The Aluminum Christmas Tree by Thomas J. Davis

Author:Thomas J. Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2013-02-07T00:00:00+00:00

Jimmy sat with his feet up on the coffee table. Mildred generally didn’t like to see feet up on the furniture, but, since she and Jimmy had been getting along pretty well lately, she decided to hide her scowl behind the needlework she had in front of her. Besides, having his feet up seemed to relax Jimmy, and Mildred knew he needed some relaxing.

It was Tuesday night, and that meant Western night at the Jackson house. Jimmy had missed Cheyenne, but he’d made it home in time to catch Wyatt Earp—which he watched mostly to pass the time until The Rifleman came on. The Rifleman was Jimmy’s favorite show. He had even ordered a cap rifle for Johnny from Sears for two dollars and seventy-nine cents. Though it sported a Roy Rogers decal, Jimmy kept telling little Johnny it was the Rifleman’s gun. And Johnny seemed to like the idea of being the Rifleman, even though the show came on after his bedtime and he’d never actually seen it. Sometimes on Sunday afternoon, if his daddy wasn’t so tired he had to nap all day, Johnny would run around outside, firing his rifle, and his daddy would whirl about shouting, “You got me! You got me!” before falling to the ground.

This evening, though, Jimmy had something other than cowboys on his mind. “Got some nice dresses here,” Jimmy said, turning a page of the catalog, saying for about the thousandth time what Mildred had heard well enough the first.

“Yes, Jimmy,” Mildred allowed, “some of them are all right.” She knew Jimmy was looking at pages eight and nine—he’d showed them to her often enough. “Winter prints,” the description read. Women in print dresses in colors like ruby red and sapphire paraded around on the pages with matching hats, handbags, and shoes. One that Jimmy liked—probably because the description, “harem-skirted dress,” sounded exotic to him—looked to Mildred like nothing more than a cheap plastic fruit basket plastered on a dress.

She had hurt Jimmy’s feelings not too long ago. “Listen,” he’d said, reading in a voice filled with something approaching awe. “The Bell Silhouette, young and sophisticated, charmingly fashioned in crisp acetate taffeta.” He repeated “crisp acetate taffeta” for effect. Mildred figured he had no clue what that was. He continued, “Low rounded neckline in back, long back zipper. Pleats and cuff all around skirt; two-inch hem. The new tapered skirt is wide enough for walking.”

Mildred nearly doubled over with laughter when she heard that. “Well, how about that? A dress you can walk in!” A tear ran down her cheek, she wiped it off, then she started laughing again. “What’ll they think of next? Pants you can work in?” That tickled her even more, so the laughing continued.

Jimmy turned red with embarrassment. “I just thought you could use a nice Sunday dress, something that’d make people sit up and take notice when we come in to church.”

“Oh, they’d notice,” Mildred went on, catching the red in his face too late. “They’d notice that Mildred Jackson had gone stark raving mad!” Then the laughter poured forth again.

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.