Christmastime 1940: A Love Story by AGNES IRENE

Author:AGNES IRENE
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: holiday, children, family, christmas, love story, single mother, orphans, holiday spirit, cozy romance, female artist

Chapter 9

The entire week was a struggle for Lillian. After work each day she went to the department stores to apply for work, but found that they had already done their hiring for the holiday. She got home late every night, leaving no time to spend with Tommy and Gabriel. Just a quick dinner before bedtime. Her apprehension had spilled over onto the boys and they were grumpy and irritable, especially Tommy. All week he pestered her about going back to Brooklyn for a visit, and she kept putting it off, saying now was not the time.

By week’s end Mr. Weeble still had not called her in, and she began to think that maybe she would be able to keep her job, despite what had happened. Or maybe they were just waiting to fire her in the new year. She would have to be prepared to take in sewing again. On Friday, after dinner, she got out her sewing basket and checked the contents, seeing what she needed to add to it.

Tommy lay on the couch reading, and Gabriel sat cross-legged in front of the radio listening to the Lone Ranger, alternately bouncing up and down to the music on his imaginary horse, then sitting spellbound. Tonto was just about to get jumped by a mountain lion when Tommy got up from the couch and shut off the radio.

“I’m trying to read.” He went back to the couch and stretched out.

“Hey!” Gabriel got up and turned the radio back on and stood guarding it with his arms crossed.

When Tommy got up again, Gabriel yelled out, “I was listening to my show first!”

Lillian had been trying to untangle the spools of thread in her sewing basket, and she was getting impatient. “Tommy, go in your room if you want to read. Gabriel is listening to his show.”

“I want to read out here.” He started to shove Gabriel out of the way, and Gabriel pushed him back.

Lillian jumped up quickly to break the boys apart, knocking over her sewing basket and all its contents onto the floor. “That’s it, Thomas! I’ve had enough of you. Go and clean your room!” She shut off the radio. “Gabriel, go wash up!”

“I didn’t do anything! That’s not fair,” protested Gabriel. Then his face crumpled into tears and he threw his arms down to his side as he stomped off to the bathroom. “Now I don’t know what happened to Tonto!”

Tommy went into his bedroom and slammed the door. “I always get blamed for everything!”

Lillian felt that she was failing on all fronts. She picked up the spools of thread, the needles and scissors, the tape measure and chalk, wondering why everything was falling apart. Her vision blurred and a few tears fell as she ran her hands over the floor, feeling for any needles or buttons she might have missed. She knew she had overreacted to the boys’ quarrel, but sometimes she just couldn’t hold it all in. She had so wanted this to be a good Christmas.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.