"Standring's Christmas Wish", by Gratiana Lovelace, 2018 (Completed)

Ch. 6: Ralph joins Clara's Friends' Christmas Eve Party

"Standring's Christmas Wish", Ch. 6: Ralph joins Clara's Friends' Christmas Eve Party, December 28, 2018 Gratiana Lovelace (Post #1200f)

(An original fan fiction holiday short story copyrighted by Gratiana Lovelace 2018; All rights reserved); [(1) story cover, left]

[As is my custom, I will illustrate my story with myideal cast consisting of (and in order of appearance/mention in these chapters)of: asRalph John Standring, Hayley Atwell as Clara Saunders, and others as noted.]    

Authors story content and serializing scheduling note: My fan fiction short story here is based on the character of Ralph John Standring from the 2002 British mini-series "Sparkhouse"—with a new story arc. The tone of the chapters will be primarily PG to PG-13—for dramatic moments and/or romantic feelings. If you cannot or will not attend a movie with those ratings, then please do not read that chapter. This is my disclaimer.

And I will serialize this short story starting Christmas Day, December 25, 2018 with several initial chapter posts, and for a few days following after the Christmas Holiday this year. Please note that Chs. 2 – End will appear solely on my Wattpad site for ease of posting over the holidays. And I will write and serialize my story with daily chapters posts—a little challenge that I set for myself for fun—such as with my 2014 story, "A Magnificent Love", "A Christmas Carol Reimagined" in 2016, and others. And I hope that you enjoy Ralph Standring's holiday story this year.

"Standring's Christmas Wish", Ch. 6: Ralph joins Clara's Friends' Christmas Eve Party

With the village's snow plow operator Thompkins kindly pulling his truck out of a ditch Sunday afternoon, Ralph was able to return home to his barn loft living space for Sunday night, December 23rd—after him joining with Clara's helpers in getting her Café tidied up after the free morning breakfast buffet that she provided for the villagers and stranded motorists of around 125 people.


Though Clara said to Gordon Clement of the Village Board that her own cost of the basic breakfast meals that her café provided free to the stranded without power villagers on Sunday, December 23rd was only about 2.50 pounds per person—when she usually charges 5 pounds per person and up for the full breakfast meals-- Gordon and the Village Board insisted that she be paid 5 pounds per person. To which Clara demurred slightly, and in thanking the Village Board via Gordon, she asks them to apply their emergency services payment to her Café to her next property tax bill. She knows as well as anyone, that it is Winter time weather that stretches the budgets of towns and villages alike. And happily, Clara's Café makes enough money for her to willingly defer the emergency services payment for her café's food costs.

**

But as life and business return to normal on Monday, December 24th, everyone in Clara's Friends' Christmas Eve group—including Clara and Ralph—is thinking about Christmas Eve tonight.

With Ralph still not having to tend to the Camden Farms animals today and tomorrow--while Ralph is on Mr. Camden's required vacation time off--Ralph still checks in on the large animal cows and sheep to at least say hi. They eagerly go to him. Though already fed, they had missed seeing Ralph Saturday night and Sunday morning. And Ralph is a good and kind animal tender. So the animals all like him, as he does them.


So it is a good thing for Ralph that Camden farms only uses the animals for dairy, sheep wool, and grazing the grass lands. The animals are not used for food and are allowed to live out their natural lives in a petting zoo attached to the farm. The animals are just a sideline for Camden Farms. Crops are the real business of Camden Farms. So there is plenty of land set aside for the animals to roam free when they want to.