Chapter 23: The Bouquet

Cookie's father made her stay home from school the next day, telling her to be there to cheer up her moping brother but he really wanted her to keep ice on her face and give her bruises and swelling a chance to subside.

Corey mostly stayed in his room Tuesday morning, as if he were trying to hide from her.

Cookie had finished the laundry by noon and knocked on his door to bring in his things.

"What?" he called through the door.

"I have your laundry, Corey. Can I come in?"

Corey opened the door and stood to the side as his sister entered and walked to his bureau with his washed and folded items.

"Are you alright?" she asked, looking back at him with her pretty, but still bruised, face.

"Am I alright?" he exclaimed. "Cookie, look at you. Look at what I did to you! I'm so ashamed of myself."

Cookie closed his drawer and walked to him and looked up into his pained expression and smiled for him, "You have nothing to feel bad about, Corey," she told him. "It wasn't your fault. I don't blame you. You did what you had to do. What Poppa made you do."

"But, last night, you didn't return my hug and you just walked away from me and went upstairs."

"I was a little out of it right then, Corey. I just wanted to be alone in my room and think. Think about what he did and what he said and what I should do."

"Do? What are you going to do, Cookie?"

She shrugged. "Nothing. What can I do? I'm only thirteen. I can't run away from him. Where would I go? Who would take care of me? This is my home, Corey, and you and Poppa are my family. I just have to stay here and stick it out and be as nice as I can be and hope that Poppa will someday love me."

"But ... when you didn't hug me..."

Cookie stood on her toes and wrapped her arms around her brother's broad shoulders and put the side of her head against his and squeezed him as tight as she could. "I'm hugging you now, Corey. You're the only person in this whole world who, I know, really loves me and I sure love you."

And Corey wrapped his arms around her too and they just stood wrapped in the warmth of a needed hug for a very long time.

Wednesday Cookie looked good enough to return to school. Her left eye was still a little blue and the corner of her lip held a small, brittle scab but she just used the "walked into a door" excuse and nobody was the wiser.

Soon came Thanksgiving and then the snow and then Christmas was at hand.

Cookie couldn't help herself, Christmas always lifted her spirits and her expectations and this year was no different.

She was particularly excited because of her babysitting money which meant that she was able to buy gifts for her father and Corey at the stores of close-by 7-Grand shopping center and even (taking the bus down Grand River) at Montgomery Ward's big store.

Christmas morning was more of the same though, coming down in her robe and slippers and making coffee and rolls for breakfast and expectantly awaiting the thrill of Corey and her father coming down to the brightly lit tree.

She had given Corey his own record player, for his room, and the new Beatles '65 album. Her father opened the golf shirts that she had bought for him and set them aside without a word. There was nothing under the tree for her, as usual, but she expected that and honestly felt that it was better to give than to receive.

Christmas evening was spent at Uncle Bryce's this year and they had a huge tree decorated with shimmering, expensive lights and ornaments.

Cookie and her family had to arrive very early because Aunt Ellen had said that she needed assistance with making dinner for the whole family.

This meant that Cookie was to prepare the entire turkey dinner and everything that went with it as her father and brother and Uncle Bryce watched football, on TV, and Aunt Ellen smoked cigarettes and made herself martinis and gabbed with Aunt Janice until everyone else had arrived.

Cookie didn't mind. She put an apron on over the white sweater and brown suede skirt that she had worn with her soft-leather, shin-high boots. She really did love to cook for her family and she really, in spite of everything, so loved Christmas.

She expected nothing as she brought the meal to the long table and was actually surprised when her Uncle Bryce told her, "Sit down with us, Cookie. We have a chair, for you, over by Little Bryce there."

Cookie couldn't believe this. She had never been allowed to eat with the family before and always, as at home, picked at some food in the kitchen between trips to the dining room to bring more coffee or serve dessert.

"I better just serve, Uncle Bryce."

"No," he smiled at her, "I insist that you sit with us and have Christmas, Cookie. We all do, right?"

And everyone at the table smiled at her and nodded and agreed, so Cookie sat between Little Bryce and her cousin Kate and filled her plate with the offered foods.

"It's going to be different this year," Uncle Bryce said as he passed the chestnut dressing to her. "You'll see."

And Cookie, in the face of her misgivings and trepidations about it, actually enjoyed her meal, despite the fact that Kate kept jealously staring at her ruby ring throughout the whole dinner. She felt very grateful toward her uncle and her family as they all, for once, sat together on Christmas.

Aunt Janice served the mince and pumpkin pies and then Cookie cleared the table and did the dishes as the family gathered in the large living room with the tree and all the gifts under it.

When Aunt Ellen's kitchen was clean, Cookie took off the apron and joined everyone in the living room, taking a seat on the floor among the excited, little cousins.

This year, Uncle Bryce put on the Santa hat and passed out the many gifts that were exchanged, making one of his home movies as he did it. Cookie's father got a new putter and Corey received a wool sweater.

Having her babysitting money this year, Grandpa got a pipe and his favorite tobacco from Cookie and she bought handkerchiefs for her uncles and scarves for her aunts and a blouse for Cousin Kate and even small toys for her other, younger cousins and was so happy as she watched them all open them.

When everyone was finished, Cookie made to get up from the spot where she was sitting, on the plush carpet, when Uncle Bryce said, "No, Cookie. Don't get up yet. You haven't opened your gifts."

Cookie put her hand over her chest to keep her heart from jumping into her throat. "My gifts?"

"Sure," Uncle Bryce smiled as he walked to the back of the tree and picked up a whole armload of gift boxes all colorfully wrapped with Christmas paper and decorated with various colors of ribbons and large bows, "we heard that you were getting presents for us so we all remembered you this year."

And he set them all before her as the family gathered around her and looked down lovingly, at her, just like a Christmas scene from a Norman Rockwell painting.

"My God," she said, wiping tears from her face with her hand. "I can hardly believe this."

"Believe it," Uncle Bryce smiled down at her as he started filming again with his home-movie camera.

"Open them," Aunt Janice encouraged her.

"Open ours first," Uncle Harry insisted.

And Cookie just looked at all the gifts before her, all with tags that said "To Cookie from Aunt Janice and Uncle Chris" and "For Cookie from Aunt Ellen" and "To Cookie from Kate" and it was just so overwhelming for her to realize that they had done this for her.