“Then she’ll never be dead. It doesn’t matter whether you believe in another life after this one, Jase, only that she’s alive through you. She wanted to celebrate Christmas and we can give her this. If you want to do it. As long as you’re comfortable with it.” Without waiting for an answer, Maia looked into the box. Everything was carefully wrapped in paper. She could tell the tissue was old and that Jase’s mother had been the one to preserve many of the items originally. Jase had simply done what his mother had taught him. Several tissue-wrapped items lay on a folded quilt. She lifted the first one out of the box, brought it to her lap, and gently began to unwrap it.
Beside Maia, Jase audibly drew in his breath, his body tensing as she slowly drew back the tissue paper to reveal the treasure it protected. The ornament was beautiful, a shimmering star, platinum and covered with glass sparkles that reflected light from every angle so that it seemed to shine on its own right there in her hand. She held it up.
“I remember that star,” Jase said. “She took it out and held it up just like you’re doing. She said when she was young her mother always put it near the top of the tree closest to the lights so it would shine all the time.”
“Where are we going to get a tree? We might have to improvise,” Maia said.
Cole had been listening just outside the entryway, unable to stay away. He sighed, knowing she was drawing him deeper into unknown territory. He moved back into the room to stand in front of her. “We’ll manage a tree, Doc. There’s bound to be a break or two in between storms.”
“You’ll really get a tree, Cole? Bring it in the house?” Jase asked.
“Sure. We can put it in front of the window. I doubt if you have enough decorations for a big one, but we can improvise.”
Maia put the star carefully to one side and reached for a second ornament. “We’ll have fun making ornaments. And I checked out the kitchen. You’re certainly not short on food supplies. We can bake all kinds of things and probably cook a traditional Christmas dinner as well.”
“I like the sound of that,” Jase said. “I’m hungry all the time.”
“He’s a bottomless pit,” Cole confirmed. “We bring in more groceries than we do feed for the stock.”
Jase was thin, even for a teenager. Maia could imagine that he was just beginning to trust enough and be confident enough in his relationship with Cole to regain his appetite. She leaned back against the couch as she held up the second ornament. It was an alligator with a red knitted scarf circling the neck. The jaws of the alligator opened and closed when she turned the tip of the tail.
“Why would someone have an alligator hanging on the tree?” Cole asked, taking it from her to examine it closely. “I thought you always had Santa Claus and things like that. This is pretty cool.”
“Mom was from Louisiana,” Jase reminded. “She used to pretend the alligator was going to bite my finger. She said it was to remind her of home.”
“What else is in there?” Cole asked, curious. He had never really looked at any Christmas ornaments before, avoiding the decorated trees in the stores wherever he happened to be when the holiday rolled around. For most of his life he’d told himself it was stupid, hanging things on trees, but the little alligator evoking the memories of Jase’s mother seemed different.
Maia handed him the next ornament, a crystal crescent moon with a small baby lying inside the curve of the moon and a little silver star hanging off the tip. It was dated fourteen years earlier. Cole turned it over and over. He looked at Jase. “This is commemorating when you were born. I wish I’d had the chance to meet your mother, Jase.”
“Too bad we can’t get to town,” Maia said, struggling to keep tears from flooding her eyes. She might have lost her family, but when she had one, it had been wonderful. She’d been raised to feel secure and loved by her parents and grandmother. “This will be the first Christmas you’re spending together as a family. We could have picked up an ornament celebrating that.”
“I would have liked that,” Jase said, taking the small crystal moon from Cole.
“The great thing about not having a tradition is, you get to start your own,” Maia pointed out.
“We don’t need to go to a store,” Cole said gruffly. “I can carve an ornament for us. What do you think it should be?”
“Cole’s a great wood-carver,” Jase said. “You should see some of the things he’s done. Something to do with a horse, Cole. Can you do that?”
“I can come up with something.”
“Carve the date into it,” Maia advised.
“Dinner’s ready if you two want to eat something.” Cole said to hide how uncomfortable he was with the way the conversation was going. Have someone take a few shots at him with a gun, and he was on familiar ground, but he was feeling his way with Jase, trying to give his brother a sense of security and home. He couldn’t believe he’d opened his mouth and offered to carve a Christmas ornament.