The Greatest Gift

𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 13 𝘹 𝘉𝘦𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘵

The front door slammed, and I stood frozen in front of it.

The weekend was over. Jaison had to go to work. Shayne had an appointment with a counsellor.

So I was by myself with the twins.

Not scary at all, right?

As I was standing in the entryway, wondering what I was going to do all afternoon, Sadie and Conor bounded up to me and wrapped themselves around my legs.

"Bubby!" Sadie shrieked. "Pillow fort!"

"Okay," I said. "Where do you want it?"

"In the living room so we can watch Al'ddin!" Conor said.

I picked them up and ran into the living room, where I examined my space and scanned the area for resources.

Not to brag, but I'm pretty much the best fort-builder in the whole house. Jaison and Say are to busy with their grown-up issues to compete with me.

"Okay, go get all of the pillows and blankets you can find," I said.

The twins giggled and separated, running around and grabbing every resource in sight.

While they did that, I propped up the couch cushions like walls, then grabbed two chairs from the dining room and put one on either side of the couch.

"I need a super big blanket, guys!" I called.

I heard footsteps on the stairs, then Sadie ran up to me with a large, quilted blue blanket.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Is this my comforter? Did you go in my room?" I said with fake accusation in my voice.

Sadie giggled and cutely looked up at me through her eyelashes.

I laughed and kissed her on the head, took my comforter, and draped it over the back of the couch, the cushions, and the chairs as the ceiling. Then I took the other four blankets thee twins gave me and draped them from the ceiling as the walls.

Then I put a couple more blankets on, and the base was done.

I smiled and clapped my hands. "There! Now you guys can decorate inside it."

The twins cheered and crawled through the blanket doors. I handed them the pillows they had collected and they started arranging them inside the fort.

When they were done, Sadie poked her head out. "Fairy lights, bubby!" she said.

I blew out a breath. "Fairy lights? I don't even know where they are."

I turned to yell and ask Shayne... but then I remembered that he wasn't here. He was at the counsellor because his grief was wrecking him.

Great.

I sighed. "I'm going to go look for them in the basement. Stay here and don't touch anything," I said firmly, then ran up the stairs.

I went down the stairs to the basement and started looking for fairy lights left over from last Christmas.

"Fairy lights, fairy lights," I mumbled, scouring the huge room. "Aha!"

I pulled the lip off of a big box labeled "Xmas Lights" and pulled out a single long strand.

My job here was done. Hopefully no one was hurt down there.

I started walking back to the stairs when I noticed something pearly white out of the corner of my eye. What the heck?

I turned, and my breath caught.

It was Mom's wedding dress.

I was out of there faster than if I'd heard Sadie screaming.