Chapter 4
“Um…mum, can I have $20 of my money please, I want to buy Buffy a Mickey Mouse” William asked. Joyce smiled, cupped his little face.
“Oh, do you, that’s lovely!”
“Here, I’ll…” Joyce put her hand over Hank’s wallet.
“Let him buy it…” she whispered something, and Hank agreed. William went and bought Buffy the toy, and gave it to her.
Buffy immediately hugged and kissed him, proudly showing her mom and dad just what ‘her’ William had bought for her, ‘with his own money’ she told them.
Buffy looked at her William with such love and admiration. When they were walking back to the hotel, (hand in hand, obviously) she announced, very matter–of-factly, that she loved William very much, and one day, she’d marry him.
“Is that right… but will William want to marry you?” Joyce asked, smiling.
“Oh yes, I expect I will!” William said nodding seriously. And he and Buffy walked on ahead, leaving Hank and Joyce beaming at each other.
Back in the hotel room, Joyce noticed a leaflet on the bed, put there by the housekeeping maid.
There was to be a big firework and spectacular laser display that evening, but it was quite late, the time the children were usually going to bed. The display to start at 8.45pm
“Look, if you two go have a nap now, you can stay up late and see the fireworks, ok?” They nodded, and both went and lay on William’s bed, and fell fast asleep, Buffy clutching her Mickey Mouse in one hand, and William’s hand in the other.
“Best thing we ever did…fostering him” Hank said, leaning against the doorjamb, looking at the two children.
“Hear, hear! You know…I often think………I’d have loved to have seen him as a baby…I bet he was adorable…he still is…he’s such a thoughtful little boy…” Joyce said softly, standing next to her husband. Hank smiled and nodded.
“So, what did you say for me to do, about the money?” Hank asked.
“Give them both $50 vacation pocket money, then they won’t be out of pocket, because Buffy will bound to want to buy ‘her’ William something too now”
“Good idea, I’ve got some new $10 bills, I’ll give them it when they wake up.
“Coffee?” Joyce asked
“Hmm, love some…think I’ll have a bit of a nap myself, and have a look at the crossword first though”
That evening, after dinner in one of the many restaurants, they went over to Beauty’s Castle, and watched the firework and laser display. They all loved it, and Hank had videoed some of it. Buffy held onto William’s hand, especially tight when there were some loud bangs.
The holiday flew by, and soon the day to go home dawned. They could still have the day as their flight wasn’t until teatime, and Buffy wanted to buy William a present.
Hank had bought them all baseball caps and tee shirts with ‘Disney World, Florida on the front, and they loved walking around all looking the same! William and Buffy had had photos taken with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald Duck, Snow White and William ‘pretend’ saved Buffy from the Wicked Queen’s evil clutches by having a gentle tug-of-war with her!
Joyce and Hank were just as big a kids, and had lots of photos taken too, as well as Hank doing lots of video footage. Buffy bought William a big stuffed ‘Simba’ lion cub toy, he loved it.
They had a good flight, although it was delayed for two hours, and by the time they got back to Revello Drive, the two children were asleep.
“Just look at them…it’s been the best holiday we’ve ever had, don’t you think?”
Hank said, pressing a little kiss to William’s forehead.
***************************
It was mid December, and Hank was coming home one evening when he saw trips to visit Santa in Switzerland – having just received a nice Christmas bonus, he decided to book a trip, just three days, but it would be something they could look back on…………
Joyce thought it a wonderful idea when he told her what he’d done, meanwhile, the holiday was nearly upon them, and Joyce was making the costumes for the school play.
The day of the play arrived, and after many rehearsals, the children were all word-perfect………
William strode onto the stage, flipped his cape and said,
“The Princess Beauty sleeps, I shall wake her with a kiss” He walked around the bed and leant over, giving Buffy a kiss on the lips. Buffy, as Princess Beauty, sat up and said,
“My handsome prince! You have broke my wicked step-mother’s spell” he helped her out of bed, and then dropped onto one knee.
“Princess Beauty, will you marry me?”
“Oh sweet prince, yes, I will marry you!” He stood, and then they kissed again and the curtain came down to thunderous applause. Joyce and Hank grinned at each other, as they clapped.
The curtain rose and all the children took a bow, and there were loud whistles and cheers and louder applause. William and Buffy held hands, and then walked to the front of the stage and took a bow.
The audience went wild applauding, banging their feet, whistling and cheering as loud as they could. Both children were beaming.
The curtain came down again and all the children left the stage, and got changed. Joyce came backstage and grinned at her children. She squatted down, and held out her arms and hugged her two children to her..
“Did you like it mommy?” Buffy asked smiling.
“Oh, we thought it was wonderful!” Joyce beamed.
“Did you know, it’s been video taped, we shall buy three copies, one for us to keep, and one to send to both of your nana’s and Tom, shall we?”
“Oh yes please!” William said.
“Are you going to take the lipstick and eyeshadow off?”
“No…leave it ‘til I get home” Buffy said. She took William’s hand and they went into the assembly hall to find their daddy.
“Daddy!” Buffy said. Her father turned and smiled.
“And here’s my little prince and princess!” The man he was talking to smiled.
“Your children eh?”
“They sure are…”
“Still in character, by the looks of things, she’s still holding his hand!”
“Oh, they’re always like that, and he’s ‘her’ William, right from the day we first fostered him” Hank said.
“Oh, he’s fostered! I thought he didn’t have an American accent”
A man with a camera came over to Buffy and William.
“Smile!” They both looked up and smiled.
“Give her a kiss for the camera” the man said, so William did.
“That’s so sweet!”
Joyce put her name down for three videos, and she gathered the children up and they went home. The next morning she was surprised to see Buffy and William on the front of the local paper, in costume, kissing!
“Well, have you seen this?” She held it out for Hank to see. He grinned as he did up his tie.
“They look so darn cute!”
Hank grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair, and began to put it on as he walked to the bottom of the stairs.
“Will, Buffy, I’m going now” he called up. Both children thundered down the stairs, and kissed had hugged Hank.
“Go look what mom’s got” The two children went into the dining room. Joyce came through to the hall, giving her husband his briefcase, and kissing him.
“See if you can get some more copies of the paper, will you?”
“Sure, now, I must fly, bye love, bye kids!”
“Bye!” The two chorused together. When Joyce got into the dining room, she saw Buffy and William looking at the picture.
“Mommy…who’s um…Rom, erm, Romeo and Julie?”
“Who?”
Buffy pointed to the paragraph in the paper.
“Oh, Romeo and Juliet…well it’s a very old play, written by William Shakespeare, have you heard of him?”
“I have! I went to Stratford, where he came from once” William said.
“Did you, baby?”
“But who are they?” Buffy persisted.
“Oh well, they loved each other very much, and wanted to be together” Joyce explained, thinking that that was enough info. She didn’t want to scare them by saying too much.
“Like I love William?” Buffy said.
“Oh yes” Joyce said, then she added,
“Come on now, let’s get you some breakfast”
“Can we phone nana?” Buffy asked.
“Um…it’s a bit early yet, she’ll be having breakfast herself now, then she feeds the chickens. How about, you have your breakfast, watch a few cartoons, and then phone her nearer lunch time”
“Ok”
It was the last day of school before the Christmas holidays, and there was no proper schoolwork being done. William and Buffy were sitting at one of the tables, with Willow and Xander.
“But don’t you get presents?” Buffy asked, big eyed.
“Yes…but we don’t think that the baby Jesus was special like you do” Willow explained
“Oh”
“Were going to my aunty Bernice and uncle Saul’s for the holidays…uncle Saul is my daddy’s brother. They live in…Oregon…”
“But…you don’t have a Christmas tree?” Willow shook her head, and Buffy and William looked surprised.
“Ok children…you can get your coats now…Happy holidays everyone”
**********************************
“But mommy, why doesn’t Willow have a Christmas tree?”
“Because, well, they’re Jewish, and they have different beliefs. Remember how she can’t eat certain things”
“Oh yes, I remember, she couldn’t eat the sausages at the barbecue!” William said.
“That’s right, remember that special candlestick they have, it’s called a –“
”Menorah…Mrs Rosenberg told me…” William said.
The telephone rang
“Hello”
“Hi darling…just thought I let you know, I’ll be home early, we can go shopping tonight if you like, the shops are open ‘till midnight”
“Ok, but what about the kids?”
“Mom’ll watch them, plus, it’ll get her out of the house…she’s getting more and more housebound, and I’m a little worried about her”
“She had a nasty fall Hank…it’ll take time”
“I know, but that was September…I’ve phoned her anyway, I’ll pick her up on the way home, ok?”
“Fine”
“Do you want me to get anything, on the way, food wise?”
“No, no. I’ve got a big pack of pork steaks”
“Ok then, see you in about an hour”
“Buffy, William, daddy will be bringing nana Summers home with him, as we’ll be going out shopping. Now, you want pizza for tea?”
“Yes please…is nana’s leg better?” William asked.
“Getting better darling…so be good for her, won’t you?” both children nodded.
*************************
“Hi, have they been good?” Hank asked his mother as they came in laden with Christmas shopping. Both children were fast asleep on the sofa.
“Golden…William even washed up!…”
“He’s a very good boy”
“Listen…I want to talk to both of you”
“Ok…shall I put the kettle on first”
“I’ll carry the children up to bed”
***************************
On the 18th of December, the family pulled up on the airport parking lot…
“Where are we going?” Buffy asked, excitedly
“You’ll see!”
***************************
“William, look!” Buffy was looking excitedly out of the window of the log cabin at the falling snow.
Huge feathery flakes floated down, and she couldn’t wait to get outside and play in it. Sleepily William woke up and rubbed his eyes. He saw the unfamiliar surroundings, and remembered that they were on holidays in the mountains. He threw back the bedclothes and joined Buffy at the window, they linked hands.
He smiled, Buffy rubbed the glass where her breath had steamed it up.
“Real snow!” she said, beaming at him.
“Haven’t you ever seen snow before?” William grinned.
“No…only in my snow dome, or on the TV” Both children had been carried into the log cabin fast asleep the previous evening, so they hadn’t seen it until now.
“Well, it’s very cold…like when we bring in the ice cream containers in from the car and hold it in our hands” William explained. They saw a man with what looked like a couple of tennis racquets tied to his feet take big deep strides in the snow, throwing up cloudy little puffs of powdery flakes.
“It looks deep!”
“Would it come to over our heads?” Buffy asked, wide eyed.
“Suppose it could, in the drifts, where the wind blows it”
“Oh, you’re awake then!” They both turned to look at the doorway at the sound of Joyce’s voice.
“Mommy, it’s snowing!” Buffy said excitedly running to her.
“I know…”
“Can we go out and play in it, please?” Buffy asked
“Well, first of all, get dressed, have some breakfast, then we can all go out”
“Where to?”
“You’ll soon see, you’ll love it”
“Will we be able to play?”
“Later, yes, now come on, quickly, get dressed” The two children did as they were told, putting on thick warm clothes, although the cabin was very warm and triple glazed to keep out the chills. In the main room there was a real fire as well as the central heating, making the place really cosy.
After a warming breakfast of hot oats with honey and some toast that Hank made by holding pieces of bread over the flames of the fire (which both children thought was amazing) Joyce got them into warm fleecy jackets and fur lined boots.
She also gave them some warm gloves and they were told not to take them off, else their hands would hurt. Tying scarves around the hoods of their coats so that they wouldn’t fall down, the children could suddenly hear excited dogs barking.
“Ok Joyce, it’s here” Hank called. She came into the hallway, pulling on gloves like the children. Hank pulled up his hood and they went outside. The cold air stung their cheeks, and Joyce was helped up onto a sledge.
Then both Buffy and William were lifted onto the sledge and sat either side of her, Hank climbed on and sat facing them. Everyone was smiling. The driver got on and waved a light whip in the air, and shouted something, there was a sudden lurch, and they started to slide over the soft powdery snow.
They passed hundreds of huge fir trees, all covered in snow, and they could see the mountains higher up, and down below them they could see a little town, all twinkling and glistening in the snow. They passed other sledges coming back up the mountain, and people waved at them.
There were people skiing, snowboarding and in the distance they could see a cable cars slowly looping round taking people up the mountain so they could ski down. They all heard a loud noise, and a man whizzed passed them on what looked like a jet ski, like the ones they’d seen on holiday in Florida.
Hank explained that it was similar, but called a ‘skidoo’. Buffy cuddled tight into her mom when she looked out and saw how far the mountains dropped down, it was very steep.
She reached for William’s hand across her mother’s lap. After about five minutes, they were at the bottom of the mountain, and in the little town. The driver pulled the sledge up outside a big log cabin, covered in lights of blue and green, red and yellow. Music was playing, and they could see that there were dozens of cuckoo clocks in the window.
Hank paid the driver, and he helped his wife and children down from the seats. Buffy was fascinated how she could ‘see’ her breath come out in steamy puffs, it never got cold enough in California for it to do that.
There were lots of people walking about, people carrying skis or walking with those funny shaped racquets on their feet.
“Daddy, why is that man wearing tennis racquets on his feet for?” Both he and Joyce smiled.
“They’re not tennis racquets love, they are called snow-shoes, when walking over deep powdery snow, they help to stop you falling over by going too deep, makes the feet seem so much bigger for easier balance” Hank explained.
Buffy and William seemed happy enough at this explanation. They spent a couple of hours walking round and shopping, Joyce bought chocolate, some cheese and wine and a fondue set.
They went into a café and had hot chocolate and apfelstrudel, with big piped rosettes of cream on top. The two children were laughing at Joyce, who was eating slowly, groaning with delight, savouring each sinful mouthful with her eyes closed.
“Gods…I’m going to be in the gym for simply hours when I get home, I’m going to get so fat!”
“But it’ll be worth it!” Hank said, he too enjoying the rich treat. Joyce just smiled, nodded slowly with her eyes closed. William and Buffy ate theirs without a qualm! Hank offered to buy Joyce a cuckoo clock, but Joyce said that little bird on a spring popping out every quarter hour would drive her cuckoo, making the children laugh.
So Hank bought Joyce a watch instead. Walking to the end of the village, there was a sign written in various languages, and all four of them walked down a narrow little alleyway to come upon a clearing, where a man was cutting at a huge block of ice with an electric carving knife! On the ground were various other statues already carved, and much to their surprise, after gouging out chunks and shaving off layers of ice, the man took a blowtorch to various parts. That made it melt and become crystal clear.
After watching him for a few minutes, (there were quite a few people watching and walking around) they looked at what the man had already done. There was a young boy and girl, he’d named ‘Hansel and Gretl, some leaping dolphins, a swan, a train, a car, and his piece de-la-resistance, a castle, with turrets, just like Beauties Castle in Disney world.
Buffy was transfixed, it was as clear as crystal, and so beautiful!
“Oh mommy…look William…there’s a princess at the window!” After dropping a few coins into the ‘artists’ hat, they made their way back to the cuckoo clock shop, to hire a husky sledge ride back up the mountain.
As they got off the sledge outside the cabin, Hank called his wife’s name. She looked up, and a soft snowball thudded lightly on her head. She shrieked, and began to gather snow into a ball to get him back!
The children thought this SO funny, and they too began to gather snow and throw it. Laughing and slipping over, after ten minutes they were all wet and exhausted! They trudged their way back indoors, pulling off wet gloves, scarves etc. as they went.
“There you go love, that would have worked off that apfelstrudel!” Hank said grinning at his wife. She whispered that she’d get him back later; she had a twinkle in her eye. Hank grabbed her and pulled her close, whispered into her neck.
“You wait until the children are in bed…”
Grinning, Joyce turned seductively, and whispered,
“No, YOU wait!” She let her hand drop, and gave his thigh a squeeze.
“Come on Buffy, Will, let’s get you two into some dry clothes!” Joyce called, and Hank went and hung up their wet things in the special drying room.
They all had a nap, and then they played a board game, and read books, Buffy and William drew pictures to send to their nanas, and at six o’clock, Joyce cooked them some tea. They had roast chicken, and some jacket potatoes, and then Joyce called William and Buffy into the main room.
They both thought it was to get undressed to go to bed, although they were not tired. To their surprise and excitement, Joyce had their going out clothes ready.
They were all dry again and she stood in front of Buffy holding her coat out for her to put on.
“Where are we going?” Buffy asked big-eyed, quickly slipping her arms into the sleeves. Hank was helping William.
“This is the main reason we came here…now, remember when we got you to write a letter to Santa?” Both children nodded seriously.
“Well…you wait and see!” Joyce said, smiling up at her daughter as she did up the last button on her coat. There was a knock at the door.
“Ready, Joyce?” Hank called out.
“Coming…come on love” Joyce encouraged Buffy to go outside. The sky was dark blue, and the stars twinkled in the night sky.
In fact, all four of them were spellbound when they got outside. There was a huge sleigh bedecked with twinkling lights, and little bells that jingled as the animals snorted and nodded their heads, eager to be off.
The animals in question, were real reindeer! A man touched his hat in respect at them, and they got inside the sleigh. They had their photographs taken. Buffy and William sat together, holding hands, absolutely agog in total wonderment.
“Do you like it?” Hank asked smiling.
“Oh yes, it’s wonderful!” William said.
“Yes!” Buffy said. Hank grinned and winked at them.
“Were are we going?” William asked.
“Look!” Hank said, and he shifted in the seat so the children could see the huge cave that they were being driven into. William read out,
“Santa’s Grotto” They grinned at each other, and then looked around at the sparkling surroundings, with little automatronic elves and animals. The sleigh slowed then stopped altogether. They got out, and walked into the labyrinth, the children holding hands.
“This way please!” a chubby lady dressed as an elf lead them through the sparkling tunnel, until there, before them sat Santa, on a huge chair, all about him were piles and piles of presents, wrapped in shiny paper.
The ‘elf’ went ahead and spoke to Santa.
“Buffy and William! Welcome, welcome, come here my dears…” They looked in total awe, and looked up at their daddy. He was smiling and nodded to them in encouragement. They both walked forward.
It was being videoed.
Santa pulled them onto his lap and began to talk to them; looking at each child in turn. Joyce and Hank could see them nodding and smiling. He said something to them, and they both looked up and waved, their faces beaming. Joyce and Hank waved, they too were beaming.
“What price that love, eh? They look so happy” Hank said. Joyce nodded.
Having given the children a parcel each, they got down off his lap and came back and stood by Hank and Joyce
“Santa said he knew we’d been good, and he knew what we wanted for Christmas!” Buffy said.
“That’s good. Come on then were going back in the sleigh now, but were going round the mountain to see the elf village” William and Buffy held their parents hands, then both pulled free and turned and waved at Santa.
“Bye, Santa, thankyou for the present” William said. The Santa waved and called,
“Bye young William, and Buffy…remember, leave me a cookie and some milk on Christmas eve!”
“We will!” He waved them off, and they got back into the sleigh. It had started to snow again, and both children were trying to catch the huge feathery flakes in their tongues. Both were laughing. They went round the model village, and then back down the mountain to their cabin. They carried their presents inside.
“Right, hot chocolate for the kids, Gluwein for us I think!” Hank said, rubbing his hands together, and set about preparing it. When he bought it in, both Buffy and William were dressed in their nightclothes.
“Thankyou for tonight, it’s been the bestest, ever!” William said. Hank set the tray down and hugged him.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it, son…you’re a very good little boy, and this was to show you how much we love you and Buffy and to reward you for being so good.” William hugged Joyce to. Buffy did the same.
“Can we open our present, please?” Buffy asked.
“Go on then” Joyce said, and with great excitement, both children began to rip the paper off their parcels. Buffy opened her gift. Her eyes were huge and round as she took out a brown soft fur teddy. But it felt heavy.
“What’s inside it, it’s heavy!”
“Oh look, that’s great, look, it’s a radio!” Hank said.
“Let me see!” Buffy said excitedly.
“We’ll have to put some batteries in it, then you can play it in your room! What have you got William?” He opened his box, and took out what looked like two mobile phones.
“Oh, Walkie Talkies!” Hank said.
“Hey, this will be useful, when we want to call you from the kitchen and we can’t find you, we can call you up!”
“Like a mobile!” William said.
“Nice presents!” Joyce said.
“I should think so too! Nothing but the best for our two!” Hank said, smoothing William’s hair. Buffy yawned, then so did William.
“Come on then, finish your chocolate, let’s get you into bed” Joyce said.
“Mommy…how long are we staying here?”
“Well, we have to go home tomorrow…but not until the night time, so in the morning we can go back down to the village, and then have a snowball fight when we come home!” Hank said.
“Yeah!” the children chorused.
“Could we build a snowman?” William asked.
“Sure, we’ll do that, it’ll be fun!” Joyce settled them into bed, and they were soon asleep. Hank stoked the fire, putting on more logs, and refilled their Gluwein glasses. Joyce came through.
“Go say goodnight” Hank did so, Buffy was already asleep, cuddled up to her teddy.
He came out of the room, closed the door.
“Right then Mrs…got you all to myself now…!” Hank said seductively.
“You don’t have to get me drunk to have your wicked way you know!” Joyce said, holding up the full half-pint glass of warm mulled wine. She sipped it.
Hank turned the main lights off, and came and sat by his wife, in the firelight,
“This bearskin rug is so soft…” Hank nuzzled his wife’s neck. She gasped, smiling eyes closed, she began to undo his shirt.
“What about the children?”
“They’re fast asleep, don’t worry” Hank said, giving Joyce’s breast a gentle squeeze. It might have been the wine, but they decided to throw caution to the wind, and they made love on the bearskin rug in front of the fire……
The following morning they took a dog sled down the mountainside to the village, did a little shopping, everything was very expensive. As promised they had a snowball fight when they got home, and just outside the cabin, they built a snowman. Hank folded a hat out of old newspaper, and Buffy and William put some charcoal for eyes and buttons.
Joyce gave them a carrot for his nose, and Hank wrapped his scarf around the neck. Joyce also found a stick with a knobbly bit on the end that looked like a pipe, and stuck it in the mouth of the snowman.
Hank and Joyce took it in turns to video and help the children, they also too some digital photos. At teatime they left for the airport, and Buffy and William were excited to be on an aeroplane again.
Both were fast asleep when Hank carried them out of the taxi into their house.
The next day, Willow and Xander were bought round to play, as it was the school holidays. Joyce felt a little sorry for Willow, her family was Jewish and didn’t celebrate Christmas, but she was fascinated to listen about the sleigh ride and the snowball fights and the snowman.
[Reviews - 321]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 3797 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:
Thankyou, you wonderful people for the feedback, health, wealth, love and happiness to you all.......