Rumors of War by Dean Hughes

Author:Dean Hughes [Hughes, Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Fiction
ISBN: 9781590384459
Google: URQ6AAAACAAJ
Amazon: 1590384458
Publisher: Deseret Book Company
Published: 2005-05-02T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Christmas day started out like all the others, except that Alex was back and, as always, had a way of becoming the center of things. He played with the little girls, and they fussed over him, sat on his lap, and laughed with him. When Alex asked who was going to win the Rose Bowl, Gene, who read every word in both newspapers’ sports sections, gave Alex the whole rundown on why he figured Southern Cal would beat Tennessee.

Wally couldn’t help feeling a little jealous, but he was waiting for his special little pleasure in watching Mom and Dad open their presents from Beverly and LaRue. Mom had asked Wally to go Christmas shopping with the girls, and Wally had liked that. He had taken them downtown on the trolley, which they loved to ride. The city had been great—so busy that it was hard to walk along Main Street. Music was playing; people were waving and greeting each other. The street lamps were wrapped in red and white like candy canes, and high-arching evergreen bows were draped across the streets.

Wally loved it, and he had fun with the girls. They spent most of their time in W. T. Grant’s, the “five and dime store.” The girls looked at potholders and fancy combs, screwdrivers and shoe-polish brushes—everything. They walked up and down the aisles, picked up half the items in the store, it seemed, and all the while chattered about the many choices. Wally teased them constantly, showing them that the shoe brush looked like Hitler’s mustache and using an eggbeater to muss their hair.

Finally the girls settled on the right gifts. For Mom, they chose a little music box that Wally had to “go halves” on. It cost $1.29, and the girls, together, had only a dollar to shop with. Wally also helped out on a 49-cent tie. It was an ugly thing, maroon with a flock of ducks flying south across it. Wally loved it mainly because he knew Dad would wear it. He would feel he had to, because of the girls, but also because it had been paid for and ought to be put to use.

After shopping, Wally and the girls had gone to Walgreen’s and ordered strawberry sodas. Beverly and LaRue loved to watch the “soda jerks” toss the dips of ice cream in the air and catch them in the big glasses and then, with a flair, run soda over the ice cream and create lots of pink foam. He knew, too, that they both liked to look at themselves in the mirrors behind the counter and admire their pretty new winter coats and hats.

But even after all that, it was Alex they wanted to be close to, now, on Christmas day. That was partly because Alex was gone a lot in the evenings—because he had gone to work for Dad—but Alex also knew that the girls got tired of Wally’s teasing.

Mom loved her music box and thanked the girls—as well as Wally. And Dad hated the tie but pretended he didn’t, which was perfect.

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.