Unknown

Christmas Cookies and Garland by J.L. Langley
    Hope you all have a Merry Christmas. Here is my present to you. I hope you enjoy this Christmas flashback.
    Christmas Cookies and Garland
by J.L. Langley
copyright December 2010
    “Go…go go go go go.” Sterling pointed his pudgy little baby finger at the door, then promptly stuck it in his mouth and stared up at Remi expectantly.
    Remi glanced at the clock then down at his eighteen month old brother. A lump the size of a grapefruit settled in his stomach. It was seven minutes after six o’clock. How did the kid do that? It never failed at around the same time every day he decided it was time to go. Remi doubted seriously it was a coincidence that Sterling’s internal clock coincided with Dirk getting home from work.
    “Go, Me.” Sterling actually had the “me” sound in Remi now. A few more months and he’d probably be able to get the R sound. He planted his hands on the ground, pushed himself up to his feet and toddled around his toys headed toward Remi as fast as he could. “Bye bye.”
    Remi put his book aside as Sterling situated himself in between his spread legs and grabbed a hold of his shirt. The little hand clutched at his shirt, like fear clutched at Remi’s chest. There was never a way to tell what six o’clock would bring.

Sterling grabbed another stabling handful of fabric and peered up at Remi. Blinking his big brown eyes, he cocked his head a little, studying Remi. “Me…Go!” He pointed toward the door and teetered for second before regaining his balance.
    They
should
go. Sterling felt it. Remi felt it. So what was he waiting for? Kissing Sterling’s button nose, Remi picked up his brother and stood. “You’re wet.”
    “Nooo…” Sterling shook his head.
    “Yes, you are.” Remi snagged a diaper, out of the diaper dispenser hanging off the end of Sterling’s crib, and dropped it onto his own bed. They had to make haste or they’d never make it out of the house before Dirk got home. Retrieving the wipies from the nightstand, Remi tossed Sterling in the middle of the bed.
    Giggling, Sterling rolled over and tried to crawl away.
    “Oh no, you don’t. We don’t have time for that.” Remi caught his foot.
    Sterling squealed and kicked his feet. “Go.”
    Remi dragged him back to the edge of the bed. “Yes, go. We’ll go to Chay’s.” Undoing the tapes on the diaper with one hand, he held Sterling’s leg with the other. With any luck the baby would cooperate. He thought it was hilarious to take off crawling during a diaper change. Admittedly, it had been kinda cute until he’d peed on Remi’s bed. That wasn’t so cute.
    Trying to slip from Remi’s hold, Sterling grinned. “A.”
    Remi dragged him back and flipped the wipey top open with one hand. “Yes. Chay.”
    “A!”
    “Goof ball.” Chuckling, Remi wiped him down and quickly tossed the old diaper in the floor and replaced it with the new. The clock read 6:10. He found a pair of red sweat pants and some thick socks. With great difficulty—because Sterling realized they were indeed going and decided to clap and shout “go” and “A” intermittently—Remi stuffed his brother’s feet into the socks. “Stay there.”
    Sterling rolled to his tummy and pushed himself onto his butt. He sat near the headboard of Remi’s bed and resumed his excited gibberish.
    Remi found their coats and packed a diaper bag, complete with extra clothes. It had only taken a couple of times for Remi to realize as soon as he got somewhere without an extra set of clothes Sterling would barf or pee himself.
    Quickly, Remi got them both into their coats, grabbed his keys off the nightstand and a blanket out of Sterling’s crib. “Gotta go, gotta go.” His heart hammered ninety to nothing. They had no time to lose. He picked up Sterling, wrapped the blanket around his lower body and settled him against his chest.
    Sterling swiped the keys and put them in his mouth.
    Remi tossed the old diaper in the trash, retrieved the car seat from the foot of Sterling’s baby bed and gave one last glance at the clock—6:12—turned off the lights and shut the door. “Give me those.” He took the keys out of Sterling’s mouth. “Mom?”
    “In the kitchen.”
    It took a few moments, but he located her on the floor between the sink and the pantry. She was scrubbing something off the floor. “We’re going to Chay’s.”
    Coming to her knees, she looked at him and then Sterling. She stood and