Christmas Strays

The following is my addition to the Christmas holidays. I hope you enjoy it and it brings you a bit of Christmas cheer. It is an original work, and all characters are above the age of eighteen. My hope for all is that you enjoy your holidays, love your fellow humans, and survive through the New Year.

***

Drew looked at the little furball staring at him from across the living room. He remembered how he got himself into this situation.

Her stare was intense.

Her eyes focused.

Her tail wagging.

But Drew knew it was not because of his presence. It was the anticipation of receiving her afternoon treat. A habit gleaned from his twin who held an office in his spacious (by his standards) mobile home in the South County of this coastal California town.

After multiple trainers had come and gone, he was left with the same refrain "You will never have a normal dog, not that one anyway." He would never have a puppy that would want to cuddle. No long walks on a leash. Whatever happened to her before his rescue...had terrified her for life.

So, he gave her space, she slept on the edge of his bed, and would come for scratches, only when she wanted to, and in her own defined way.

The mutt and he had come to an agreement, he would follow her rules and there would be peace. He sighed, the same could be said of every female relationship he had been involved with in his 64 years of age.

It was his doppelganger that held the love of his rescue mutt. During the years, with him at work in construction, his twin and the mentally damaged mutt had bonded. His twin was a business consultant for multiple municipalities and used her office in his home as a private sanctuary, from her partner. Not that she and her partner did not love each other, but his twin had a need for order in her life. Her partner had no concept of personal space. Every horizontal surface was piles of clutter and chaos. This included his twin's work/office area in their shared home.

Is not love grand.

But the mutt fell in love with her, and their relationship made him smile. The love for his twin glowed from the eyes and body of the furry creature whenever he viewed their interaction. And then they started their stupid routines. One treat in the morning, one at lunch and a small one as she parted for the day...the pattern stuck.

Not that Drew minded. Well...except when his twin Marcia was gone, and the mutt wanted him to provide the treats on command.

Marcia, her partner, and a gaggle of friends had headed off to Disneyland this week on their annual trek. So that left Drew holding the proverbial bag of treats.

He sighed again, and then fulfilled his obligation of the day, just to keep peace in the house. So many years of no-peace railed against him. Two ex-wives that were anything but peace in the world.

Passive aggressive narcissists. Beautiful, intelligent, strong willed, passive aggressive narcissists were his poison. Even dating, he found them, and then, HIM. By 6 months, he always realized he had done it again.

His friends would shake their heads, pat him on the back and wish him luck.

Luck...funny word. He wished that it were real, this thing called LUCK.

***

The "park" Drew lived in, a euphemism for a gathering of Mobile Homes, was a genuinely nice one. There were two in town that were slightly better, but that all depended on a person's perspective. This was not some white trash assemblage of rusted trailers with trash strewn about. His neighbors were good folks that kept up their yards and helped each other if the need arose.

Well, most of them anyway.

Out of the hundred homes pressed together, there had to be one or two bad apples in the group. Drew's was the lay minister two streets over.

Regretfully the reverend's home was on Drew's normal walking path to get his mail. Drew would wait until after 4 when he got home, shift to his 'comfy' clothes, toss on his wide brimmed hat and saunter over to get his mail.

Drew had heard that this 'gentleman' had lived a rough life in the trades as an iron worker. Ended his career working on the close-by nuclear power plant and then was 'given' retirement when he was found drinking while on-duty for the umpteenth time.

Just a rumor mind you. But, in a small community, word gets out.

Then he found God...as the rumor mill intoned.

Drew rounded the corner and girded his loins for the potential collision of ideals that would come if Pastor Jim saw him on the street.

And damned if the old asshole was not sitting on the porch.

Drew just shook his head and reminded himself of the neighbors. Some he knew enjoyed the 'discussions' the two of them had.

Drew DID try to keep it civil.

"Sinner!" Drew heard before he got two homes away from the Pastor's house.

"Sinner! Repent!" was the second volley today.

Drew just smiled a Mona Lisa smile and ignored the comments from the porch.

Drew pulled a deep breath and decided not to shift to the other side of small park street. 'Might as well keep the asshole down to low volume today, for the neighbors.' Drew thought.

As he broached the side of the pastor Jim's porch, the large man heaved himself out of his lounge chair and grabbed the railing with both hands. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair splayed and unwashed.

Drew caught movement behind him through the screen door into the trailer. Drew briefly met the eyes of the Pastor's wife, large, red rimmed and terrified.

Drew decided this was a losing battle and shifted his eyes away from the drama and down the street to the set of mailboxes set up for this section of the park. 'Ignore, ignore, ignore,' thought Drew.

Not to be ignored, Pastor Jim threw his right hand to the heavens. And started a much louder intonation.

"Repent Sinner! Repent your evil ways!" he yelled loudly with his bloodshot eyes facing the heavens.

"Oh Lord Jesus, bless this sinner with your love and forgiveness and bring him into your presence!" he continued to scream to the heavens.

"Bless this lowly scum of humanity and forgive him his sins. Bless him oh Lord!" the pastor continued to yell and ended with "hallelujah.'

Drew admittedly enjoyed the floor show for a bit. But Pastor Jim had never been this far over the top. Sure...tried scold him before, try and press his beliefs on Drew, but this was drunken rant and Drew had had enough.

"I have been blessed pastor," Drew said in a normal speaking voice. Trying to bring the volume down a bit. He saw the neighbors filming the episode. Drew could smell the whisky from where he stood.

'Something has put the old man over the edge,' Drew thought. He then smiled. 'Old Man," Drew mentally repeated after he had caught himself. Pastor Jim was the same age as he was.

The soft retort had caught the drunk pastor and threw him off his rant.

"You have found Jesus? You have been blessed by our lord's forgiveness?" the pastor asked in a normal speaking voice.

Drew froze for a second or two. He had only two real options, lie and say "yes" and quickly walk away or stay true to his beliefs.

"I have been blessed with good friends. I have been blessed with a life of varied riches. I have been blessed with good health. I live in an amazing community. And I have been blessed with an understanding of the universe with which I am comfortable." Drew paused for a second. "Yes, I have been blessed."

Drew continued to walk past the porch, as he wondered when the brain cells would connect within the sodden brain of the pastor.

"Lier!" he screamed, "Sinner! Your mongrel friends lead you deeper into the trap of Satan!' he started waving his hands to heaven.

"Nigger lover! Spic lover! Lover of lesbians and all thigs evil!" he continued to rant.

Drew stopped walking and spun towards the porch. "Enough!" Drew yelled back, shifting to command voice.

"Who I date, who I love, the color of their skin, their nationality, or their sexual preference is none of your business." Drew paused to gather a breath.

"They are my friends and family, and you will leave them out of your hateful diatribes." Drew stated, throwing out the command voice he used on construction sites.

Drew knew this was going nowhere but could not stand to have his friends and lovers castigated in public.

"Repent sinner!" the Pastor screamed, and then paused.

And then he continued, "I call upon the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ! And appeal to the father God for mercy and forgiveness for this blaspheming SINNER!"

Drew had kept walking and ignored the rest of the rant. 'Well, something sure set the old asshole off,' thought Drew.

"And here it is the Christmas holidays. The asshole should be throwing "joy and good tidings" out. Yes right!" thought Drew.

***

As the evening deepened, Drew could hear the raindrops start. It was only the beginning of the wet season for California, but this storm had promised to be a monster. The previous year, Drew had lost most of his possessions and vehicles as a storm such as this one had flooded his rental cottage.

He now took the storm warnings a bit more seriously.

He could hear the pounding of the rains and was thrilled again for his foresight of his new roof prior to his retirement from the agency he worked at.

His mutt came in from her nighty pee and waited until she was in the middle of the living room to shake off the rain.

Drew just sighed and headed to bed with the mutt following her normal ten paces.

Drew did his normal evening routine. The mutt cuddled into her bed and kept one eye trained on Drew until he clicked off his bedside light.

***

There was a pounding on his back door. It took his muddle brain several seconds to figure out what all the ruckus was about. Dog barking, pounding at the door, muffled human speech coming from outside.

"Hold on, hold on!" he yelled back. "I'll be right there!" as he pulled on the comfortable shorts crumpled by the bed.

He trundled out of the bedroom and down the hallway to the back kitchen door.

As he made the kitchen corner, he recognized the voice of Belle his neighbor and the word "Help, you must help."

He pulled open the door to find her drenched standing on his back steps dripping with a half-closed umbrella wedged between the handrails.

Drew froze for a second taking in the scene. "Get in here, you're frozen and shaking," he told Belle.

"No time, no time!" she responded, "You must help, Oh, please help!' she asked, looking up into his eyes.

"Help with what?"

"It is that asshole preacher! You must help!"

'Shit,' Drew thought, 'He must have beat up his wife.'

"Let me put on real clothes, it will only take a second."

"Hurry, oh please hurry!"

***

Drew walked into a scene from a movie set. The pastor's porch was fully lit, casting an odd light into the rain drenched street. Neighbors were in a semi-circle at the edges of the cast illumination. The pastor was screaming out into the semi-circle of neighbors. A pile of huddled fabric was on the ground at the center of the circle.

The homes on all sides (except for the preachers) were meshed with multi-color lights blazing for the beginnings of the Christmas holidays. It provided a surreal circus atmosphere to the whole debacle.

Words rang out through the night. Words such as "Harlot," Jezabel, whore, slut" were being screamed to the heavens. The pastor's wife was collapsed against the porch wall sobbing.

'What the fuck?' Drew stated to himself.

He turned and looked at Belle for clarification, not really understanding what he was seeing.

It reminded him of a scene he had walked into while hiking in the mountains above LA.

He had found more than a dozen people in a semi-circle staring at something. When he got close, he asked 'what was the big deal?' He was informed that there was a real life 'wild' rattlesnake. He had looked over the shoulder of one of the onlookers and saw the snake sliding along the path ignoring the humans just trying to get along its way.

He commented to the crowd as he turned to go, "Don't screw with it and it won't screw with you."

He had turned to his date and said, "They are all going to die." She was shocked and asked for clarification. He just pointed out that they were being stupid if they found a simple woodland creature so fascinating. If anything happened, like a major earthquake, they would just fold. Yes, that was his only date with her. She too had found a 'wild' rattlesnake completely fascinating.

Here he was looking at a comparable situation and not understanding what was going on. He scanned the crowd and looked again at Belle.

"His daughter," she stated.

Drew looked at her with un-understanding eyes and confusion.

"His daughter!" Belle started again and then she pointed at the bundle of cloth in the center of the drenched street.

Drew now noticed that the bundle was shaking and heaving as the heavy rain pounded down on all of them.

"Jesus!" Drew stated aloud as he started to push past his neighbors.

"Do not you blaspheme the Lord! You ungodly heathen!" Drew heard from the porch.

He completely ignored the stupid statement.

He entered the circle and became the focus of the words coming from the porch. But all Drew heard was the Charlie Brown adult voice from his childhood "WAK, WAK, WAK."

Drew knelt beside the heaving bundle. "Miss? Miss?" he held out his hand as the bundle reacted and shrunk away from him.

"I'm here to help," he commented and let that sink in. "Really, you are safe with me...promise."

A small hand slowly reached out from the bundle and laid itself in his upturned palm.

He scooted forward and could feel the hand try and pull itself away and more flinching.

"We need to get you out of the rain and away from this." He quietly stated.

"It's ok sweety, he is safe, and we are here to help," he heard Belle's septuagenarian voice near his ear and the recoil from the bundle of clothing paused.

From the pile of cloth came the view of one bloodshot, black, and blue eye looking at him, judging him.

And then collapse.

He pulled the small package up with him. Drew was not some 6-foot tall, buff selection of maleness. At 5 foot seven and decent shape, he was an ok specimen of a man of his sixty five years.

But what he held in his arms was tiny.

He pulled off his coat and wrapped the bundle. Her shivering took over where the sobbing had stopped.

Belle and he walked away into the night leaving the caustic scene behind them. "WAK, WAK, WAK," could be heard until they turned the corner.

***

Drew poured himself a glass of wine and looked at his mutt. She had only barked once or twice and then quickly settled down. Unusual for her and any new guest but, maybe she felt strange too.

The shock of what he just took on, shocked him. It reminded him of how he now came to have a dog. He had found the mutt huddled near a fence. His e-bike headlamp catching a gleaming eye in the coming darkness. He had zipped by but returned to find the terrified, shaking, drenched, puppy huddled in the darkness.

He had placed her shaking body in his saddle bags and continued his trek home. A trip to the vet, no chip, and he had a dog.

For the past 7 years, an odd dog, but his responsibility. It just so happened at this same time of year, past Thanksgiving and heading to Christmas.

He could hear the soothing tone of words from Belle in his hall bathroom. He had grabbed towels, soaps, sweatshirts, and slippers for his new guest. Belle had brought out the young woman's clothing and a black plastic bag full of other clothing once she was in the hot shower warming and cleaning up.

Drew sipped his wine as he hit the controls for the washing machine. He was washing all of it. He had placed all the little whisps of cloth that were meant to be underwear in a lingerie bag he had from previous girlfriends. This little thing was size zero, and yes, he had looked.

He had put the kettle on in case she wanted tea or coffee.

Drew waited.

***

Belle finally dragged the stray out of the bathroom and into the warm light of the living room. The young woman was wrapped in one of his large white towels. She was still drying her hair and that gave her an excuse not to look into his eyes.

Admittedly Drew was speechless. The wine glass rested on his lips, but did not tip, as he stared at the diminutive waif. He slowly put his glass on the table. His speech center continued trying to form words.

"So how far along are you?" he finally asked quietly trying to keep the tone and inflection modulated.

Belle, his neighbor stood behind her and put her hands on her bare shoulders. He could see the young woman flinch from the physical touch.

Belle bent and whispered to the girl. Drew's hearing was for shit after 40+ years in construction, but he heard words like 'safe,' 'good,' and 'neighbor.'

He heard a low whisper from the girl and her eyes lifted to his.

"I am sorry, but my hearing is shot from being in construction and an unfortunate SCUBA accident. Can you please speak up and then I will put in my hearing aid?" Drew requested.

"Seven months," he heard in a louder whisper.

Drew was floored. From the bulge showing in the towel, he had assumed full term, but she was tiny.

He looked at Belle and shook his head.

"Take her back to my room if you need more space and get her dressed while I make up something to eat. I assume you are hungry?" he asked.

The little one nodded her head.

"Tea or coffee, Little Miss?" Drew questioned.

She was already heading down the hallway following his neighbor, his dog sprinting ahead, when she spun.

"May I have tea please?" she spun again and then spun back. "May I have decaf please or the baby will be turning circles all night long."

That phrase rocked him, "all night long." He then realized he had a house guest for a day or so.

Before he could get settled in his new living arrangement, he heard knocking on the door. He looked through the peep hole and saw the police.

Drew opened the door to a male and female officer standing on his porch. His mutt went insane barking. He tried to hush her, but to no avail.

Drew rolled his eyes and motioned for the officers to stand back. They had crowded the doorway.

They gave him a small space and he slipped out. He closed the door to shut off the loud barking and then was face to face with both officers well within his personal space.

Being raised around law enforcement he knew what they were doing. To them, they were deeply immersed in a domestic dispute. Domestic issues can be extremely violent when it comes to law enforcement.

He was not in the mood and slid between them and took a seat at the barstools on his porch facing his doorway.

"Hello officers, what can I help you with?"

The male officer, chest all puffed up responded, "We are looking for an Abigale Frontier. We were told that you dragged her away from her parent's house on Pine Street to this domicile."

Drew tried not to roll his eyes. 'Domicile' Drew thought. Why does everyone want to sound like a lawyer?

Drew had married and divorced two attorneys. Beautiful, intelligent narcissists...following his own dating pattern.

"Well, I did not know her name until now. 'Dragged,' is quite the stretch of descriptions. And yes, I assume she is the pregnant little elf, that is getting dressed in my bedroom." Drew quietly said.

The male officer spun and tried to enter the house and found the door locked.

"Open the door and let us enter!" stated the male officer.

"No," stated Drew quietly, "You do not have permission to enter my house."

Drew watched the male officer turn a couple of shades darker and redder.

Before he could threaten or cajole, Drew held up his hand.

"I will gladly let the female officer...Rodriguez," Drew paused, she really did have pretty eyes, "inside and you can stay on the porch with me."