Nora Ray (Ray Trilogy)

chapter Nine

A large fir tree stood in the entrance lobby of the hospital decorated to the hilt with lights, ropes, bulbs, and tinsel icicles. Candy Stripers assisted to place Christmas decorations all around the hospital creating a gala atmosphere. More workers smiled as they went about their activities. There were drives set up to obtain gifts for the unfortunate ones who were too ill to go home for the holidays.

Wow! Nora thought feeling star struck. When we lived on the farm, we never decorated much at Christmas. Probably because there wasn’t any money, she surmised.

When she got home, she decided, she would talk to her parents about putting some really neat decorations in their house.

As she stood there admiring the tree, Jeremy entered the lobby carrying pots of Poinsettias to place before the reception desk where the volunteers sat to direct visitors and patients to the appropriate rooms they requested.

A big smile broke out on Jeremy’s face, “Aah, there is my beautiful Nora standing there waiting for me.”

Nora ducked her head while she felt a red blush start at the base of her neck and fully cover her face. “Jeremy!” she hissed.

He came over and rubbed his knuckle over her cheek, “I love it when you let me know how much you missed me.”

She turned her back to him and placed her hands over her face.

He turned to the amused volunteers sitting at the desk, shrugged his shoulders and held out his hands, “She loves me. What can I say?”

He turned back to Nora and took her gently by the hand and pulled her into the hall where it was more private.

She looked at him with fire in her eyes, “You don’t always have to embarrass me!”

“I know,” he grinned. “It was too good to pass up this time.”

“Do we need to make another deal for you to not embarrass me?”

“You know, Sweetheart, it would be impossible for me to keep a deal like that. Besides, I wanted everybody to know who the Prince Charming was that gave you that ring. I am so proud of you.”

“Jeremy, you embarrass me so. Then you turn around and melt my heart.”

He grinned, “I’m glad I don’t bore you. May come over tomorrow afternoon?”

“Sure, can you come for dinner?” Nora said, thinking of decorating the house. “I have a little project and I would like your help.”

“I see,” he teased, “you not only want me around because I am so loving but you need my brawn, also.”

“Jeremy, you are incorrigible.”

See you tomorrow afternoon. He kissed his finger and placed it on her lips.

Nora turned to go back to work as Jeremy turned to the lobby. He saw the box placed next to the desk with a sign ‘gift donation.” When he looked in the box to see how many gifts were there, he only saw one.

“How many gifts do you estimate are needed for the Christmas drive?” he asked the women at the desk.

“It depends on how many patients we have. Last year we had close to seventy patients,” she replied.

“How many of them were children?”

“It could be anywhere between to ten to twenty depending on the flu season,” she looked to her co-workers for confirmation who agreed with her. Pryor’s small hospital sent their most serious patients on to Tulsa hospitals where there were more specialized doctors and more sophisticated equipment.

“I’m trying to understand how this works.” Jeremy inquired, “Should there be thirty children’s gifts, would the gifts then be sent on to other charities for donation?”

“Yes, that’s right. Unfortunately, it usually works the other way though,” she shrugged.

“Who is your activities director?” he asked.

“Jana Marshall, she will be here on Monday.”

He looked thoughtful for a moment, “Will you place a note for her that I will come by to see her at four Monday afternoon? My name is Jeremy Littlefield.”

With a wave he was out the door.

Nora greeted Jeremy at the door the next afternoon excited to get her plan underway.

“I see you are happy to see me.” He said, pleased to see her smiling.

“Come right in,” she said giving a sweeping motion with her arm. “Mom has cooked chili and cornbread.”

“Wonderful,” Jeremy complimented Laura, “Something to warm us up on this cold December day.”

“Yes, let’s eat,” Laura returned.

After the meal Nora turned to Jeremy, “About that project I spoke about at the hospital, last night we pulled all our old Christmas decorations out of the attic. I was hoping you could go through them and help me decorate the house. Would you be willing to help me?”

“Are you going to put up a tree?”

“Well, I wanted one but I’ll have to wait on that until we can go out in the country to find a cedar.” Then Nora and Laura both glanced at her dad and realized for the first time he wouldn’t be able to chop it down this year.

John looked down at the floor.

Danny stepped up and said, “Nora, I’ll help you get us a Christmas tree.”

“Danny, how about you go with me to get a tree?” Jeremy asked.

“Serious?” Danny turned to see if Jeremy meant it. “You mean, right now?”

Jeremy nodded, “If it’s okay with your parents.”

Danny looked imploringly at his parents.

The both nodded their permission.

“Come on, Danny,” Jeremy motioned. “We have work to do.”

“I’ll get my coat.”

Jeremy drove to his house to get the company pickup and tools.

Danny looked out the window of the car with his mouth open. “You live here,” he said in awe.

Christmas lights decorated all the bushes near the house. There were lights lining the house in all colors. A large decorated Christmas tree stood in the large window at the front of the house. Danny had never known anyone who decorated like this.

Next, Jeremy went in to discuss his plans with his mother and get her permission. After explaining the dismal worn out decorations he had seen at the Ray house, he knew that Samantha had boxes of discarded Christmas decorations in their attic just sitting in the way. He hoped not to embarrass Nora’s family or step on their pride.

“I have just what you need,” Samantha said happy to help someone in need.

When the pickup was loaded with the boxes of decorations, Samantha told Jeremy, “Please, do not to return them. I haven’t used them in years.”

“Thank you, Mom,” Jeremy said giving her a hug. “I knew you would help out.”

Jeremy thought a moment to help Danny to come to terms with the fact that just because his family had more money, it didn’t make them any different than Danny’s family. “You see all those lights?”

Danny looked up to him, “Yes, sir.”

“That is just a lot of work.” Jeremy placed his hand on Danny’s shoulder, “After Christmas, it is a lot more work to take it down. My Mom loves to have all this lit up for Christmas, so we put it all up for her, just like we are going to decorate your folk’s house.”

Jeremy and Danny got into the pickup. “The only difference is your house is smaller so there won’t be quite as much work, but we’ll make it just as pretty. You’ll see.”

“Now we are going to the nursery to get a Christmas tree.”He explained when he didn’t turn toward the Danny’s house.

“Wow! We will get our tree up today, won’t we?” Danny said excitedly.

“I think we will, Partner, we have a lot of work to do.”

When they arrived at the Ray household, they had all they needed to decorate in style.

As Danny and Jeremy carried the fir into the living room, Jeremy tried to ward off their objections with, “When I went by the house to get the pickup, my Mom told me to go to the nursery and get this tree. She said she couldn’t sell it because of this broken limb.”

“See right here?” he twisted the tree so they all could see. “It fell or something when it was being unloaded. I thought if the broken limb was placed in the back, maybe you wouldn’t mind too much if I brought it over.” He gave them an imploring look like they would do him a favor if they took the tree off their hands.

John looked the tree over, “Well, rather than you throwing it away, we’d be obliged to have it.”

“Great,” Jeremy nodded to Danny. “Let’s get that stand over there and set this tree up.”

After that task was completed, Jeremy turned to John and Laura to get their approval again. “My Mom sent some old decorations over to see if there is anything in them you might want to use. If you don’t want them, it is fine but she made me promise not to return them. She hasn’t used them in years.”

While they stood in stunned silence, Jeremy again enlisted Danny’s help. “Come on, Danny. I need your help to get those boxes from the pickup.”

When the boxes were placed in the living room floor, Jeremy said, “If you guys want to go through these, Danny and I have some stuff to do.”

Jeremy knew which box contained the items he needed. He knew if he didn’t hurry, he couldn’t get the lights installed outside before dark.

Inside Laura and Nora were having a blast going through the boxes and exclaiming over the discarded decorations that Jeremy had brought over. Soon inspiration hit, and they started decorating the tree. John sat in his chair while he enjoyed watching his women as they worked on the tree.

Jeremy and Danny soon were finished with the outside decorations and came in to see how the inside decorations were coming along. Jeremy stood back and watched them feeling such a sense of joy and satisfaction that his contribution made them so happy.

Danny looked so happy bouncing around exclaiming over the bulbs and making his contributions.

Jeremy walked over to John and knelt down beside him.

John said softly, “They are all so happy. How can I ever return this favor?”

“You know that there is no payback for joy. I have already received my due just by watching them,” Jeremy stated wiping his eyes. “I should thank you for allowing me to participate in your family’s celebration of Christmas.”

John clasped Jeremy’s hand, “Thank you.”

Soon they completed decorating the Christmas tree and the lights were turned on. They turned the lights outside on and went out to enjoy them.

After standing outside for a few minutes in the cold to enjoy the lights, Laura said, “Let’s go inside and warm up the apple cider.”

The Christmas party was scheduled on Monday evening before Christmas. The volunteers working the desk exclaimed about how many gifts were donated for the patients. For the first time they weren’t hustling to make sure that there were enough gifts. They remarked that different organizations brought in gifts wrapped and already marked as children, adult women, or adult men. Also, a rumor spread that a new Santa had been obtained to distribute the gifts.

Nora didn’t have much time to worry about Santa coming. Her job was to make sure the patients were comfortable and clean when Santa came into the rooms to hand out gifts.

Soon she heard the familiar “Ho, Ho, Ho” coming down the hall where she worked. She backed up to the nursing station to give the Santa entourage room to pass by. Obviously the Santa was a slim person with a pillow stuffed in place. The white beard didn’t fit well and he adjusted it every little bit to keep it in place. Along with Santa were four elves decked out to the hilt in funny elf costumes, all of them toting bags of gifts.

Nora pointed them out to Jamie, “I’ve never seen a Santa group having more fun.”

“The patients seem to enjoy their attention, too,” Jamie commented.

After distributing the gifts, Santa and his crew made a special effort to wish each of the staff a Merry Christmas. When Santa approached Nora and told her Merry Christmas, she thanked him and felt that something seemed familiar. Quickly Santa and his elves left before she really figured out what her hunch was. Oh, well she thought it probably was nothing.