A Piggly Wiggly Christmas by Robert Dalby

Author:Robert Dalby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-10-20T04:00:00+00:00

Mr. Choppy wasn’t sure this was the right time to bring it up, but some instinct kept tugging at him to chance it; that it might be just the thing to give Henry the additional hope and strength he surely needed for whatever lay ahead. Still, two or three minutes of awkward silence passed before he actually broached the subject.

“I don’t mean to pry into your personal business right now, Henry, but I was wonderin’ if you and Cherish—” For a brief moment, he lost his nerve but soon regained it as he kept his goal in mind. “Well, son, I’m confident this is gonna turn out just fine for the two of you, as I said. We’ll all watch that boy a’ yours grow up strong and healthy just like you are. So, here’s the thing I wanted to get to. Have you and Cherish thought about namin’ a godfather?”

Henry turned his head dramatically, looking happily surprised. “Why, no, Mr. Choppy, we hadn’t thought about it at all yet. Maybe we would have if we’d known the baby was gonna come along so far ahead a’ schedule. Were you thinkin’ a’ runnin’ for that the way you did for Mayor?”

Their laughter eased the tension a bit, and Mr. Choppy said: “Well, I was for a fact, son. I don’t mind tellin’ you that I’ve thought of your Cherish almost as a daughter since just after she came to work for me back in May. What a ray of sunshine she’s been for me since day one! No better secretary anywhere, although my wife’s not half bad either. I’d just be honored if you’d let me pay you back in such a special way.”

“Hey, you’d get my vote for sure, Mr. Choppy. And when they finally let me go see Cherish, I’m bettin’ she’ll be thrilled to vote for ya, too.”

Mr. Choppy quickly reflected, leaning back in his seat with a smile on his face. “My, my. I guess I’m blessed four times over then. Mayor, husband, stepfather, and now godfather all in the same year. How often d’ya think that happens in life?”

“Not often, I expect, but I know this much. I couldn’t a’ named a nicer fellow for it all to happen to.”

That triggered another question that no one had asked yet. “Speakin’ of names, had you and Cherish come up with any for the baby before all this happened?”

Henry was nodding his head slowly. “Actually, we had. We went around and around the way most parents do, and we’d pretty much picked out two that we liked the best. Lauren Margaret if it was a girl, and Riley Jacob if it was a boy. Those really weren’t from either of our families, by the way. We just went down to the library and checked out one a’ those baby name books. 1001 Baby Names Your Child Can Live With Later, I believe it was. That nice Miz Grubbs just led us straight to it.”

“Riley Jacob,” Mr. Choppy repeated slowly.

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