Read The Christmas Promise (Christmas Hope) for Free Online Page B

the engine of the car, but lifted his head to listen. I shrugged my shoulders as I passed him, and walked into Miriam’s yard. She looked as if she’d just stepped out of the pages of Town & Country, wearing her beautiful long camel-hair coat, black leather gloves, and fur-trimmed hat. “Miriam?”
    She jumped. “What! What, Gloria?”
    “Is something wrong?”
    She pointed to her house. “Everything’s destroyed. Everything.” Her voice broke and Heddy and I walked up the front steps, opening the door. Water seeped over our shoes, startling us. “You’re telling me you don’t have one room? Not one single room?” Miriam was screaming. “I can’t wait four days. I need a room now!”
    My eyes widened as I watched water cascade down the living room wall. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Heddy said, whispering.
    I reached to flick on the light switch but caught myself. “You didn’t walk through there, did you?”
    “I’m not an imbecile, Gloria,” Miriam said.
    Heddy leaned farther into the doorway and listened. “Is that a toilet running?”
    I pointed upstairs. “It’s probably been running since she’s been gone,” I whispered. “For five days.” Heddy slapped her head.
    “When will these people be leaving town?” Miriam was pacing up and down her driveway, shouting again. She hung up, defeated. “Every hotel is booked for the annual Christmas in the Colonies craft fair.” She spat out the words. “Every room is filled with nutters dressed as Puritans!”
    I knew what needed to be done, but put it out of my mind. “How long is the fair in town?” I asked.
    “Four glorious days of all things crafty! Since I need a place to sleep, maybe I should go down there and snuggle up with a Pilgrim.”
    “I don’t think she’d be their type,” Heddy muttered behind me.
    I swatted behind my back to hush her, and sighed. It was going to take a great deal of courage to form the words in my mouth. I thought about them for the longest time, hoping the earth would swallow me, but a cataclysmic event never happens when you need one most. “Miriam, you are welcome to stay at my house until something is available.” Heddy slapped her head again and I turned to shush her.
    “I’ve never been put into such a position before,” Miriam said, peering inside her home. The sight made her sick and she put her hands over her face. “What am I going to do?”
    “I just said you could stay at my house.”
    “I know what you said, Gloria! I’m trying to talk myself into it.” I watched as Miriam peeked inside her doorway again, moaning. I felt like doing the same.
     

    If Dalton heard the commotion out front, he never bothered to investigate. Miriam retrieved the suitcase from her trip out of the car trunk and stepped inside my house. She stopped at the sight. “Oh, my.”
    “We’re helping Miss Glory put packages together for Christmas,” Heddy said, making a path through the living room. “Just a few staples that everyone needs to…”
    “I won’t call you Miss Glory,” Miriam said, turning to me. “That’s a ridiculous name for a grown woman. During my stay, I will call you Gloria. Where do I put my valise?”
    I kicked boxes aside with my foot and led Miriam to the den I had converted into another bedroom down the hall from the living room. Whiskers leaped from his perch on the bottom step and Miriam jumped. “Is that always inside?”
    “Most of the time. He goes out to do his business but comes back when he’s finished.”
    “Cats are simply rats with shorter noses,” Miriam said, grumbling under her breath. I looked to Dalton and Heddy and they widened their eyes, lifting their hands as if defenseless to help. I waved my arm at them and sighed. It was going to be a long four days.

Four
    The love of our neighbor in all its fullness simply means being able to say to him, “What are you going through?”
    —Simone Weil
    Chaz’s new shift started at four the next day. The