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As they did each Thanksgiving, her mother and father, brother and niece returned to Fool’s Gold Like rabbed her handbag and called out that she was leaving
Once she was outside, she breathed in the chilly air It even smelled like a holiday The streets werelast-minute errands There were plenty of tourists, as well, in town for the festivities
The holiday season bonanza of activities started with the Thanksgiving parade tohting on Saturday and so on, right up through New Year’s Madeline enjoyed all of it She was on the committee for the Live Nativity, which was exactly how it sounded, live animals and all
For the h There were some unusual choices such as Priscilla the elephant and her pony, Reno The only disagreeested a toy poodle stand in for the Baby Jesus But as life without controversy?
Not that she had to worry about her co time with her family
She walked the ten blocks to her small house, then smiled when she saw the rental car in her driveway Her parents had flown in from their place in Florida while her brother and niece would be arriving from O’Hare Jasmine was a sophomore at Northwestern, while Robbie, Madeline’s brother, was a pediatrician in Saint Paul
She ran up the three steps to her porch, then opened the front door and stepped inside
“I’m home,” she called
Her parents stepped out of the kitchen and hurried toward her “My darling Maddie,” her“How are you?”
Her dad grinned “She looks good, Loretta She looks good”
Madeline was captured in their e the love wash over her
She’d been lucky, she thought to herself Lucky to be born into such a loving family While she’d always known that her parents were older than her friends’, she’d been okay with that Loretta and Joseph had nurtured her, encouraging her to believe in herself and follow her drea it had taken Madeline to figure out what she wanted to do with her life
It hadn’t helped to have such a successful older brother By the tirade, Robbie was already in medical school But he’d always taken tiether, they’d been close
Now she sht?”