“I’m so excited,” Merilee told Buck as they drove north. “Our first Christmas tree. Will it be a big one? Will you use an axe or a saw? Will it ride home in the trunk or on the roof? Will you yell ‘Timber!’?”

“Hold your horses, honey. Our tree will be perfect.”

“My horses!” Merilee said gleefully. “We should sing. ‘Dashing through the snow, on a one-horse open sleigh.” Merilee unzipped Buck’s jeans as she sang.

“Honey ... what are you doing?”

“I’m holding my horses,” Merilee said. “Actually I’m holding my horse.” She had Buck’s penis out. She had it big and strong in her fuzzy blue mittens. “Oh, I love my horsie,” she said, rubbing it up and down, making it even bigger and stronger. “Mmm, such a nice big horsie. You just need one when you have a one-horse cunt.” With that Merilee leaned over and took Buck’s erect cock in her mouth and hummed a festive tune.

While Honey sucked and sang, the season’s first snow started to fall. “Oh, Honey!” Buck said. “Oh, Baby!”

It wasn’t Buck’s orgasm that caused him to veer off the road straight into an implacable evergreen. It was a doe and her fawn, crossing the slippery rural highway. When things settled, Buck wasn’t breathing. Tears filled Merilee’s eyes. Semen and blood filled Merilee’s mouth. She transferred as much of Buck’s goo as possible into her sex.

A year later, tears still in her eyes, Merilee nursed three-month-old Honey under the Christmas tree. Merilee sang to her babe. The tree was artificial, but the spirit of Merilee’s song was true. “If that mockingbird don’t sing ... Daddy’s gonna buy you a diamond ring. And if that diamond ring don’t shine ... Daddy’s gonna buy you a big Scotch pine.”