Christmas Morning

The Beginning Of The End

I was already dressed and waiting in the living room when Nora came running down the stairs holding our mothers sunhat, quickly followed by a very angry Peter. He clomps over to me, his cowboy boots loud on our hardwood floor.

"Where's my cowboy hat?", he asked urgently. "I can't find it in any of the boxes, and I know I haven't unpacked it yet, and I really REALLY need it!" Peter griped in a panicky voice. "I told him to wear Mommy's hat, but he yelled at me and said that was dumb, and.... And... he was soooo rude!", Nora pouted, flopping onto the couch next to me, sniffling and glaring at Peter. I roll my eyes. "Why is it you two are always angry at each other for something?", I said, very annoyed with them. "And Peter, that hat was too small for you, we got rid of it when we left the old house, you know that!", I said crossly. "I did not. Jeez! Why is it your always such a brat to us! Relax, will you?" Peter snapped back. I opened my mouth to tell him that he was the one being a brat, then closed my mouth and sighed, rubbing my temples. "Fine. You're right. I'm... I'm sorry, okay? I didn't sleep well last night." A shiver went down my spine thinking about the shadowy faces and freezing nightmares. I looked at my red-faced little sister. "Listen, Nor-Bear, if Peter doesn't want to wear the hat, he doesn't have to...", I said softly to her. Then I turned to my angry brother. "But please Peter, try to be nicer to Nora. She's just trying to help." "Yeah, whatever. Can we go now?", he grumbled, tugging the flowery hat out of Nora's little fingers.

"Good. Yes, alright, let's go you two." I said. I took Nora's hand in mine and marched swiftly to the door, stopping to pull my winter hat snugly over my ears and to throw on my blue snowflake sweater. I opened the front door for my siblings to go out first, then stepped outside after them, the door banged shut in our wake.

We trudged through the snow on the sidewalk, heading towards town. "Okay, so I know you guys haven't watched or didn't pay attention to the first movie so I'll tell you what happened in it so you can be really prepared and understand this new one.", Peter stated, looking giddy. "Yes, Peter, please do.", I said, rolling my eyes.
He unfortunately didn't take the hint, and continued to blab at us, recapping every single detail of 'Cowboys - Showdown at Sundown'. Honestly, will he ever shut up? All I heard coming out of his mouth was: "Blah blah blah gun blah blah showdown blah blah Clint Eastwood blah blah blah sheriff at the end blah blah blah It's really really cool, you'll love it!" I nodded along, pretending I was paying attention.

He kicked the snow around with his boots, wandering off the sidewalk and into the empty road. "Right, anyway, so this movie is gonna be the sequel, it's supposed to be about this sheri-" A loud beep cut him off, a car swerved around him, screeching on the ice, and he jumps to the side. Nora screamed.

Peter looked at me angrily. "Why didn't you tell me a car was headed straight for me?!" His backside in the snowdrift he jumped into, he gingerly touched the large scrape that has appeared on his knee. It begins to ooze red. A few drops fall in the snow as he stood up. It looked like bright cherry on the cold, white covered ground.

"It is not my fault! If you had shut up for long enough to look where your going, it wouldn't have happened.", I chastised him. He makes a face at me, and Nora squeezes my hand while remaining quiet.

Peter started walking again, limping heavily as if his leg had been shot, not scraped. He fake winced with each step, to try to get my sympathy. "You're fine, walk.", I snapped at him, utterly tired of his act. I let go of Nora's hand, crossed my arms, and led them down the sidewalk. I couldn't help stomping and refusing to speak as we walked. I knew it was petty, but he was really was getting on my nerves with his attitude today.

When we reached the end of that street, we turned left. Then turned again, finally, after what felt like it could have been an hour of walking in the cold, (but was probably only five or six minutes) we hit main street. Rows of quaint little shops stood on one side of the street, and on the other, a library, and a small-town grocery store with a sign that read "Smith's Grocery". Stretching through the center was a grassy square of land, a play ground and a few park benches nestled in the middle. Grey clouds drifted overhead, veiling the sun, and making everything look drearier and colder.

Nora looked at the playground like it was a stocking on Christmas. "There's a playground here? Look at it, Emma! That looks like sooooooo much fun, can we go play first? Pleeeease?" she looked at me with puppy dog eyes. My eyes flicked up at the big clock tower atop city hall, checking the time. I frowned, and glanced back down at my little sister. "Sorry, no. Not enough time.", I said frankly. A few more minutes, and we'd be late. Her happy attitude immediately dropped, and instead of puppy-dog eyes she looked like I had just kicked her puppy. She glanced back towards the playground again, and by the way she was looking at it you would have thought going and playing there was the one and only thing she truly wanted in the world, and by denying her it I was betraying her in the deepest way.

My eyes softened for a second, and I was about to change my mind, but then I snapped back to standing my ground again. Our parents certainly weren't immune to her angel-face "pweeeeeaase??" thing, which meant I had to be, otherwise as she grew up she'd become a spoiled little brat. "Come on, both of you, I agreed to take you to this movie, so you need to stop acting like I'm the meanest sister ever just because I said or did something you didn't happen to like.", I reprimanded, looking at each of them. Neither of their faces changed. Peter still looked annoyed, and Nora still looked unjustly deeply hurt. I sighed, I was already tired of dealing with them and we hadn't even gone to the movie yet. "Just... Come on.", I mumbled, and turned towards the theatre with big bulbs of light that shined through the bleak air, framing a sign that read 'Cowboys- New Sheriff, Old West'. Peter and Nora resignedly followed behind me, we passed through the front doors and I walked up to the ticket counter.

"Hi, three tickets to the cowboy movie, please?", I asked the bored-looking pimply teenage girl behind the counter. "Uh, yeah, sure.", she answered, "That'll be $5.31." I counted out the cost from the money Daddy had given me for the tickets, and handed it to her. In turn, she handed over the three tickets. I gave a quick tight-lipped smile in thanks, and started toward the viewing room for the movie, siblings in tow. Peter seemed a little less annoyed now that we were so close to seeing the movie he was so excited about, so he ran ahead of me to go pic out the best seats with Nora.

As I stepped into the room, I was surprised at how small it was. A few rows of faded velvet seats, a big white screen about 11 feet from the front row, and a projector box at the very back of the room was all that was there. I was also surprised to see the room empty except for a dark haired girl that looked maybe a year older than me sitting in the center seat of the middle row. The girl smiled at me as I walked in, like she had been waiting for me. I smiled awkwardly back and my eyes traveled up to the top row, where my sister and brother had set themselves up, both eagerly watched the screen for the movie to begin. I started to walk up towards where they were sitting, but thought better of it as the thought of 'having to be the fascinated audience to Peter's inevitable chattering during the whole thing' entered my mind. On cue, weird girl in the center row spoke up. "You can sit here.", she tapped the seat next to her.

"Oh, um, okay.", I felt a little nervous because I still felt kind of awkward talking to her, but I decided that since I was going to live in this little Wisconsin town, I would need some friends. And the best (and pretty much only) way to make friends is to interact with people. So, I slid down the row to the seat she had tapped, and sat down. The girl smiled again. I smiled slightly back. I then turned toward the screen as the already pretty dim room darkens. The movie begins.

About 15 minutes into it, I entirely bored out of my mind. The girl leaned toward me and whispered in my ear, "God, isn't this just awful?" A real smile creeped onto my face. A sympathizer to my pain! I was starting to like this girl. "Ugh, yes. My brother forced me to take him, he's obsessed with it.", I whisper back, rolling my eyes. The girl smirks, "Siblings.... They're the worst." "Agreed.", I nod.

We sat in silence again, watching as Clint Eastwood shot some yellow-toothed cowboy guy on the screen. But wait- Golly gee gosh, what a surprise! The guy was wearing a bulletproof vest. Wow. I reminded myself to never take Peter to another western movie ever again if I could help it.

The girl leaned sideways towards me and whispered again. "I'm Thea, by the way." "Emma.", I introduced myself in reply. Thea nodded. "Cool." She studied me, and I figured she was trying to figure out why she'd never seen me before, as it was a really small town. "We just moved here, into the blue house off Sunset Drive.", I clarified. "Right. Welcome, Emma.", she said, and I now feel that she was not only welcoming my to my new home, but also to a new life that began that moment.