23) Surprise

Ella stirred, blinking her wide, sleepy eyelids awake.  When it dawned on her that morning had finally come to cheer her, she bolted upright in bed, staring out her side window at the light cascading onto the wooden floors, creating a dancing shadow display across the floor.  Remembering what special day it was, she put a little hand over her mouth and gasped.  Turning to her right side, she shook Jon awake without mercy to his peaceful dreams, whispering up close to his ear that "today was the day."  A whimper escaped his cherry red lips and he rolled over, grabbing a fistful with his chubby hands of Mama's quilt to pull up over his downy head to block out his sister's pleas.  Frustrated, Ella shook him all the more, speaking in lower, mysterious tones that demanded immediate obedience from him.  In a sleepy, defeated daze, he struggled to his feet, but then began to hop from one foot to the other, complaining to Ella that his toes were freezing.  

"Put on those shoes," she directed at him in a motherly tone, with her hands planted on the hips she didn't have.  Then, with a finger held to her lips at Jon, instructing him that whatever he did, he absolutely could not wake up Mama and Papa.  After a trembling nod from young Jonathan, she fled in angelic steps out the door, her nightgown flowing behind her.

In the living room, Ella pounced on the large, comfy couch and carried out the same measures towards Kate, who solemnly obeyed, all along with large baby blue eyes that blinked up innocently.

After a small gathering, Ella took charge with: "Now, stop squirming as I tie your shoes, Jonathan," and: "Jonathan, if you don't stand still, I'll hang you upside down on the clothesline outside" and: "Kate, you're being so good" with a firm pat on her shoulder.  After this and an adult sized breath, Ella glanced over her crew in satisfaction.  And so, wrapped up like miniature mummies in button-down coats with thick scarves tied firmly around their necks, and the hem of Kate's nightgown showing below her knees, Ella ushered them outside, shushing them once and a while to not make a sound.

As soon as the squeaky screen door was firmly closed, Jonathan gave a victory shout, as though his ordeal of being as quiet as his mother's grave was officially over, and, with that, made a dash on his short, chubby legs towards the long, dirt lane, purposefully jumping into all the clumps of dirty snow here and there.  Ella took a tight hold of Kate's hand and walked resolutely after Jon.  He eventually tired, and slowed down enough to keep pace with Ella and Kate.

"Where we goin'?" he asked breathlessly, excitement coloring his features, much different from the sluggish boy who wouldn't set foot out of his bed that same morning.

"Town," Ella replied simply, keeping her eyes on the road as she had been taught.

"B-b-but Mama.  'Member she said...?"

"This is a surprise."

"Ooooh," he responded, wide eyed and grinning.  "Surprise," he whispered to himself, almost giddily.

They reached the brink of the hill where Ella grabbed both Jon and Kate's hand before descending the grassy slope.

"Don't run down it," she directed towards Jonathan, who she knew was itching to do that very thing, no doubt with squeals and screams that would notify the entire town of their arrival.  Thankfully, though, Jon did as he was told, even though when he reached the bottom he began to jump up and down and point at the sleepy little town that was much quieter at this point in the day, without its busy customers that walked to and fro, shop to shop.

Ella, after having the same instruction from her Mama many times, passed along to Jon and Kate that they were to remain together and to be good and quiet.  

"'Specially you," she declared to Jonathan, who instantly clamped a hand over his mouth with a compliant nod.

Then, with the air of her own mother, she led both her siblings towards the hat shop that stood proudly in the center of town, passing only a small handful of people, heading straight towards the pretty blue hat in the display window that Ella had seen her Mama admiring.  She could still distinctively see her bending down so as to glance at herself with the hat in the window's reflection, then had looked down at Ella and smiled, as though she was secretly telling her she was being silly to want such a frivolous bonnet.  Even so, she had taken Ella inside with her to finger the pretty feathers that donned the cap, but one glance at the price tag was enough to send her falling over and she had, with an attitude like that of a hero in Ella's eyes, walked away, looking, instead, at a spool of thread she needed.

Stopping in front of the shop's window, Ella inhaled a deep breath of brisk country air and looked first at Kate, then at Jonathan.

"You have 'em?" she whispered close to her brother's ear.

Nodding vigorously, he gently, carefully, fingered in his pocket for the small treasures, then, coming up triumphantly, he held up the shiny copper pennies for Ella to see for herself.  She nodded and smiled, again, just like her dear Mama, then urged him to the door.  Hesitantly, but nothing but obedient, he reached up on his stout legs to turn the doorknob, but stopped short when he realized it was locked.  Ella frowned impatiently and tried the knob herself, but came up with the same results.  Tempted to pout, she took them back to glance again at the beautiful hat in the shiny window display.

"Mama'd love it," she said in a quiet tone with a catch to her voice.  "What we gonna do now?"  She gazed down at the pennies still held protectively in Jonathan's hands, then back again at the window, staring at it longingly, as though looking at it long enough might make it magically appear outside their door the next day.  Jon started to hop from one foot to another, squirming impatiently, wanting to get his restless feet to moving again.  Kate pressed in close to Ella's side, shutting her eyes tight and beginning to suck her thumb, a habit she still fell back on when she was nervous or frightened.  Ella, feeling sympathetic towards her siblings, shrugged disappointedly, trying not to cry, and began to take them under her wing once more and turn around when, in doing so, she nearly smacked nose first into a tall, gangly man's belly button.

Ella gasped, Jonathan let out a girlish squeal and Kate jumped behind Ella, clinging to her coat sleeve as she did so.  The three of them glanced up simultaneously and wonderingly into the stranger's clean shaven face and dark hazel eyes, framed by comical bushy eyebrows.  Wrinkling her nose, Ella caught the scent of pipe tobacco and peppermint, her favorite candy, on his finely pressed clothes.

"We're sorry, sir," Ella quickly mumbled breathlessly, after getting over her initial shock, peeking quickly up into his face that softened when seeing them, then quickly down at her shoelaces.

Kneeling down so as to be eye-level with them, the older man, who really wasn't that old, but just appeared that way to the youngsters, asked in a puzzled, but kind voice just what they thought they were doing on this side of the country so early in the morning.

"Where's your father, hm?" he asked, giving Ella a playful chuck on the chin.  Ella, trembling from nervousness and being a mere foot away from a stranger who came from who knew where, immediately took as giant a step she could backward.  Cocking his head, he glanced over at Kate, trying to coax a smile out of her, but when she caught his eye, immediately closed both of hers and began to suck more vigorously on her hopeless thumb.

In a gesture of defeat, the man began to stand to his feet.  Yet, instead of moving past them, he motioned towards the window.

"I see you admire my hats," he observed with a twinkle in his eye, and, with that, he swept off his own black hat and held it out graciously towards them, then, with a lopsided grin, returned it to his generous amount of dark hair, giving it a firm pat at the top as he did so.

Ella managed a wobbly smile and nodded, wordlessly pointing towards the blue one with the feathers.

"Ah," he said, nodding agreeably as his eyes rested on it as though it was a sight to behold, then glanced back at Ella with a wink.  "You have good taste, little lady."

Suddenly, gaining a courage she didn't know she possessed, Ella took Jonathan's wrist and held up the pennies he had still been holding on to as though his life depended on it.  Hesitantly, he released his strong hold on them and let his little fingers curl out to reveal their treasure.

"I wanna buy it," she said insistently, her pixie face upturned to his, holding his gaze with her big, pleading blue eyes and pursed lips.

The man with the easy-going smile appeared surprised as his eyebrows reached a higher level on his forehead, and he took into account all the little pennies the three of them together scrounged together, falling way short of the written price.

"Do you now, little lady?" he declared, his hand on his heart as though this was a great matter indeed.  "And whatever would you do with a hat such as that?" he teased her, his hazel eyes smiling without any mockery.

With a voice like an angel's, she whispered, "It's for my Mama-- for Christmas."  Her eyelashes fluttered down.  She glanced again at the copper pennies.  "This is all we got, mister."

Compassion shone out from the man's eyes, warming the spaces that kept them apart, and gently, he kneeled down once again. 

"Well, my darling girl," he begain, shaking his head, "I'm afraid... I'm afraid..."  But there was something-- a certain innocence, a certain faith that shone out of Ella's eyes for him-- that kept his sentence hanging in midair.  And as he stopped, Jonathan came up and held out his hand to the man.  When he opened his larger palm out to his smaller one, Jon generously poured the pennies into the man's hand, then grinned up at him, revealing two adorable dimples.  Holding his hands up, still clutching onto the pennies, in surrender, the man claimed out loud he gave up.

The three of them giggled and Ella hugged him impulsively, then she squealed and clapped her hands, Jon and Kate following suit.

They walked up the grassy slope that day, leaving the still somewhat stranger of a man urging them on with a lopsided grin.  Happy and chattery, they skipped down the winding dirt lane, Ella holding onto the hatbox that contained the pretty blue hat tightly to her chest, smiling the widest smile that made her eyes sparkle and dance.  Jon ran and shouted and spun around in a craze, and Kate, who had taken her thumb out of her mouth, was beginning to swing her arms back and forth and pump her legs faster as she walked to keep up with Jon. 

"'Member, guys," Ella called to them merrily, "it's a surprise!  No telling Mama and Papa!"

"Surprise," Jonathan exclaimed, running circles around Ella.

"S'prise," Kate copied, clapping her little hands together.

Author's Note

It's been SO long since I've written in this series again. And I think I'm finally back at it again!

I wanted to get a deeper look at Ella, Jon, and Kate in this chapter, so I hope you enjoy :)