Free A Christmas Home: A Novel by Gregory D Kincaid Page B

“I’m pretty good, aren’t I?”
    Mary Ann came over and dropped a kiss on Todd’s head. “You’re the best!”
    “Thanks, Mom.” Todd was getting his mind around the problem to the point where he could at least sum up the issues for his parents. “I have to find a new job and a new place for our dogs and cats to live, too. Hayley and I are working on the dogs.” Todd smiled affectionately as he looked at George. “And Dad gave me the job menu.”
    George gently corrected Todd. “It’s called ‘Help Wanted’ and it’s part of the paper’s classified ads section. It’s kind of like a menu, but for jobs, not food.”
    Mary Ann sat down next to Todd. “Your dad and I were talking, and we want you to know that you always have a place here with us on the farm, either in our house or in Thorne’s cabin.” Christmas began letting out little dog snores.
    George added his own thoughts. “What your mom is saying is that we don’t want you to worry. We have confidence that you will work it out. You’ll get through this. It may take some time. We all need to be patient.”
    Todd got up from the sofa and sat down next to Christmas so that he too could feel the warmth of the fire on his back. “Thanks, Dad, but I think I’ll find something soon. Depending on what I find, I might want to move into Crossing Trails.”
    Christmas’s snoring grew louder. Todd rubbed the old Lab’s ears.
    Mary Ann set down her knitting. “I don’t understand what you mean.”
    A look came over Todd’s face as if he suspected he had said more than he should have. “Depends on where I get a job. It might be easier for me to live in Crossing Trails, you know, closer to work.”
    A year earlier when Todd had asked about moving into town, living in Thorne’s cabin had been a compromise. George could feel Todd’s growing aspirations for independence running straight into Mary Ann’s often fierce desire to protect her son from a world she feared would not treat him well. He tried to shut the discussion down before either side got entrenched in an indefensible position. “Todd, let’s not worry about where you’re going to live right now. Once you know where you’re working then we’ll discuss it.”
    His mother added, “We like it that you live out here, near us.”
    “I know.” Todd put his hands in his pockets and looked at his parents and his boyhood home. The closing of the shelter was naturally causing Todd to think about things he had never been required to consider. Bit by bit his notion of where and how he best fit into the world was shifting. Over the last year or so, particularly since he had moved into Thorne’s cabin and grown closer to Laura, Todd had begun to distinguish his home from his parents’ home. Movingback in with his parents would not be a move in the right direction. He wanted to move forward.
    Todd turned to George and Mary Ann and said, “I’m going back to my cabin.” He leaned over and patted the old sleeping Lab on his head. “Good night, Christmas.”
    Todd got in his truck and drove down the hill. Once inside his cabin, he turned on the evening news so he could catch his favorite segment on the
Channel Six News:
Brenda Williams, the Problem Solver. There was no cable service in this rural part of Kansas, but Todd had splurged on a satellite dish and with it he got three “local” channels from over a hundred miles away in Kansas City. Most of his attention was on national fare, like Animal Planet (and whatever else he could find that focused on dog training or care), but in the evenings he liked the ritual of watching the local news from the big city down the road.
    Channel Six also made shelters and dog rescue a recurring focus of their programming. Every year Todd particularly enjoyed watching their twenty-four-hour Labor Day Pet-a-thon.
    Tonight there was the story of an elderly woman who had given a contractor five hundred dollars as a down payment for six thermal replacement