Read The Doctor's Christmas for Free Online

interruption. He swung the door open to reveal Aunt Elly, swathed in a plaid wool jacket several sizes too large, topped by a discordant plaid muffler.
    â€œWhat brings you out on this cold night?” He ushered her inside and snapped off the television news.
    â€œCold? Wait ’til you’ve been through a winter here and then talk to me about cold.” She loosened the muffler. “I came to bring you along to pageant tryouts.”
    The only thing that came to mind was Miss America. “Pageant tryouts?”
    â€œThe Christmas pageant,” she said, as if it ought to be self-explanatory. “Everybody in Button Gap comes to church the night they pick the cast, just to cheer them on.”
    Apparently he couldn’t escape the holiday, no matter where he went. “I’m afraid I don’t have any dramatic talent.”
    â€œShoot, you don’t have to try out, boy. It’s mostly kids anyway. But you ought to jump into Button Gap life whilst you’re here. ’Sides, Maggie’s directing it.” She glanced at his discarded plate. “We have dessert after they pick all the parts, y’know. More kinds of homemade pies than you can count.”
    He didn’t need any reminders of the Christmas season. On the other hand, he didn’t want to hurt the old lady’s feelings, and just about anything was better than sitting here staring at the television.
    â€œYour company and homemade pies sounds like a winning combination.” He reached for the jacket he’d hung on the bentwood coat rack next to the door. “You’re on.”
    He pulled the door shut behind them and started to take Aunt Elly’s arm to help her down the two steps to the street. She’d already trotted down herself.
    â€œIt looks like your knee is feeling better.”
    She glanced up as if startled, then nodded. “It comes and goes.” She snuggled the muffler around her chin. “Smells like snow in the air.”
    They crossed the quiet street. No one else seemed to have ventured outside tonight, unless the hamlet’s whole population was already at the church. He slipped his hand under Aunt Elly’s elbow.
    â€œYou and Maggie are pretty close, aren’t you?” The question came out almost before he realized he’d been thinking about Maggie.
    â€œEverybody knows everybody in Button Gap, if they live here long enough.”
    â€œYou wouldn’t be evading the question, now, would you?”
    He could almost feel her considering. She wouldn’t answer anything she didn’t want to—he felt sure of that.
    She looked at him as if measuring his interest, and then seemed to make up her mind.
    â€œMaggie lived with me for a bit, when she was eleven,” she said. “Guess that made us close, no matter how many miles or years there might be between us.”
    He digested that. “But you’re not really related.”
    â€œNo.” She shrugged. “Folks round here take care of each other when there’s trouble, blood kin or not.”
    The white frame church was just ahead, its primitive stained-glass windows glowing with the light from within. A chord of music floated out on the chilly air, followed by a burst of laughter.
    An urgency he didn’t understand impelled him. “What kind of trouble?”
    Aunt Elly stopped just short of the five steps that led up to the church’s red double doors. He felt her gaze searching his face.
    Then she shook her head. “I ’spect that’s for Maggie to tell you, if she wants to.”
    She marched up the steps, and he had no choice but to follow.
    The small church had a center aisle with pews on either side. At a guess, the sanctuary probably seated a hundred or so. Plain white walls, simple stained glass, a pulpit that had darkened with age but had probably never been beautiful—he couldn’t imagine a greater contrast to the Gothic cathedral-style