Chapter 10

I turned to look at him and he nodded, holding out the keys to me. “It’s all yours. The papers are already transferred. She was my first car. Now she’s yours.”

I reached out and took the keys from him, looking at them in awe. “What year is it?”

“She’s a ‘76 Stingray,” he confirmed.

“A Stingray,” I breathed. I looked at it again. The fiery red paint looked brand new. “She’s gorgeous! I ... I don’t know what to say.”

“A definite first,” Victoria said dryly.

“I’d intended for you to have it,” he told me. “Now seemed like an ideal time to bring it to you. We’ll have to put it in the garage though. She’s really not meant for winter.”

I nodded and gave him back the keys, going to the garage to open the bay doors so he could drive it in. Tricia and Lana and Beck came with me and we made sure there was plenty of space. Carl expertly turned the car around and backed it up and into the garage, parking it safely. I was still in shock when he got out and we shut the door. A car! He’d gotten me a car and not just ANY car, a beautiful one, a classic car, an antique. We locked up the garage and then they led me back into the house, since I was standing there still in a state of shock.

“I think he likes it,” Victoria said as we took off our jackets.

“I’m still kind of in shock,” I admitted and sat down. “That’s kind of a huge gift,” I pointed out.

“What’s a huge gift?” Patty said, closing the front door behind her.

“I’ll show you,” I told her. “I want someone else to be in as much awe as I am right now.”

I put my jacket back on and led her out to the garage. I led her in the side door and flipped on the lights.

“Is that what I think it is?” she asked, walking over to the car.

“A 1976 Corvette Stingray,” I told her. “She’s had one owner in forty years, until now.”

“This car is older than me,” she said, looking it over with me. “Wow. I think we just found a winner in the most expensive gift contest,” she said.

“Of all the days I chose to take my painkillers like I’m supposed to. I don’t even know how to thank him for this.”

She smiled. “I think you’ll find a way,” she said and we went back inside.

Everyone was amused at how shocked I was by the gift. I hugged Carl twice and felt like it didn’t say enough. I was dumbfounded. I did slowly recover and resumed some of the normal chatting that punctuated our time together. He turned out to be a huge fan of pool and played all comers to a standstill. He was better at the game than anyone I’d ever seen.

We lounged around until dinner when we were called to the table. There was just too many people to sit everyone and still have room for the food on the table, so we all filed through the kitchen, like a buffet, loading our plates and returning to the table. In deference to Patty and Dan, we said Grace and we all dug in. Dad had arrived just before dinner with gifts for under the tree and we all talked and enjoyed the company and the season. Someone had turned on the TV and had found one of the cable channels that was playing carols so we were surrounded by music for the season.

Towards the end of the meal, Mom stood up and made our traditional Christmas toast. It had normally been Dad that had done it, but he was a guest here now so it fell to her.

“I want to thank you all for being here with us to celebrate Christmas,” she said with a smile. “New friends and old, we’re so glad to have our house filled with laughter and light. May each of you have the very best Christmas and may we all have the new year we hope for.”

She raised her glass and was met with agreement from everyone. We all raised ours whether we were drinking wine or something softer. We finished dinner and dessert and by the time that was done, we were all stuffed beyond reason.

At the end of dinner, we finished off the rest of the presents. I passed out the gifts I had to Lana and Beck, Tabby and Collie, Mom and Patty, Dan, Dad and Carl, Victoria and finally the small box for Tricia.

Mom looked pleasantly surprised with her gift. “I thought you might be interested in something for those times that you need to relax and take time for you.”

I turned to Patty who was turning her basket this way and that to look at the contents. “I got that because you spend so much time taking care of all of us that I wanted to remind you to stop and take a few minutes for yourself too.” She smiled at me and nodded.

“Carl, Dan and Dad, I had a hard time figuring out something to get each of you. I finally settled on something that you could use to finish off a good day or something to take the edge off the bad ones. God knows we’ve had enough of each this past year.”

“Victoria,” I said affectionately. “I see you found half of my gift. It’s a little something for you to celebrate the triumph of keeping my head together when I seemed intent on coming apart. I think you missed something at the bottom though.”

She looked at me suspiciously and looked in the gift bag again, fishing out the jewelry box. “Matt, this is a very expensive gift,” she said quietly.

“As expensive as a Corvette?” I asked dryly. “You’ve saved my life and you’ve saved my family. That’s a small gesture of my appreciation for everything you’ve done and continue to do for me. It doesn’t say nearly enough.” She nodded in understanding and smiled, showing off the necklace and earrings.

I looked at the four girls who had been mine and they each had their gifts open. “You four mean more to me than I can tell you,” I said. “I love each of you. I wanted to give you something you can wear that celebrates who you each are. That’s why I chose your birthstones instead of diamonds.”

I grinned at Tricia. “I think the inscription explains your gift best. Why don’t you put it on and tell them what it means.”

She nodded and slipped the ruby ring onto her pinkie. “The inscription says, ‘proof you have me wrapped around your little finger’. Your birthstone is ruby?”

I nodded. She came over and kissed me deeply, wrapping her arms around my neck. “I know you got the same for the other three,” she said, “So that kiss is from the rest of them too.”

I grinned and hugged her back.

“Well, I for one feel schooled in how to be romantic,” Carl said, causing general laughter.

Everyone else gave out their gifts after that. I’d gotten most of mine, although Lilly had gotten me a very nice arcade-style stick for my PlayStation and Mom had provided the promised basket of Hickory Farms treats that made my mouth water even though I was so stuffed I couldn’t eat a thing. Dad had gotten me a copy of the Rosetta Stone software for Russian, which I was looking forward to trying out and Victoria had given me a skateboard with a card that told me to remember to take time to be young.

I was touched at the gifts and delighted in watching them all trade theirs back and forth. I thought we were all done when Tricia brought me the box she’d arrived with.

“You’re not off the hook yet, Mister,” she said with a grin. I knew this was Emma’s mystery gift, her Hail Mary pass to spoil me for Christmas. I was suddenly nervous.

“Should I open it here or wait until later?” I asked her.

“Almost everyone here knows what it is,” she told me gently. “The card will explain.”

I took the card out of its envelope and opened it.

“Put these back where they belong.” It told me in thick marker. Instead of signatures, there were four lipstick kisses.

I looked at her, confused. She looked at the box in my lap, nodding encouragingly. Everyone was looking at me, I realized. I opened the paper, finding the box to just be a plain cardboard one suitable for wrapping a shirt or sweater. Slowly, I lifted the lid and I understood what the card meant.

I swore I’d never touch these collars again. Each of them opened and laid out side by side, the keys in the locks, waiting for my fingers to return them to where they should never have been removed. I stared at them and I knew that this had been decided long before I’d come back to a place where I could bring myself to look at them.

I drew a deep breath and my fingers trembled as I reached out to run my fingertips over their surfaces. They felt cool to the touch, but strangely warm at the same time. They felt ... welcoming. Like I was about to fix something that had been broken for far too long.

No one spoke. Whatever was on my face, it convinced everyone to let me have this moment. I stood and handed the box to Tricia who was smiling at me. She held it for me as I picked up one. “Collie,” I said softly.

She rose and came to me, gathering her hair away from her neck. I held her collar in both hands and slipped it around her throat again, clicking it shut and pulling the key from the lock. Her smile became a grin and she reached up to hold my hands against the collar, her eyes misting. I knew she’d had the most anxiety about not being collared. “Welcome home, Darling,” I told her and she sobbed, flinging her arms around me and squeezing me tight.

I kissed her softly on the lips and she went to sit down. I picked up Tabby’s collar and repeated the same thing for her and then for Beck and finally for Lana. We were all in tears by the end of it, Tricia included and she went and hugged them all before we sat down.

I could tell who had known and who hadn’t from their reactions around the room. Dad, Carl and Victoria were the only ones that had shown the slightest surprise. Frank had known and was still in good spirits. After that, we drifted off into groups and I got a chance to ask him about it.

He shrugged. “Tricia told me about it a few days after you delivered the painting and sketches,” he said. “I’m convinced that you’ll do right by her now. Add one more, add four more, it’s all the same. You seem to manage it. I still don’t know how, but you manage to make those girls feel special.”

I nodded. “Maybe you should see my room. It might help explain.”

“That sounds ominous,” he admitted, but followed me down past the rec room where Dawn was gnawing on one of the new dog toys she’d gotten for Christmas. She looked up at us, but decided that the rubber bone was too interesting to follow us. I turned on the lights in the room and like most people, his eyes were drawn to the bed. “Where did you even find a bed that big?” he asked, gaping at it.

“It’s two kings,” I explained. “We used about $20 in zip-ties to strap the frames together so they’d sit together. That’s how I’ve been able to keep four girls without anyone feeling neglected. No one ever gets kicked out. They can watch, participate, read a book, roll over and go to sleep or do their own thing without anyone getting in each others way.”

“That explains the sleeping arrangements, but the rest?”

I shrugged. “I told you, I have the unique ability to concentrate on different things at the same time without confusing them. We all do it to a certain extent, but one of those things take a backseat, running on autopilot. Mine never do that. I’m like a stove with no back burners. Everything is up front in my head. I can have three of them tell me completely different stories of what their third birthday party was like and ten years later, I’d be able to reproduce those parties down to the color of the candles on the cake. My life revolves around them. That’s how I keep them feeling special. I make them important to me.”

He nodded. “Keep doing that then,” he said and clapped me on my good shoulder. “I sometimes had difficulty keeping up with making Janice feel special.” It was the first time he’d brought her up to me.

“She knew,” I said confidently. “You were there with her through her sickness. Nothing can show a person how much they mean to you like that. Take it from someone who spends too much time in the hospital. When I took that artwork to be framed, the woman at the art supply store refused to charge me for it. She said she was one of your wife’s oldest friends. She was overwhelmed to see her face in that painting. I don’t think she’d have been that sentimental about a gift for you if Janice hadn’t been the center of your world.”

He nodded and we just shared the moment before we went back upstairs. He stayed a lot longer than I’d have expected, but I noticed that he spent a fair bit of it talking to Mom. I smiled at that and wondered if I was going to have to look up whether step-siblings were considered an incestuous relationship in Massachusetts.

“What’s so funny?” Tricia asked me, her nose crinkling as she frowned.

“I think your dad might be a little taken with my mom,” I whispered to her and she looked horrified at the thought, looking at the two of them and then at me. “What would that mean for us?” she asked, aghast.

“I would say from a common sense standpoint, that it changes nothing, but let’s go look it up,” I suggested.

She looked upset until we were sitting at the computer, looking at the statute that used the word ‘consanguineous’. “We’re good. So long as we’re not blood relations, we don’t have a problem even if they fall in love, get married and give us a little brother.”

“You’re sure?” she asked, still anxious.

I nodded. “I’ll ask Mr. Forbes when he talks to me next week, but I’m sure. For now, run and get your bag before your dad decides he needs one too,” I joked.

“That’s not funny,” she said, scandalized.

I followed her upstairs and found Dad talking to Dan. I joined them for a while and asked them to come take a look at what Carl had given me.

We trekked out to the garage and they both whistled. “He just gave it to you?” Dan asked.

I nodded. “Carl means a great deal to me and I mean a lot to him. He’s dying. He could have left it in his Will, but he wants to simplify his estate as much as he can.”

“That’s still a pretty huge gift,” Dan said.

“Makes me worried about what IS in his Will. He said I’m named in it, but whatever it is, I’d gladly give it up to keep him with us for another year.”

They both nodded. “She certainly is a beautiful car,” Dan said stooping to look in at the interior. “It almost looks showroom perfect.”

“He babies her. I intend to do the same.”

“Well, I think I’m gonna head home,” Dad said when he’d taken a long look at the car. “Your mother seems to be taking an interest in Tricia’s father. I don’t want to be the creepy ex-husband hanging around.”

I nodded. “I’ll walk you out,” I said. We stopped for him to get his gifts and then I walked him to his car. “I have one more gift for you,” I told him.

He looked at me curiously as he put the bag in the trunk. “What is it?” he asked.

“I’ve found you a Mommy,” I said. “Or mistress or whatever. I prefer to think of her as Mommy because then I can call her Grandma.”

He laughed. “Who is she?” he asked, perking up at the news.