Trading Christmas - Debbie Macomber [34]
This was crazy. Ludicrous. Still, it was all she could do not to behave in the most infantile manner. If she was going to behave like a child, then she might as well join the children. This close to Christmas, they had a lot of pent-up energy.
Dressed in hat, gloves and her coat once again, Faith went outside. The snow on the front lawn was untouched. A fresh layer had fallen overnight, and with time on her hands, she made an impulsive decision to build a snowman. She grinned as she looked at the specimen in the neighbor’s yard.
Starting with a small hand-size ball of snow, she rolled it across the lawn, letting it grow larger and fuller with each sweep.
“Do you want me to help?” Sarah asked, appearing at her side.
Sarah was a favorite of Emily’s, Faith knew. As the youngest in a big family, she’d learned to hold her own.
“I sure do.”
The little girl beamed as Faith resumed the snow-rolling task. “The bottom part of the snowman has to be the biggest,” Sarah pointed out, obviously taking on supervisory responsibilities. “Right.”
“Dylan says it’s the most important part, too.”
Dylan, if Faith remembered correctly, lived down the street and was a good friend to one of the Kennedy boys.
“Are you building a fort?” Thomas shouted, hurrying across the street from the park. He abandoned his sled near the front porch.
“This is a nice friendly snowman,” Faith assured him.
Thomas narrowed his eyes. “Looks more like a snow fort to me.”
“It’s a ball,” Sarah primly informed her brother, hands on her hips. “Anyone can see that.”
“I don’t think so.” Thomas raced over to his own yard and started rolling snow. He was quickly joined by his brothers. The boys worked feverishly at constructing their fort.
Sarah and Faith hurried to catch up, changing their tactics. There were four boys against the two of them, but what they lacked in numbers they made up for in cunning. While Faith built their defensive wall, Sarah rolled snowballs, stacking them in neat piles out of sight of her brothers.
“Now, boys,” Faith said, standing up and strolling to the middle of the battleground between their two yards. “I’m telling you right now that it’s not a good thing to pick a fight with girls.”
“Yeah, because they tattle.”
“Do not,” Sarah screeched.
“Do, too.”
Faith stretched out her arms to silence both sides. “Sarah and I were innocently building a friendly snowman for Mrs. Springer’s front yard when we were accused of constructing a snow fort.”
“It is a snow fort,” Thomas insisted, pointing accusingly at the wall of snow.
“It became one when you started building yours,” Faith said. “But before we go to war, I feel honor bound to look for some means of making peace.”
“No way!” Mark cried.
“Hear me out,” Faith urged. “First of all, it’s unfair. There are more of you than of us.”
“I ain’t going over to the girls’ side,” Mark protested.
“We don’t want any boys, anyway,” Sarah shouted back.
Again Faith silenced them. “You don’t want peace?”
“No!” Thomas tossed a snowball straight up and batted it down with his hand as if to prove his expertise.
“Forget it,” Mark seconded.
“Then we have to make it a fair fight.”
The boys were silent, apparently waiting for one of them to volunteer. No one did.
“I suggest that in order to even things up, the boys’ side is restricted to the use of one hand. Agreed?”
The boys grinned and nodded.
“Your left hand,” she added.
Their laughter and snickers quickly died out. “Ah, come on…”
Not giving the group a chance to argue, Faith tossed the first snowball, which landed just short of the snow fortification. Before the boys had time to react, she raced back to Sarah. The little girl was crouched behind the shelter and had accumulated a huge pile of snowballs.
Soon they were all laughing and pelting each other with snow. Faith managed to land several wildly thrown snowballs, but she was on the receiving end just as often. At one point she glanced toward the house and saw Charles looking out the living-room window.
Oh, no. Even a snowball fight was too much racket for him.