The Christmas Bus Read Free Page B

themselves , she thought as she walked up the stone stairs and reached for the bronze handle on the big wooden door.
    “Hello, Edith,” trilled a familiar voice from behind her. Edith turned in time to see her old friend Mrs. Fish standing at the bottom of the stairs. Mrs. Fish had taught fifth grade to both Tommy and Jack before retiring years ago, and now Edith estimated she must be in her nineties, although she kept her exact age secret.
    “Hello,” Edith called back as she retraced her steps down the stairs and, gently placing her hand under the elderly woman’s elbow, helped her to slowly ascend the stairs. “Isn’t it a lovely evening tonight?”
    “Feels like springtime to these old bones.”
    Edith laughed. “Not very Christmas-like though.”
    “Who could know for sure?” said Mrs. Fish when they reached the top step. “Perhaps the good Lord saw fit to warm up the Holy Lands when his son was born that night.”
    Edith considered this as she held the door open. “You could be right, Mrs. Fish. I guess I never thought of it like that.”
    Mrs. Fish removed her gloves, daintily placed them in her smooth leather purse, and looked back up. “That’s probably because so many people assume that Christmas and snow are one and the same, Edith. But the Bible doesn’t specify what sort of weather they actually had on that night when our Savior was born, now does it?”
    Edith nodded. “Now that I think about it, I’m sure that you must be right, Mrs. Fish.”
    Mrs. Fish smiled back. She was accustomed to being right. “Just the same, I do enjoy a white Christmas,” she said.
    “A white Christmas?” said Helen Johnson, coming from the vestibule on the right. “I hardly think so. The ten-day forecast was for fair skies and sunshine.”
    “Well, you never know,” said Edith, although she wasn’t sure that she much cared one way or another, now that her family wouldn’t be around to enjoy it. Oh, how the children, even the grown ones, loved going to One Tree Hill for sledding! They would bundle up in layers of scarves, mittens, and hats, and she would make several thermoses of hot cocoa along with a large tin of sugar cookies, and Charles would build a big bonfire down at the bottom of the hill to warm up by. It was such fun. Well, perhaps it would be just as well if no snow flew this year.
    Edith found her regular seat, second row on the left, next to the aisle, and sat down, waiting for the service to begin. The midweek service was always rather small, generally not more than twenty people in all—only the most devout or those who wished to appear so. Edith watched as Marie Williams made her way to the organ. Marie had shown up in Christmas Valley nearly twenty years ago, after her husband had suddenly died while they were on the road looking for work. Broke and in need of employment, Marie was hired by Edith to help with housework, but when Edith discovered that Marie played the organ, she enticed Charles to hire her on as the church organist. Of course, they couldn’t afford to pay her much, but Marie said she would’ve gladly played for free. Still a young and attractive woman (she had been in her twenties back then), it wasn’t long before Marie married one of the town’s most eligible bachelors, Arnie Williams. And although she no longer needed the job as church organist, she continued to play for all these years out of pure love and loyalty.
    Edith leaned back into the pew, relaxing as she listened to the soothing sound of Marie’s gifted fingers moving gracefully over the keyboard. Ah, what would they do without her? It wasn’t long before Charles made his way to the front of the church and up to the pulpit. As usual, he greeted everyone, made a comment on the warmer than normal weather, and then repeated a humorous story that he’d read in Reader’s Digest (his favorite source for jokes and anecdotes). The congregation laughed politely, and then he led them in a song and began his