Stella by Starlight (29 page)

“Good,” Stella said. “You can get some rest.”

“Tell that to the cow, the mule, and the chickens!” her father said with a bemused smile. “Y'all ready for your show tonight?”

“You and Mama are gonna love it,” Stella replied. “I get to be assistant director.”

“That sounds like an ideal role for you. How you doin', girl?” Papa asked. “You gettin' enough sleep?”

“Yes, Papa. I'm feelin' just fine.”

“You make my heart happy, Stella,” her father said. “For everything you do with your brother, helpin' your mama with the cooking and washing. You have no idea.”

“Everybody helps. The neighbors still bring food from time to time. Jojo has gotten really good with getting firewood and cleaning the barn and doing the
outside chores. And Mama's gettin' so much stronger. We're gonna make it.”

Her father gulped down the rest of his coffee and began lacing his boots. “I'll see you all tonight,” he said. “Lookin' forward to seein' that pageant of yours.” Putting on his hat and taking the corn bread with him, he headed out for the three-mile walk to the mill, where, Stella knew, he'd be lifting logs and sweeping sawdust all day long.

Mama dozed while Stella washed the dishes, swept the house and both porches, and peeled potatoes for supper. When Mama woke up, her eyes were glowing. “Hey, you two! Let's decorate the Christmas tree!”

Jojo jumped with excitement. “What we gonna put on it?” he asked.

“How about we start with popcorn?” Mama suggested. She told Stella to heat the butter, toss a half cup of the popping corn in, cover it, and wait for the pop.

“Pop! Pop-pop! Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!” Jojo sang along with the popcorn as the kernels exploded into delicious bits of fluff. When she took the top off the pan, he cheered.

Taking a needle she'd threaded, Mama showed
them how to pull it through each piece of popcorn. Soon they had a long chain done. Then another. They would have had three, but Jojo kept eating the popcorn.

“What else? What else can we put on the tree?” Jojo asked, his mouth full.

Mama had an idea. “Go out to the henhouse, Jojo, and get some pretty feathers. Look for the long ones—the tail feathers! And pinecones! There must be a thousand pinecones—” He darted out before she finished speaking, leaving the front door wide open.

“Jojo! You don't live in a barn!” Stella called after him, only to hear her mother laughing.

“What?” Stella asked as she closed the door.

“You sound just like me!” her mother said.

While Jojo was out collecting, Stella had another idea. She pulled out a long spool of bright-red knitting yarn from Mama's sewing basket. She took every single spare button from the basket's bottom. As with the popcorn, she strung each one onto the yarn. She tied a knot between each button so they wouldn't run together. She had just knotted the last button when Jojo returned, triumphant, with the egg basket filled
with feathers and pinecones. Together, they made a garland of pinecones and chicken feathers, so pretty that Mama decided then and there that they had just created a new holiday tradition.

Strand by strand, Jojo and Stella walked around the tree, wrapping it with the popcorn, the buttons, and the garlands. When they finished, all three stood back, Mama leaning on her cane, well pleased at how pretty it was in the fading afternoon light.

“I think it's our best tree ever,” Jojo said, picking a popcorn husk from his teeth.

“Just plain joy,” Mama breathed.

“We couldn't have done it without you, Mama,” Stella replied, knowing in her heart it was true.

49

From the back of the church, the children from Riverside School streamed in, their hands clasped as if in prayer. Some wore bedsheet or towel robes, others were in costumes made from feed sacks. As they made their way to the front of the church they sang, in voices sweetly in tune, thanks to all the practices,

“Away in a manger,

No crib for his bed,

The little Lord Jesus

Laid down his sweet head;

The stars in the bright sky

Looked down where he lay,

The little Lord Jesus

Asleep on the hay.”

Stella, standing in front beside Mrs. Grayson at the piano, nodded, pleased. Perfect so far. Then a little voice shouted out, “Hi, Mommy!” Four-year-old Hope Spencer had taken her hands out of the prayer position to wave wildly at her parents.

“Hi, Daddy!” her twin sister Hester echoed, waving as well.

Stella put her finger to her lips, trying to shush the twins, but people in the audience simply chuckled, and Mrs. Spencer waved back, happiness splashed across her face.

“The cattle are lowing,

The poor baby wakes,

But little Lord Jesus,

No crying he makes.

I love thee, Lord Jesus,

Look down from the sky

And stay by my cradle

Till morning is nigh.”

When they reached the front, the children scrambled to find their places. Tony, Johnsteve, and Randy, the three wise men, stood regally in one corner—for only a minute, however, because somehow, Randy's crown toppled from his head!

“Hey! My king crown!” Randy whispered far too loudly. The crown rolled off the stage and Randy rushed to retrieve it, dropping a jar of what was supposed to be his gift to the baby in the manger. Apple jelly, not frankincense or myrrh, spilled across the stage.

The other two “kings” clapped their hands over their mouths to restrain their laughter. Randy scurried back to his place, crown in hand. But as he tried to adjust it back on his head, he bumped into Johnsteve, who teetered on the edge of the pulpit. Tony grabbed him to keep from falling, causing his own crown to come tumbling off. The three boys gave up all attempts at dignity and now were just trying to keep from bursting into laughter.

“And it came to pass that all the people had to go pay taxes,” Helen Spencer, as the first narrator, was
saying in a loud and proper voice. Stella could tell she was trying to get the play back on track. “But Mary and Joseph couldn't find a hotel anywhere! So they stayed in a barn.” Stella looked up in surprise when Helen added, “I bet Mary let Joseph know that she wasn't very happy about that either!”

That wasn't in the script. And now the whole audience began to laugh.

Then Carolyn, dressed in a long blue dress that had been donated by Miss Mary Lou of the Bumblebee Baptist Church, and a blue bath towel draped over her head like a shawl, added dramatically, “Joseph! A barn? Are you for serious? Don't you know I'm about to have a baby in a few minutes?”

Stella looked to Mrs. Grayson, who looked horrified. But as she scanned the audience, who was clearly enjoying it, she settled into a bemused headshake.

Hector Spencer, wearing his father's plaid bathrobe, played Joseph. He looked around for a moment in confusion; this was not how the play had been rehearsed. So he glared at Carolyn, glanced at his father in the audience, then said, crossing his arms, “I'm doin' the best I can, woman! Times are hard!”

By this time, the people in the pews were rolling with laughter, including, Stella saw, her mother. It made her feel so good to see her mother laughing.

The shepherds forgot the words to “Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow.” The little angels simply sat down on the stage giggling because Baby Jesus, played by Hetty, climbed out of the box that was being used for the manger and said loudly, “Mama! Gotta go pee-pee! Now!” Mrs. Spencer ran to the front and grabbed the child, but it was clearly too late.

At that, Mrs. Grayson gave up. Laughing herself, she said, “I think we better halt this production right now!”

She took Stella's hand and walked from the piano to the front of the church. “Ladies and gentlemen,” she said, still laughing so hard she had to catch her breath, “the children worked very hard on the pageant this year, but as usual, it never quite goes as planned. We had a counting song for you, and a full-length play—really!”

Pastor Patton joined them, trying hard to suppress his own guffaws. “We all know how the story ends, folks. Jesus was born, gifts were given, and the world
was made a better place. But you know what? I think one of the best gifts of all is laughter. There's never enough laughter. So let's thank our children for that. Please give all of them a huge round of applause!”

“We still gettin' presents?” Jojo piped up after the clapping subsided.

That made everyone laugh again. Mrs. Grayson replied, “Bags of fruit and candy for all of you are on the back table. Merry Christmas, everyone!”

Mrs. Hawkins, sliding onto the piano bench, struck up the chords on the old piano and ended the pageant with, “Go Tell It on the Mountain.”

“Go tell it on the mountain

Over the hills and everywhere

Go tell it on the mountain

That Jesus Christ is born.

Hallelujah!”

50

STELLA'S STAR SENTINEL CHRISTMAS EDITION

There is nothing more
butifull
beautiful than dawn on Christmas morning. the sky is just
beginnng
beginning to wake up. Early morning clouds cover the stars like blankets. The moon, looking sort of like a ripe peach, hangs in the sky like another
decration
decoration.

(editor's note: wow! That was pretty good! I just might be getting the hang of this writing business.I just might glue this to the wall!)

(second editor's note: I am the editor! And the reporter! I like that.)

For Christmas I wish for more love, less hate. and more cookies.

soon all the
chickens
roosters on the lane, who think they have more power than they really do, will decide it is time to wake everybody up. They don't know the sun will come up anyway.