Hope in Our Hearts by Lydia Proffitt

Chapter Sixteen

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul- and sings the tunes without the words- and never stops at all.

- Emily Dickinson

Weeks flew by after the soccer game. The fall soccer season came to a close with Max and Caleb's team having a celebration at Kathleen's diner. The air was getting colder and the daylight was getting shorter. Halloween went by in a blur and pumpkins were already saying goodbye to people's front steps.

There were more leaves on the ground than on the trees, and people were already decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving even had a chance to begin. Lucy thought about going ahead and getting the Christmas tree out of the basement but decided to wait until after Thanksgiving. She grew up always decorating on December 1st, and she wasn't going to break a tradition that easily.

Instead, on that early Sunday morning, Lucy decided to cook a big breakfast for her crew before church. While the biscuits were cooking in the oven, Lucy decided to sit on the back deck and read Jason's last article.

Lucy enjoyed sitting on their back deck. They didn't have any neighbors close by, but if you looked closely between the patch of trees, you could see Kathleen's house in the distance. Lucy loved autumn. She loved the different colors of leaves. Lucy took a long, deep breath letting the fall ambiance fill her lungs. She sat down in her favorite rocking chair and opened the paper to where Jason's article always was.

The article had a picture of their family above it dressed in their Halloween costumes at the campgrounds. Jason talked about the origin of Halloween and rated his children's candy on a scale of one to ten. It was quite humorous and Lucy found herself smiling at her husband's words more than once.

Lucy looked back up at the sweet black and white photo of them. Lucy and Jason were both dressed as Dalmatians sitting on hay bales. Meg was Cruella De Vil wearing a black and white wig. Meg had been running around the campground chasing leaves most of the day. She was sitting on the ground with her pumpkin bucket, full of leaves she had captured, and smiling ear to ear.

Meg, Lucy knew, was saying, "Cheese."

Beside Lucy and Jason was Caleb and Kale standing on both ends of the hay bales. Kale was dressed as a ninja and all you could see was his eyes. He held his sword acting like he was stabbing Jason without him knowing. Caleb went as a Mad Scientist; he wore a lab coat that went all the way down to his knees covered in fake blood. His crazy goggles hid his hearing aids. He was holding his bucket that resembled a brain close to his face acting like he was going to lick it.

Thank you Pinterest, Lucy thought.

Lucy walked back into the kitchen to grab a pair of scissors. She cut out the article with the picture, and she hung it on the fridge in the midst of the kids' drawings, some report cards, and Jason's hand turkey––which Lexie still takes off whenever she sees it.

When Jason walks into the kitchen he joins Lucy at the table after giving her a kiss on the cheek and thanking her for breakfast. They had a few moments to themselves before Kale walked in attempting to carry Meg in his arms.

"Honey, you can't carry her like that. You're going to hurt her. She can walk Kale just hold her hand," Lucy said, picking up Meg.

"I tried getting her to walk but she just stood there laughing. She is getting too heavy," he huffed.

"She's just growing like a weed," Jason said, patting Kale on the back. "How did you even get her out of her crib?"

"Oh, Caleb did that. He'll be in here in a second. Mommy, will you get me food?"