Chapter twenty-nine

The next day Kris woke up close to noon. She yawned while she walked downstairs. It had been really late last night or better this morning and she was sure Jon would freak out when she’d come home. To her surprise he was sitting completely calm in the living room, playing guitar and asked her whether she had a nice evening. She shook her head. She would never understand parents.

“Morning. Sleepy head.” Jon greeted her when she entered the kitchen.

“Morning.” Kris mumbled and reached for the coffee pot. Jon grinned. Talking to her before she had at least one cup of coffee was impossible. She was very much his daughter in this point.

“So, any plans for today?” he asked her when she sat down at the table with her second cup of coffee and some pancakes she warmed up in the microwave.

“No. I thought I’ll spend some time with my family.” She winked at him. He grinned. “Mom said something about baking cookies. Where is she btw?”

“She took Jesse and Steph to see Santa Claus in the shopping mall, but they should be back in a little while.” Jon smiled. “How about we build a snowman later?” He asked sipping his coffee.

“Snowman?” Kris looked at him surprised. “Don’t you need snow for that?”

“Well, sweetie, what do you thing is that white stuff coming from the sky out there?” he laughed.

Kris’ head snapped up and she stared out of the kitchen window. Thick white snowflakes were falling from the sky and hit the ground silently. “Oh my God!” she screamed and ran out of the kitchen.

“Uhm…sweetie?” Jon got up and followed her irritated. When he entered the hallway a cold gust of wind hit him. “What the…? KRIS!” he yelled after her, but she didn’t react at all. He grabbed Kris’ and his coat and walked through the open front door.

“Come here and put the jacket on.” He yelled again. But Kris didn’t listen she was standing in the middle of the front yard and stared up in the sky, the soft flakes were landing on her face.

Jon shook his head and walked over to her. “Put that on!” Without even looking at him Kris got into the coat and let Jon close it for her.

“It’s so great, dad.” She whispered. He watched her fascinated. She had such a dreamy and relaxed expression on her face and she looked so cute with some snowflakes stuck in her hair. Carefully he put his arms around her and pulled her close. She leaned back against his warm body and together they watched the snow fall silently covering the trees and the house.

“It has something really peaceful.” She said after a while. Jon nodded and brushed the snow of her head.

“Yeah, it does. But it’s also freaking cold. Come on let’s go inside again. You aren’t wearing boots but only your slippers.” He pulled her softly with him.

“But dad it’s so beautiful.” She pouted and tried to get out of his embrace. He shook his head. There was the little girl again and not the sixteen year old young woman.

“Kris, we can go out later again with Steph and Jesse, but right now we need to warm up.” It seemed the logic wasn’t quite working for her right now, because she pulled back again. He shook his head again and scooped her up easily. She screamed surprised when Jon picked her up in his arms.

“DAD!” she finally seemed to come back to reality. “Let me down.” Her hands pushed at his shoulders.

“Uh, uh…” Jon said and laughed when she tried to get down. But he was much stronger than her. Finally she gave up and put her arms around his neck. He kissed her cheek softly. Over his shoulder she watched the white landscape a little longer while he carried her back into the warm house.


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A while later Dot and the kids returned home. Kris greeted them in the hallway and jumped around all excited.

“Mom! It’s snowing. Can we go out? Can we? Please.” Dot watched her surprised. Her stepdaughter didn’t act like a sixteen year teenager, but a six year old girl.

“How about we make the cookies first and go out while they cool off.” Dot suggested and watched confused when Jon put his arms around Kris’ waist and pulled her back from the still open front door.

“Later.” He said with a stern look on his face. “And with coat and boots, please.” Kris pouted and joined her siblings in the living room who wanted to tell her everything about Santa Claus.

“What was that about?” Dot asked when she shrugged off her coat. Jon grabbed it and placed a small kiss on her cheek.

“Well, she don’t like wearing shoes in December…” Jon said. Dot laughed.

“Well, don’t we know that from another little lady?” She turned to her husband and shook her head about this special dreamy expression on his face. Dot sighed and grabbed a notepad and a pencil and handed it to him.

“Write it down, honey.” She said and shook her head again. The two sisters were more alike than she thought so far.

“Uh? Yeah.” Jon started scribbling on the pad.

“Ok, who wants to make cookies?” Dot asked when she entered the living room.

“ME! ME! ME!” Steph screamed and bounced around on the coach. Kris laughed. She was as excited as her little sis about the cookie baking, but tried to control herself, even though she’d never made cookies before.

“Ok.” Dot looked around. “Where’s Jesse?”

“He went upstairs. I go and get him.” Kris said and walked upstairs, past her father who was deep in thoughts about this new lyric.

“Jess? Jesse, where are you? We wanna make the cookies now.” Kris walked through the hallway and stopped at his room, but he wasn’t there. She frowned. “Jesse?” A sound came from her room and she walked closer. “Jesse?”

She entered her room and stared at her brother. In the next second her scream echoed through the house. Dot and Jon stared at each other for one moment then dropped whatever they had in their hands right now and raced upstairs.

“KRIS?” Jon yelled and ran into her room Dot right behind him. The picture that was present to him was a shock. Kris was staring at her little brother who stood in the middle of her room and had her guitar in his small hands. Well, parts of it. The instrument was broken into three pieces. The neck was separated from the body; only connect with it through the strings. The body itself was crashed; a huge crack was visible on the back of it.

Kris wasn’t able to speak. She opened her mouth, but no sound was coming out. She wasn’t even sure she screamed, but it must have been her, she was the only here. “Wha…” the words weren’t coming out, but slowly the shock subsided and Dot could see her hands clenching to fists.

“Jesse, come here.” Dot told her son in a strict voice. He put the neck down and walked past Kris to his mother, looking at her with huge sad eyes. Dot knew Kris’ temper would show in the next minutes and she wasn’t sure Jesse should be around then. Jon looked at his wife and nodded.

“Kris, I’m sorry.” He said after Dot and Jesse left. He kneeled down and picked the neck up carefully. A creaky sound could be heard. Kris winced.

“Can…can …can we fix it?” she asked with a trembling voice.

“I don’t think so, sweetie. The body is broken; it would never sound the same again.” Kris kneeled down beside him. Her hands ran softly over the dark shining body.

“I can’t throw her away.” Tears were streaming down her face now. “I worked more than two years to buy her. Some days I even saved the money and didn’t eat. I can’t throw her away. I can’t.” Jon watched her shocked. He had no idea what she’d done to get the guitar. That explains her reaction.

“Maybe we can make a piece of art out of it?” Jon suggested. “You could put her on your wall.” Kris nodded and grabbed the neck carefully. She gripped the strings and strummed them softly with her right hand, but the sound was awful. She winced again and dropped the neck.

“What the fuck was he doing in here?” she asked her father anger suddenly in her voice. “This is not his room. Why was he in here?” She got up and wanted to leave her room. Jon jumped up as well and grabbed her right arm.

“Kris. Wait!” She turned to him with darting eyes. “Calm down, first.”

“Why? Why should I calm down? He messed things up. I wanna know what he was doing in here. Why the hell should I calm down?” She nearly screamed.

“Because he’s three.” Jon said as calmly as possible. He knew it wasn’t easy for her. It wasn’t easy for him either, but he learned a couple years ago that yelling at a small kid wouldn’t help at all.

Kris ran her hand through her hair and pinched the bridge of her nose. She sighed deeply, her shoulder slumped. Jon let go of her arm.

“You are mad, I can understand that, and please believe me we will talk with Jesse, actually I’m sure Dot is already doing it, but there’s no use in it when you yell at him now. He will be scared and start crying and you will feel bad later for making him cry, believe me, I know what I’m talking about.” With horror he remembered the day he lost his temper and yelled at Steph when she was three, because she dropped a PB&J sandwich on his note sheets.

Kris nodded and leaned her head against his shoulder. He pulled her into his arms and held her tight when she started sobbing. He could understand her. It saddened his heart everytime he saw a broken guitar and considering what she did to get it, it was only understandable that she was more than upset. He sighed. And all that two days before Christmas.