Christmas Angels

Chapter 15 & 16

Chapter 15:

Angela

Later that night when Angela lay in bed, she thought of Christie's sudden request for a dog. After dinner she had tucked the child in for the night and she herself had then sat in the family room with Josh for a time. They had agreed that bringing a dog into the family at a time like this, was really too much to think about right now. They needed all of their energy for Marianne and a dog for Christie would just have to wait. It made her feel guilty, remembering the wonderful times she had enjoyed with Bandit.

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JUNE, 2005

Bandit was a carefree, active dog who loved the outdoors. Angela spent many hours playing fetch and tag with him in the park, but the space there was limited, at best. She took him for walks and sometimes even pedalled her bike along the sidewalks in the subdivision while Bandit ran along beside her. Occasionally, Josh would drive them to the conservation area where they skied in winter and Bandit could run free and explore a bit. Dogs were supposed to remain on a leash, however, so that was a rare treat.

Early one Saturday morning, Josh had a surprise for Angela and Bandit. He had asked a friend if he could bring his daughter and her dog out to his farm in the country to get some exercise in the wooded area there. The friend had agreed, provided the dog did not bother his livestock, which consisted of a few cattle, some sheep and several goats. He had a flock of chickens too, but they were penned up safely behind mesh wire fencing. There were ducks in the pond, but they would stay in the water, well out of harm's way.

"Put on your hiking boots and bring a jacket, Angela. We are going to take Bandit for a walk in the country. Think he will like that?"

"Dad, are you kidding? Bandit loves to get out for a walk. Where are we going to, the conservation area?" Angela asked.

"Not this time, Sweetheart. A friend of mine owns a farm just outside of town. He has over two hundred and fifty acres with about seventy-five acres of woodland. Bandit can roam there to his heart's content."

"Wow, that's great, Dad. Come on Bandit, let's go for a car ride!"

Marianne was too tired to go along this time, so it was just the three of them. Bandit could tell there was something exciting in the air and he thrust his head out through the partially open car window, with his eyes half closed against the rush of warm summer air. His shaggy hair and floppy ears streamed out behind him in the wind. Josh said he looked like a character from an old Norman Rockwell painting that he remembered from the cover of "Life" magazine.

Once they were out of Mount Bethel, it took only a few more minutes to arrive at Greendale Farm, home of Brad and Kate Green. Josh had gone to high school with Brad and they saw each other occasionally when Brad was in town. The Greens had no children of their own, but Brad's father and mother were retired, and still lived on the farm with them.

Josh turned the car into the long farm lane and drove slowly towards the neat frame house and weathered outbuildings. Angela could see a clothesline strung from a raised step at the back corner of the house, running a hundred feet to a pulley on a telephone pole in the yard. A fresh load of laundry was flapping gaily in the morning breeze that blew steadily across the open fields.

Josh drove slowly past the house and parked beside a pickup truck near the barn. A man wearing bib overhauls, a plaid shirt and a peaked cap came around the corner of the barn, carrying a hay fork in one hand and a basket of eggs in the other. He waved with the fork and walked towards them.