Bring Me Home for Christmas

we’re doing it in the kitchen and in our serving room.”
    “When do they go out?”
    “Christmas Eve is next Friday—but we’ll start delivering tomorrow. It’s almost all nonperishable so people can save it or eat it right away. That was Mel’s idea—she said if we’re bringing food to people who are hungry, let ’em eat!”
    “I thought you gave turkeys?”
    “Some, about a dozen. But canned hams work well, too. We don’t want to deliver birds to anyone who might have oven issues—as in no gas. There are people around who make due on fireplace heat.”
    “Do you put them all together before delivering?”
    “Nope. We deliver ’em as they’re ready. We have a lot of people volunteering. We’ll be at it most of the mornings this week, I imagine. Paige insists on making more cookies—there are families with kids.”
    We’re so lucky, Becca thought. When I get home, I’m going to be better about volunteering.
    Mel had a babysitter with her little ones and the town doctor was in charge of his three-year-old twins so his wife, Abby, could attend the hen party. Jack’s sister, Brie, came for a couple of hours and Jo and Ellie stopped by. Jo brought some pageant costumes with her, along with a sewing box, enlisting help in hemming angel’s robes.
    Everyone had a pageant costume in their laps, there were Christmas cookies, coffee, tea and punch on the dining table and the first movie of the day was It’s a Wonderful Life. There was a little light chatter, voices low so as not to disturb the movie too much.
    “Jack said he can’t understand why we’re going to so much trouble for this pageant. He was a shepherd when he was seven and he wore his father’s bathrobe.”
    “Did he tell you he wore that old plaid bathrobe till he was thirteen?” Brie whispered. “When he wasn’t a shepherd, he was a Jedi warrior.”
    “Ellie and I made all these costumes loose, with wide seams and huge hems so they can be altered if necessary and used year after year for kids of all sizes,” Jo said. “Oh! Shh! No talking while Clarence, the angel, arrives!”
    Everyone was obediently quiet. Then soft talking resumed until the part in the movie when George begins to see how life in the town would be had he never been born.
    “I actually believe all this,” Ellie said. “The smallest act is part of the whole universal scheme of things and everything is altered. Take away one good deed and everything changes. Add a good deed and there’s a ripple effect.”
    “Every time we watch this movie together, my mom says that same thing,” Becca said. “I think I believe it, too.”
    “Like making a cake,” Paige said. “Leave out one ingredient and it just won’t be the same. Becca, I bet you miss your mom so much by now.”
    “I talk to her every day, just like when I lived in my own apartment in San Diego.” She laughed. “Who am I kidding, I talk to her twice a day!”
    “I hope we meet her soon,” Mel said.
    Becca cleared her throat. “Well, you should know… I asked Denny to take me home before Christmas. I hate that I’ll miss the pageant, but I want to be with my family for the holidays. Though it’s hard to imagine, I miss Rich, too.”
    “Perfectly understandable,” Mel said. “How long will you be gone?”
    She cleared her throat again. “Maybe I’ll be back for a visit…”
    The only sound in the room came from the television. The complete absence of the women’s voices was heavy. Finally, Paige asked, “Are we losing Denny?”
    “Probably not,” she said, lifting her chin and trying to be brave. “He loves it here so much….”
    “But I thought…” Paige began.
    Mel touched her hand to stop her. “I’m not going to kid you, Becca—I would have been so happy if you chose our town. We all would. But there’s nothing mysterious about wanting to live near family. Sometimes I miss my sister in Colorado so much.”
    Before long, the movie was ending. Jimmy Stewart was united with all his family, friends and neighbors, Clarence had earned his wings and Becca was sobbing. “This movie always makes me cry.”
    “Wait till you get to White Christmas…” someone said right before she blew her nose.

    The Sunday night before Christmas, the bar was busier than other Sunday nights. People from the lower elevations drove up to see the spectacular tree with the amazing star, and since there was a bar and grill right there, stopped in for food and drinks. It seemed many hands were