Ten Reasons to Have Hope

Family

Monday, December 24thEarly that morning, Adeline crawled out of bed and left her room, running down the hall to Samantha's room. "Mantha!" She shouted. "Santa's here!"Samantha jolted awake and sat up, but by the time she looked over at her door, Adeline was gone. She rubbed her eyes and sat up and looked around her room, trying to figure out what day it was. She looked up above her doorway at the clock, reading it to be 7:02 a.m..She groaned and fell backward onto her pillow and looked at the ceiling for a few minutes before she heard the pitter patter of Adeline running back down the hall towards their dad's room.Jackie was woken as well, in the same way. "Jackie, wake up! It's an emergency!"She sat up. "What? What's the matter?""Santa came! Hurry up!""Daddy!" Adeline jumped on Alan's stomach repeatedly until both Alan and Samuel were awake and confused."It's Christmas!" Alan sat up and reached over and put on his glasses. "What?" Samuel groaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Santa came last night!" Adeline had a huge smile on her face. "Let's go see what he left!"She grabbed onto Alan's hands and tried to pull him up out of bed. "Santa didn't come last night, sweetheart."She looked concerned. "Why not?""Santa's still with his elves making your presents," Alan said, yawning. "What time is it?""7 in the mornig," Samantha said, appearing in the doorway. "She woke me up too, except instead of physically waking me up, she opened my door and screamed."She walked in and sat down on Alan's desk chair by the bed. She was wearing gray sweatpants and a Green Day t-shirt. "Why is Santa taking so long? Isn't he supposed to be here today?""He's coming tonight," Samuel said. "Are you excited?"She nodded and grinned. "I don't want to wait.""Neither do I." He smiled at her."Well," Alan said. "We're all awake, who wants breakfast?"Alan whipped up some french toast with blueberries and strawberries and really any berry you could imagine. Samuel wasn't really sure where they came from because of the lack of grocery store trips Alan goes on. He didn't know what Alan's grocery store schedule was, if he had one. Was it once a week? Once every two weeks? Who knows. "I have to run to the store." Alan said, taking off his apron and grabbing his french toast. "Want to come along, Samuel?"Well, there's his answer. He wondered if they were going to buy more berries."Sure."They ate their breakfast and Alan and Samuel went outside to the car and jumped in. Alan started it and his Queen CD began to play again. He turned the radio down and turned around to back out the car. Travelling down the road, Samuel noticed that Alan missed the turn to the grocery store. "Where are you going?" Samuel asked, looking in the rear veiw mirror at the slowly disappearing store. Alan smiled. "Alan? What are we doing?" He asked him.In response, Alan's lips split and he had a grin on his face, the type of grin a toddler gets when he goes to tell his mom he put an entire roll of toilet paper in the toilet. "You'll see." Alan said, turning to face him. "You're going to love it, I already know."Part of him was concerned, but the other part of him was dying in excitement. Alan turned down a road that Samuel was unfamilliar with. Finally, it was revealed where Alan was taking him. Some random house. He turned the key and shut the car off. He and Samuel got out of the car and walked up the stone driveway and rung the doorbell. A middle-aged woman opened the door. "Good morning, ma'am. I saw your ad in the newspaper." He stuck his hand out and shook the woman's hand. "Alan Howland, I emailed you about the babies."Babies? Samuel thought. What the hell is he talking about? Who is this woman?"Ah, Alan!" She said, drawing a strand of hair behind her ear. "It's nice to see you. Come on in!"She opened her home to them and they walked inside. Samuel immediatley noticed a strange smell. "They're right back here."The strange woman lead Alan and Samuel down a hallway. Alan couldn't wipe the smile on his face. "Here we are." The woman said, opening a door at the end of the hall. The smell that Samuel had noted earlier had suddenly made sence. He walked into the room and saw something that was the last thing he expected: cats. Three adult cats and three different litters.A fourth adult cat wandered into the room.He was silky and black, and had wonderful yellow eyes that mystified anyone who looked at him. That must be papa cat, Samuel thought.Alan beamed like a kid in a candy store and immediatley bent down and started petting every kitten who approached him. "How old are they?" Samuel asked the woman as his boyfriend slowly became covered in purring balls of cotton with tiny legs. "Nine weeks." She said. She stuck her hand out to shake Samuels. "I'm Sue.""Samuel," he said. "You have quite cute little friends here."She nodded. "Yes, they are very sweet. I started out with four cats, and somehow all three mama cats got pregnant at the same time. They're adorable, but I'm overwhelmed."He nodded. "Well, I think we're going to buy one from you.""Only one?" Alan said, looking up. He was petting five different kittens. "Jesus, Alan, how many do you want?"Alan looked up at him and drew the baby cats closer. He smiled at him and gave him puppy-dog eyes, or, in this case, kitty-cat eyes."...I was thinking three." Alan whispered. "You what?""How much are they a peice?""Five dollars per puff." Sue said, bending over to pet one of the mother cats that wandered over to her. "I can negotiate prices if you're worried about money."Alan looked at Samuel. "I already bought the girls' presents from Santa. I always give them one a year from me, you know, so they don't like an imaginary man more than me."Samuel shook his head. "Did you really bring fifteen bucks for cats?""No," Alan said. "I brought seventy-five to buy some accessories, too.""Oh my god, Alan. You're kidding."He smiled again. He stood up and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and handed Sue the $15 she was looking for.He leaned back down and began to decide on what cat would match the personality of what daughter. "Samantha first." He said, looking over the sea of kittens, then to Sue. "She has a 90's grunge type of feel to her, so maybe a darker colored cat to blend in with her room better. "I know just the one," Sue said, looking over them.She picked up a silky black ball of fur with a dark orange patch on his left ear and another patch of the same color on the tip of his tail."His name is Bently." She held him up and handed him to Alan. "What do you think?"Alan wasn't listening. "Hi, baby." He cooed at the kitten. Bently mewed back at him and Alan's heart squealed. "She's going to love him." Alan looked at Sue and then at Samuel, who also was clearly excited. "What are your other daughter's names?" Sue asked them. "Well, Jackie is one." Alan said. "She likes the color blue and she has a very calm and quiet personality."Sue smiled. She scanned the croud. "One of the mama's is a cat called a Nebelung. A long haired Russian Blue. She had a baby that looks just like her, lets see."She hummed and kept looking. She spotted her and scooped her up. "Her name is Nana," Sue said. "She's a little shy, but she likes to play when she gets used to you."She handed Nana to Samuel, who held her awkwardly. Nana puffed up her fur and her eyes got wide when she was handed off to a stranger, but otherwise she stayed quiet while Samuel's large hands brushed her fur."My youngest is Adeline," Alan said. "She is very outspoken and talkative, which is funny because she's six."Sue nodded. "She's the deffinition of pink." Samuel added and Alan nodded. "I have an idea." Sue cooed at the baby cats until one approached her and meowed up at her, marking her leg by leaning against her and purring. "This is Jewels." Sue said, picking up the fluffy white cat. "She's a Persian cat, so she'll get pretty fluffy when she's grown." Sue smiled and handed her to Alan, who accepted graciously."She loves to cuddle and she loves to play." Alan nodded. Samuel looked at him. "We now have clones of all three mama cats."Alan looked over and agreed. There was an orange one, a grey one, and a white one. Bently was a mixture of the papa cat and the orange mama, but he guessed that could count. "Bently, Nana, and Jewels." Alan looked at his handful of cats and smiled again.He couldn't help it, he loved cats. "Are these christmas presents?" Sue asked. Samuel nodded. "Yes," Alan said. "I'm not sure what we're going to do with them in the meantime.""Oh!" Sue said. "I can keep them here and drop them off early in the morning tomorrow, if that's fine with you."Alan and Samuel looked at each other. "That's perfect, thank you so much."Sue smiled and Alan gave her their address.When it was time to leave, Alan had a hard time. He had sat himself down with all of the kittens again and was covered once again in fluffy purring blobs that all fuzzed together. "Babe, come on," Samuel said. "We still have to go buy a litter box and whatever other accessory you're wanting.""But-""Get up, Alan."Alan sighed and Sue laughed. "But this one's asleep on my knee!" He pointed at an orange cat who had indeed, made himself comfortable. "That's Oscar," Sue said. "All he does is sleep. Just push him off."Alan nudged Oscar and he fell with a thump, standing up and shaking his head. Oscar looked offended and walked away and Alan stood up. They thanked Sue again and hopped in the car. Sue opened up the window and with Bently's paw, waved goodbye. Alan put his hand over his heart and waved at little Bently, who had no idea what was going on.At the pet store in town, Alan ordered name tags for each of the new kittens. The man said it would be about an hour before they were in, so they decided to take that time to buy a litter box, catfood, and with the leftover money, toys. On their way home from the store, both men had a smile on their face. When they arrived home, they both ran upstairs like two teenagers sneaking back into the house after a night of illegal drinking. They scurried into their bedroom and shut the door, pulling out three peices of paper from Alan's desk. They wrote about each cat and put the letters in envelopes, and put the envelopes under the tree in the livingroom. It was the evening of Christmas Eve and the small family loaded into Alan's car to head to Joel and Carol's house outside of town for Christmas Eve dinner.Alan took his CD out and tuned into the radio station that played christmas music. The first song that came on was, of course, Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas is You'. The five sung along, even though Adeline didn't really know the lyrics and she just wanted to include herself. Alan pulled the car into his parent's driveway next to Mike and Leah's and everyone got out. They walked in the door and were instantly hit with the sudden scent of cinnamon, which always makes Adeline scrunch her nose at first. Joel and Carol's house was small, which was the reason that the Howland family Christmas was held at Alan's house, it was the biggest. Joel's house consisted of one large livingroom and one large kitchen with a table, a small bathroom, and two small bedrooms. One of the bedrooms was the elderly couples', and the other used to be Michael and Alan's shared room when they were young. Now, since both of her sons are grown, Carol turned the old bedroom into a play room for her grandkids.Though their house was small, Carol loved the feeling of hosting a party. Carol greeted her granddaughters in the doorway with a group hug, then to Alan, and finally to Samuel. "Glad you guys could make it!" She said as she pulled away from Samuel. "Every year, mom, you say that every year." Alan said smiling. She lightly pushed him and rolled her eyes. Mike and Leah appeared in the doorway, little Jasper attatched to Leah's side. Everyone was greeted with hugs once again and finally they were invited into the rest of the home. The living room was the place where most of the events happened. 'A Christmas Story' was playing on the TV and in the next room, Leah and Carol were cooking. "Hey, Alan?" Carol said from the kitchen. "Could you come help me out?"Alan stood up and walked into the kitchen, leaving Samuel alone with Joel. He wasn't sure where Mike was."Want to play darts?" Joel asked, lighting a cigarette. "Sure." Samuel agreed and stood up off the couch. In the other room, Carol was preparing mashed potatoes when she smelled the cigarette. "Joel?" She shouted. "Get that damn cigarette out of your mouth, we have company!""Sorry wife," he said, winking at Samuel. "I do that sometimes just to piss her off." He whispered to him. "We've been married for fourty years, I ran out of things to do."Samuel laughed. Joel threw a dart and hit the board in the black under the twenty. "How did you and Alan meet?" He asked, handing him the dart."Oh, I don't know." Samuel said. He was quiet for a second to aim, but after he threw it he continued. "On a bridge in the middle of the night.""How did that go?"Samuel shrugged. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," Joel said. "I already know the story, the whole 'ten days' story. I just wanted to start the conversation.""Oh, yeah, okay." Samuel said, handing him the dart. "Alan told me over the phone the next morning. Why were you up there?"Samuel didn't want to go through telling the whole story again, so he paraphrased it. "I lost my parents in an accident, and I just wanted them back.""I lost mine in the same way," he said, "Carol lost hers to old age. The pain is completely different when it's so sudden like that."Samuel nodded. "Yeah, it's hard."Joel nodded and looked at him. "I know what it's like. If you ever need anyone to talk to, I'll be here for you. That's the same thing I told Alan when he tried to do the same thing.""Why were you and Mike down there that night? Wasn't it Christmas Eve?"Joel nodded and thought about it. "Well," he said, "I can't remember. I think it was because that year wasn't too snowy and Carol had something big planned for Christmas Day.""Oh," Samuel said, throwing the dart.""All I can remember from that night was not being able to sleep and at around midnight or so I heard a scream from the top of the bridge, and I smacked Mike to get him to wake up and I said 'Call 911' before jumping out of the tent and running to see what happened."Samuel nodded. "Wow.""Alan hadn't jumped from the center of the bridge, he was closer to the side so it was easy for me to realize what was going on and drag him out of the water."He paused to throw the dart, then continued. "The cops and an ambulance showed up and Mike and I jumped in the ambulance with Alan who was completely unconsious. I ended up having to stay in the hospital for a night for mild hypothermia from dragging Alan out of the water. I stayed there with him until he was stable enough to be released, and sence it was the ninteys, they let me take him home when he was okay.""What about his birth parents?"Joel shrugged. "Never could get ahold of them. I still don't know where they are or who they are, but one thing is for sure, your father doesn't have to be the one who made you. Your father is the person that loves you and treats you like a son. Alan is my son, and he always will be. Even if for some reason he wants to reconnect with his birth parents, that's always going to be my boy."Samuel nodded. "You started something beautiful, Joel." He smiled. "What do you mean?""You saved Alan's life, and Alan saved mine. Not to mention Samantha, Adeline, and Jackie. You inspired that man to help the world."Joel sighed, then looked over and smiled at him. "I'm glad I could help."After dinner, the family of eleven sat down to watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas before Mike and Leah and their two sons had to go on home, and soon after, Samuel and Alan and their girls went too. At home, Alan sat in the living room with the girls and sat on the fireplace with Adeline on his knee. He read the classic poem, A Visit From St. Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore before sending the girls off to bed. He and Samuel opened up the closet doors to put out a load of gifts under the tree. Alan remembered what it felt like when he was a little boy, waking up on christmas morning to see what Santa left him.Samuel helped him stock the stockings full of candy and other small nick-nacks like brain teasers. Lastly, in each of their stockings, Alan slipped in the envelopes about the kittens. Bently for Samantha.Nana for Jackeline. And Jewels for Adeline. The radio was on while they put up finishing decorations and a few more gifts out. 'Somebody to Love' was playing quietly.The room was lit only by the flickering of the fireplace. "I've never had any reason to hang this up, but since it seems appropriate," Alan said, digging around in a box that was taken out of the closet. He pulled out a small bunch of mistletoe and stood up on his tip-toes to hang it on a nail above the archway connecting the foyer and the living room.Samuel took Alan's hand and they danced to the sound of Freddy Mercury and the sight of a crackling fire.Alan smiled and moved back and forth with his head resting on Samuels's chest. "What's the point of mistletoe when you have no one to share it with?" Alan said. He looked up and Samuel kissed him. It was the ending to every Hallmark movie, the unlikely couple sharing a kiss underneath the mistletoe.The only difference, these two were real people and not actors. Samuel rested his hand on Alan's jaw and both of them smiled. "Your ten days are almost up," Alan said. "Are you sure you can't stay for just a little longer?"Samuel hugged him, still moving back and forth in a casual slow-dance. "These have been the best ten days of my life, Alan, thank you for giving me the opportunity to find love,"Alan smiled and rested his head on his chest again. "Not only for you," Samuel continued. "But for Samantha, Adeline, and Jackie, too. I never thought I would want to be a dad, but being around such loving girls, I can't help but want to be a big part of their lives."Before they went to bed, they shared one more kiss under the mistletoe. Everyone went to bed with a smile on their face, eager for the morning to come.