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Chapter Nine - An Early Christmas Present


I woke up before Lauren did the next morning, at the very crack of dawn, and I got dressed in sweats and stuff and headed downstairs. I peeked into the living room and breathed a sigh of relief seeing all my gaming systems exactly where they belonged. I felt guilty for even checking. Mulder and Nacho had followed me downstairs, but Igby had opted to stay under the covers at Lauren’s feet, where he’d snuck in after we’d fallen asleep. I went out to the kitchen and poured a smelly can of catfood into Mulder’s bowl and picked Nacho up before he could eat it. Mulder glared at him from under the table, then darted for the food the second I carried Nacho away, hunching over the bowl like some kind of laser-eyed mafia man. In the hallway, I strapped Nacho’s leash on him and pulled him, disabled the alarm, and stepped out into the brisk Tennessee morning.

It was gray outside, the threat of rain in the air, and leaves from the neighbor’s tree had made their way onto our lawn. But I wasn’t too concerned, I could hear the far-off hum of the landscaping crew’s leaf blowers and weed whackers and knew it wouldn’t be too long before they’d come and cleared them off. Across the street, a neighbor’s house was being Christmas-fied by a professional decorating company. A man was straddling the roof of their garage, affixing the third of the eight tiny reindeer to the peak.

Nacho followed me down the driveway to the sidewalk and I turned and took him jogging down the road. His nails clicked on the pavement as we ran. A couple blocks away, we passed the landscapers, who yelled good morning and waved, one of them laughing at little Nacho’s legs rushing to keep up with my strides. We took a pretty good jog before heading back to the house as the sun was starting to come out between the clouds.

Ethan was just crossing the lawn as I jogged up. “Hey, where ya going?” I asked him, coming to a stop, breathless. Nacho ran over and jumped on his leg to be patted.

“Carver’s,” Ethan answered. “He said he’d pay me double if I worked Saturday afternoon.”

“Oh,” I said. “Well, that’s a good deal.”

“Yeah,” Ethan nodded.

I looked up at the house, “What time you gotta be there?”

“I dunno… after noon,” Ethan answered with a shrug.

“It’s only nine.”

He shrugged again, “It’s a long walk.” He bent down to pet Nacho, who wasn’t giving up on trying to get Ethan’s attention.

“Come back inside,” I said, “I’ll drive you later.”

Ethan looked up, his hands stroking Nacho’s ears, the little pug curly-tail sweeping in loops. “I don’t mind walkin’ if you got other stuff to do,” he said, “I don’t wanna be a pain in the ass.”

“You aren’t a pain in the ass. Get inside, we’ll get breakfast. Is Lauren up?”

“I didn’t see her,” Ethan replied, standing up. Nacho started bouncing at his legs again.

“Get down, Nacho,” I said, tugging his leash and leading the way into the house, “Well if we can beat her up, we can have bacon,” I said. “There’s some in the drawer I bought and I don’t think she’s found it yet.”

Ethan laughed.

Inside, I unleashed Nacho and he ran for the cat food bowl but Mulder had made quick work of it and left only a few crumbles for Nacho, who licked the bowl eagerly, regardless, as Mulder sat on top of a nearby bookshelf, his tail flicking like he was plotting the future demise of the dogs of the world, if only he could get his hands on some poison-laced cat food.

I pulled the contraband bacon out of the fridge and winked at Ethan as I laid it out on a microwavable plate and shoved it in for the required thirty seconds. “It’s not as good as the pan fried stuff but I don’t trust myself even with that,” I admitted.

“How did you eat before Lauren?” Ethan laughed.

“A very impressive amount of take out and delivery menus stashed everywhere,” I said, “And an assortment of breakfast cereals, microwavable meals, and the previously discussed Big Macs.”

“Sounds like a lot more work than cooking,” he said.

I shrugged. “Do you cook?”

“Enough to live,” he replied.

I opened the fridge, “You know how to make an egg?”

“Scrambled.”

I took out the carton.

Ten minutes later, we had an eclectic selection of breakfast foods on two plates: scrambled eggs, microwaved bacon, peanut butter smeared toast, and those little tubs of apple sauce. We sat down and I picked up a piece of bacon, shaking it at Ethan, “Very impressive scrambling skills,” I said.

“Thanks,” he said, “I’ll add it to my resume.”

I laughed. “So, did you think on my offer to stay here?” I asked, “Because we could really use a good egg scrambler around here.”

Ethan chewed his peanut butter toast, “You really don’t mind?” he asked.

“I really don’t,” I answered.

“Okay,” he said. “And I can leave anytime if you decide it’s too much hassle and I’m in the way or whatever,” he added quickly, “I’ll leave like the second you tell me to, I promise.”

I smiled, taking a bite of my eggs, “Great. Welcome aboard, then.”

“Is that bacon I smell?” Lauren wandered into the kitchen, her nose held aloft.

“Not at all,” I lied, pretending to cover my plate with my hands so she couldn’t see it. She laughed and took a piece off my plate and took a bite. “Hey now, if you’re against buying it then you’re against eating it.”

“Mmm,” she exaggerated as she chewed the rest of the piece, teasing me. “Good morning Ethan, you sleep okay?” she asked as she turned away and got the orange juice out of the fridge.

Ethan nodded, “It was like sleeping in a giant marshmallow.”

“Good,” she smiled, “I’m glad you were comfortable.” He was staring up at her. I could tell she was trying not to think about the fact that the kid had walked in and seen her naked the night before. She was clearly compensating for it, too, because she had on like three layers on top - a tank top or something that peeked out from below a long sleeve shirt and a vest over that.

She grabbed another piece of my bacon.

“Ethan’s gonna stay with us,” I said, “Until his dad gets out of Cumberland Heights.”

Lauren looked at Ethan, her smile reaching her eyes, “Awesome! I’m glad. I was having a fit thinking of you staying in that old grain mill. That place has got to be filthy.”

Ethan shrugged, “It ain’t bad. I clean it.”

Igby waddled into the room and Lauren gave him the last bite of the piece of bacon she’d snagged from my plate.

“Hey now, if you aren’t gonna buy bacon, you definitely can’t give it to the dogs,” I said as Nacho came running over, seeking his own bacon. “See what you’ve done, now the unending gut wants some.” I sighed and broke a piece off for Nacho, who scarfed it down so fast there’s no way he tasted it. “Damn, at least savor it, bro,” I told him.




I dropped Ethan off at Carver’s with the promise to return at eight to pick him up. Lauren had packed him a lunch and we watched as he disappeared into the tent to start work before backing out of the driveway. “So since he’s going to stay with us, I was thinking we should probably get him some clothes or something,” Lauren said as I pulled out of the parking lot.

“I was thinking that, too,” I answered.

So I drove over to the galleria and we went in the Belk entrance and spent awhile holding up jeans and looking at the waist bands, trying to decide if they were the right size or not. We ended up taking three different sizes in a range we were fairly sure he’d fit into, and grabbed a bunch of t-shirts and boxers and sweatshirts and a pair of flannel pajamas. We even bought some socks. “You’ll have to take him again for shoes,” Lauren said as we hauled our stuff to the register.

“Yeah I have no idea how big his feet are,” I agreed. I grabbed a couple knit caps and a pair of gloves from a display by the register. “Do you think we should man up the guest room too? I mean the bedspread in there is girly and it’s kinda plain otherwise.”

“Okay,” Lauren agreed. So once we’d paid at Belk and stuffed the bags in the back of the car, we went to Bed Bath & Beyond and argued over whether or not Ninja Turtles were appropriate for a fifteen year old’s room. We ended up buying Lauren’s choice, a blue and green plaid comforter that looked like a shirt I think she tried to get me to wear to a dinner party once. We dark blue sheets to match and I found a poster with guitar chords. We got a radio with an iPod mount. “Do you really think he has an iPod, though?” Lauren asked when I was arguing for the pros of buying the radio, which is the question that led us going to Best Buy to buy a black iPod mini, which somehow led to Barnes & Noble to get some books and magazines fifteen year olds might like, and on to Guitar Center, where I got a couple more books on guitar playing and all the stuff I’d need to show him how to play, plus some extras, like a book of chords from Journey’s Greatest Hits that was actually for me.

Lauren stared at the stuff that had taken over the back of the Jeep. It was almost five-thirty by then. I had no clue how we’d managed to spend the entire afternoon buying all the shit, but we had. So since we had a couple hours before we had to go pick him up, we went home and set it all up in the room. When we were done, we stood by the doorway, looking at our handiwork.

“Well, it’s not perfect but it’s better than it was,” Lauren said, looking around.

I pre-loaded the iPod with my own music library, since I wasn’t sure what he liked, and left it on the dock of the stereo where it could charge.

When it came time, I drove down to pick Ethan up at Carver’s. He came out, folding his money into a worn out wallet, and climbed into the Jeep. “The seats are heated, too?” he asked as he got in the front passenger seat, “This thing’s tricked out, huh?”

“Yeah, Lauren got it for me as my wedding gift,” I answered, “It’s souped up.” I grinned.

“This was a wedding gift?” Ethan’s eyebrows raised, “Y’all get each other cars as gifts?”

I shrugged, “She uses it, too,” I said.

I drove back to the house, barely suppressing my excitement. I really wanted to tell him what we’d done, but I also wanted it to be a surprise. When got home, Lauren was sitting on the couch, reading, but she put the book down as soon as we walked through the door. “I made dinner,” she said chirpily, “Why don’t you boys go upstairs and wash up and we’ll eat?” she suggested.

“Sounds good to me,” I said. “Doesn’t that sound good?” I asked Ethan.

“Yeah,” he agreed. He looked a little weirded out because there was an awful lot of enthusiasm being pumped his direction. We followed him up the stairs, Lauren right on my heels, and hung around in the hallway. He started for the hall bathroom.

“Wait, why don’t you put your coat up in your room first?” Lauren asked eagerly.

Ethan paused, gave her a funny look, and shrugged his coat off slowly, then turned and opened the bedroom door. He paused in the doorway, looking around.

“We figured since you were gonna be staying a while that you’d need some stuff to make the room better,” I said, swooping in because Ethan looked like he wasn’t sure what to make of the changes in the room.

“Y’all did this… for me?” he asked, looking back at Lauren and I.

“Yeah,” I answered, “Look, we got you a poster with the guitar chords on it. And look,” I grabbed the iPod off the dock, “Let me know if there’s some music you want on it that I didn’t add, I’ll get it on there for you.” I handed it to him with excitement.

He blinked at it in his hands and then looked around the room, wide eyed, “What…? Wait. What? Y’all really did all this for me?”

“Yes,” Lauren chirped. She was peeking around my shoulder, holding onto my arm. “Do you like it?” she asked.

Ethan looked like we’d done the ice bucket challenge to him without warning. “I… literally don’t know what to say,” he said.

Lauren leaped out from behind me and opened the closet door, “We weren’t sure what size jeans you wear --”

“There’s clothes, too?” Ethan’s eyes swung to me, even wider than they’d been a moment before. “But… why?”

“The spirit of Christmas again, I guess,” I answered.

Lauren handed him three pairs of pants, “Whatever ones don’t fit we can return,” she said, folding them into his hands. She grinned, “We just wanted you to be comfortable,” she added.

“I mean… thank you,” Ethan said, “I guess that’s what I’m supposed to say. I just… I don’t know what to say other than that. I’m speechless.”

Lauren came back over and hugged my arm.

He stood there holding the iPod and the jeans, looking around from the bedspread to the lamp and the poster and the radio and the clothes and back to me and Lauren. “Nobody’s ever done nothin’ like this for me,” he said.

“It’s just an early Christmas present,” Lauren answered.

“Yeah, I don’t usually get Christmas presents,” he replied, “Not since my mom left.” He turned and put the jeans and iPod on the bed and ran his hand over the comforter’s material. Lauren looked up at me and mouthed, no presents? and I shrugged. Ethan turned back to us. “You guys are… either really crazy or really awesome or maybe kind of both.”

I laughed.

Lauren gave him a hug.