| Jack Mason raised an eyebrow, a dubious scowl inching across his face. “What are you talking about?” He stared at Gloria for a moment before returning to his string of popcorn. “Just because I saw a shooting star when I was eight, how on earth could that affect your birth?” Gloria grinned. “Trust me, dear, it does.” Jack shrugged, fishing for another piece of popcorn. “I met you for the first time in my life only three months ago. I saw you and your bad hip hobbling through the side garden admiring the asters and marigolds,” he teased. © Copyright 2008 Thomas J. Prestopnik “That’s when I invited you for coffee on the bench outside my cottage. What a dazzling autumn day that was, Jack. I just love the sunshine upon that willow tree. And I wasn’t hobbling,” Gloria said. “Though if I was, I’m not anymore. You get a hip replacement and see how if feels.” Jack snickered. “Now, Gloria, it’s 2048 for heaven’s sake. There is such a thing as hip regeneration.” Gloria laughed. “I know, but I was always leery about subjecting myself to that sort of treatment. I suppose a part of me is stuck in the old-fashioned too, just like this room.” She leaned back in her chair and gazed upon the wintry landscape. “Still, I am being serious, Jack. I exist because you saw that shooting star. And I can prove it if you’ll tell me more about that Christmas night.” “That makes no sense, Gloria.” “It will when you put the pieces together.” “Hmmm,” Jack said, chewing another piece of popcorn contemplatively. “As I recall, I was playing in the yard that evening with my snow brick maker I had gotten for Christmas. Amazing how that red piece of plastic revved up my imagination.” Jack glanced at Gloria with a shrewd gleam in his eye. “I had plans to build an entire city of snow in my backyard, you know.” “I’ve no doubt.” “But that particular night I was working on a snow castle, my first construction project for a young entrepreneur of eight,” he said with a chuckle. “I was both architect and builder, and as long as I had plenty of snow banks to mine, life was good.” © Copyright 2008 Thomas J. Prestopnik Gloria offered a wistful nod. “It didn’t take much to keep us happy back then. I remember one summer I had turned my bedroom into a schoolhouse. All my dolls and stuffed animals were the students, of course. Teaching them kept me enthralled for hours,” she said. “But I’m curious to know more about what happened after you saw the shooting star, Jack. That’s the important point. That and what you told your sister Loretta.” “I beg your pardon, Gloria, but the snow castle was quite important to me.” Jack added another piece of popcorn to the string draped across his knees. “I was building it to impress Julie Almega after all.” “Julie Almega? Who was she?” “My best friend who lived across the street. We were classmates,” Jack said, recalling the girl’s penchant for wearing butterscotch plaid skirts and yellow ribbons in her shoulder length brown hair. “I had a terrible crush on Julie and that castle was going to be the crowning achievement in my effort to win her over. That was the plan anyway.” © Copyright 2008 Thomas J. Prestopnik “What happened?” “Well, you know the saying. The best laid plans...” “Didn’t Julie like the castle when you finished it?” Gloria asked. “Oh, it wasn’t a matter of liking it or not,” Jack said, glancing out the window until he could almost feel the chill of the snow. “I never finished building it.” © Copyright 2008 Thomas J. Prestopnik |
| ~ CHAPTER 3 ~ |
| A CHRISTMAS CASTLE |
| by Thomas J. Prestopnik © Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved. |
