Taylor wandered down the stairs quietly. Everything he did early in the mornings had to be quiet, so he wouldn’t get caught and sent back to bed. It was just a little past four in the morning. The young man stopped and stood watching curiously as his littlest brother seemed to be investigating the fireplace.

"Mackie, what are you doing up?" Taylor asked of his little brother.

Mackie was standing on the fireplace hearth, trying to peer up the chimney. "Santa’s coming!" he whispered loudly with excited anticipation.

Taylor sat down on the fireplace hearth beside his little brother and pulled him over into his lap. "Mackie, Santa doesn’t come until very, very late tonight. And, only if you’re asleep. Santa never comes when little boys are awake."

"Another whole day?" Mackie wailed with disappointment, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Sheesh," Taylor hissed trying to quiet the little boy down. "Mackie why don’t you go back to bed? Then when you get up again, Momma will fix us some chocolate chip pancakes. We always have chocolate chip pancakes on Christmas Eve."

"No!" Mackie argued. "I go play music with you!"

Taylor knew when he was beaten. If he argued with his little brother, Mackie would just get loud and in turn wake up their parents. If his Mom and Dad were awakened, more than likely he’d be included in the ‘go back to bed’ order. 

"Okay," Taylor agreed wrapping his brother up in an couch throw. "But, you have to lay down on the couch down there. And, you have to be good."

"Okay," Mackie agreed easily and he put his head down on his brothers shoulder as he carried him downstairs to the music studio. 

Taylor tucked his little brother in on the makeshift bed. 

"Tay?" Mackie said his voice rising on the end as little children do to ask a question without forming a whole sentence.

"Yes,"

"Do you like baby Zoe better than me?" Mackie asked.

Taylor was surprised. "No, not better. I love you both, why?"

"Cause, Aunt Jean said Zoe was her favorite baby," Mackie complained.

Taylor nodded his head in understanding and smiled. "Mackie, Zoe is everyone’s favorite baby but that doesn’t mean Aunt Jean or anyone else loves you any less. Zoe is a special little baby, and you are a very special little five year old."

"But, I’m not the baby any more," Mackie complained as he yawned.

"No, you’re not, but you’re the only five-year old we have," Taylor explained. "That makes you special."

"I’m special," Mackie mumbled snuggling into the coverlet.

"Very special," Taylor whispered rubbing his little brothers head and watching as he drifted off back off to sleep. 

When he was sure that Mackie was asleep Taylor left him and started working his mural. Usually, once Mackie was asleep he was like Ike and Zac, nothing could wake him up. Taylor was working on sketching the outlines for his rock star figures on the second wall although he hadn’t completely finished painting in the figures on the first wall. They only had ten days left of their vacation left, and there was no way he was going to be able to finish it before the vacation was over. The detail work on each figure took hours to complete.

Zac wandered into the music studio a couple of hours later and just sat on the bottom step watching. Finally, as he knew he would, Taylor looked up and noticed. It always tickled Zac that his brother was the most unobservant person he knew. Tay had the ability to totally concentrate on whatever task he was working on with the total exclusion of the world.

"Can I help?" Zac asked.

"I thought you were back to sleeping late?" 

"Your bad habits must have worn off on me, I couldn’t go back to sleep," Zac complained. "Well, can I help or not?"

"Pick a figure," Taylor said motioning towards the unfinished wall.

Zac looked over the pencil drawn figures. Some he recognized. Some he didn’t. "Who’s the ugly chick?" he asked pointing to one of the drawings.

Taylor looked back over his shoulder at his brothers words. "Zac that’s not nice," he admonished mildly. "She’s just not a very attractive girl."

"Tay," Zac exclaimed with an exaggerated lift to his eyebrows. "That is one ug-a-ly girl. Who is it supposed to be?"

"The one and only Janis Joplin," Taylor said with a grin.

"Yeah?" Zac questioned as he looked over at his brother. "I still say she’s one ugly girl, but I guess she is a legend. Who is this guy with the afro?"

"Jimi Hendrix."

"Cool, can I paint him?" Zac demanded.

"I thought Ike might want to paint him, but go ahead and do it right," Taylor warned. "No messing around."

Zac shrugged not at all put off by his brothers warning. Anyone that was around his brother for very long, learned that he was a perfectionist. He taped the picture Taylor had used for the drawing up on the wall and went to work. 

Taylor returned to his sketching. His goal was to complete two walls before their vacation was over. He was busy sketching out what he hoped looked like a young and very heavy Meatloaf, when he noticed that Zac was throwing paint onto the wall. 

"Zac, you mess up my mural and I swear I’ll paint your tree house baby girl pink!" Taylor threatened.

Zac looked over his shoulder with a slightly guilty look on his face. "I was just making his outfit look paint splattered. Everyone wore weird clothes way back in the seventies."

"No weirder than some of your combinations," Taylor retorted.

"Oh, this from 70’s retro man!"

"Hey, guys," a voice from the doorway stopped a potential argument.

"Hey, Ike," 

"Run for your life, the grouch is up early," Zac exclaimed.

"Shut up, Zac!" both Ike and Taylor said in unison and their younger brother just giggled.

"I knew I’d find you here, but what’s the little dweeb doing up?" Ike asked pointedly.

"He’s helping. What are you doing up this early?" Taylor asked. "I thought your goal was to sleep at least twelve hours out of every twenty-four for the whole vacation."

"And, I’ve been very successful so far," Ike preemed. "But I wanted to work on a song that came to me last night."

"Play it, man," Zac said loudly.

"I haven’t written it yet," Ike retorted. "It’s just an idea"

"You won’t bother us," Taylor exclaimed. "And, I doubt anything short of a major explosion could wake Mackie."

Ike looked over his shoulder at his youngest brother curled up on the couch asleep. "What’s he doing down here?"

"He thought today was Christmas and was waiting for Santa to come down the chimney," Taylor explained.

"Cute," Ike said with a grin and then he turned his attention to the keyboard, plunking out individual notes while mumbling to himself as he would occasionally write down a verse or scratch out the markings of notes on the sheet paper. 

Zac and Taylor continued working on their perspective drawings, listening vaguely as Ike worked out a rough idea of the sound and mood he was trying to capture. 

"Hey, guys," 

Three sets of eyes looked up from their various tasks as their father entered the room. Walker surveyed his three teenaged sons, and took in the fact that his youngest son was sound asleep on the couch and came down the steps carrying his youngest casually in the crook of his arm. 

"Hey, Dad!" Zac greeted.

"Tay, this is really taking shape," Walker complimented as he surveyed the two walls. "This looks great,"

"Thanks," Taylor replied and he reached for his little sister and then cringed as he realized that she was soaking wet. "Yuck!" he exclaimed and passed her off the Ike suddenly.

"Yuck is right," Ike exclaimed holding his little sister out and away from him.

"How about cleaning up your sister," Walker suggested. "I just found her on the top step upstairs. About scared me to death."

"How did she get out, I thought you always kept the door shut?" Ike asked.

Walker shrugged. "I don’t know, but she managed to get out of her crib and out of our room. I don’t want her falling down the stairs. We have a another baby gate out in the garage and I’m heading out there to find it and get it installed."

"Good idea," Ike agreed. "Mom keeps extra clothes in the laundry room so I’ll clean her up down here." 

"Thanks," Walker said as he walked the length of the wall again and stood watching as Taylor painted glue over a gold paint that he had used on the gold lame jacket on the Elvis figure. He was just about to ask why, when he saw his son open a small tube of gold glitter and pour some out into the palm of his hand. Then, Taylor gently blew the glitter onto the jacket giving the effect of real gold lame. Walker nodded his head at the creativeness and then moved down the wall to watch Zac as he continued to paint colorful splashes onto a wild bright blue and white jumpsuit for Jimi Hendricks. 

"Tay, this is terrific," Walker commented again on his way out. "Who’s the ugly chick?"

"Dad!" Taylor exclaimed as Zac chimed in at the same time "Told you!" "That is supposed to be Janis Joplin," Taylor explained. "But, if I have to keep explaining her maybe I’ll paint over that figure."

"No. The picture is accurate, if I remember right," Walker exclaimed shaking his head. "But, she was one ugly girl! I guess I didn’t appreciate her music. I was a little young at the time, and she was pretty radical for me."

"Dad, Huey Lewis was too radical for you," Ike suggested coming back into the room with an armful of baby clothing and a bath towel. "Tay, help me get Zoe cleaned up in the bathroom."

Taylor capped his tube of glitter and picked up a few paint brushes and threw them into a container of brush cleaner. 

"You guys can make fun of me," Walker claimed. "But, it’s my genes that run through you. Where do you guys think you got all that talent?"

" Mom!" Ike, Taylor and Zac exclaimed at the same time, with wide grins. 

The expression on their father’s face was priceless but he was grinning too. "Well, at least I had the smarts to catch and marry her," he claimed.

"We’ll give you bonus points for that Dad," Zac allowed. 

"Why don’t you come help me," Walker suggested. "I think, I’m going to keep an extra eye on you today. Seems someone tried to get into the attic. I wonder who that could be?"

"Jeez, Dad," Zac whined following his father out the door. "It couldn’t be that you have all the really good Christmas presents hidden up there, could it?"

"As if I’d tell you," Walker exclaimed. "I swear, Zac one of these day’s your nose is going to get you into serious trouble."

"I’m not nosy, Dad, I’m inquisitive. Someday you might be glad that I’m a really curious kind of guy. I could be the next James Bond."

As Zac followed their father out of the studio, Taylor followed Ike into the bathroom where Ike had Zoe sitting up on the sink. Little Zoe loved water and by the time they considered her clean enough to dress, they had both absorbed quite a bit of water themselves from her splashing.

Ike carried Zoe and Taylor picked up Mackie and carried him upstairs to the family room and deposited him on a daybed that was set up specifically for ‘naps’ to be taken during the day by the younger children. If Mackie had awakened to find himself alone he would have been frightened. He, like most of the Hanson children was not used to spending much time alone.

They sat in the family room and turned on the TV and vegged out on early morning cartoons. Gradually, their sisters joined them and finally their Mom came down the stairs.

"I can’t believe you guys let me sleep this late on Christmas Eve," Diana exclaimed as she kissed her daughters on the cheek and then moved onward to her sons. She lifted Zoe out of Ike’s lap and kissed her gently. "And, sweet baby is all cleaned up and smelling baby fresh."

"We would have started breakfast," Tay offered with a grin. "But, the last time we tried that, we almost ruined the kitchen so we thought it might be safer to wait."

"For the sake of my kitchen, I thank you," Diana exclaimed with a grin.

"Morning, Mom" Zac exclaimed loudly coming into the family room and making a sliding skid on his knees on the hardwood floor and winding up right beside the Christmas tree. 

"Zac, stop trying to figure out those presents," Diana scolded.

"Probably underwear," Zac said shaking a box with a look of disappointment on his face.

"Zac!" Diana said with a warning in her voice.

"Okay, what’s for breakfast?" Zac asked cheering up considerably at the idea of food.

"Pancakes, or French Toast?" Diana asked.

"French Toast," Zac voted at the same time that his two brothers and two sisters all voted out loud for "Pancakes."

"Out voted, again," Diana exclaimed with a shake of her head and a grin.

"I’ll help," Zac volunteered because he knew if he pestered her enough, she would make him his breakfast selection.

Breakfast, always a noisy event at the Hanson household was particularly loud and joyous. The anticipation of Christmas day was the main topic, and the family spent most of the meal discussing their plans for Christmas Eve. 

"Aunt Jean is expecting us tonight at her house," Walker said.

"I have a party to go to tonight," Ike offered.

"What’s new," Zac commented. ‘You’re gone so much, we’re lucky we even recognize you at all."

"Enough, Zac," Walker interrupted. "Ike is older and you have to expect him to have his own life. I do expect you to at least make an appearance tonight. Jean has gone to a lot of trouble preparing tonight’s party, so you can at least stop by for a few minutes before going off with your friends."

"Sure, Dad," Ike agreed.

"Diana," Walker said looking up from his paper. "Are you still shopping at the Shop and Save over on Melrose?"

"Yes, Walker please, don't read the paper at the table," Diana exclaimed busy at the stove.

"Sorry," Walker said absently setting the paper aside. "Don’t go to the Shop and Save by yourself. Either let me go with you or take one of the boys."

Diana looked up at the request with a question in her look.

Walker answered without her asking. "The Christmas tree stand was robbed last night."

"Was anyone hurt?" Taylor demanded making a grab for the paper. 

"I didn’t get that far," Walker exclaimed surprised by his son’s reaction.

Taylor was busy scanning the newspaper article. "Two armed men wearing ski masks robbed the Christmas tree stand just as they were closing up for the night. No one was hurt, and no shots were fired. They got away with an undetermined amount of cash. The police spokesman said that the Frazier family were extremely lucky. Mr. Frazier said that whoever robbed their stand was a low down son of a ........"

"Tay!" 

"Only reading what it says," Taylor said looking up and grinning. "December 23rd sales are the biggest of the season and the losses for his family will be devastating and make it difficult for his family until the spring sales of fruit and vegetables start again."

"Are they the same family that runs the Fruit Stand out by the fairground?" Diana asked.

"I don’t know," Taylor said while at the same time his father answered. "Yes. They run the tree stand out by the market."

"What a shame," Diana exclaimed. "Tay, put the paper away. Breakfast is ready."

The telephone rang and both Walker and Diana gave a sigh, but Walker rose to answer it. It was their pet peeve that the family was always interrupted during meals. Walker answered the call and then motioned Diana over to the door where he whispered something to her. Walker looked back over to the family, shook his head, whispered something back to her and then they returned to the table. 

"So, what’s up?" Zac asked.

"Nothing, honey," Diana denied and she went back to serving breakfast.

Zac wasn’t convinced, but it seemed that he was the only one that had noticed the tenseness in his parents. Ike and Taylor were arguing lightly, and Jessie was siding with Ike. Avie was trying to stop Mackie from pouring more syrup on his French toast. No one else seemed to notice, but Zac did. His parents were talking with their eyes again. Not a word passed between them, but they were somehow still communicating. With nods and raised eyebrows and tilts of the head and slight shakes Diana and Walker were holding a conversation that only they were privy to understand.

It didn’t take long to find out. After breakfast was finished, and the arguments over dishes resolved, everyone pitched in and in an amazing short amount of time the mess cleaned up. The girls took off upstairs to complete some wrapping of presents. Ike had asked Taylor and Zac to meet him in the studio for a band meeting.

"So, what’s up?" Zac demanded as soon as he flopped down on the couch.

"I guess, we need to talk about starting to work again," Ike suggested.

"You wait until Christmas Eve to tell us this?" Zac demanded.

"I didn’t say we had to start today, I was going to say we needed to start after the Holidays."

"So, what’s stopping us?" Zac demanded.

"Nothing is stopping us," Ike said. "I just think that after tomorrow we need to really start cracking. We need to start practicing again and we need to start working on the songs. We don’t want to go into the studio unprepared."

"Just because you haven’t been around, and have been goofing off, doesn’t mean that Tay and I have too," Zac denied.

"I haven’t been goofing off," Ike argued.

"Hey, guys. No fighting," Taylor interrupted. "Zac’s just a little ticked off because you’ve been gone so much lately."

"Hey, I can speak for myself," Zac interrupted.

"Okay, I’m sorry," Ike apologized. "I guess, I have been gone a lot lately and haven’t exactly been including you guys."

"Big guy, with a car," Zac sniped.

"Okay, I get the point," Ike said. "How about, day after Christmas we do something together, laser tag, paint ball or something."

"You just said we need to get to work," Taylor challenged.

"We can do both," Ike suggested.

"Paint ball," Zac agreed.

"Paint ball is too rough and we need to pick something that can include the girls," Taylor suggested.

"Why?" Zac demanded with a puzzled look on his face.

Taylor took a deep breath of frustration. "Zac, think about it. If you’re mad at Ike because he’s been too busy to spend time with you, how do you think the girls feel when we troop out and leave them behind all the time."

"Okay, I’m not dense," Zac exclaimed. "Maybe we’ll take them to the movie or something."

"Sounds good to me," Ike agreed. "Tay, that’s real nice,"

"I didn’t think of it," Taylor denied. "It was something Mom said."

"She’s real good at making you feel real guilty, weather you did anything wrong or not," Zac said.

Taylor and Ike nodded their heads in agreement.

"Tay, you want to go to the party I’m going to tonight?" Ike suggested. "Sorry, Zac but the crowd will be a little old for you."

Zac shrugged but he waited for his brother answer.

Taylor shook his head but he didn’t get a chance to answer. 

With a slight knock, Diana and Walker entered the studio. With their silent communication again, Walker looked at Diana and she moved forward. 

"Boys, we need to tell you something," 

"Sit down, all of you," Diana suggested gently.

"Mom, you’re scaring me, has something happened to Grandpa?" Zac asked.

"No, our family is fine," Diana explained. She hesitated and then spoke quietly. "Nurse Sullivan called."

"Has Arleen gotten worst?" Taylor asked.

"Honey, Arleen died early this morning," Diana explained.

There was total silence in the room. Taylor studied the floor with his full concentration. His family members studied him.

"Son, do you want to talk about it?" Walker asked.

Taylor shook his head. "There isn’t anything to discuss. Is there going to be a funeral or a service or something?"

Diana nodded her head. "Nurse Sullivan said there was going to be services held at the Memorial Chapel on the twenty-sixth. Then, her parents will take her home to Texas for burial."

"Can I go to the service?" Taylor asked.

"Yes, we can arrange that," Diana promised.

"What a lousy thing to happen on Christmas Eve," Ike said.

"Death for a kid of fourteen is lousy at anytime," Taylor said bitterly. Then he looked to his parents. "Can I be excused?"

"Of course," Diana said. "But, honey, if you want to talk about it..."

"There isn’t anything to talk about. It’s over," Taylor said softly and he left the room suddenly.

Diana and Walker felt helpless. So did Ike and Zac. Clearly Taylor was upset but he wasn’t going to admit to it. 

"Ike, Zac try to keep Taylor busy today," Diana suggested. "Don’t let him have time to brood over it. Do either of you want to talk about it?"

"Mom, I feel bad, but I only met her for about three minutes last night," Zac said. 

"Same for me," Ike admitted. "Taylor was the one that spent time with her and really talked to her."

"Well, keep an eye on him," Walker repeated.

Ike and Zac both took their parents advice to heart. They both trooped upstairs to his bedroom to find their brother writing at his desk.

"What?" Taylor demanded.

"We just thought we’d finish our meeting," Ike suggested and Zac nodded.

"What’s to finish. After tomorrow we get back to work. End of discussion. Now get out," Taylor snapped.

"We have time today, maybe we could work some," Zac suggested.

"I have nine songs that I’ve been working on, so I haven’t exactly been goofing off as much as Zac thinks," Ike ventured. "Some of them you’ve heard bits and pieces of, but you haven’t heard them from beginning to end and they need your input."

"I’ve got six songs that I’ve worked on myself," Zac offered.

"Wow. I’ve got eight that you haven’t heard at all," Taylor offered. "So that’s twenty-three songs between us and we haven’t even begun to work yet. Maybe we’re further ahead that we think."

"Then do you want to work for a couple of hours," Ike suggested.

"I don’t want to, but since both of you have been put on ‘guard duty’ I might as well," Taylor said giving in. "You won’t give me any peace unless I do."

The family kept Taylor busy and occupied all day. Although, he thought often about Arleen, about the senselessness of her death, he also knew there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He knew and appreciated that his family was only trying to keep him from being sad, but in his own way he just felt that he need a few minutes to be alone. To think. When he finally got it, he was out in the Sun Room. The south facing room wasn’t used much in the winter. It was a little chilly out there, but he was finally alone so he was scratching out a idea for a melody. Mackie wandered out and not wanting to be bothered, Taylor pretended to be asleep. Mackie looked at his brother for a second and then he ran out of the room. Taylor thought he’d outsmarted his little brother and went back to his writing, and then Mackie reappeared. Taylor shut his eyes again, but Mackie had a job to do, and he continued to drag a blanket across the room and he carefully covered his brother up. 

"Don’t be sad," Mackie whispered and he kissed Taylor on the cheek.

Taylor felt real tears well up behind his eyes, and felt his heart swell with pride at his little brothers innocent compassion. "Hey, Mackie come here," Taylor said softly.

Mackie ran over to this brother and Taylor scooped him up in a big hug.

"Thanks, little buddy," Taylor exclaimed. "How about we go sneak into the kitchen and check out the Christmas Cookies."

"Momma was making Snowmen this morning," Mackie volunteered.

"Snowmen are best with chocolate milk," Taylor offered with a grin and lifted his brother up on his shoulders and gave him a ride into the kitchen, ducking through the doorway careful not to knock him off.

Somehow as if by osmosis, when anyone in the Hanson family was sneaking cookies everyone seemed to converge on the scene. Within minutes Avie joined them, and then Jessie and sure enough Zac appeared. Soon the kitchen was full and everyone was enjoying in a mid-day sneak snack. They left the cookie jar half empty, demolished a half-gallon of milk and with a lot of giggling and happy arguing left the kitchen a mess in their wake. A few minutes later, Diana entered the kitchen with a smile and just popped Zoe into her high chair and started loading the dishwasher. As long as she heard laugher and saw smiles it was always worth the messes they left behind.

Ike burst into Taylor’s room and observed his brother hunched over a pad of paper writing out musical notes. Periodically all day, he had been trying to write, put his feelings on paper. 

"Get dressed, Tay. You’re going with me tonight," Ike proclaimed.

"Since when?"

"Since now," Ike declared. "Come on Tay. We’re going to a great party tonight. We’ll stop by Aunt Jean’s and make an appearance and then we’re off to Lauren’s party."

"Who is Lauren?" Taylor asked noticing an excited lift to his brother voice.

"Lauren is a beautiful girl that I’ve been going out with for the past week and a half," Ike admitted with a grin.

"You’ve had a new girl for over a week and you haven’t told me," Taylor protested. "Give! I want details!"

"Then get dressed," Ike exclaimed. "You’ll meet her tonight!"

Taylor got dressed. He knew his choices were either spending time at Ike’s party or spending time at his Aunt Jeans party. Of the two, he thought it might be better to be surrounded by strangers.

"You wouldn’t think about giving me an early Christmas present and letting me drive would you?" Taylor questioned as they waved and drove out of their Aunt’s driveway.

"After the last time? Are you nuts?" Ike responded with a smile as he drove through the city streets carefully. They made their stop in at their Aunt Jean’s and it took them almost a half-hour to get away. As they were coming up Melrose Avenue Taylor spotted the Shop and Save grocery store. 

"Ike pull in there for a second."

"Why? We’ll be late," Ike demanded.

"It will only take a second," Taylor bargained. "Go buy some Cokes or chips or something,"

Ike gave in gracefully and pulled into the parking lot expecting his brother to make a sprint for the store’s bathroom, but instead he ran across the parking lot to the almost abandoned Christmas tree stand. 

Taylor crossed the asphalt and ducked into the shack. There were a few strangler customers, people who waited until the last second possible before purchasing their trees on Christmas Eve. There was very little left hanging on the homemade trellis stands. A large woman and man were behind the counter and they looked up warily. 

"Can we help you?" the woman asked.

"I was looking for Marcus. I read about the robbery and I wanted to make sure he was okay," Taylor explained.

"I’ve seen you in here before," the woman said. "After last night, we thought it would be safer to leave him at home."

"I’m real sorry about what happened, but I’m glad no one was hurt," Taylor said seriously.

"Thank you," the woman responded with a smile. "You’re the long-haired Taylor, Marcus has talked about. He said you told if he believed enough, Santa would bring him a bike for Christmas."

"Not exactly, but Marcus thinks big. I hope he gets it." Taylor laughed.

"Maybe next year," the woman said with nod of her head. "I’m usually over at the Toy Emporium until it closes at midnight on Christmas Eve but things didn’t turn out exactly as we planned this year."

"Again, I’m sorry," Taylor said. "Tell Marcus, Merry Christmas for me and I hope you have a good Christmas too."

"Thank you. We’re alive and healthy, you can’t ask for much more than that," the woman claimed with a smile.

Taylor left the shack and ran back over to the car where Ike was waiting impatiently.

"Can we go now?" Ike asked sarcastically.

"Yeah," Taylor said buckling himself into his seat and starring out the window.

"You okay?" Ike demanded.

Taylor nodded and that was enough answer for this brother.

Ike drove past the commercial shopping part of town and took a side road into a neighborhood and after several more blocks pulled over the curb in front of a well-lit moderately sized split-level house. 

Ike took the steps confidently and Taylor followed. Ike was met at the door by a tall, curvy, girl with long brown hair and big brown eyes. He kissed her and Taylor looked elsewhere slightly embarrassed with their familiarity. 

"Lauren, this is my brother Taylor. Taylor, Lauren," Ike introduced. "We need to introduce Tay around."

"Everyone knows who Taylor is," Lauren giggled.

"But, he doesn’t know who they are," Ike said with a hint of sarcasm. "Come on, Tay, I’ll introduce you around."

Ike took Taylor around the room introducing him to several kids along the way. Everyone seemed friendly and fairly open to them, and Taylor was enjoying himself until he spotted her.

"Oh man. Sam Foster is here," Taylor groaned his face showing his total disgust with the new development.

Ike turned but he didn’t seem surprised. "Be nice," he ordered.

"To Sam!" Taylor protested.

"Samantha is Lauren’s sister," Ike explained. "And, we make her promise to leave her camera in her room tonight, so you be nice to her."

"Nice," Taylor sputtered. "She’s been stalking me for two years and I’m supposed to be nice to her?"

"Tay, I really like Lauren. She’s not too star struck and I enjoy spending time with her. Don’t screw this up for me by being nasty to her sister." Ike ordered.

"Great Ike," Taylor complained. "Your love life depends on my being nice to a stalker."

"Behave," Ike ordered and he smiled and nodded across the room at Lauren’s sister.

Ike paired off with Lauren and Taylor made his way around the room several times carefully avoiding Samantha Foster. Most of the young people were Ike’s’ age and the only girls that were his age seemed to be attached already. Taylor spent about twenty minutes wandering around, smiling and pretending to be enjoying himself and then finally he grabbed his coat and slipped out the back door.

He was leaning against a brick retaining wall and watching his breath freeze when he heard a voice behind him.

"Not enough adoring fans for your taste?" 

Taylor turned around to face Samantha Foster. She was the exact opposite of her sister, although she did have her height. Samantha was thin, and angular with chopped off short blond hair and piercing dark blue eyes.

"Sam, are you always so nasty or do you take lessons?" he asked sharply.

The girl looked taken aback by his question. "My name is Samantha," she corrected. "And I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that." 

Taylor looked at her skeptically.

"Seriously, you’ve kind of looked out of place, kind of sad ever since you got here. I just wondered if you were okay," Samantha questioned. Taylor looked at her seriously and she did see a detectable sadness in his eyes, but then he looked away and ignored her.

"Sorry, I was just trying to help," she offered and she turned to leave.

"Off the record," Taylor asked softly.

Samantha stopped and turned back. "Off the record," she repeated. "On my word as a future journalist."

"That doesn’t give me much confidence," Taylor snorted. "The press has been known for trying to dig up dirt on us, and when they can’t find any, they make it up!"

"I want to be a legitimate journalist, not paparazzi," the girl complained. "Seriously, off the record, my word as a friend. I can be a very good friend, Taylor. Honest I can."

"Sam, you’ve been stalking me for years. Why should I trust you now?" Taylor asked.

"I didn’t mean to stalk you," Samantha denied. "I just wanted a story, something that would let me break into the news."

"Reporters that can be trusted are rare Sam. Stalking won’t instill that kind of confidence."

"Sorry," the girl exclaimed. "I know better now. Besides when Lauren started dating Ike, she said if I took one picture, she’d kill me."

"Walk with me," Taylor said and he jammed his hands into his pockets and started walking down the sidewalk. Sam fell into step beside him. After a few minutes she looked at him quizzically. 

"Why are you outside pounding the sidewalk instead of inside partying?" Sam asked.

"A girl I knew died this morning. She had cancer and she was only fourteen. Then, someone I knew was robbed so a little boy is going to have a lousy Christmas. I feel bad about that, because I told him if he believed enough in Santa he would get what he wanted." Taylor explained. "Sam, if any of this shows up in a gossip column, I’ll never forgive you."

"Samantha," she corrected again. "It won’t. I’m sorry you had a bad day."

Taylor shrugged. "I had a great day, my family was around and we had fun. I just feel helpless. My life is so good and yet other people have it so hard. It sucks."

"Life is unfair," Samantha agreed. "My sister is gorgeous, bats her eyes and whines and she gets whatever she wants. Me, I have to work my butt off and still no one pays any attention. Lauren wasn’t supposed to have this party you know. But our folks are in the Bahamas for Christmas and suddenly she’s throwing parties every other day."

"Your folks went away for Christmas?" Taylor asked surprised.

Sam nodded. "Yeah, they left over a week ago. Lauren’s had three parties in eight days. Guess who has to help clean up the mess?"

"Sucks!" Taylor repeated.

"Sucks," Sam agreed and they grinned at each other in agreement as they looked into the well lit windows of her house and realized that they had walked completely around the block. 

"So are you going to stay outside all night?" Sam asked rubbing her hands over her arms.

"No," Taylor admitted. "I’m thinking of walking over to the Toy Emporium."

Sam dug into her coat pocket and dangled a set of car keys from her fingertips. "How about a lift?"

"You have your license?" Taylor asked surprised. 

"Been legal for three weeks," Sam admitted.

"Then let’s go," Taylor agreed and followed the girl to a Honda Civic and they drove off. 

There was an amazing amount of people at the Toy Emporium. The store advertised that it was open until Midnight on Christmas Eve, and people were taking advantage of that for last minute purchases. Taylor knew exactly what he wanted. He grabbed a cart and with Sam in tow they sped down the isles searching the overhead markers for their destination. Taylor found the bike he wanted, a very small bright purple deluxe model with training wheels. He flagged down a salesman and tried to talk him out of the display model that was hanging overhead. But, when he left the store the bike was in a large box unassembled. He also bought a shiny purple helmet and purple and black elbow and knee pads and paid a lady at a front counter to wrap them in bright red paper and a large red bow. 

"Okay, now what?" Sam asked as they unloaded the large box out of the car and into the garage. 

"Now, I have to put it together," Taylor said. 

"Do you know how?" Sam asked.

"You read, I’ll assemble," Taylor suggested as he pulled the bike parts out of the box with a packet of papers.

"My Dad has tools over there in that box," Sam suggested and she hit a switch in the garage that started an overhead heater. "You know you could just wrap up the box," she suggested.

"Never," Taylor declared. "What’s the fun of getting up Christmas Day to a bike in a box? We’re not dumb, we should be able to figure this out."

And, that’s what they did. For the next hour and a half, Sam and Taylor crawled around on the cold concrete garage floor, argued over the instruction sheet and worked together as a team assembling the small bike and thoroughly enjoyed themselves away from the party. 

"Maybe he got a lift home,"

Taylor and Samantha looked up at Lauren’s voice as she and Ike walked into the garage.

"Tay, where in the heck have you been?" Ike demanded angrily. "I’ve been looking for you for over a half hour!"

"Right here," Taylor said looking up and feeling very self-satisfied. "We put the bike together! Sam and I" he said giving Samantha her fair share of credit.

"Why did you buy Mackie a bike?" Ike demanded.

"It isn’t for Mackie," Taylor said. "It’s for Marcus."

"Who’s Marcus?" Ike and Sam asked at the same time. Lauren just looked on watching amazed that her sister and Ike’s brother actually seemed to be getting along with each other rather than being at each others’ throats.

"Marcus is a little boy who works at the tree stand with his grandmother and grandfather," Taylor explained.

"The one that was robbed," Ike surmised. 

"Exactly," Taylor said. "Marcus said he didn’t believe in Santa Clause and that he’d only get a bike if the tip box was good this year. Well, his grandmother said that with the robbery that maybe he’d get his bike next year. He said he didn’t believe in Santa Clause and if he doesn’t get his bike he won’t. I want him to believe."

"Maybe his folks don’t want him to believe," Ike suggested.

Taylor shook his head. "I think his grandmother wants him to believe, Ike. It’s just a matter of not having enough money. Marcus is only four, maybe five. He should believe."

"Okay, you have his bike. Now, how are you going to get it to him?" Ike asked.

"I hadn’t gotten that far with my thinking," Taylor admitted.

"Well you really thought this one through," Ike exclaimed. "Sometimes Tay, you are so blond."

"We can drop it off at their house," Lauren suggested. "Brenda Frazier is Marcus’s mother. She’s just a year older than me. She dropped out of school for a year when she got pregnant and when she came back I was her tutor in English until she could catch up. I know where she lives."

"Problem solved," Ike exclaimed giving Lauren a kiss as a reward. He turned to his brother. "Ready to go play Santa? We need to be getting home."

"Can we go, too?" Samantha asked.

"Why not," Taylor asked. "I mean she helped me put it together. Although, we need to drop it off secretly. I’m not going to ring a bell or knock or anything. The idea is for Marcus to believe Santa brought it."

"Good idea, Tay, bad planning," Ike said. "That bike won’t fit into my car along with the girls. I’m going to have to go home and get a van and then come back."

"Good, while you’re doing that, I’ll clear everyone else out and start cleaning up," Lauren suggested. "Come on, you two can help me, until Ike gets back."

Samantha rolled her eyes upward, and Taylor smiled but they both followed her sister back into the house to clean up the party debris until Ike got back.

It took Ike another thirty minutes to go home and then return with a van. They loaded the van with the large package and the bike and took off on their errand. It was after midnight by the time they got out to the fairgrounds and started searching for the Frazier house. It had been several years since Lauren had been there and she wasn’t clear on the directions and it took several trips up and down the streets before she recognized the house. Ike parked across the street and Taylor unloaded and carried the bike. Samantha carried the large package. Taylor opened the gate and winced as it screeched loudly. He left it open and carried the bike up onto the porch and put it down quietly, pulling out the kick stand so it would stand on its own. Samantha followed him and put the large box down beside it. 

Mission accomplished. Taylor and Samantha turned to leave. Samantha ran ahead to get in the van and Taylor tried to lift the gate to keep it from making noise as he closed it. 

"Hey, boy!"

Taylor stopped in his tracks and turned back to face a man standing on the side of porch. It was Marcus’s grandfather. Although he hadn’t spoken to Taylor earlier, he had been in the shack when he had spoken to Marcus’s grandmother.

"Who do I tell Marcus brought him the bike?" the man asked.

Taylor smiled. "I don’t know about you, but I would swear I saw Santa," he claimed.

The man nodded his head. "Santa it is," he agreed and he gave another nod of his head as approval.

Taylor waved and ran across the road and jumped into the van. "Mission accomplished. Santa brought Marcus his bike!" 

Everyone in the van was feeling good and in the Christmas spirit. Ike drove the girls back home, walked Lauren to the door, while Taylor walked Sam. Taylor surprised his brother by inviting the girls to Christmas dinner at their house. Back in the van, he explained to Ike that their parents were on vacation, a situation that he likened to abandonment and thought was a terrible lack of parenting on their part.

Ike drove home carefully. They were already past the legal curfew in the city, and he didn’t want to attract any unwanted attention. Once they got home, he parked the van and they trooped through the house sleepily heading for their rooms. Santa had already visited their house. The packages were piled high under the tree and awaiting the early morning hue and cry of the younger children. 

Diana waylaid her two oldest children before they reached their bedrooms. She kissed Ike goodnight and he disappeared into this bedroom. Then she hugged her second son and whispered into his ear. "Ike told me. That was a lovely thing to do. Merry Christmas darling."