The Soldier's Return

Chapter 16

Later that week, Maggie called Matt over lunch hour. She could have spoken to him in the evening, since he would be watching Jimmy, but their conversations these days were so formal and awkward that it was embarrassing. Their son felt the tension between his parents, and although he tried in his nine-year-old way to smooth things over, she could see that it worried him.

Matt picked up the phone on the first ring. "Matt, hi, it's Maggie."

"Uh huh."

"I wanted to talk about Christmas, how we're going to share Jimmy."

"I don't really care, Maggie. Whatever you want is fine with me." His voice was stil, reserved, and for a moment her resolve wavered. There was a pause and finally she continued.

"Well, my family always has our big deal on Christmas eve, with dinner and presents. That leaves Chrissy and the boys free to go to their in-laws on Christmas Day. I was hoping you'd be okay with that."

"That would fine." Matt realized then how formal he must sound, and he went on in what he hoped was a more enthusiastic tone. "Actually, that would be great. I always go over to Sean's for Christmas presents and brunch, we never do much on the 24th. Jimmy and I could open our presents at my house first." He hesitated, "the tree is really nice."

"Jimmy said you had a lot of fun decorating it."

"We did." It had been more than fun for Matt. Growing up he could never count on having a tree – most of the time he was lucky if his mom threw some tinsel around before she got drunk. They certainly never had a collection of family Christmas ornaments, and he had never realized how meaningful the trinkets could be.

Jimmy had been excited to see that his grandmother had carefully allocated to them the ornaments that she knew her grandson particularly liked. Matt was astounded to see that each ornament was not only individually encased in a bubble-wrap pouch, but they were even labeled: "Jimmy's first Christmas." "Wooden train; purchased at the Coast, 1979: "Big Ben ornament; souvenir of Al's trip to London."

Unwrapping each item was like exploring the O'Leary family history. Jimmy seemed to know the stories behind them and filled his father in as he carefully selected the perfect spot for each on the tree, "Uncle Al went to London for six months in college. That's where he met Aunt Cindy – she was a student there too." "Every year we go to the beach and Nana buys an ornament at her favorite Christmas shop. Actually, she buys a bunch of them and puts them in our Christmas stockings. Everybody's got so many now that Mom says she was really happy to have more family members to share them with. She keeps staying she's going to stop, that this is the last year, but then she goes ahead and gets more."

At the very bottom of the box was an especially heavy ornament labeled "Maggie's high school graduation". He opened it to find a brass picture frame, with the year etched into the bottom. A picture of Maggie in her cap and gown, looking as she had when he first fell in love with her, smiled up at him. He showed it to Jimmy.

"I wonder why Nana didn't give that one to Mom for our tree at home?" he wondered aloud."

"I don't know, but I think it's kind of appropriate to have your mom's picture in the house." Jimmy nodded, satisfied with the explanation.

Now, on the phone, Matt cleared his throat. "I never thanked you for the tree, Maggie."

"Oh, don't thank me, that was Jimmy's idea."

"Well, you went along with it. It means a lot. The thing is – I've never had a tree of my own before. When we did have trees they were plastic. This is – it just means a lot. At night I turn out the lights in the room and just watch the tree. I guess I feel like a kid again." There was no self pity in his tone.