# Car 54

####
© 2005 / revised 2014
K Pelle

### Chapter 44:
Beware - Congested Traffic Zone

We did manage to get out of bed to do the evening chores, slopping around in the slushy snow that was being melted by the chinook. Then we had a quiet evening, but just before we went to bed, Lucille made a big deal out of presenting me with that rawhide thong that had held Gramma Tilly's ring and hung around Grampa Bender's neck for years.

The chinook played out during the night and a sudden cold snap moved into our area. The slush and water, left behind from the chinook's melt, froze where it lay and we were surrounded by a skating rink. Even the snowmobile was useless in the mess that was left behind and four-wheel drive vehicles were even worse. Lucille and I were stuck in a valley, with our only road up to the plateau covered in ice.

The two of us were isolated from anyone else for a full week. At least there was no service break in either the phone or the electricity, and I'd stocked up on enough food for two months for three guys. Then too, I'd just had a fuel delivery of heating oil for the cabin, and the new furnace kept the whole place pleasantly warm, so we were in good shape. Most of our days were spent either looking after the animals or working on the house, but we filled in several spare hours acting deliciously naughty. Somehow the word 'Cuz' took on a definitely sex-filled overtone.

Actually, conditions for us were a lot better than they were for many others in the municipality. The hardships that the frigid weather created were quite general. In fact it affected everything from road conditions to school openings and I heard later that the unseasonable weather pretty well wiped out Halloween celebrations in our local town. Our local weekly newspaper actually came out with a prediction of a coming ice age, but in actual fact anyone who was prepared for a normal fall and winter lived through it with little problem.

Personally, it let me get to know Lucille much better and surprisingly, one phone call changed Mom's attitude toward me as well. We weren't able to go to see anyone, but the telephone conversations we had certainly accomplished a lot. Actually, I found that Lucille used the telephone much more than I did. She talked to Mom every day and with both Beth and Jasmine at least every two days. But the surprising thing was the amount of time she spent on the phone to Sandy, Carissa and Jackie. She must have talked to each of them for at least an hour a day. The result of all her phone calls was that she heard a lot about my school days and knew much more about me than I did her. I didn't realize it then, but during those phone calls, she also changed the attitudes of Sandy and Carissa, both toward me and toward herself and all of the changes were positive.

On the Friday following Halloween, a chinook came blowing in and by late Saturday evening, the roads out of the valley were passable. Early Sunday morning, Lucille left for town and not long afterward, Dad arrived with Matt and John, but John was just there to pack up his clothing. He wanted to move to Innisfail to be with his other brothers for the winter, and told me he was going to go back to school after Christmas. However, he wanted to come back the next summer and I did promise him a job. That's when I found out that Dad had offered him one as well, so when they left John was in a great mood. He knew he was welcome to come back and he even had his choice of jobs in the spring.

Matt and I were working out at the barn later that afternoon when we saw a strange car come driving into the yard. Sandy and Carissa had brought Jackie out for a visit because she hadn't spent much time with her brother for months and was going to the hospital in Edmonton in two weeks. She was scheduled for tests and surgery in mid November, so I offered to pay for a pair of motel rooms for Matt and his brothers during the time she'd be there. From the way the two of them reacted, you would have thought I'd offered them the moon.

Carissa and Sandy left for town that afternoon, but Jackie stayed behind, supposedly to spend time with Matt, but that night she made it clear that she was sleeping with me. Even though the doctor had warned her not to be involved in any kind of penetration during sex, she'd have been willing to risk it. I wasn't though. Instead for the next few days she cuddled with me at night and spent her days getting to know her oldest brother.

I found the fact that they barely knew each other very weird, but considering the way they had been raised, it shouldn't really have been a surprise. Even though they'd often lived in the same house, the only times they'd seen each other were during church or at meals. Even during the meals Jackie hadn't eaten with the boys. Instead she had served their meals, but had been taught to be silent while the family was eating, then she and her mother had eaten later. In other words, women in that household were treated as servants and little more. On top of that, Matt had been away from home for years. At the age of sixteen, all the boys had been forced to find jobs and support themselves, so he'd been away from home for most of the last six years. In that time both of them had changed. So in some ways it was as if they were getting to know strangers.

I'd thought Matt and his brothers were raised in isolation, but as I talked to Jackie, I realized that she had literally been kept away from any way to learn about the real world. Her main view of what Calgary was like was seen from the perspective of her home and that of the homes of four other families who were involved in similar situations. A trip to a bargain clothing outlet or a fabric store had been a big deal for her, because that meant she would wear new clothing. However, she'd often worn hand-me-downs.

Since both Matt and Jackie had been home schooled, there were woefully huge gaps in their education. Current affairs and recent history were blank pages for both of them because they'd only seen TV or heard the radio on odd occasions. Matt was in better shape than Jackie was, but not by that much. Actually Matt was taking grade nine and ten courses by correspondence now and when Jackie saw the books for the course, she almost devoured them. By the time she left four days later, she had made up her mind to do the same thing as Matt was doing.

However when Carissa came to pick up Jackie, the two of them went into a huddle about schooling. By the time they came up for air, they'd decided that Jackie would apply to school in town and see if she could repeat her grade nine courses or even try to get into grade ten. Unfortunately she'd been home schooled and what education she'd been given was somewhat spotty, so some essential courses had been skimmed over very lightly. I suggested that she bone up on the grade nine courses that she'd already taken, then arrange to take any other essential courses by correspondence during the time before school started in the fall. That way she'd be able to start in regular high school classes and although she'd be two years older than most of her classmates, she wouldn't be that far out of sync with them.

Since it was less than a week before Jackie had to be in Edmonton for tests and possible surgery, she and Carissa were in a rush to leave that day. Not only did they have to get ready for that trip, but now they had Jackie's education to consider. Jackie was extremely emotional when they left, but she promised me that she'd be back once she'd recovered from her surgery and Carissa let me know that she'd be back to see me as soon as she could.

Sandy showed up two days later and she brought enough clothing and paraphernalia with her that I knew she planned on moving in for a while.

"What's up with all this?" I grinned as I looked at all the bags and packages in her car.

"Well, Carissa and Jackie are coming to get Matt tomorrow to go to Edmonton, so I'm here to see that you aren't spending any time alone. If I'm here with you, you won't get lonely," she grinned at me. "Besides, both Lucille and Jackie got to spend several days with you on their own. It's my turn."

"I see," I laughed, wrapping her in a hug and getting a short kiss as well.

"Besides, we didn't tell you, but my family is hoping to spend Christmas with you. In fact, if Jackie is out of the hospital, Jackie, Matt and the other boys are planning on spending a few days here then. Oh, Lucille and Carissa will probably spend some time here too, but with them there are other family members that they'll spend time with as well."

"It sounds like you have the next month and a half of my life all planned out," I grinned at her. "Are you women getting uppity again?"

"Not really," she broke into laughter. "Actually, I was supposed to ask you if it's alright, but I got carried away. So now I'm asking, can we impose on your hospitality and join you for Christmas?"

"Well, since we have six weeks to plan for it, I guess that's okay," I tried to keep the grin from my face.

"Well, it's not as if things are set in stone. I know your family has plans as well and we aren't going to interfere too much with those," she giggled then. "I think your mom would have our hides if we did."

"Yep, she probably would at that," I chuckled. "Now do you want all this stuff inside? If so, I'd better call Matt since there's so much of it."

"Well, it's not all mine," she giggled. "We talked it over and since people seem to end up being stuck here for days on end, we decided to buy a few emergency supplies to keep here, just in case. Not many of us gals like the idea of wearing guys' gaunches and things of that sort."

"Well, I'm sorry. I wasn't planning on having a bunch of women underfoot when the blizzard happened."

"Yes, but it happened twice. Lucille wasn't any happier than I was about having to borrow your underwear," she giggled as she grabbed a big bundle of clothes. "We've decided that you have the weatherman in your pocket and you're bribing him to keep us here for extended periods. However, now that we've got some essentials here, it probably won't happen again."

"I wouldn't count on it. The weather does what it wants and we have to live with it," I laughed and followed her inside with a couple of boxes.

Unfortunately, Sandy coming with a lot of clothing served to illustrate the fact that there wasn't enough furniture for the rooms in the new addition. The whole cabin was woefully short of drawer space for all that additional clothing and Sandy got on the phone as soon as we realized how short of storage space the cabin was. She must have been quite effective with her plea for used furniture. It was snowing lightly the next morning, but Frank Dolens followed Carissa out with a big truck and it was loaded to the hilt. He had a whole master bedroom set and two extra dressers from the Coulters, but he'd also decided to donate his family's old living room furniture. When we unloaded it all, I saw that he had a used snowmobile hidden under everything else.

"Whose snowmobile is that, Frank?"

"That's mine or rather it belongs to my family," Sandy grinned at me. "I asked Frank to keep an eye out for a good used one. Jessie, Jean and I want to have some fun, but I thought a second snowmobile was essential up here anyway. You don't mind it we keep it here, do you?"

"I guess not," I shrugged, but winked at Frank. "But, I don't know where we'll store it."

"Well, while we're on the subject of space, John and I have been talking about your ranch. You need more buildings," Frank said quietly. "I don't know if John has said anything to you about it, but we were thinking that you have an ideal spot here for scenery and protection. Have you ever considered starting a dude ranch?"

"A what?" I looked at him in astonishment. "This is a working ranch. I'm really not into babysitting a bunch of people."

"Well, we looked at what you've done in the past six months or so. In that time you've taken several young people under your wing and helped straighten them out."

"I didn't do that alone. My family did more than I did."

"No, you didn't do it on your own and you are quite young, but it's something for you to consider in the future. You're very good at teaching greenhorns about rural life. You might want to think about it as a way to add income with a relatively small investment," he said seriously as he untied the snowmobile from the tethers in the truck. "Now where should we put this thing?"

"Well, for now let's put it with mine, in the lean-to beside the barn. I guess since Matt is leaving with Carissa, Sandy and I are going to have to shift things around to make space for it."

Frank just laughed at that, and shortly after we'd unloaded the snowmobile, then covered it with a tarp, he left. After he was gone, I had a chance to go inside again. Sandy and Carissa were driving poor Matt crazy as they shifted and shuffled the various pieces of furniture around the new living room, trying to find a layout they both could agree on. I watched the circus for a moment, then I stepped into the fray.

"Enough!" I barked quite loudly. "As long as I'm the person who owns the house, don't you think I should be consulted?"

Carissa looked ready to argue, but Sandy looked chagrined, meanwhile I wasn't waiting for them to say anything.

"Matt, give me a hand, the couch sits facing the fireplace," I grabbed one end of it and watched him grin slightly as he grabbed the other.

"But how will you watch a TV from there? Where will you put that, beside the fireplace?" Carissa pleaded.

"Carissa, this place is in a deep valley. TV signals go in a straight line, and pass about a quarter of a mile over our heads. You can't get TV reception down here in the valley."

"Oh," she muttered quietly. "Well, there goes that Christmas gift idea."

"Is that what this was all about?"

"Unh huh," she looked upset. "I miss having a television. Are you sure you can't build a bigger antenna or something?"

"There is no way we could build a tower that would be anywhere near tall enough," I chuckled. "Even if we did build something that tall, the signal wouldn't get from the antenna to the TV because of the resistance of the lead-in wire that would run between them. You'd have to put in a signal booster of some kind and that would be too darn expensive to even contemplate."

"Oh. Okay, but why does the couch have to go there of all places. It's right in the middle of the room and ..."

"And from there, if I'm lying down on the couch, I can look out the window and see both the driveway and the barn," I interrupted as I pointed a few feet from one end of the couch. "However, since I like to sit down and read at times, I eventually want to put a nice chair right about there. I'll find myself a comfortable chair and set it right where I want it, then I can do the same thing from that seat. I designed this place to be practical and comfortable, not to be a showcase of style or anything else. Don't forget, this is a log cabin in the boondocks, not a mansion on an estate just outside of town."

Once I got it through everyone's heads that I wanted things to be practical and comfortable throughout the house, we got the furniture shifted around quickly and easily. It wasn't long after we finished moving the furniture into place that Matt and Carissa left.

Sandy and I were alone once more and as we watched Carissa's car disappear around the last bend and into the cut that lead up the hill, she broke into giggles.

"What's so funny?" I frowned at her.

"Well, when you did your imitation of a grizzly bear and barked at us, I thought Carissa was going to pee herself," she snickered. "She gets so wound up with the idea that she's right that she forgets things like the fact that you own the place."

"Yeah, she has a tendency to want her own way and I hadn't realized it until just a while ago, but she had me wrapped around her little finger for most of the summer."

"I can't complain about that," Sandy leaned over and snuggled up to me. "I don't think I'd be here if she wasn't a bit pushy with both of us."

"Well, it seems to me that all of our families got into the act as well."

"Let's not go there, huh?" she sighed and leaned against me. "That's really not something I want to be reminded of right now. There are still some uncomfortable memories tied into that sort of thing."

"Sorry, I didn't think about that."

"Umm, I know. That sort of thing happens," Then with another sigh, she grabbed my hand and turned us toward the door of the cabin. "Right now I'm getting chilled from just standing here. Let's go do something. Either inside or out, but if we're going to be outside, let's dress for it."

Instead of going outside, for the rest of the day I did my best to make her forget those uncomfortable memories. I know I succeeded some of the time.

Over the next six weeks, between gifts from friends and purchases that we made, we furnished the new addition quite well. While we were at it, we bought curtain and drape material, then between Mom and Sandy, we soon had new curtains and drapes. While they were busy with that, I built some bookshelves and I finished painting the last of the new walls and all of the trim in the house. We even spruced up the old part of the cabin with new curtains and new paint and extended the kitchen cabinets before turning the rest of the old living room area into an eating area. I added a large propane kitchen stove and set it up right beside the old electric one, then made Sandy's day by buying and installing a dishwasher next to the new double kitchen sink. With a bit of paint, some new counter tops and new doors on the cupboards, even the old section of the cabin felt like new. Then to add to our feeling of security I picked up a big deep freeze to put in the basement so we could store much more frozen food.

While we were doing that, we found time to go to town to see Grampa Bender at least twice each week and we tried to time our visits so we could see others as well. Lucille managed to come out and visit us as often as she could, but she had to work her visits around both her duty schedule and the weatherman. She didn't want to risk being caught in another blizzard or ice storm. Of course on the weekends, if the weather looked good and there was no risk of a storm, we brought Jess and Jean out to the cabin. Tom, Jasmine, Beth and George often dropped around on a Saturday or Sunday. However, we also had visits from Mom and Dad as well as Uncle Tom and Aunt Alice. In fact we had visits from a lot of other people who came to see us for various reasons.

We did arrange to have Tom and George handle the chores on the first weekend in December. We left the cabin after doing the chores on Friday morning and drove to Edmonton in my pickup in order to visit Jackie. We arrived in the afternoon and went to see her, but at that time she was still recovering from the operation. We hadn't realized that it had been postponed until that morning while the hospital did several tests in order to know what to do once she was in surgery.

We met Carissa and Matt at the hospital, then stayed in the same motel as the Coulters and Jackie's brothers. In a way it was sort of like being home away from home, but we weren't in the mood to party. Instead, we were all worried about Jackie's future health, Carissa more than anyone else. In fact, after all the tests and all the waiting around, Carissa looked worn out.

It seemed that Jackie had developed a cyst and the doctors had removed it, however they were afraid the cyst was cancerous, so it was being tested. When we arrived they were still waiting for the results of the tests to find out if a further operation was needed. If the cyst was cancerous, she was going to have to go through the possibility of another operation and even chemotherapy. Unfortunately the doctors wouldn't know that until Monday morning, but Sandy and I had to be home by Sunday night.

That night Wilma and John took the two late shifts of sitting with Jackie. When John came back to the motel in the morning, after being replaced by Matt, he and I talked for a while. He asked if Sandy and I would take Carissa shopping to give her a break. Since Jackie wouldn't really be recovered from the anaesthetics until later in the day, I felt that was a great idea.

So I went Christmas shopping with two women. Mostly I acted as a beast of burden, carrying parcels and packages, but I did get away from the two of them for an hour or so and quickly found a jeweller who sold me four identical lockets. Then I slipped into a woman's wear store and bought each of the gals a cashmere sweater. After those purchases, my personal bank account was sorely depleted, so from then on my purchases for other people on my list were far less extravagant. But, for everyone's enjoyment, I bought a few Christmas decorations for the cabin and a several sets of the smallest Christmas lights I could find, but I made sure to have enough strings to light a decent sized tree.

Sandy and Carissa both had credit cards and to my way of thinking, they went crazy. I teased them that I was glad I had a pickup with a covered box. Otherwise, we'd never fit everything into the truck to take all their boxes back home. Then while we were driving from one mall to another, I noticed a restaurant supply store. I pulled in there and bought a complete service for two dozen people, checking to be sure that it included everything from plates and glasses to silverware. By the time we'd had lunch, then gotten back to the motel, the back of the truck was almost full and I was tired of both walking and carrying packages from place to place. Carissa looked in a better mood, but as we separated Carissa's parcels from ours, I think it was dawning on Sandy just how much we had bought. Now, she was the person who had a frown on her face, but she shrugged it off quickly.

When we got to the hospital, Jackie was looking much better and could recognise each of us. The hospital had been a little worried because she'd taken so long to recover from the anaesthetics, but they seemed to be quite relaxed when I spoke to anyone. We wished Jackie the best of luck when we talked to her that afternoon and then again the next morning, but she seemed pessimistic in some way. The only times she brightened up were when either Carissa or Mrs. Coulter were in the room.

By noon on Sunday, Sandy and I were on our way home. We'd been watching the weather and it seemed like there might be a storm on the way. In fact for the last fifty miles, we drove through a light snowfall and almost as soon as we drove into the yard, Tom left to go home.

It was a good thing he did. By the time we'd unloaded the pickup and finished the chores, the snow was falling heavily. At least the wind didn't blow hard, but by morning we had to contend with six inches of snow when we went out to do the chores. Before the storm had petered out in the late afternoon, we had eight inches of snow on the level. The late afternoon light showed a winter wonderland outside the cabin windows and Sandy went shutter happy with a new camera I'd bought her as a belated birthday gift.

That night Carissa phoned us to let us know that all the tests were back and that Jackie was doing well. Unfortunately one of the tests had been inconclusive and they wanted to repeat it. She made that call to us on the second of December, but it wasn't until the nineteenth that she called again to let us know that they'd be home for Christmas and that Jackie definitely didn't have cancer. When Carissa made that call, she was almost ecstatic and I didn't blame her a bit. I think we all felt like celebrating.

Actually, right about then we'd needed some good news to lift our spirits a bit because we'd grown to feel a bit boxed in by the weather. We'd had several more storms over that two-week period, but we had settled into a routine of clearing the snow from the roadway and keeping ourselves safely entertained. On that Friday, we went to town and stocked up for Christmas. Since we were expecting a lot of people to spend Christmas day with us, we bought a lot of groceries. As an example, we bought two turkeys, a huge ham and an extra large roast of beef, then we added all the fixings to go with that. On top of that I bought the regular amount of supplies for two people for a month. While I was at the store, I set up a deal that either Matt or Sandy could buy groceries and charge it to the ranch account, just in case weather made my trips home from Olds difficult.

Since high school had let out for the holidays that day, we picked up Jess and Jean on our way back to the ranch. Early on Saturday morning, the four of us hopped onto the two snowmobiles, then towing a toboggan behind one of them, we set out looking for a perfect Christmas tree. There was almost a foot of snow on the ground at the ranch and in the winter sunshine, the twins seemed to think that they'd suddenly found themselves in a picture postcard. They both had cameras and I think they took pictures of anything that didn't hide behind a bush and if something did hide on them, they took a picture of the bush it hid behind.

To be honest, I thought they should have been on the other side of the lens most of the time. Almost sixteen, and having just gone through a spurt of development, they could have been models. It seemed to me that the two of them had changed from cute teenagers to beautiful young women overnight. Of course I hadn't seen much of them for two months, so I was still getting used to the changes that they'd gone through. Since both of them were teases and I was the only guy around at the moment, the morning had been extremely interesting for me. But, because I'd grown up with a sister who was the same age as they were, I tried to give as good as I got.

The teasing had actually started the night before, when we'd come back to the cabin and had all stayed up late. Since we'd bought so much in town, the first thing we had to do after getting back was to move all the food and supplies into the house and store it away. Then of course, Sandy and I had to show the twins what we had done to fix up the cabin in the last while. In the evening, after a late supper, we'd settled down in the living room and started a fire in the fireplace. We'd sat there talking and laughing until late at night as we'd made plans for the upcoming holidays. At midnight, the ringing of the sonorous tones of Grampa Bender's old mantle clock had made us realize how late it was and we'd decided we needed to go to bed.

Once we were in bed, Sandy and I had discussed the changes in the way the twins were acting. Of course, we'd also covered the fact that their bodies had changed and developed in the last few months. She'd teased me about them making me horny and I'd admitted that they did. Then she'd done her best to cure me of the 'problem' that had developed as we'd talked, so the two of us had taken even longer to get to sleep.

Saturday morning, Sandy and I had slept in, but had been awakened by the sight and sound of two delightful young red haired nymphs dancing into the room and bouncing on our bed. Unfortunately, after bouncing onto the bed and giving both Sandy and me brisk kisses, they'd decided we weren't getting out of bed fast enough to please them. Acting in unison, they'd yanked the covers from the bed. The twins hadn't been wearing much, only thin nighties that didn't hide a lot, but Sandy and I had slept in the nude and when they'd woken us, I'd developed my normal morning's piss hard-on. Of course, it had been somewhat augmented by the scenery.

I'm sure I blushed. I know the twins did, but Sandy had broken into laughter as I'd scrambled to use both hands to hide my erection. Failing miserably, I'd leaped out of bed and dove for the bathroom, dashing away from the sound of the twin's dual squeals and Sandy's seemingly delighted giggles. In the bathroom as I calmed myself, even I could see the humour of the situation. When everything was under control and my body had finally calmed enough that essential matters could be taken care of, I decided to give the girls a show. Since I wasn't really all that skin conscious, I wrapped a towel around my hips, but didn't tie it tightly. I knew it wouldn't stay on for long, but I really didn't cared if it fell off. After all, I'd been skinny dipping every summer for years, even Mom and Aunt Alice had seen me nude. Two more young ladies seeing what equipment I had to live with wouldn't matter all that much.

However, I'd forgotten that Sandy had gone skinny dipping with Carissa and me earlier in the year. When I opened the door from the ensuite bathroom, I was treated to a sight many men dream of seeing. Three fire-haired maids were leaned back against the headboard of the king-sized bed and not one of them was wearing one stitch of clothing. Somehow, Sandy had convinced the twins that since they'd seen me nude, it was only fair that I should have an equal opportunity. She was flanked on each side by matching nubile bookends who were wearing nothing but grins.

The towel, and the loose tie job I'd done, were not up to the task of hiding the changes that suddenly developed in my body's physical attributes. As I stood there, I felt it slip and fall, but I didn't allow myself to flinch as the towel dropped away. Nor did I try to hide my body's natural reaction to the sight in front of me. Both twins gasped as their eyes grew wide. However, that didn't detract from their beauty; in fact it may have enhanced it. The three gorgeous women were a stunning sight that had left me nearly speechless.

"Sandy, where's your camera?" I managed to mumble.

The matching squeals, diving bodies and racing feet of the twins, brought giggles from Sandy and chuckles from me, then the bedroom door slammed behind their fleeing backs. At that point, Sandy grinned at me, then lifted a hand and made a 'come hither' motion with her index finger.

Needless to say, chores were done later than normal that morning and breakfast followed later still. Over breakfast, we all tried to ignore the morning's happenings, but I noticed both twins would look at me and blush, then Sandy would giggle. I tried my best to keep a straight face, but I'll admit, I certainly hadn't been upset by the mornings happenings. Meanwhile, Sandy was simply glowing.

However, if we were going to be ready for the guests we were expecting to arrive before Christmas, we decided we better get mobile and get a few preparations done. The first order of the day was getting a tree, which is how we found ourselves roaring over a snow-covered range in the late morning.

I knew exactly where we were headed and even had a specific tree in mind. I'd seen it earlier in the year and had thought it would make a perfect Christmas tree, so I'd made note of where it grew. That was why I was driving the first sled and pulling the toboggan. Jess rode behind me on my snowmobile while Sandy had Jean behind her on the other machine. On the way, Jess kept tapping my shoulder and pointing at decent trees, but at each one, I'd just glance at the tree and shake my head. I think she was growing annoyed because I hadn't even slowed down for any of those that she'd pointed out, then she saw the tree I was thinking of using.

It was outstanding. A native Alberta white spruce, the tree was growing some distance from other trees and was almost perfectly symmetrical. Since it was about twelve feet high, it would need to be trimmed to fit in the nine-foot height of the living room ceiling, but I thought it was perfect. From the looks on the gal's faces as I reached out and shook the tree to dislodge the recently fallen snow, I thought they agreed. After they had walked all the way around it to see the tree from all angles, I became certain of it.

"You knew exactly where this tree was, didn't you?" Sandy smiled at me.

"Unh huh," I nodded, grinning back at her.

"I thought he was being too fussy," Jess clipped my shoulder lightly as she grinned at me. "I kept pointing out nice trees, but he ignored me."

"Hey, be nice to me, or I won't let you drive back to the cabin," I growled.

"You're going to let me drive?" she squealed, then threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly.

"What about me?" Jean demanded.

"Well, you can't both drive this machine at once, but perhaps Sandy will let you drive the other one," I laughed and winked at Sandy.

"Umm, I suppose," Sandy tried to look unconvinced, then broke into a wide grin. "Actually, since I really bought the snowmobile as a Christmas present for all of us, I guess she can learn to drive it a few days early."

We all just laughed and I dug out the swede saw, then kicked away a dip in the snow so I could crawl under the lower branches of the tree in order to cut it off. Moments later we were wrapping the branches as tightly against the trunk as we could, then tying the tree on the toboggan. Since it was cold and since they had no reason to wait, Jean and Sandy left first, with Jean driving. Jess hopped onto my snowmobile and looked at me with a grin.

"This time you get to hold onto me," she giggled.

"Like you did me?" I teased, because her arms had been tucked around me high on my chest.

"Just like I did ... if you dare," she grinned widely as she winked.

"I think I'll just hold you around the waist," I laughed as I seated myself behind her.

"Just hold on tight then," she giggled as she started the machine.

I really tried to hold onto her waist, but she hit a bump. I wasn't prepared and my hands slipped upward while she seemed to move down. Even under winter clothing, I could feel that she'd grown to be quite well endowed. Instead of pulling away, she pressed back against me and I could hear her moan softly. After that first time, it seemed to me that she was intentionally looking for bumps to bounce over. The ride soon grew to be very uncomfortable for me as my britches became too tight for comfort. Since she was looking for bumps and their effect, I think she was going faster than she'd planned. We were back at the cabin soon and I was able to get gingerly to my feet as I slid off the machine. She turned to me and her eyes were shining.

"I'm gonna tell Sandy what happened, but I'll take the blame, 'cause only the first time was an accident," she winked at me. "Thank you though."

With that, she jumped off the snowmobile and dashed into the cabin. I was left to untie the tree and manhandle it up to the porch by myself while trying to think of anything else but her soft flesh. Then I had to put away the snowmobile and the toboggan. At least by the time I was done all of that, my body had calmed down. When I walked in the cabin and got greeted by a strong hug and steaming kiss from Sandy, then got warned that Jean was jealous of Jess, I decided that I would never ever be able to understand women.

"Jess told you what happened and you're not upset?" I stared at Sandy in disbelief.

"Nope. She trusts you, so does Jean and so do I. We all know that you'd never hurt any of us intentionally. Besides, it's all in the family," she giggled, kissing me again, then changing the subject as if she'd said all she intended to on the subject. "Now, we were looking around the living room and checking for electrical outlets to see where we could set up the tree. Do you have a preference?"

"Unh huh, a tree like this deserves to be displayed in the middle of the room," I answered quickly. "But, before we bring the tree inside, we need to move the couch and get the tree stand ready. Otherwise I won't know how much needs to be trimmed off the trunk of the tree."

"But how will you plug in the lights? People might trip on a cord if it has to be stretched across the floor to the middle of the room."

I just chuckled and led her into the living room. First I had her help me move the couch a few feet. Then, taking a penknife with a flat screwdriver blade attachment out of my pocket, I undid a locking screw and opened a small hatch that blended into the flooring. Standing it on end, then lifting it out and flipping it over, I lowered it back into place. Now there was a small box standing proud of the flooring, on one end of that box there was a regular plug-in, and on the opposite end was a regular switch.

"There you are," I grinned. "I had a floor plug specially wired into place so the Christmas tree could sit in the middle of the floor and all the lights could be turned on and off with one switch."

Sandy just looked at me and shook her head.

"How much did that cost you to do?" Jess asked.

"A couple of bucks for parts, I guess. Building and fitting it just took time," I laughed. "The hardest part was rigging it up so I could turn it over. It's wired with the same sort of shielded wire used on an electric stove. I had to make a support shelf to hang in the floor joists and it had to be long enough that the flex cable would still let the box turn over though."

Now all three of them shook their heads and rolled their eyes.

"All that, just so you could have the tree in the middle of the room?" Sandy asked.

"Yep, I wanted it done right," I laughed. "I guess it's a guy thing. I'll be back in a moment, there's more to the setup."

With that I went down the basement and found a Christmas tree stand that I'd had made up by the welder who worked at Frank Dolens' garage. I'd seen a similar tree stand made out of cheap material and had it copied, but improved on the design a little bit. Made from a section of five inch stainless steel pipe so it wouldn't rust, and with a solid plate on the bottom, it could hold a decent amount of water to keep the tree green. The pipe section had three thumb screws near the top and a pointed pin in the bottom to hold the tree steady. Three, foot-long triangles of flat plate, were equally spaced and welded around the outside of the pipe as braces. Then thumb screws on the small ends of those braces were meant to mount everything solidly in order to hold the tree steady once it was set up. Those screws fit into previously measured and threaded holes I'd drilled in the floor and normally kept plugged with blind studs, which had slotted ends for easy removal.

When I'd designed everything earlier, I'd positioned the electric plug-in and the mounting holes so that the tree stand would stand right in the middle of the room. Since there were thousands of trees on the ranch, I'd been certain that I could find a decent one every year, and I planned to take advantage of that. The Christmas tree had always been an important part of my family's celebration of the holiday and I intended to continue the tradition. Since I wanted to do it right, I'd gone to a little trouble to be prepared because I'd felt it would be worthwhile.

Let's face it, to me a decorated tree is a special symbol of what Christmas means, so it was worth the extra time and money to make it the feature of the room.

### Chapter 45