"Standring's Christmas Wish", by Gratiana Lovelace, 2018 (Completed)

Ch. 6: Ralph joins Clara's Friends' Christmas Eve Party

Ralph wanting to be dressed up for the Friend's Christmas at Clara's tonight, he goes into the slightly larger town ten miles over and buys a new suit jacket, shirt, and pants [(2) below]. Ralph can afford the 85 pound suit cost, because he saves most of his Camden Farms salary since his barn loft living space at Camden Farms is free. So he only has his own food to pay for—beyond what basic food stuffs the Camdens provide. And the suit he bought was marked on sale.

Ralph also buys a small red poinsettia plant to give to Clara as a thank you for her hosting him to her Friends' Christmas Eve tonight, since he didn't see one yet in her apartment when he was there over the weekend.

Ralph blushes at thinking that he spent Saturday night at Clara's—though it was not a sleepover in the sense that some people would take it as. So he will allow Clara to reveal or not that aspect of their growing relationship. That is, if he and Clara are heading to having a relationship—which he would like very much. And he is eager to see her again, despite his mind warning him to be cautious—due to him being taken advantage of by Carol Bolton last year.

In the meantime, Clara is tending to her Café during the daytime of Christmas Eve day. But she closes early around 2pm—after the lunch rush—to let her employees enjoy their holiday time, and so that she can finish getting ready for her small gathering of her Friends' Christmas Eve party tonight in her apartment upstairs. Her guests will include the late thirties Ralph Standring, the mid fifties Gordon Clement, her older sixty something neighbor Mrs. Button, the also mid fifties bakery owner and widow Janet Welch, the elderly mid seventies retired grocer Herbert Langtree, and her mid thirties self.


Clara smiles each time she thinks about Ralph. After spending two days in close companionship with him, Clara deems Ralph to be a good man—one whom she would like to know better. She already knows that though he is shy, he is friendly when shown friendliness. And he was very good with her daughter Evie—whose first birthday is also tonight. So Clara takes extra care with her makeup and hair, and wearing her soft ivory blouse with the embroidered V collar edgings over her black wool skirt [(3) below] tonight. Clara wanting to be pretty for Ralph—and for her now one year old Evie, of course.    

And truth be told, Clara misses Ralph. And she wonders how he could so quickly come to—if not dominate—hold a special place in her thoughts. Maybe she has been alone too long. And though her daughter/niece Evie's first year of life has flipped her world upside down, she treasures the loving bond that they share. And she vows to tell Evie as much as she can about her late sister Sharon—Evie's mother who died in giving birth to her—when Evie is old enough.

However, as the time approaches half past five o'clock in the evening--for Ralph to leave for Clara's apartment for the six o'clock in the evening Friend's Christmas Eve party--he begins to get nervous. And then, he remembers that it is also Evie's first birthday, and he hasn't gotten her anything at the store. So looking around his barn loft living space, he decides to give her one of the baby rattle wood carvings that he has made. You see, the baby rattle is rather intricate with three interlocking softly smooth circles that he carved from one block of a soft wood--so babies wouldn't get splinters when they bite down on it. His boss Mr. Camden had liked the ones that he gave to his grandkids, so Ralph thinks that Clara might also like the circular rattle for Evie, too.

Ralph parks at the back of Clara's Café building at the entrance for the two apartments. And he notices that there are more cars parked there than last weekend. And Ralph reasons that though the snow has stopped, it is still biting cold outside. So even the in town guests down the block must have driven.

As Ralph mounts the inner stairs to Clara's apartment, he can hear holiday music playing and people conversing. At the apartment doors landing, he runs his finger around his collar. It feels tight to him. Or maybe that it is his nerves taking over. But with the baby gift in his left suit vest pocket wrapped in a clean handkerchief—no time or supplies to wrap it festively—and the small poinsettia, Ralph knocks three raps politely on Clara's closed apartment door.