Evermore, Nevermore Forget Me Not

Not Giving Up

Setting: December 25, 2018; Christmas Day...

     The day started before the sun even rose with Hyla and Carl running around Mary's house, barging through bedroom doors, jumping on beds and shouting for people to wake up cause it's Christmas. Everyone slugged themselves downstairs and into where the tree is, the kids diving for the presents and Mary video taping them. After presents, the kids rush to the kitchen for breakfast as Mary turns off the camera and goes to started as Missy, Bailey and Elvira clean up the mess left behind and Georgie is passed out asleep on the couch. After breakfast is finished, Missy leaves with her kids to spend the rest of Christmas at Sparks house. Georgie and Elvira take their leave as well, heading to their new home in Galveston with their daughter.

This only left Bailey, Sheldon, Amy, Uncle Ed, Aunt Anna, Connie, Mary and Sheldon's friends (minus Rajesh & Erika) in Mary's humble home. Sheldon and Amy go out with their friends, leaving Bailey to watch old Christmas movies on the television with the rest of her family...

"What got ya down Down by the Bay?" Uncle Ed asks her

"..." she just quietly shakes her head as they watch 'Rudolph the red nose reindeer,' then lets out a sigh, "it just don't feel like Christmas."

"Why's that baby?" Mary asks her

"Don't know," she mumble quietly with a shrug, "it just don't."

     Mary sits knitting as they watch, Uncle Ed just watches as its about all he can do, MeeMaw's doing a crossword puzzle book, and Aunt Aunt Anna slips outside for a smoke. They just all sit watching Christmas movies until Mary and Connie go to start dinner, and Aunt Anna soon comes to join n helping them as Ed continues to sit watching them with Bay. Eventually, Bay comes out into the kitchen to help set the table as Sheldon, Amy and his friends return to the house in time to eat; dinner is filled with mostly silence as they all enjoyed the various foods...

"Y'all out done yerselves Mom, Mary," Uncle Ed praises

"I always out do myself," Connie says in a slight huff

"Take the compliment Mom," Mary tells her, "and thank ya kindly Mr. Ed."

"Haha!" The man laughs heartily at his sister's nickname for him from their childhood, "yer mighty welcome Mistress Mary quite contrary."

"Bay," Mary starts, looking to her oldest daughter, "You've been awfully quiet baby...what's goin' on?"

"Just wish Daddy was 'ere is all," she says quietly

All at the dinner table go quiet again at the mention George Sr as the return to eating; once dinner has ended, Bailey finds herself curled up on the living room couch reading 'A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens,' as her Uncle Ed sits watching more Christmas movies and her three little kittens playfully fight with each other on the floor about their feet just below the couch. When Bailey reaches halfway through the book, her uncle slides the remote to her and she turns off the television as he heads to bed without even looking up from her book. It's as she reaches the end and is finally closing the book that the couch dips as someone sits down beside her. She glances their way upon closing the book, to find Sheldon next to her...

"What is it now Shelly?" She asks him with a tired sigh, "ya have a fight with Amy?"

"No," he tells her quietly

"With yer friends?" She inquires without looking his way as she scoops up Norwe and Britina, and Russ, and pulls them onto the couch with them

"..." Sheldon shifts slightly in his spot as he Britina into his own lap, then answers her quietly as he lets the kitten, "no..."