My RA Ch. 03

Soon it would be Christmas, all the kids were excited. Then the blizzard came, all the kids knew Miss Joy came where there was lots of snow. They asked Miss Joy if they could make a Mommy, Daddy and baby snow family in her yard. Mei came by and just sat on the porch watching the family go up. They all remembered the pictures of Miss Mei's Christmas trip. Miss Joy, holding baby Joshua, was watching out the window. Every time Miss Mei threw a snowball at a slow worker, she had ten thrown back at her.

When Mei was putting on her snow cap, she found the Go Pro camera, she had fond memories of her trip. How could we have so much fun in the first three months and total hardship in the next eight? She backed everything up on her computer then put it on a cloud for safety.

She went outside and saw a little girl sitting on the steps. She went over to the girl and said, "How would you like to do a job for me. This is a video camera I will put on your cap. I want you to run around town and get into snowball fights, take pictures of snow families and all the decorations so we can see them later. "

"I love you, Miss Mei." The girl said when she returned. "No one wanted to play with me. So, when you gave me my job I wanted to do a really good job. I felt special because no one else had a camera. I did as you asked. I went down the hill on a sled. Miss Joy put the blue blanket on the snow baby. I went to the big tree and almost fell over trying to see the tippy top.

"I had snowball fights with my friends. I even threw a snowball at Mr. David while he was cleaning the driveway. I tried to sneak up on Mr. Mayor, but he was too sneaky. He threw a snowball way up in the air, I looked up and it landed right on top of my head, he has a good aim. Then he came over and gave me a big hug. I like him, Miss Mei, he was always talking to Grandma, especially when it is hot or cold out."

Everyone was having a good time. Even the wreaths looked pretty.

"Mommy and Daddy got a tree just before the snow came, it's top-secret, but teacher had us make decorations for the tree. I did a good job making big circles with the colored paper."

Miss Mei said, "I remember making them, it was hard for me. You must be good at arts and crafts. Your mommy and daddy will be proud to put something you made on your tree. Having done a real good job on it will make sure it looks pretty."

During this talk with the little girl, Mei was unaware that she was being surrounded by several boys and girls, each armed with multiple snowballs and lots of snow to make more. "One, two, three, now!" Mei looked up and no matter what direction she looked there was an inbound snowball. She would have to wait for someone to run out of ammo and sprint through the gap. She ran down the hill and the children were giving chase throwing errant snowballs.

By the time the children got three-quarters the way down the hill, Mei had a pile of snowballs made and the children were running into the line of fire, unarmed. The first three waves were mowed down, most getting hit two or three times. The little girl, camera rolling ran with them, Miss Mei's return fire at the bottom of the hill was a bonus. She captured the ambush at the top of the hill and the one at the bottom of the hill. She could not wait to see it. None of the children could make a snowball because Miss Mei targeted anyone that tried. In the end, everyone was tired. All walked over to Miss Joy's house.

Miss Mei rang the doorbell; Miss Joy answered the door. "Miss Joy, do you have any room for some tired snowball combatants, we even have a war correspondent."

"Come in, come in, this house is neutral territory. No screaming or you will wake the baby." Soon Mr. David was making grilled cheese sandwiches, and Miss Joy was heating the milk for the hot cocoa with mini marshmallows. "So, Miss Mei, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"Well at the top of the hill they surrounded me as I was talking to the war correspondent, then they ambushed me. I had to wait until some ran out of ammo, then I ran to the bottom of the hill, dug in and pelted anyone who came down. It was great fun. They won the first battle and I won the last one, so it was a tie. The faster ones got it worst, because they were the first down the hill."

"Well as long as it was a tie and you all had fun; it is OK."

"David, remind me to get better cocoa for next time." After everyone finished, everyone got to see the baby, then they all left. Mei was so tired she went back to the Lodge and collapsed on her bed. Anne did not dare wake Mei up, she just put a blanket over her and put Bear in her arms. Mei slept twelve hours straight. Anne got a small salad as she knew she would be hungry when she woke up. Dawn walked in and laughed. "She looks like a blue powder puffball with a pink blanket on her."

Anne said, "She got in a massive war with the kids, It is a shame the kids do not know what a pincher movement is. They would have gotten behind her line and she was lying on her stomach in her fox hole. It would have been a slaughter. "

Mei had just woke up by this news, "Some friend you are, hoping the kids knew war tactics so they could slaughter me." Bear gave Mei a comforting hug, Cubby stood quiet. "You see, even Cubby does not think that was a very nice thing to say."

Dawn was howling, "Anne, it looks like your bear turned on you. You may have to sleep on the floor until he forgives you."

Anne gave up, "Here is your salad Mei, I thought you might be hungry. "

The next day was not as fun, the road was plowed, and it was flat by the river.

Then the Mayor got a surprise phone call, it was his contact person at Disney. "Mr. Mayor we were thinking of doing Valentine's parade and such for you, a two- or three-day event. Then we can see what the town is like, and what is needed. We can work on that stuff later in the year."

"That sounds great. One thing to keep in mind, if you want to come to church you might want to have a dolly or something like that. Bears are forbidden, our students have a Bear Family that is an by invitation-only, nine bears, one horse and one of the bears has a unicorn. They are for hurting people, three or four were given to people who lost loved ones. The clothes are made right down in Orlando. You should visit the shop.

"What is it that I can do to help you? Right now, we have a large horse ranch that they are learning from."

"Well Mr. Mayor, as you can imagine we are pretty busy with Christmas and all. I will call you next year."

Elsa and Anna went to find the tailor on their day off. When they found it, they did not know how to control their emotions. When they were shown the picture of Beauty and were told her story the two just wept. The two had met Joy, and Mei on summer break along with Mei's parents.

The manager proudly announced, "Everyone loves working on the bears. It was kind of odd at the beginning, but knowing they go to hurting people makes it special. I had to shut down when we worked on Beauty's things, If I told one person, they could not work on it they would quit the spot."

From the corner was heard, "You got that right, at least half of us. I feel honored to work on a bear, but Beauty was special."

The manager continued, "Mr. David, Miss Faith, Miss Zoe, Miss Anne, and Miss Sarah got their bears from the loss of loved ones. Miss Joy and all the children got theirs from the flood. The children know too much of death. Things are turning around, Joy had baby Joshua and Beauty had Angel.

"If you go, you must meet Molly, an eight-year-old version of Joy. We all check Joy's Facebook page before we start work to keep up to date."

Anna and Elsa went to their boss and pleaded; we need to do something. The manager listed five people who got their bear because of the loss of a loved one. Then you add the flood on top of that, those children have just had to deal with much with death. They are just eight years old. We need to bring our A-game.

The boss knew this had to be a great pageant. His employees would know if it was the second rate. If they went to Northfield, his employees will have an emotional attachment. From all he has heard this Miss Joy's person has a way to get into your soul and changes you for the better, forever. His employees just had to meet her once to know she was special.

Two days before Christmas all the people from the ranch, church and some from the universities, most had left for Christmas break, came into town for Christmas Caroling followed by the tree lighting ceremony. The tree was so tall the fire company had to put all the lights and ornaments on. The people added more to the bottom. Much of them were glass so the lights reflected off them. Many of the children asked if they could make extra decorations in school for the City tree. Some of the members of the school music class were there as well as some adults for the harder songs. Everyone was in full voice, hot cider and hot chocolate were a available. Light snow started to fall. At 8:55 the emcee started to get the crowd excited, the countdown was almost here. The music director started the countdown with the wave of his baton. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The lights went on in sections starting from the bottom to the top. It made it easy for eyes to follow them up the tree. The surprise was at the top when the star came on, it was new, bigger, and brighter than last year. Everyone looked up and they were abuzz with chatter. Many were finger-pointing at this or at that. It was the star that stole the show. Its light cut through the darkness, it was so bright as the rotating light bounced off mirrors, the mirrors and crystal alternated so it's light could escape into the night sky. You just could not take your eyes from it. Many of the children thought back to their Bible stories. Miss Sarah rode home with Molly, she almost fell off Spirit. She put the sleeping child to bed. It was well past Molly's bedtime.

Sarah would give her a shortened list of jobs, she knew it was useless, Molly fell into a pattern. She knew when jobs needed to be done and how long it takes to do said job. She just put them in order. She was getting very good at problem-solving. Her leadership skills were growing. It did not go unnoticed by the other children. Disappointing Molly was not an option. Miss Joy suddenly realized people viewed Molly much as they did to her before she had to leave school. Molly would be disappointed in herself if she burnt out, the children would be disappointed in her if she did. It was a lose-lose situation.