The Otherkind Book One:Heart

~*~ 40 ~*~

~*~ 40 ~*~

After us four girls got everything cleaned up Grams made coffee and tea. Then she began taking out desert. The pumpkin pie, the chocolate pie, the apple pie, and the pecan pie.

"Wow!"

"I know!" Tina said looking at the four huge pies.

"I know how the boys are in my family and I am a bit worried that this isn't enough!"

I stared at her aghast. They were angels and didn't even need to eat! "Isn't gluttony a sin Grams?"

She laughed uproariously. "So are a lot of things child, so are a lot of things!" She whispered conspiratorially "but we do them anyway right? Sin is not the human condition. It's the living condition!" She was still chuckling as she carried out the last pie, calling out for the boys to come and eat.

The three of us girls linked arms and came into the dining room taking our seats. Each of us taking only a thin sliver of this or that pie. For me, hands down it was chocolate. Grams I knew had made it knowing it was my favorite.

Grayson took a piece of the pecan pie which consisted of half of the pie. He had tried to make off with the whole thing until his dad slapped his hand with the spatula "Save some for others son!" and Thomas happily dove into the other half of the pie. Archer grabbed the whole pumpkin pie with a wicked gleam in his eye. "This is mine! What are you guys having?"

Grams looked at us girls conspiratorially "Told you it was barely enough!"

As the guys demolished the pies by huge forkfuls, we girls chatted amongst ourselves. Tina looked over at Grams. "Are we going to do what we used to do in the past?"

"I was thinking about it. You want to? I know I've missed it!"

"Me too!"

I looked at them curiously "What is it Grams?"

She put a finger to her lips indicating to be quiet

"Thomas?" Her voice cut over their guy bragging and boasting, causing them to look up at her all at once, silent, and expectant. "You up to doing our past tradition?"

He grinned like a little boy his eyes twinkling brilliantly. "Really?"

She grabbed up some plates and left the dining room. "You and the boys can set it up. We girls will take care of the other stuff."

Everyone was up in an instant leaving the room with now empty pie tins and plates. Sarah and I were left to stare at the sudden swiftness they all disappeared. We looked at each other wonderingly.

"Well come on ladies! All hands on deck!" Tina came back in the dining room. "You see? There used to be this tradition in our family a very, very, very long time ago. Father would hook up the horses to a sleigh and then we would bundle up with thermoses of cocoa and coffee and snuggle up together under thick quilts—-" she winked at me "and we'd go caroling. Then later, if the weather was good, we would just go as long as we all wanted to. Tons of blankets and if the moon was full, we would stay out until it went down, or we were ready to go in, whichever came first. After that we would open gifts."

Sarah gushed "Oh! I love that idea! Count me in!"

"As if we would leave you behind!" Grams coming back in to wipe off the table that had cleared incredibly fast.

Despite all the food that had been consumed, we had the dining room and kitchen set back right again in no time at all. All the cocoa made and poured into two very large thermoses and one very large one of coffee. The blankets had been taken out of the spare closets.