by Jojo
Disclaimer: The characters and situations of the TV program
"Big Valley" are the creations of Four Star/Republic Pictures and
have been used without permission. No
copyright infringement is intended by the author. The ideas expressed in this story are copyrighted to the author.
Summary: Christmas with the Barkleys; Nick has a special gift for Heath. (Written in response to a writing challenge to compose a short Christmas story involving the whole Barkley family.)
Victoria awoke to the sound of her middle son banging on
the bedroom doors of his siblings. His
loud voiced rebounding throughout the house was urging them to get out of
bed. She smiled as she remembered it
was Christmas morning and as usual, Nick could never wait until everyone woke
up on their own. She reached for her
robe and got ready to start the day.
As she came down the stairs, Victoria saw that everyone
was now assembled in the parlor in various stages of wakefulness. Audra was still yawning but had a look of
child-like excitement in her eyes.
Jarrod was rubbing his eyes with one hand while reaching for a cup of
coffee with the other. Heath looked
like he just came in from the outdoors.
He had probably been up for awhile and had already taken care of the
livestock. He sat quietly cupping a hot
cup of coffee in his hands watching the activity with the now familiar half
grin on his face. And then there was Nick,
pacing impatiently, waiting to get started.
She noticed he seemed more anxious than usual and wondered at the cause.
Jarrod had noticed it too. Nick had the “I’ve got a secret” look to him. Hmm, he wondered if it anything to do with
the information he had asked of him a couple of months ago. Well, he'd just have to wait and see what he
was up to. He put down his coffee and
walked over to his mother to escort her into the room.
“Merry Christmas – Mother. It’s seems that Brother Nick has not broken the tradition of
rousing us from our beds with his unholy loud bellows. It seemed even louder this year as I do
believe I had a tad too much eggnog after church last night.” He admitted as he bent to kiss his mother’s
cheek.
“Merry Christmas – son.
And yes, I do think our Nick is a little more excited than usual. Do you know the cause?” she responded with a
kiss. Seeing the negative shake of his
head, she added, “We will soon enough I suppose.”
“Oh Mother – look.
Doesn’t the tree look just beautiful!
Nick even lit all the candles before we came down. Merry Christmas everyone.” Audra exclaimed
as she went around the room to kiss her mother and her brothers.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, Merry Christmas everyone. Let’s start opening presents,” Nick said
impatiently.
“Nick, darling, you know we always start with the
stockings first. Jarrod, dear, why
don’t you start passing them out while I pour myself a cup of coffee.” She said
firmly, reminding Nick of their past tradition.
“Sorry Mother – I know Jarrod always gives us our stocking
first. I just forgot is all.” Nick
apologized as he grabbed his stocking from Jarrod and dumped the contents on
the floor in front of him.
He watched in frustration as the other members of the
family took their time going through their stockings. Audra exclaimed over every little thing in hers and had to show
everyone what was in it. Jarrod put
every item on the table before him and rearranged them numerous times before he
finally folded up his stocking beside them.
Mother daintily handled each present, looking at it from each angle
before finally finishing hers. And then
there was that slowpoke Heath. He
slowly savored every morsel until Nick thought it would drive him crazy. Finally everyone was finished and it was
time to start handing out the presents.
Nick barely paid any attention to his gifts. He was too busy watching to see the
reactions of his family members opening his presents. He thought he would burst when he saw Heath take his gift and put
it aside until the end. He wanted to
rush over and tear the wrapping off himself.
Couldn’t he see how much he wanted him to open it?
Heath did see how irritated Nick was when he placed his
gift off to the side. He smiled
inwardly at how easy it was to push his brother's buttons. Heath saw the anticipation building and
wanted to savor it. He wouldn’t torture
him too long though, it was Christmas after all. He slowly unwrapped the gifts from his family. He still couldn’t believe how lucky he felt
to be a part of all of this. Boy howdy
– look at all the gifts he had been given.
Each one picked out especially for him.
That was what mattered to him – not the gift itself. But that he had a family that cared for him.
When he finished all but the present from Nick, he rose up
to get himself another cup of coffee nearly driving his brother over the
brink. He grinned at Victoria and
Jarrod to let them know he knew exactly what he was doing. He stopped for a moment to admire the gifts
that they had opened and chatted with Audra for a bit.
Nick had had enough.
“For God sakes Heath – you haven’t finished unwrapping your presents
yet. Save the chit chat for later.”
“I reckon that I’ll git to it Big Brother. They ain’t going nowhere now are they? Just wanted to get a better look at that
vase you bought Mother. Sure is
pretty. Where’d you’d find that Nick?”
Heath drawled lazily.
“San Francisco.
Now sit down and finish opening your presents.” Nick continued nagging.
Heath thought that he had better put him out of his misery
and bent to pick up the gift from Nick.
He slowly pulled off the wrapping paper to find that the item was also
wrapped in an oilskin. He felt a punch
in his gut as he saw what was behind it.
It was an oil painting of his mother, his Aunt Rachel and
Hannah sitting on a porch swing. They
looked like they were enjoying a warm summer day together and looking with
fondness at something in front of them just out of the picture. The artist had captured each of their
separate personalities perfectly.
Heath’s throat
closed up as he looked up at his brother.
“Nnnnick,” he stuttered.
“Well I saw that room of yours was almost as bare as the
day you moved in. Thought it needed
something,” Nick responded gruffly.
“Hhhow?” Heath asked in wonder gently caressing the fine
redwood frame.
“Went to see Hannah in Strawberry and got some picture
from her. Jarrod was yammering one day
about this portrait artist he was representing and it gave me the idea. He sketched a few ideas and thought you
might like this one. It’s okay isn’t
it? I thought he did a pretty good job
of it.” Nick asked anxiously now afraid that Heath didn’t like it.
Heath looked into Nick’s eyes and he relaxed. He knew that his gift had hit its mark. The emotion flowed right out of his
brother’s eyes into his soul.
“It’s more than okay, Nick. I …. I can’t believe you
done this. It’s just about the best
gift anybody done give me. Thank you
Big Brother.” Heath said quietly trying to rein in his emotions.
Audra jumped to her feet to see what all the fuss was
about and Jarrod and Victoria soon followed suit. Exclamations of delight followed with everyone turning to Nick to
congratulate him on his ???
“Yeah well, seemed like something he needed is all. SILAS!,” he bellowed, “ Is breakfast ready
yet? A man could wither away from
hunger round this place. I’m starving.”
He said as he walked away to the dining room.
Jarrod and Audra followed but Victoria stayed behind with
Heath who still had not moved.
“What a wonderful painting, darling! Who is the artist?” Victoria asked.
Heath squinted as he looked at the signature on the
bottom. “Harrison Lee Majors, I think
if I’m reading this scrawl right. That
name seems mighty familiar.”
“I vaguely recall that name from somewhere also son. Maybe Jarrod mentioned him to us. After all, he is the one who recommended him
to Nick” Victoria suggested.
“You’re probably right, Mother. Just seems like I should know it, is all.” Heath said.
“Let’s go join the other for breakfast, dear. It’s going to be another wonderful
Christmas.”
“You go on now.
I’ll just be a minute if you don’t mind. I would like to put this up on my wall first. Wouldn’t want it to get damaged or
anything.”
Victoria looked understandingly at him as she gently
caressed his blond hair. “Of course,
darling. We’ll see you shortly then.”
Heath gathered a hammer and nails and with the portrait in
hand, he headed up the stairs to his room.
He stood in the middle of the room searching for the perfect place to
hang the painting. After he made his
decision and placed the picture on the wall, he touched the frame lightly. “Merry Christmas – Mama. I hope you can see how happy I am. I know that this is exactly what you wanted
for me. It’s more than I ever expected
but I promise you that I’ll never take it for granted.”
Nick stopped in the hallway as he listened to his little
brother talk. “Merry Christmas –
Heath. I promise you that I’ll never
take it for granted either.” He said softly as he made his way back down the
stairs.
The End
(Authors Note: I did
a search on the Internet for portrait artists in the 1800’s before I put this
story to bed. I couldn’t resist using
Harrison Lee Majors even though he wasn’t born until the 1860’s. Oh well, this was supposed to be a bit of
fun wasn’t it?)