The Lady Justice Trilogy by Thornhill Robert

Author:Thornhill, Robert [Thornhill, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2015-08-04T04:00:00+00:00

Traditionally, Thanksgiving signals the start of the Christmas season. Many events are scheduled on and around Thanksgiving to launch the holiday festivities.

The Country Club Plaza lighting ceremony and the mayor’s Christmas tree draw huge crowds, but in our Midtown Kansas City neighborhood, the main event is the opening of the live nativity scene at Pastor Bob’s Community Church.

Some carpenter in years past had constructed a wooden manger consisting of a backdrop, a cradle for the baby Jesus, and a small fenced area for the live animals. Life-size statues of Mary, Joseph, the angel, and three shepherds were accompanied by a live sheep and a donkey.

Obviously livestock kept penned up for a month needed care. This was provided by Moses Thacker. He was a farmer from rural Missouri. He had retired and moved to Kansas City to be near his family. Missing the farm life, he had volunteered to care for the animals, bringing them food and water and cleaning the stall daily.

Over the years, the nativity scene had experienced some problems. Vandals of both the two-legged and four-legged kind couldn’t seem to leave it alone. City creatures of the night, such as raccoons and large rats, were constantly foraging in the animals’ food, and once a possum was found curled up in the cradle with the baby Jesus.

Kansas City, like other large metropolitan areas, has its population of taggers: that’s guys who paint things on the side of buildings and on bridge overpasses. One year the taggers painted the sheep red and green and hung a big Christmas bell from its tail.

Old Moses was up to the task. He cordoned off a huge section of lawn surrounding the nativity and set the area with snare traps. This area came to be known as the DMZ, and anyone or thing who dared to enter was found the next morning in Moses’s snares. The critters were carted off by Animal Control, and the taggers were carted off to jail.

We tidied up the kitchen, grabbed our coats, and headed to Pastor Bob’s First Community Church. We should have started earlier, as a huge crowd had already gathered and was pressing against the rope to the DMZ. No one wants to miss this event.

Even the Presbyterians show up.

Fortunately, we have Mary. Over the years, she has developed a technique for parting a crowd and worming through. She always gets dirty looks, but who’s gonna hassle an old lady?

So Mary did her thing, pulling all of us behind her in single file until we reached the rope barricade.

And there, in all its glory, was the First Community Church live nativity scene.

Floodlights shone on the holy figures and the livestock. City fathers were present to pontificate on the significance of the event, and Pastor Bob of the First Community Church stood proudly looking on.

Suddenly a collective gasp went up from the onlookers. I craned my neck to see what had diverted everyone’s attention, and my eyes were immediately drawn to the donkey who was obviously a male.

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.