Building A (Strange) Family

He'll Be Back

December. It was cold, much colder then any of the guys had experienced being from California.
They liked it.

Lilly, though she had to put on many more layers then they did, claimed she enjoyed it as well.

About a week in, she told everyone to get in the jeep.
Mom seemed the only one to know where they were headed or what they were doing.

Lilly drove them out of the city and seemingly half way up a mountain before she pulled over.

"Cool... middle of nowhere..." David teased.
"Any particular reason or just feeling the call of nature?"

"Um, you do realize we live in Oregon now, right?" Lilly asked as she pulled out her flashlight.
The other guys just pulled out their phones to use the lights on them.

"Do any of you know what Oregon is famous for?"

The guys looked to each other, grinning despite their confusion.

"Trees?" Joel offered with some sarcasm, a grin on his face.

Lilly grinned right back.
"More specifically... Christmas trees."

It took a lot longer then she thought it would for them to pick up on it.

Mark's excited, "We're cutting our own tree!?!" had Mom laughing.
She passed out the candy canes that she insisted were tradition from her youth and soon they had all scattered to hunt for the best tree.

Lilly took Mom's arm and they searched at their own pace.
"I wasn't sure what we would end up with, so I just bought a bunch of permits.
Do you want a little one for your she shed?"

"You better believe it... But I'm going to dig it up, replant it. Use it over and over."

Lilly laughed, "I don't think my permit covers that!"
Mom just shrugged.

They ended up with four; Joel happily dug up Mom's choice her her house.
Then they had one for the living room, one for the landing upstairs, and one for the dining room.

Lilly helped Mom pull her newly potted tree into her little house.
Mom looked at it proudly.
Then she asked,

"Why did Nicky leave?"

The question came out of nowhere, and since Lilly had never referred to him as 'Nicky', she was extremely confused.

She just stared for a while before blurting, "Nick! You mean Nickolas!"

Mom just looked at her, waiting for an answer.
Lilly couldn't keep the sigh in.

"He... Nick is... He has some stuff he needs to work out. He decided he wanted to work them out on his own."

Mom nodded, turning back to admire her pine sapling.

"He'll be back."