Barbara was none too happy with me when she saw the plaster on my hand and even less so when she saw the cut itself.

She insisted on changing the plaster to a white bandage which she said would stop any dirt getting into it, but I just thought it to be a hassle. I had to take the bandage off to take a bath and I thought a plaster would be fine since it was only a cut and not like I almost sliced my hand off. Jonathan tried to talk her out of it, agreeing with me that there was no reason to be melodramatic, but Barbara wasn't having any of it. At all.

"The plaster won't stay on for very long, it was already coming off and it's an awful way to keep germs out," Barbara had said in defence of her outlandish plan.

"A bandage is a little on the dramatic side, Barb. It looks like the poor girl has done something worse than cut it."

"It's only for a few days, just to stop it getting infected. That's the last thing we want."

With that, the conversation and disagreement came to an abrupt end. Even if it would only be for a few days, it felt rather stupid to be walking around with a bandage on my hand when I just had a cut across the back of it. Still, there was to be no changing her mind and I ended up wearing it for a total of two entire days. It could have been longer, but if it had I would have staged a mutiny.

In that time, I had been forbidden from going to the Thompson's farm to work on the sign. Barbara decided it would be too risky to go back with such an open wound on my hand, especially if there would be dust and other things flying around the room. With Christmas getting a little too close for comfort, and with a lot of work to do until the sign would be finished, not having the opportunity to work on it didn't help. I didn't have time to pause.

The pause did offer Jonathan plenty of time to as many questions as possible to try and uncover just what I had been doing. He turned out to be a very impatient man who liked to know everything someone did if it happened to involve him in some way. When I told them that I would be spending most of my time in the Thompson workshop, he had started asking all kinds of different questions and escaping up there every day gave me a bit of respite. Two days away from the project meant he could ask as many questions as he wanted.

"I don't understand how you can do so much around the farm and not get hurt but go off to the Thompson farm and come back with a cut. What exactly are you doing up there?" Jonathan asked over supper.

"I'm not telling."

"Don't you think we deserve to know?"

"As I said, it was a carpentry issue. You don't need to know the specifics."

He groaned. "Not fair."

"Just give it up, Jonathan. Sybil doesn't have to tell you what she's doing up at the Thompson farm and there is probably a good reason why she is keeping it from you. I'm sure you'll find out soon enough."

"But when is soon?"

Barbara sighed. "You're like a child.

Jonathan laughed and winked at me, shovelling a forkful of peas into his mouth but managing to spill a majority of them all over the table. I looked away and distracted myself by cutting up my chicken so I wouldn't laugh and spray food across the table or over Barbara. At least the topic of what I had been doing up at the Thompson workshop had finally been dropped - there were only so many excuses or lies I could come up with before I got confused.

After supper, I helped Barbara with the dishes per my evening chore requirements before Jonathan and I settled down on the sofa for my late night reading lesson. In the few weeks, we had been doing it, I hadn't felt that much of a shift in my reading ability and struggled just as much then as I ever had before. I couldn't help but feel like we were wasting our time, but Jonathan persisted.

He had created a series of cards that had every possible sound a collection of letters could make and had sorted them into various piles. There were so many of them that it was no wonder I often got confused by how certain words were spelt and whether I had been using the right combination of letters or not. How everyone else managed to remember the different sound variations and spellings remained a mystery to one and one I doubted I would have been able to figure out on my own.

Still, the cards were helpful and they definitely made it easier to find the words in the dictionary since I could narrow down the various spellings until I found the word. Jonathan said we could move on to actual books now that we had the sound cards. I knew he meant we would be starting with books that younger children would read, but being able to read one of them would be progress for me. All I wanted to do was surprise Mother and prove that I could read.

The next morning, Barbara permitted me to remove the bandage since the two days had passed. She also agreed that I would be able to return to the Thompson's workshop with the promise that I wouldn't do myself another injury. That was a promise I knew I would have trouble keeping. Despite being permitted to head down to the Thompson's, Jonathan had other ideas.

"It is less than two weeks until Christmas and we don't have a tree," he exclaimed.

"We don't have to get one immediately, Jonathan. It can wait a few days," Barbara said.

"No, we need one now. Since it's Sybil's first Christmas away from home, it is our duty to make it as special as possible and that involves getting a Christmas tree."

Barbara sighed. "Very well. A trip to the Taylor's Christmas tree farm it is then."

"We can drop you off at the Thompson's on our way back, it shouldn't take too long. We can decorate it this evening."

"Sounds good," I said.

"Great! Let's go!"

I shovelled in the last of my breakfast and darted across the living room to grab my coat from the rack. Jonathan led us outside and Barabara and I stood in front of the farmhouse so he could pull the tractor around. When the tractor came to a stop, I scrambled into the back of the wagon with Barbara sitting upfront. Once we were all settled we followed the track away from the farm and towards the Christmas tree farm.

At home, Dad would often collect a Christmas tree on his way home from the docks so I never had the chance to visit a farm or pick a tree out for myself. Like most things in the country, this would be a new experience for me and I intended to enjoy it. Well, as much as I could when I was quickly running out of time to finish the sign and I still had a lot of work to do.

We followed the track away from the farmhouse and through the open country. With winter well and truly upon us, the trees had lost their leaves and the branches twisted together. Dark clouds loomed overhead, but it didn't look like it would rain and the wind caused small goosebumps to form on my neck and even along my arms which were shielded by my coat. Almost all of the greenery vanished with the changing seasons and I couldn't help but wonder what it would look like at the height of summer.

Twenty minutes later we arrived at the Taylor's farm which I instantly recognised from the sign firmly planted into the ground. We followed another dirt track until we reached a large section of property covered in trees of various sizes. Some trees had already been cut down and were resting against a fence nearby with price tags attached to the leaves. I had never seen so many trees in one place.

"Good morning, Mr Goodwin! You're one of the first people we've seen this season," a grey-haired man said from nearby.

"Always a lover of Christmas, Mr Taylor. Want to snap up the best tree before it's too late."

"Or are you hoping for a deal?"

"I might be."

Mr Taylor laughed and walked over to the tractor just as Jonathan scrambled off the tractor with Barbara taking a gentler approach. I climbed off the back of the wagon and jumped down on the floor, sending a splash of mud up my slacks and shoes. Barbara gave me a pointed look and I offered a sheepish smile before wandering away to look at the trees whilst the grown-ups had a conversation by the tractor.

I wandered through the trees that were still planted, running my hands along the branches and breathing in the scent of pine needles that filled the area. Some of the trees towered above me and I wondered how anyone would be able to fit it into their living room. We always had a small one at home since Mum hated the pine needles getting underfoot and spent most of her time sweeping them up.

After a little while of walking through the trees, I heard someone walk up behind me and turned to see Jonathan move through the trees behind me. He smiled and I followed close behind him as he walked around checking the height of all the trees and checking between the branches for some unknown reason. It didn't look like he was having much luck finding them since he shook his head at most of them.

"Now this, this is a Christmas tree," he said. He gestured to a large pine tree that would never fit in anyone's house. It might fit in a church, but never a house.

"It's too big," I said.

"We'll trim it."

"You'd have to cut it in half!"

"True, true."

"What about that one?" I pointed to one of the trees a little further away from us. It had the same amount of branches as the larger tree but it was small enough to fit into a living room, with a little bit of trimming.

"Perfect! Stand there and don't move. I'll get Mr Taylor and his hacksaw."

I laughed and watched him scamper across the ground and through the trees in search of Mr Taylor and his hacksaw. He reappeared about five minutes later with Mr Taylor in tow who had a smile on his face but I didn't know if he was glad to have a sale or if it was in response to Jonathan's behaviour. I stepped out of the way and stood amongst the rest of the trees.

Mr Taylor knelt next to the tree and started to saw through the trunk until the tree toppled onto the ground. He and Jonathan then picked it up and carried it back to the tractor with me following close behind them but keeping out of the way of the branches. The moment Barbara saw us emerge from the grove of trees, she pulled a face.

"That's a bit big, isn't it?" she said.

"You should have seen the other one," I said.

"We'll trim it and it will all be fine."

"If you say so."

Jonathan nodded and both he and Mr Taylor dropped the tree into the back of the wagon with me following, but the tree forced me to sit in the very corner or I would be poked by the branches. After paying for the tree, and exchanging a few more words with Mr Taylor, Jonathan and Barbara climbed onto the tractor and we set off towards the Thompson far so they could drop me off.

They didn't drive all the way up the track towards the Thompson's but stopped by the boundary of their property and allowed me to climb out myself. I offered them a small wave and a promise to be back before it got dark. I could hear the tractor pull away as I climbed the track and then followed along until I reached the workshop.

Neither Mr Thompson nor Alec were anywhere to be found and as I stripped my coat off, I spotted the piece of wood on the side. Someone had finished chiselling out the letters for me and the entire thing was ready to be sanded before I could add the finishing touches. I furrowed my eyebrows and picked up the plank of wood, trailing the carved letters and feeling the small notches that would need to be sand down.

"Alec did that," Mr Thompson said from behind me. I turned around to face him.

"Why?"

"He knew you were behind on getting it done in time and wanted to help. Took him the better part of the past two days, he finished it late last night."

"Where is he?"

"He had some errands to run in the village for me. He'll be back later on."

I nodded. Mr Thompson smiled and then disappeared, heading back to the house and leaving me alone to begin sanding down the letters to make them smooth. My mind kept going back to Alec and why he might have finished the lettering for me.

Why would he do that?

~~~

A/N - We are back! Chapter Twenty-Three is here and I'm still working my way through it xD It's a long one!

Questions! Why do you think Alec would have finished the sign? Was Barbara being overdramatic?

Comment below!

First Published - August 18th, 2021