~~~~~~~~~
 
 

"I never thought I'd say this, but you did a great job on breakfast,Parker." She had the sudden impulse to stick her tongue out at Jarod, butheld it in. She'd just get him with another snowball later.

"So, what're we gonna do today?" Sam asked hopefully, looking betweenthe two.

"Well, a trip to town is definitely out of the question," Parker sighed.She noticed Jarod avert his eyes, but made no comment. After all, it wasn'tas if she wanted to bring him in, and--Wait a minute, where had that comefrom?

"Jarod says we're spending Christmas here," Sam announced, as she gotup from her chair and picked up her empty plate.

"It does appear that way."

"Well, then, maybe we should decorate the cabin. We don't even havea tree, and--" -Sam's eyes widen in sudden realization- "Oh, no! How willSanta find me? We don't even have stockings!" This jarred Jarod from hisbrooding attitude, and he and Parker exchanged a nervous glance. How werethey going to handle this emergency?

"Um, that's something that, er, you don't need to worry about. You knowSanta's magical--he'll be sure to come here instead." Parker's smile falteredas Samantha headed off into the kitchen with slumped shoulders and a heavysigh.

"No, he won't," she mumbled to herself. "I never even got to mail offmy wish list."

"What're we going to do?!" Parker hissed as soon as the door swung shutbehind Sam.

"Got me, but we have to do something," Jarod pointed out.

"Oh, a lot of help you are. An eight year old is going to lose her faithin Christmas, and we sit here, completely useless."

"Well what do you--" He stopped short as Sam re-entered the dining room.

"Thanks for putting your dishes away."

"No problem," she mumbled, settling back in her chair, and staring atthe table. The two adults shot each other helpless looks.

"You know," Parker said suddenly, standing up from her chair, "that'sa good idea, Sam." Both looked at her, confused. "Decorating the house.In fact, I bet you guys could even find a pretty cool tree outside. Thesnow isn't too bad right now--if you stayed close to the cabin, and triedto hurry."

"Yeah!" Sam shouted brightly in agreement, any sign of disappointmentwiped from her face. "We can take the ax Jarod was using to chop wood!"She jumped out of her chair and ran into the living room.

"Sure, I'd like that," Jarod finally added. Samantha, however, was alreadydone with her boots and slipping into her winter jacket. He leaned closeto Parker. "This doesn't solve our problem."

"Don't worry," she assured him. "I've got a plan."

"And that would be--"

"I'm ready!" Sam unwittingly interrupted, running -as fast as possiblein her puffy layers of winter garb- back to the table. Jarod smiled, androse from the table.

"Go ahead outside, I'll just get my jacket. And stay next to the car!"he added, as she raced to the door. When the door closed behind her, heturned to face Parker as he picked up the ax that was leaning against awall. "First we invade these people's home, now you've got me destroyingtheir property. So, what's this great plan of yours?"

"While you go tree-hunting with Sam, I'm gonna hunt around the house.It's obvious these people don't have kids, but there's gotta be somethingwe can give her."

"Wonderful, we're going to burglarize them, too."

"Oh, go chop down a tree. And try to buy me as much time as possible,but don't get lost or anything." She glanced out the window at the snow,large flakes peacefully falling."Who knows how long the weather'll staythis calm."

"Fine. Just do me a favor, and don't make anymore cooking attempts."

"I did a good job on those waffles, thank you very much."

"Yeah," Jarod grinned mischievously, "but I saw the burned remains ofyour first attempt in the garbage." He opened the door and ducked out beforeshe could muster a reply.

~~~~~~~~~

Parker's laughter was still subsiding as she made her way down the upstairshallway. No point in checking the bedrooms again, and it wasn't as if thebathroom had much to offer in the way of an eight-year-old's Christmasgift. This left the storage room, a task Parker was not looking forwardto. Sure enough, no sooner had she opened the door to enter, than her sensitivenose began to itch in reaction to all the dust.

Nothing was stashed in boxes, and the stuffed room barely offered pathsto the corners, where miscellaneous items reached nearly to the ceiling.One huge disorganized mess, a neat freak's nightmare. Parker raised aneyebrow as she passed a duck-shaped lamp. Obviously, good taste had notbeen a prerequisite for whomever had gathered all of this. One large tablecaught her eye, the items atop it covered with a blanket and a note pinnedon: FOR BLOOMFIELD SPRING CHARITY AUCTION. She whipped off the blanket,immediately regretting the action as a large mushroom cloud of dust eruptedin her face, resulting in a chain of three speedy sneezes.

Through reddened, watery eyes, Parker spied something in the middleof the table's clutter, and her smile returned.

~~~~~~~~~

"Miss Parker, Miss Parker!" Samantha's joyous shouts echoed throughthe cabin. Parker quickly moved out of her room, being sure to stop andshut the door. As she headed down the stairs, a scent of fresh pine greetedher. Sure enough, leaning against the wall next to the door was large,deep green tree.

"Isn't it great?" Sam beamed proudly, as Jarod sat wearily down on thecouch. Parker gave him a questioning look.

"We had to find just the right tree," Jarod offered in way of an explanation,"and then I had to cut it down and drag it here." Besides, his eyes addedsilently with their slightly humored look, you did ask for me to keep herbusy.

"You guys did a good job. And luckily, I found a tree stand upstairs,along with some other old stuff. No ornaments though."

"So how're we going to decorate it?"

"We'll make some," Parker decided. "It'll give us something to do tonight."

~~~~~~~~

By that evening, the tree was standing in one corner of the living room,completely decked out with foil stars, glitter-covered pine cones and agarland of popcorn. Jarod had lifted Sam up, and she'd placed a constructionpaper angel on top, the finishing touch. Parker hadn't been able to findany strands of lights either, but with all of the lights turned off, thefire reflected it admirably. They'd sat on the couch, Samantha in the middle,the others at opposite ends, enjoying the scene for the last 15 minutesor so, sipping hot cider and telling what they wanted for Christmas--nota bad ploy to find out what a certain little girl would've asked Santafor. Jarod noticed that Parker was more smiley than usual after that, butkept any comments to himself, snide, teasing or otherwise.

He downed the last of his cider, and turned to offer Sam some more,only to find her already asleep. He silently pointed her out to Parker,then reached over to pick her up. He'd just made it to the stairs whenSam woke up enough to mumble sleepily, "I want Miss Parker to tuck me in,too."

Up in her bedroom, they slipped her under the covers. Just as they weresneaking out, Sam sat up in bed. "Can I have a story, please?"

They looked at each other, and shrugged, then walked back over to thebed. Parker went around and got onto the bed, sitting next to Samantha,while Jarod perched on the edge of the other side.

"So, what story would you like to hear?"

"There was this really great one Jarod told me. Maybe you know anotherone with the same people." Jarod coughed uncomfortably, but didn't sayanything.

"I might. Who was in the story?"

"Oh, it was really great. See, there's this huge kingdom, with an evilking named Raines, and an evil magician too, named Mutumbo."

"Oh, really," Parker said, giving Jarod a suspicious glance.

"Uh-huh. And there was Lyle, the court jester--" Parker laughed in spiteof herself. "--and... and... oh, yeah! These two good mages, Sydney andBroots. And the fairy godmother, Catherine, helped them out. And the wholestory was about Princess--"

"You know, Sam," Jarod cut off suddenly, "I don't think Miss Parkerknows that one. In fact, that was the only story with those people." Samanthapouted unhappily. "Sorry, but I could tell you another story instead."

"Naw, that's the only good one."

"All right, then, good night."

"Yeah," Parker spoke up, smiling down at the little girl next to her,"sleep well."

"'Night." Jarod flicked on the lamp, then switched the light off asthey headed out of the room. He looked at Parker for a reaction, but didn'tget one, so waited for her say something. This was Parker, after all--shehad an opinion on everything. However, she quietly picked up the cidermugs and carried them into the kitchen. He sat patiently on the couch,waiting to the weather the storm. No doubt a lecture on forcing his Centreopinions on some impressable little kid. Parker walked back in, and stoodin front of him, hands on hips.

"There's just one thing I want to know," she said, her voice deep andfully serious, no hint of humor.

"Yeah?"

"Who'd you make Brigitte into?" He looked up in surprise, and saw hercrack a smile. I'll be damned, he thought to himself. She actually thoughtit was funny. "Well?"

"The evil witch," he grinned. They both cracked up laughing.

~~~~~~~~~

"If only reality were more like a child's devices."
-Rosella Jacobson

"Not to sound rude or--what am I saying? Parker, it's 11:30 at night,and I've been running after a hyper kid all day, not to mention dragginga 9-foot tree all over god's creation. Why do you insist on keeping meup?"

"Samantha's been up and down all night. I wanted to make sure she wasasleep for good."

"Yeah, what was up with that? It's like she was checking up on us orsomething."

"She's eight--who knows? Anyhow, this is what I wanted to show you."Parker opened the door to her room and shoved Jarod in, shot a look backtowards Sam's room -wishing she didn't insist on having the door cracked-and slipped into the room as well, securing the door behind them. Parker'shand moved along the wall in the pitch black room blindly, groping forthe light switch.

"Aw, honey, you should've just told me you wanted to make out."

"Oh, shut up." Her hand finally came across the switch, and flickedit on. She brushed past Jarod, and opened the closet door, motioning forhim to look in. He did so, and his jaw dropped.

"My faith in Santa Claus has been renewed."

"I found it in the storage room," she said excitedly, picking up thelarge dollhouse and carrying it to the bed. "With a bunch of other stuffto be sold at an auction." Her eyes slid to the side to look at him. "Andyou can rest your pretty conscience about all that burglary nonsense--Iput $50 in its place on the table." Jarod continued to inspect the dollhouse.

"I still can't believe this. I mean, this fits the description of whatshe wanted exactly. 'Blue with yellow shutters and a black roof, two stories,eight rooms.' " he quoted. "Even has the same wallpaper and carpet shementioned."

"I realized that, too. And then I remember the old price tag I saw onthe bottom." Jarod lifted it and looked under.

"Summerset Toys, huh? I forgot that was a chain. Well, the mystery issolved." He looked over at her. "Now all we have to do is find a way forSanta to stuff a stocking."

"Enough thinking for tonight," Parker sighed, placing the dollhouseback in the closet. "I'm tired. We'll talk in the morning."

"Right, sleep well." Jarod headed to his own room, and she willinglyslid into a nightgown, only to find it far too cold, and so changed intoa sweatshirt and flannel pants. Turning the light off, she took the twoshort steps to the bed, and eagerly headed under the covers, only to jumpright back out with a shreak of surprise. Reaching over and turning thelight on, she glared at the culprit of her sudden shock--a giant wet spotcovering the width of the bed. She touched it with one finger experimentally,and recoiled as it sent a chill up her arm and down her spine.

"Must be a leak or something," she murmured to herself, looking at theceiling. She didn't see anything, but who knew with these old cabins. Witha moan of self-pity, she gathered her pillow and a blanket folded up atthe foot of the bed, and headed downstairs.

She shivered unconsciously as she tossed her things onto the couch,but ignored it. Parker didn't shout in alarm this time, but it wouldn'ttake long for a nagging discomfort to rise her from her makeshift bed.Patting the cushions, she wasn't at all surprised to feel the itchy presenceof crumbs, covering every inch of the sofa. "Of course," she muttered.

The bed makings, pulled down to the floor, weren't even straightenedout. She was too tired, and too annoyed, to be willing to move anymore.Her body, however, had other ideas, instantly tightening up as her skincame in contact with the frigid floorboards.

"No way," she insisted through clenched teeth. "No way is it this cold.We just put the fire out ten minutes ago!" She stood and went over to thethermometer. Upon reading ist dial, it took everything she had to not screamin sheer irritation. "45 degrees?! Who the hell turned the heat down to45?!" She returned the dial to an acceptable temperature of 70, but realized-her eyes narrowing- as she turned back to her bed on the floor, that it'dtake awhile to warm up. With a growl she didn't even attempt to suppress,Parker yanked up her pillow, kicked the blanket aside, and stomped up thestairs.

Parker threw open a door, stalked through, and pressed it shut behindher. She moved blindly forward into the room, unfamiliar with the layout,until she came upon the large bed, and ducked quickly under the covers,waiting to close her eyes only long enough to puff her pillow.

"Now this is interesting."

"The other bed is nowhere near large enough to hold two people. Andas for the rest--don't ask."

"Good thing I live by a strict set of morals, or I could take advantageof this situation," he said in a humored voice, a low chuckle following.In reply, Parker hit Jarod with her pillow.

~~~~~~~~~

Sam heard Jarod's laughter, slightly muffled by the walls between herroom and his (or theirs, as the case would be), and smiled at her work.It hadn't been easy, slipping the ice cubes under Miss Parker's coverswithout making any noise, or spreading out the cracker crumbs downstairsand getting back up to bed before Miss Parker left her room. Still, it'dbeen worth it.

With a sigh of satisfaction, she snuggled deeper under the covers andfell asleep.
 
 

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Part 4