Pepper and Longstreet
A Christmas Tale
By
JT Lewis
Copyright 2011 & 2012 by JT Lewis
“Silent night my ass!”
Pepper thought this as she looked upon her very noisy companions that surrounded her at the moment. She was not happy; a loud boisterous party was not what she had been expecting when she arrived at her friend Jill’s house tonight.
She had been looking forward to getting together with her friends Jill and Beth for Christmas Eve, as usual. Known collectively as the ‘Three Musketeers’, they would exchange presents and have a nice quiet evening listening to Christmas music and talking.
It didn’t happen that way.
Jill’s fifteen year old brother Joe had decided to take advantage of their parents being gone for the night by inviting his whole class to a party, a very loud and out of control party. There was no place in the small house where they could get away from the hordes.
Pepper had lost track of the other two, so she grabbed her coat and headed outside to get some air. Standing on the porch, she looked out on the moonlit pine woods behind Jill’s house, finding little comfort in the scene before her due to the only slightly muffled noise from within. Taking a deep breath of the cold air, she watched her exhaled breath turn to a frozen fog as she blew it out.
“You don’t look like you are having any fun little lady.”
She was much too annoyed to be surprised by the sudden appearance of her partner, Jacob Longstreet, even though he was in fact…a ghost.
“I’m not!” she said in a huff, “those bratty kids in there have ruined our Christmas! I think I’ll just go home and sleep through the whole holiday!”
A concerned look crossed Longstreet’s face, but was soon replaced by the determination that graced his face most of the time.
“Follow me,” Longstreet uttered as he started stalking off toward the woods.
“Excuse me?” Pepper answered, put-off. I’m sorry Longstreet; I’m just not up for an adventure tonight.”
With that, she turned away from him, leaning against a post and staring at the side yard, ignoring her partner.
Longstreet stopped and turned, a confused look crossing his face once more before he nodded imperceptibly, and then said quietly, “please?”
Pepper looked over her shoulder, somewhat surprised at Longstreet’s asking her to go with him. She shrugged as she mumbled, “Ok,” then turned to follow him as he walked to the woods. He had never asked her for anything before; the least she could do was see what he was up to.
“Where are we going anyway?” she asked as they threaded their way through the sweet-smelling pine trees.
“Almost there,” he said without looking back, “It’s just up ahead.”
A few minutes later he stopped suddenly at the edge of a clearing, silently looking toward the middle. Pepper sidled up beside Longstreet, looking into the clearing and seeing nothing, confused.
“What are we looking at?”
“Shhhh,” he said quietly, still looking forward. “Keep still, you will see soon enough.”
