Lib Novel Page 19
“You’re asking for trouble,” Jared whispered, taking it.
The cookie was still warm and it practically melted in his mouth. It was funny how around the holidays you could close your eyes and be ten years old again if you wanted. Some things never changed and never stopped being special.
“Had to do it,” Derek whispered back. “Otherwise, Josh will eat them all before we can even get to them.”
Those cookies had always been Josh’s favorite at Christmastime. Mom had only recruited the grandkids into making them at Thanksgiving this year in honor of the return of the prodigal son.
“How about you, Derek?” Cora said, turning to the two of them.
“Sorry,” he said quietly.
“I was asking if you ever helped your father with one of his projects,” she said with a smile. “He was telling me that each of you had favorite woodworking experiments.”
“I wouldn’t say I had a favorite,” Derek said, smiling faintly.
Cora slipped over to the loveseat and sat quietly, a look on her face like she knew this would be a good story. Too bad for her that Derek seldom told stories, even to his own family. He definitely wouldn’t be telling one to her, and definitely not this one.
“Mom made me volunteer for the holiday play one year,” Derek said, moving across the room and lowering himself into one of the chairs, close to Cora. “Mrs. Cassidy was directing that year and they didn’t have enough boys. Everyone loves Mrs. Cassidy, you’ll see.”
“Is that Alice, from Cassidy Farm?” Cora asked softly.
“That’s her,” Derek said, nodding. “So she decided to do a play version of The Nutcracker.”
Jared was surprised to see his usually reserved brother so quick to share with Cora. But he got it. She was so easy to talk to, she was genuinely interested, and she never seemed like she was judging anything you said.
“Were you the nutcracker prince?” Cora asked, sounding impressed.
“No, thank God,” he said. “I was the rat king. It was the perfect part for me. He’s only in one scene and he’s got a full costume including a big headpiece, so no one could see me.”
Jared lowered himself onto the sofa wordlessly, completely involved in the story. This was one that he usually ended up telling. It was a nice change to hear it from his brother for once.
“Plus he has a great fight scene,” Cora said, nodding.
“I didn’t get the part for those reasons though,” Derek said. “I got it because Dad invented the contraption that made the Christmas tree look like it’s growing bigger and bigger right before the fight.”
“No one else could make that thing work,” Dad put in proudly. “It was a little finicky, But Derek was great with it because he helped me build it.”
“Amazing,” Cora said. “Mrs. Cassidy was lucky to have your family around.”
“Maybe don’t say that yet,” Jared said, chuckling.
“How well do you know the story of The Nutcracker?” Derek asked Cora.
“Pretty well,” she said, frowning. “We used to go see the ballet at the local theater every year when I was a girl.”
“Well, the tree grows right before the rats come out,” Derek said. “We had it down in rehearsal, but the night of the performance, it gave me some trouble.”
“It was a sort of accordion design,” Dad put in. “But sometimes it would stick a little.”
“We think maybe the smoke machine made the wood swell a little,” Derek said. “Or maybe the extra heat from the audience. But I guess it doesn’t matter why it happened. I ended up having to take off the rat headpiece and climb up there to try and get it unstuck.”
“The whole tree was almost like a cone with five parts that lifted out of each other,” Dad said fondly. “The design flaw was that on that raked stage, they wanted to rotate and there was nothing to stop them.”
“Raked stage?” Cora echoed.
“Slanted,” Dad said, holding his hand up, tilted slightly to demonstrate. “Supposed to help the audience see it all better.”
“While I was up there, the top of the tree swung around,” Derek said, shaking his head. “That put me right in front of the audience, clinging to the tree without my headpiece, and no way to get back down, because the ladder was in back. They couldn’t see me in the tech booth, and so the lights came up pretty much immediately.”