Dark Rider

Lying silently in the darkness of the night, breathing steadily as dreams lit up their minds, Kassie and Rider watched Joshua, Beau, Christina, Lucille and lastly Theo as they slept in their room. This silent night, they all slept in one room, together so that when they woke they could all run downstairs together and celebrate happiness with one another. That had been Christina’s idea, Rider and Kassie thought it was amazing and magical, everyone of their children were so smart, beautiful and their own entire person. Joshua was gentle and sweet, he never said a mean thing and when the others picked on him, he just sat back and didn’t let it bother him. Beau was the protective one, he watched over the others and daily saved Joshua from being bullied—he was the big brother to them all even if he was same as everyone. Christina was the sly one, always trying to find out how to do things her way. She constantly tested the nerves of Kassie and Rider but her love for her parents and siblings always won their hearts and eventually got her off the hook. Lucille was shy, the shiest child of the bunch and she was always by herself, tinkering with some toy or speaking softly to her teddy bear. She had the heart of a million women stuffed into one; never did she go without a smile on her sweet face and a rising flush on her cheeks. And then there was their miracle, which in retrospect, all of the children were miracles but Theo had once lost her life and gained it back through a small miracle. She wasn’t like any of the children, she was her own self. Bubbly and giddy about everything, smiling when happy and frowning when sad, her emotions were always on peak and she always told you what she was thinking. So all together, as Kassie and Rider stood in the doorway, watching their little miracles sleeping, they thanked God for letting them live. They were the couple’s angels, they were sent from heaven to make sure they knew someone up there cared for them, and boy did they believe it.

Kassie quietly reached in the room and slowly shut the door, letting the small click sound drown in the silence. “You bring in the girls’ gifts and I’ll bring in the boys.”

“Alright,” Rider agreed as he ran a hand through his chopped short ear length, hinted gray hair with a low sigh. “This is going to be—“

“Just go,” Kassie softly laughed as she started down the steps, towards the garage where the presents were tucked and hidden expertly. “Where are we putting it all at?”

“We didn’t talk about this did we?” he murmured as they stopped at the foot of the steps, sitting down on the third from last step, he looked up at Kassie and held his hand out to help her sit down beside him. “The living room is fairly large, we can use the fireplace as the spot for Christina, the loveseat for Joshua, and we could try the desk table for Beau. Do you think Theo would mind if we gave her the sofa and she shared with Lucille.”

“We’d have to nametag everything,” Kassie nodded her acceptance to the bargain, it sounded reasonable, she thought that the kids wouldn’t really care where the presents were as long as there were presents to open. Instead of sitting on the steps, Kassie took a seat in Rider’s lap. “Think it will work, do we have time?”

“Pumpkin, its just eleven, we have plenty of time to set everything up and then fall asleep,” Rider put his stubbly chin on the edge of Kassie’s shoulder, his lips pouting as he thought of the possibilities. “For a couple of hours at least.”

“Let’s get started,” Kassie sighed as she stood up and walked towards the garage door, she opened it and felt around the left wall for the light switch, when she did flick it on it took a couple minutes for it to warm up and shower the cold cemented room with light. It didn’t take as long as they thought it would and by two O’clock in the morning, everything was situated, tagged and ready for the grand opening. Through the moments of panicking over where to put things, Kassie and Rider would stop to comment on each others ability to organized or give each other short meaningful kisses and every now and then they would sneak bites of cookies in the lateness of the night. “I think we’re done.”

“It looks really good,” Rider commented as he placed his arm around her waist and pulled her closer for a side hug. “I’m proud.”

“Let’s go get some sleep,” Kassie murmured as she leaned against Rider’s side all the way up the stairs and into their room, falling restlessly into their bed since the clothes they were wearing were indeed pajamas, they didn’t have to take long to get ready for bed. “Good night, Rider, I love you.”

“Good night sweetheart, I love you too,” he whispered pulling her close into his embrace where they fell asleep holding each other tight. It didn’t last as long as they had hoped, by six thirty in the morning they were being rudely woken up by five pairs of feet jumping up and down and on top of them. “Oh guys, watch it. That was my stomach—what time is it?”

“Its six thirty daddy, wake up,” Theo spoke excitedly as she bounced up and down, slapping her father in the stomach with her hands as she did.

“Santa Claus came last night! Come on, we have to open our presents!” Beau was as enthusiastic as Theo, but his lisp made his plead sound a bit more adorable.

“Beau, Theo, kids give us some time to wake up, okay?” Kassie said softly as she leaned up and pulled Christina into her lap, she was the one that decided pulling mommy’s long hair would wake her up in a flash; well it did work it just made her a bit cranky. “Okay, I want everyone, and that includes you Josh, to close your eyes and wait for us to take you downstairs.”

“Okay!” Joshua’s eyes were wide as he bounced off the bed and stood by the dresser, next to the door, bouncing on his heels. The kids all filed together, beside Joshua and closed their eyes, some holding their hands over their eyes like they couldn’t trust themselves to keep them closed and some just squeezed them shut with all their might. “Come on! Come on!”

“We’re coming, we’re coming,” Rider shot Kassie a look of amusement, every year it was the same, well except when they couldn’t talk to be excited about Christmas, six years of it got them moving a little though.

“Okay, Theo and Christina hold your hands out,” Kassie spoke to the ones squeezing their eyes shut, when they did as told she grabbed one of their hands and started down the stairs, leaving Rider to hold Lucille and have the boys hold onto one of his hands, one getting his thumb and the other getting his pinkie. When they all reached the bottom of the steps, after saying ‘step’ on each step so the kids wouldn’t tumble down the stairs, they steered them to the living room where bundles of presents were. “Alright, open those eyes up.”

“Wait!” Rider and Kassie both jerked their heads to the front door, while the kids’ eyes stayed shut, anxious and slightly annoyed from being deprived of Christmas morning for so long. When they spotted A.J. running in with Tiffany and a small car seat in hand with bundles of presents in their hands, they smiled and waited. “Sorry, we got stuck in traffic.”

“Its fine, alright kids,” Kassie waited until Tiffany and A.J. were ready and watching to let go of their hands and let them all know they were okay to open their eyes. “Open up.”