“Sure.
Who needs oranges?”
Emily thought she knew the answer, but she
noticed Stani listening thoughtfully to the exchange.
“Old Miss Hagen.
She said she always got an orange in her
stocking when she was a little girl.
I
thought it might be nice for her to have one this year.
I just didn't make it to the market in time
last night.”
Emily went to the kitchen and
put a pair of oranges from the bowl on the counter into a little paper
sack.
Rummaging in the drawer of the
sideboard, she found a scrap of red ribbon, and tied a bow around the top of
the sack.
“How's that?
Anything else you need?”
Turning to hold out the package for Jack’s
approval, she realized Stani had left the room.
“Just a Christmas kiss from my
best girl and I'll be on my way.”
Jack
leaned down for her kiss and was headed for the front door when Stani returned
from the guest room.
“Jack, would you mind doing a
favor for me?
See that Bobby and Ruthie
have this?”
He pressed a folded bill
into Jack's palm.
“Tell them it's a
welcome home gift for their Emily.”
Jack
gave him a long, approving look, and the two shook hands.
“That was so sweet, but you
didn't have to, you know.”
She put her
arms around his waist, laying her head on his shoulder as they stood in the
doorway watching the big brown car drive away.
“Yes, I did.
I can't have your namesake coming home without
a Christmas present this year.
She's
part of our miracle now, too.”
They would have the entire
evening together.
Not sure the time was
right, but open to any opportunity, Stani was happy to let the day wind
down.
He chose a recording of Handel's
Messiah, which Emily laughingly told him she had listened to every year since
she was in diapers.
He browsed her
father's collection of books, and a volume on Britain in the Middle Ages caught
his interest.
Sitting on the floor at
her feet, he browsed the old textbook, resting his head against her knee.
Gazing into the fire, Emily
idly stroked his hair, her eyelids pleasantly heavy.
This was what it felt like to share a life.
To love the same things, to feel so at ease
that there was no need for conversation.
This was the way her parents had been together, she remembered, here in
this very room.
They would have this,
she and Stani, if only for brief hours like these, and she intended to savor
every one, tucking them carefully away to look back on when he was gone.
So absorbed were they that the
sound of a soft knock at the door, followed by the entrance of two visitors,
failed to penetrate their consciousness.
Only when a smiling face appeared at the end of the couch, followed by a
breathless exclamation, did Emily become aware of Lil, now gaping at her in astonishment.
“Emily, what are you doing?”
followed shortly by “Mom, you're never going to believe this!”
After the initial shock, the
room filled with excited voices and hasty explanations.
As gracefully as he could, Stani got to his
feet and waited for the chaos to die down.
The laughing introductions and hugs of greeting subsided, and he was
conscious of Lil's dark eyes watching him intently.
Turning to her, he laid his hands on her
shoulders and bent down to gently kiss each cheek.
“I understand we've already met, Lil.
I only wish I could remember.”
After an instant's hesitation,
she put her arms around his neck, whispering “Merry Christmas,” very near his
ear.
Angela was explaining to
Emily, “Sal and Joey are working the big party at the president's house this
afternoon, and Lil and I couldn't bear the idea of your being alone on
Christmas Day.
So we decided to surprise
you.
I suppose the surprise is on us,
isn't it?”
With a glance at Stani, she
went on, “I'm so sorry, dear.
I should
have called first.”
“Nonsense, you know you're
welcome anytime.
But I can't believe
you'd drive two hours to see me and then have to drive back on Christmas
night.”
Her face reddening, Angela
said, “Actually, we were planning to invite ourselves to spend the night.
Oh, Lil, we should just get back in the car
and pretend we never had this brilliant idea.”
But Lil was already settled in
an armchair, watching the scene with fascination.
Stani had put an arm around Emily, his eyes
gleaming, as if he might actually be enjoying the awkwardness of the situation,
while Emily had blushed a pretty shade of pink.
It would take more than her mother's embarrassment to move Lil now.
“Before you do that,” Stani spoke
up, “let me assure you, you are not intruding.
I've been hoping to meet as much of Emily's family as possible on this
visit.
And I'm quite sure she'd welcome
your company.
You see, I'm staying with
Jack, so she would indeed be alone tonight.
Isn't that right, love?”
His arm
tightened around her for a moment.
“Why
don't I get some more wood for the fire, while you ladies make your
plans?”
As he turned toward the rear of the
house, Lil was sure she heard the sound of a chuckle drift back over his
shoulder.
“He's right, you know.
He isn't staying here.
I'd love for you two to spend the night.
What a sweet surprise!
This has been a Christmas of nothing but
surprises.
And I was prepared to be
miserable all by myself.”
Angela seemed a little more at
ease.
“You mean you didn't know Stani
was coming?
When did he get here?”
“Last night.
He just appeared at church.
So it's settled, you'll stay?”
“We'll stay.
But we need to unload the car.
Sal sent dinner, of course.
Everything from antipasto to baklava.
Come on, Lil, stop gawking and let's get
unloaded.
Maybe you could bring in your
viola, since you insisted on bringing it, and let Stani give you some
pointers.”
The two went out the door and
across the yard, deep in a mother-daughter wrangle.
“No one ever knocks at your door,
do they?”
Stani came up behind her,
watching the activity over her shoulder.
“Apparently not.
Do you mind, I mean about not being alone
now?”
“Not at all.
I think I love your family.
What a lot of energy!”
“You have no idea.”
Angela and Lil were coming
back from the car, still arguing.
The
discussion continued in the kitchen, and when they returned to the front room,
Angela enlisted Emily's help.
“Some
music would be nice, don't you agree, Emily?
I'll take the piano, if you can convince Lil to play for us.”
She turned to Stani with a coaxing
smile.
“I don't suppose you'd agree to
join our little impromptu performance, would you, Stani?”
“Unfortunately, my violin has
to travel with its own bodyguard, and I didn't think I'd need it on this trip.
I'm sorry.”
But Angela was not to be
discouraged.
“What about J.D.'s violin,
Em?”
Taken by surprise, Emily
wavered.
“Do you think it would be
okay?
Pop always said it was just an old
fiddle.”
“It's not priceless, but it
was a nice instrument.
I'm sure in
Stani's hands it will be fine.
What do
you say, shall we?
There used to be such
grand music in this room.”
Opening the
piano, she played a few tentative chords.
“Now, where's some sheet music?
Is it all still here, dear?”
Angela was off and running.
Lil
went back to the car, returning with the viola case in hand, rolling her eyes
at Emily as she opened the lid.
Hesitantly, Emily went to the
cabinet behind the piano and opened the doors.
Neat stacks of sheet music, scores carefully arranged, all just where
her mother had left them.
She lifted her
father's violin from its case, and as if bearing an offering, carried it to
Stani.
“It hasn't been played in
years.
He never touched it after she
died,” she said softly.
She wanted him
to know how sacred it had been, their music together.
Something in his eyes, as he took the violin
lovingly in his hands, told her he understood.
Within minutes, Angela had
opened a score on the music rack, and she and Lil had begun to play.
Stani, gently plucking strings and listening
intently, finally raised the bow and joined in.
On the bench next to Angela, Emily prepared to turn pages.
It was a magical moment, as the sound of live
music filled the room for the first time in so many years.
It had happened so naturally, as the three
musicians, each from such different places in their experience, joined in the
sheer joy of making music.
Emily turned
a page, looked up at Stani, and smiled.
And then her eye fell on a notation, written in the margin in her
mother's handwriting.
Tears stung her
eyes.
As if reading her thoughts,
Angela took her left hand from the keys and slipped her arm around the girl
beside her.
Under cover of the soaring
strings, she said gently, “It's all too wonderful, isn't it?”
Resting her head on Angela's shoulder, Emily
let the tears flow.
“They would be so
happy, darling.
This is just what they
would have wanted for you.
A life filled
with love and music.”
Stani was watching
closely.
He understood these tears.
She was thinking of her parents as the
instruments they had shared came back to life.
It was only right, he thought, that she shed a few tears in memory.
He was proud to be the one to give the old violin
voice again.
Proud that she would allow
him, knowing how she must treasure it.
Here was one more step in their journey together.
When the music came to a
rousing close, just as the last of the sun's rays slanted across the room,
Angela turned pointedly to Lil.
“Now you
can boast to your friends that you've performed with Stani Moss.
And to add to your boast, you can tell
everyone you also fixed his dinner.
We're going to the kitchen to heat up all this food your father sent,
while Stani and Emily relax by the fire for a bit.”
Lil knew better to protest, when her mother's
eyes sent such a profound message.
Emily
needed time alone with her man.
They settled on the couch,
Emily snuggling close with a sigh.
“That
was so beautiful.
Thank you.
I know Lil will never forget this day.”
“Neither will I.”
He wrapped her in his arms, resting his cheek
on her hair.
“Tears of pain or
pleasure?”
“Both, I guess.
Earlier, I was thinking about them, how what I
feel for you is what it means to share a life.
Angela's right, she said they'd be happy for me.
But, Stani, how are we ever going to make a
life together?
This is so wonderful,
these days together, but soon you'll be leaving and who knows when you'll be
back.
We've found a treasure that I'm
afraid we can't keep.”
He wanted to tell her, but
this was not the time.
Just another day
or two.
He pressed his lips to her
forehead.
“We'll find a way.
Have faith, darling girl.
Have faith.”
The four of them sat at the
kitchen table, feasting on Salvatore's tortellini and lasagna, along with a pan
of bread sticks topped with herbs and cheese, sent as a special treat for Emily
from Joey.
Angela asked about Stani's
Christmas Eve surprise.
“Emily said you
just showed up in church?”