On her desk was a photo from the year before. It had been taken just around Halloween. She had been focusing on it a lot the past few days while her youngest was off with friends. In it was her husband, looking like he always did. A small smile on his lips and a hand on her shoulder. Then her older child, Vance, had his usual goofy grin on. But her son Troy was another story. She could recall her mother-in-law telling him to look up and smile. After several pleas, he finally did. But anyone could tell the smile was forced and his eyes were still focused on the ground.

She reached into her purse and pulled a newer picture out of her wallet. This one had been taken in Livermore by her friend Shelly. It was just before she had gone to San Francisco for her Doctor's appointment a month before. William was in it, as was Vance. Instead of Troy, the glum looking boy, Tracy stood in his usual spot. Her smile seemed to be infectious. Her husband, son and herself all wore a smile just like it. Maggie rested the picture on her desk and picked up her sandwich. She began thinking about how things had changed when Tracy came out. The confidence, the happy demeanor. She could remember the trip to Livermore, the first one. The young girl had talked non-stop till they reached Tracy, the town. After a few hours of hell, when the child thought she should be Troy while at Shelly's place, Tracy came back and was brighter then before.

Thanks once more to Djkauf for the editing

This time we look into the lives of William, Maggie and Vance

December 20th 1982
Northern California

Vance woke up to the sounds of someone knocking on his bedroom door. He glanced over to the window and saw the sun was still rising in the sky. He glanced to the clock that sat on the dresser and groaned. “It's only seven.”

“Yeah, it's only seven.” William repeated from the doorway. “You told your Grandfather that you'd help him reorganize that shed this week. Your mother left for work already and I'm about to head out for mine. I wanted to make sure you didn't sleep in and make him come over to wake you up.” He paused for a moment, then added. “Again.”

“Can't I just nap for a few more minutes?”

“No. You promised that you'd be over there at seven thirty. And If I know my mother, she'll have food for you.” William shook the frame of the bunk bed. “So come on, get those feet on the ground, you got fifteen minutes to get next door and eat.”

“Fine.” Vance grumbled. He swung his feet over the edge and sat up. He was hoping that his father would leave, but William stood there and looked at his watch. After a few moments he hopped off of the bed. “There, I'm up.”

“Good.” Conner's voice called from the hallway. Vance stopped in his tracks at looked at his dad

“Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you, he's here already.” William smiled. “Get dressed kid and have a good day.”

“Okay Dad.” Vance did a fast change of clothes from his pajamas to a pair of torn jeans and an old shirt. He skipped the shower, mostly because he didn't want to take one then get dirty. Ten minutes later he found himself in his grandparent's kitchen, a plate of eggs and bacon in front of him. As he ate, his grandfather read the paper. Between bites, Vance asked. “What are we doing today?”

“I was thinking that maybe we could organize the shed a bit better then what it is. It may be a couple day affair. I know it's cold out today, but we got the stove in there. I wanna set up the table saws and a workbench.” Conner put down his paper and took a drink from his coffee cup.

“Okay.” Vance said with a nod, before he dug into his food again.

The phone started to ring and Modine went over and picked it up. “Patterson’s, Modine speaking.” She was quiet for a second, then she smiled. “Hello, Lilly. How are you?”

Vance only glanced up for a moment, then he went back to his eating. He kept listening to his grandmother. “Again? All of them?” She was silent for a moment. Then she nodded. “I'll ask.” She cupped her hand over the handset and looked at her husband. “Conner, Lilly's cows got out again. She was wondering if you'd help catch them. Some of them are in our field.”

“What do you think Vance?” Conner asked his grandson.

“Yeah.” Vance said. He was glad for the chance and he had two reasons. The first was Lilly always paid off kindness in either pies or cookies and the second was corralling cows was a lot more fun then cleaning a shed.

“They said yes.” Modine said into the phone. She was quiet for another couple of moments before she looked at her husband again. “She says they're not in the road, but they're between our two properties.”

“Good.” Conner began to stand up. “Come on Vance. Let's get the cows in.”

Vance shifted his focus from the eggs to the bacon and quickly took the last few strips and began shoving them in his mouth. He got up and followed his grandfather out of the house.

~o~O~o~

Vance was beginning to re-think his views of how easy it was to get the cows back into their pen. He had spent ten minutes chasing the same cow. Each time they'd get close to the pen, it would run off again. He had begun to regret ever agreeing to helping at all today. His pants were muddy from one too many falls while trying to keep up with the cows, his shoes were soaked.

He knew his sibling had it easy. He was just hanging out with friends. His inwardly kicked himself. ~No, it's she now!~ His inner voice said. ~But why ain't she here fighting these stupid cows.~

~Because she got hurt, fighting our old friend.~ He answered himself.

~Why didn't Mom let me go down with her?~ He asked himself again. He didn't reply. He didn't have the chance to. One of the cows came running at him. He panicked and screamed, throwing his arms out wide and raced at it, causing it to stop and turn it's direction.

A couple of the other cows joined its lead and walked into the pen. His inner voices kept quiet as his grandfather began moving the rest of the cows in his direction and he scared them into the pen.

“About freaking time.” He said out loud as the last cow went inside.

“I hear ya.” His grandfather agreed. “Come on. Let's fix this fence real fast so we don't do this again this month.”

An older lady, near sixty years old came out. Her hair was pulled up into a bun and she wore a house coat. “Thank you so much. I don't know why my son insists on me having these stupid things. After Hank died I can barely take care of them on my own.”

“We're just glad they didn't get hit.” Conner said as he began pulling up the trample wires..

“I don't think I could afford someone's car.” She said with a shake of her head. “I'm sorry to call you two again, but you're the closest people I know that were home.”

“It's okay, Lilly.” Conner picked up a fallen fence post and tired to push it into place.

“Well, we won’t have to worry about this again. I've called up Hoss.” She said with a sigh.

Vance looked up for a moment, then back to the work on the fence. Hoss was the nickname of the local butcher who made house calls. He owned a shop in town with a giant walk in freezer that people could rent lockers out of. They also had the largest pickles for sale, he had ever seen. When his parents had owned cows, a few years earlier, they had used his services when it came time to take care of the cows.

“You sure? I mean we can go to town and get the stuff to fix the fence proper.” Conner said.

“I'm sure. This is what? The fifth time in the past few months?” Lilly asked. “It's time. I already told my son what I was planning and told him no more cows.”

“Well, we can at least fix the fence to hold till he gets here.”

“Thank you.” She started to leave when she stopped. “And for your help I'll send some of the meat your way. God knows I can't eat ten cows worth.”

“Well you don't have to, but thank you.” Conner smiled at her.

“Nonsense. You two and Vance's family have helped me out far too many times. It's the least I can do.” She said. “Vance, let your parents know I'm sending some their way too. I've got a freezer if they don't have space, or maybe Hoss has a spot in his freezer.

~o~O~o~

Maggie was seated at her desk with her lunch spread out in front of her. The cleaning service she worked for was doing good business, for a small, locally owned company. A lot of it was weekly or monthly clients, so she rarely had to answer the phones, except for the occasional new client or problems. That left her lots of time to do the billing. Her hours were long, from early morning to about five in the afternoon, but she only worked four days in the week, usually giving her Friday, Saturday and Sunday off.

There were no other receptionists there, so she was forced to take her lunch breaks at her desk, unless the boss was willing to cover the phones. He was a working boss, out cleaning with the rest of the workers, so he was rarely there, except Fridays. But when she got busy, she spread out her lunch to make up for it.

On her desk was a photo from the year before. It had been taken just around Halloween. She had been focusing on it a lot the past few days while her youngest was off with friends. In it was her husband, looking like he always did. A small smile on his lips and a hand on her shoulder. Then her older child, Vance, had his usual goofy grin on. But her son Troy was another story. She could recall her mother-in-law telling him to look up and smile. After several pleas, he finally did. But anyone could tell the smile was forced and his eyes were still focused on the ground.

She reached into her purse and pulled a newer picture out of her wallet. This one had been taken in Livermore by her friend Shelly. It was just before she had gone to San Francisco for her Doctor's appointment a month before. William was in it, as was Vance. Instead of Troy, the glum looking boy, Tracy stood in his usual spot. Her smile seemed to be infectious. Her husband, son and herself all wore a smile just like it. Maggie rested the picture on her desk and picked up her sandwich. She began thinking about how things had changed when Tracy came out. The confidence, the happy demeanor. She could remember the trip to Livermore, the first one. The young girl had talked non-stop till they reached Tracy, the town. After a few hours of hell, when the child thought she should be Troy while at Shelly's place, Tracy came back and was brighter then before.

She tucked the photo back into her wallet and put it back in her purse. And went back to her sandwich as the front door to the office opened up. Her boss strode in. He was an older man, just near fifty. The first glance at him always made people think of Santa Claus. He was fat. Not huge, but round in the belly. His hair was short and white and he had grown a beard, which he did at the start of September. He'd shave after the first of the year, but it was his way of spreading Christmas cheer. The fact he wore a Santa hat didn't hurt the look either. The only thing missing was the rest of the suit. Instead of bright red, he had a gray jumpsuit with a blue patch that bore his company’s name. Below that was his name. “Chris.”

“Maggie.” His voice was deep and filled with cheer. He pulled out an envelope and handed it to her. “Three more payments in there. You can wait on the deposit. I'll hit the bank on the way home after work.”

“Oh, thank you Santa.” She replied with a smile.

“Ho ho ho.” He smiled. “I just figured you've been working hard and I got things to do in town, so I can hit the bank while I'm there.”

“Thank you very much.”

“But there's one more thing.” He went to the closet that also served as his office and came back a few minutes later. “I know I was gone by time you got here and I don't feel good about just leaving these out. But could you get these to the guys as they come in?” He handed her several envelopes. “It's a bonus for the hard work they've done. I figured get them out now, in case we all got more shopping to do.”

“Sure.” She took them and placed them in her desk.

“And here's yours.” He handed her a greeting card shaped envelope. “It's my way of saying thank you.” He held out his other hand

She took the card and shook his hand. “Thank you, Chris.”

“Hey, it's Mr. Kringle to good girls.” He said and gave a good Santa laugh. “Speaking of good kids, how's your youngest.”

“Good.” She stopped herself before she slipped. Chris was one of many who didn't know about Tracy. He knew about the attacks and the extra stitches, but nothing else. “He's in Livermore visiting family friends.”

“Still getting better?” Chris asked.

Maggie nodded. “Slowly. But he'll be able to go back to school after the break.”

“Good. Sorry he got hurt.” He handed her one more envelope. “This is for your family, from my wife.” He said. “It's more for the kids, but the card is to all of you.”

“Thank you.” Maggie said. This time she went around the desk and broke a rule of contact she kept at work. She rarely did more then a hand shake, but this called for more. So she hugged Chris. “Thank you very much.”

“You're welcome.” He said. As Maggie let him go he smiled once more. “Well I need to get moving again. Got another job. If you want, you can leave at five.”

“Thank you.” She sat back at her desk and put the cards into her purse. “I'll let Troy know you asked about him.”

“Good. And tell him to be nice.” The old man headed for the door. “Not too late to change my list.” He joked as he headed out.

~o~O~o~

William had finished his shift and was on his way to the door of the mill when his boss, Steven came jogging up. “William!” He called out. “Hold up a minute!”

William stopped and waited as the man came over. “Steven. I thought you were gone already.”

“Headed out when I get home. We packed the car last night.” William started walking and the other man fell in step. “Headed to Reno tonight to pick up the wife's cousin, then it's all the way to Phoenix.”

“A bit far to drive after a full day of work, isn't it?” William looked at him for a moment, then they continued on to their cars.

“Well, I meant stay there for the night, then to Phoenix.” Steven clarified.

“Ah. Sounds like a plan.” They reached Steven's car an William stopped. “So how can I help you?”

“I was just wondering how your youngest was doing? It was the youngest that got attacked, right?” Steven asked.

William wasn't surprised that he knew. The whole plant managed to find out the day after the attack. Many of the men that worked there were on Troy's side, mostly because of the amount of information they had. William was sure it would be different if they knew what his child had been wearing. He had made sure to up-play the fact that Troy had defended his grandmother and mother, keeping all mention of Tracy to himself.

“Yeah, it was Troy.” William nodded.

“He also got hurt again, right? One of the ladies in the main office, Susan, has a kid that goes to school with him.”

“Yeah. Someone tripped him and tore out his stitches.” William replied.

“Ow. They suspend that ass?” Steven asked.

“Yeah, but not long enough.” William stated. “It's our own fault for letting Troy go back without a wheelchair, or something. Not that he could have worked it alone with just one good wrist.”

“What all happened to him, if you don't mind me asking?” Steven leaned against his car.

“I don't mind, but Troy may. Although I think he'll understand.” William took a deep breath, and let it out. The mental pains of that day were still with him. “He had a sprained wrist, pretty bad too. Plus they broke a few ribs.”

“Oh...I don't envy the pain he's in. I had broken ribs at his age too and it sucked. Was during the summer time.” Steven stated. “But at least that's easily cured, if he takes it easy. To hear what Susan was saying, it was worse.”

“It was.” William nodded. “This doesn't leave the two of us, Okay?”

“You got my word. If it's personal, maybe you should keep it to yourself.” Steven said.

“I...I need to tell someone. I know I can talk to Maggie, but she's just as emotional about this. They hurt my child, all because he caught them stealing.”

“Wait, stealing?” Steven looked up at the sky for a moment, trying to recall some of the stories he had heard.

“Yeah. He caught a kid and his friend stealing in a class. They fought and Troy and Vance got suspended, that was around Thanksgiving.”

“Ahhhh.” Steven drew out the word as he remembered the day he had called William into his office. “That's when you were having troubles with your kids, right?”

“Yeah.” William nodded.

“I hope you weren't mad that he stopped the thieving.”

William smiled and shook his head. “No. My sons made me proud that day. Troy for stopping a thief and Vance for finally sticking up for his brother. There were just other issues as well going on that I needed to work out.”

“I'm guessing you got them figured out?” Steven asked.

“Yeah.”

“So, these kids he caught stealing were the ones that came to your house?” William nodded. “So they thought they'd get revenge on his tattling on them? Steven asked, trying to figure out the whole situation.

“Yep.” William said.

“So other than the bad wrist and ribs, what else did they do?”

“They hurt him bad enough to force the doctors into an emergency orchiectomy.” William stated.

Steven's face turned a slight green color and he blinked in surprise. “Please tell me that asshole kid is in jail.”

William nodded again. “Yeah. They also attacked my mother.”

“Your...Your mother?” Steven's look of shock stayed.

“Yeah. She came out to defend Troy when they had him down.” Tears formed in William's eyes as he forced himself to recall that day. “But when they hit her, Troy got pissed. They had already done the damage to him, so how he managed to stand again is beyond me. But he managed to fight off two of them in that state, until his friend, my wife and my father got there.”

“Wow.” Steven shook his head in disbelief. If it had been anyone else, he would have refused to believe it. But it went along with some of the stories that Susan said she heard from her kids. “So when he got tripped...he tore out those stitches?”

“Yeah. All of them came out.” William answered.

“Damn.” Steven ran a hand through his hair as he tired to place himself in Troy's shoes. “Well I'll admit it, you got one strong kid there. You must be damn proud. Placing his own safety on the line for his grandmother. Wow.”

“I am proud. Troy....Troy is the kind of person I want him to be.” William said.

“Well you tell him I hope he gets better.” Steven gave William a smile.

“I will.” William nodded.

Steven stood up straight and held out his hand. “You have a good Christmas and I'll see you after the new year.”

“Yeah, see you then.” William shook Steven's hand. “Thanks for listening.”

“Not a problem. Now we should get home, before our wives send out the search parties.”

William chuckled. “Yeah. Drive safe.” He waited till his boss was in the car, then he headed for his own.

~o~O~o~

William sat at the kitchen table with his wife and Vance for dinner. Each of them seemed to have set seating arrangements. Maggie and Tracy sat on the side of the table nearest the stove. Tracy used to sit closest to the window, but since she had taken over the cooking, Maggie and her switched seats. And on the days that Maggie cooked, Tracy usually helped with dinner and dishes. Vance always took the window on the side of the table with his father. One of the up points to Tracy and Maggie switching seats was Vance couldn't start kicking wars under the table anymore, not without hitting the center support of the table.

With no Tracy there, dinner was set back till Maggie got home. It had been an easy dinner, just hotdogs in Mac and cheese. They had ate in almost silence. The only sounds that filled the kitchen were from them eating and a little radio that was playing Christmas music.

Halfway through the meal, Maggie reached over and touched her husband’s hand. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” He nodded as he looked up at her. “Why?”

“Because, you keep staring at Tracy's chair.” Maggie stated. “Missing her?”

“Yeah. It's just been way too quiet the past few days.” He hooked a thumb to his eldest child. “Even Vance has been too quiet.”

“Not my fault.” He said through a mouth of food. “Been helping Grandpa all day then I come home and I'm beat.”

“Good. Hard work has it's up-points.” William said with a grin.

“So are we all going to get Tro...Tracy in Livermore?” Vance asked, looking up from his food.

“Why?” William smiled at him. “Want to go see a certain little redhead?” Vance's cheeks burned a bright red and he put his attention on to his plate.

“I don't know.” Maggie replied. “I may be taking your Grandmother with me. Your Dad has to work.”

“Can I go?” Vance asked.

“I'll need to talk to Tracy about that.” Maggie replied. “If Modine goes, she'll need the front seat and Tracy may need to stretch out in the back.”

“But she will need help moving stuff.” Vance said.

“And Sage may be there.” William chuckled.

“We'll see, Vance.” Maggie said.

Next time will be Tracy's last few days in Livermore, then it's Christmas!