if he would have cared.

“It doesn’t matter if they were okay. Now it’s not okay.”

Carter nodded at Becca. “You’re right.”

“So what do we do?”

“I still think–“

Gran put a hand to her husband’s arm, “Hush, Norman. Let the kid’s hold their meeting.”

“And you think it’ because of us,” Becca continued, tears in her eyes.

He shrugged, uncomfortable with his sister’s tears.

“No,“ he backpedaled, “I think it’s because of...of everything. I mean, Noel has never not paid attention to us. Yet, this morning she said she forgot that we were on Christmas vacation. She thought we would be at school. She was sneaking in...I don’t think she wanted us to know.”

“And Dave hasn’t said anything.”

“He’s been a little quiet.”

“He really shouted at us last night,” Charlie pointed out. “Me and Lee were yelling at each other.”

“And I spilt milk all over his pants,” Becca remembered.

“Becca,“ Gracie put in, “That wouldn’t make him not want Noel around. None of that would. Maybe something happened at work.”

“She could have cheated on him,” Charlie interjected.

Carter rolled his eyes and added his own belief to the rest. “Noel wouldn’t do that.”

“No, she wouldn’t,” Gran agreed. “Look, all the troubles could be thrown in, including that your grandfather and I showed up early on Saturday and it seemed to remind him it was Christmas. You guys didn’t even get the tree decorated until we got here.”

“Whatever happened,” Gracie added, “it wouldn’t have been an easy or quick decision–it took him six or more years to get around to asking Noel out. And you know Dave. He likes to plan things out.”

“So why the family meeting?” Charlie asked. “All we know now is what Dave doesn’t want us to know yet.”

“Exactly.” Carter said. “The fact is he hasn’t told us and she hasn’t told us–so we’ll have to use that to our advantage. But first, let’s take a vote. All in favor of Dave marrying Noel raise your hand.”

Gracie and Becca held up their hands first with Carter, and were followed by their Gran, Charlie and Lee. Seeing the rest of them in accordance and with a pointed look from his wife, Pops held up his hand as well.

“Good,” Carter lowered his hand. “Since we’re all in agreement, then we need to decide what we’re going to do. I’m calling this Operation Noel. We’ll all have assignments.”

“All of us?”

Even though it was Lee who asked the question, Carter looked to his grandfather first. “All of us. Becca, you’ll go over to her house tonight. Gracie or I will drop you off. If we take you over after eight, you’ll be gone right before Dave gets home if he stays at work as late usual. Noel will have to bring you home. If you can get her to let you stay out late, then Dave will have to wait up. Then he’ll have to see Noel, whether he wants to or not.”

“Charlie and Lee, you guys need to get Dave to help you with your lines for the Christmas Eve program.”

“We know our lines,“ Charlie protested.

“And who helped you?”

Charlie looked at Lee, his eyes wide. “Noel.”

“So get Dave to help you. We want to remind him how much he liked having Noel around. How much he needed Noel around.”

“He’ll just tell us to go to Gran,” Lee put in.

Gran shook her head, “But I have to finish working on your costumes–“

Gran looked pointedly at her husband. He shifted a little before he cleared his throat.

“I’m sure I’ll need to do something like wrapping a few presents.”

“And what about you?” Becca asked Carter.

“Maybe I can tag him late tonight. See what I can get out of him,” he thought of the lost sense of direction he felt in the last few months.

If Dave felt anything like what he felt, it wasn’t any wonder he called things off with Noel.

But that didn’t make it the right decision.

“I think maybe we should pray,” Gracie put in and looked to her grandmother.

“Excellent idea,” she looked to Carter. “For such a mission, we’ll need all the help we can get. Why don’t you lead us, fearless general?”

He drew a breath as everyone in the room bowed their heads in expectation as if they didn’t know that he hadn’t prayed since the night his parents...since the night they died. The grief welled up inside. He didn’t know if he could pray.

But he couldn’t say no now–not when a prayer could save them from losing Noel.

He struggled over the first wave of grief and swallowed against the lump in his throat.

“God...help us now...”






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