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"Now, tell me again why we're making these?" Peter Caine looked down at the kitchen table, covered with newspaper, glue, glitter and three strange-looking hats.
Kelly Blaisdell put her hands on her hips. "So we can celebrate tonight. God, Peter. You'd think you'd never celebrated New Year's Eve before."
Her sister Carolyn drew in a quick breath, then leveled her best glare on the younger girl. "Shut up, dummy," she hissed, aiming a kick under the table at the seven year old's shin.
Kelly avoided it and glared right back. "Why? Because I said 'God'? You say it too. I've heard you." The little girl stuck her tongue out at her sister and returned her attention to the jars of sparkling glitter on the table. "Eeney, meeny, miney, mo..." she chanted, pointing to each in turn.
Carolyn turned to Peter, looking uncomfortable. "She didn't mean anything..."
The tall boy shrugged. "It's okay." The expression on his face said that is wasn't though.
Carolyn bit her lip and studied that face out of the corner of her eye. When she had first met her future brother, he had always looked...guarded. Like something terrible was about to happen. She wasn't too sure that she had liked him back then. Once he had started spending weekends at their house, though, the closed look came only when he had to return to the orphanage. Carolyn had decided that it must be a horrible place. She hadn't seen Peter look that way since he had come to live with them. Sometimes he got a faraway, remembering expression...but that wasn't the same. Usually his face reflected happiness and contentment. Confusion sometimes, but usually not unhappiness...until lately, when Kelly opened her big mouth.
Peter had officially joined the family just before school started. He hadn't changed his name to Blaisdell, but in every other way he was now her brother. Sometimes it was hard--even though Carolyn had known him for almost a year now, she still didn't know how to handle these awkward moments. It was okay for Kelly; she was too little to know when she had said something bad. Nobody blamed her for it. But Carolyn hated the thought of that closed and shuttered look coming back on her new brother's face.
The silence in the kitchen was broken only by Kelly's rhyme. Peter and Carolyn watched as she ended up on red, then picked up the gold glitter to finish her hat.
"Your rhyme ended on the red one," Carolyn said, just to say something.
"I know," Kelly replied comfortably. "But I don't like red. So I picked gold. Gold is prettier for hats, right Peter?" She smiled sweetly up at Peter, her brown eyes expectant.
Peter looked at Kelly's purple-blue-green-silver crown, now obtaining a rim of gold; at his own gold top hat, then over at Carolyn's red bowler. "Um, well...I like gold AND red," he said diplomatically, picking up the jar of red glitter. Kelly rolled her eyes and concentrated on pouring the gold on top of the glue.
Carolyn exchanged a smile with Peter. "Good answer."
***************
Upstairs, Annie Blaisdell was putting away laundry when the telephone rang. "Blaisdell residence," she said picking up the receiver.
*Hi, Sweetheart.*
Annie's initial instinct was to greet her husband warmly, the second was to wonder why he was calling; he had just left for a half-day shift an hour ago, and was due back by lunchtime. Annie went with the second reaction. "Paul? Is something wrong?"
*No, not really. I just wanted to check in with you about tonight...*
"No, not really?" Now that the fleeting brush with worry was over, Annie's voice was laden with suspicion. "This had better be good, Blaisdell."
*Ouch,* her husband said ruefully. *Okay, I am going to be a little delayed with a case, but I'll be home in plenty of time for us to make it to the party.* He stopped there, but Annie heard the hesitation in his voice.
"Out with it. What else?" she asked, a smile on her face. Some people found it uncanny that she could read the people around her so well, but it had never surprised her. Lack of vision had forced her to read different signs, things like voice timbre and word patterns, which didn't change over the telephone. Family members knew that it was impossible to hide anything from Annie Blaisdell.
*Lieutenant Kenney's daughter is home from college...*
"Paul, no," Annie interrupted. "It's not like we're going away for the weekend. Peter and Carolyn are perfectly capable of looking after Kelly."
*Wouldn't you feel more comfortable having an adult in the house?*
She sighed. "Paul, we've been over this before. Peter is fifteen. Carolyn is thirteen. They'd both be insulted to think that you didn't trust them." Insulted was putting it mildly. Peter would be crushed that his new parents didn't trust him enough to watch his sisters, and Carolyn would be furious that she had to be subjected to a babysitter in seventh grade.
*I do trust them,* Paul exclaimed. *It's other people I don't trust. Annie...*
"Paul..." she said mimicking his tone. "No. I'm sure Lieutenant Kenney's daughter would be a perfectly capable babysitter, but we have two perfectly capable babysitters living in this house. My sister was babysitting overnight when she was fifteen." Annie crossed her fingers...Alison had actually been sixteen, and the babies in question had lived right next door to their parents. But she knew that Peter would do a good job, and if Paul stopped thinking about the bad things that *might* happen, and started thinking about the good things that could... Well, he would realize that she was...
*You're right,* Paul admitted.
"I know," Annie said with a private smirk. "I'm always right. That's why you married me. So how late are you going to be?"
Paul sighed. *I'm not sure...probably not more than two hours. I'll see you then, Hon.*
"Okay. Love you." Smiling at her husband's murmured response; she hung up and returned to putting laundry away. Until the pitter-patter of little...no, make that the thundering herd of elephants coming up the stairs stopped her.
"Mommy! Mommy!" Kelly shouted, banging her way into the bedroom. Carolyn was close on her heels, walking with a little more decorum. She was, after all, a teenager.
"Look at my hat, Mommy," Kelly said, putting the object in question into Annie's hands. "It's silver and gold and blue and purple and green. But not red. Red is ugly." Kelly's hands moved with Annie's, pointing at the colors of the various textures of glitter, helping her mother feel the pattern. "Can I put some glitter in my confetti, Mommy, please?"
"It's beautiful, Sweetheart," Annie said, feeling the still-damp glue, and knowing the work her daughter had put into it. "But no glitter in the confetti. It's impossible to get out of the carpet.
"Aw, Mom..." Kelly pouted.
"Kelly...." A warning note entered Annie's voice.
"Oh, all right. I'm going to go help Peter make the confetti now. I can't wait until midnight!" The little girl turned and raced out of the room.
Carolyn crossed the room to sit on the bed in front of her mother. She reached out and picked up a towel to fold, working quietly beside Annie. The blonde woman shook her head. "I wonder if she'll make it until midnight!"
"Oh, I don't doubt that she will," her older daughter said grimly. "You and Dad will probably come home from the party and find me and Peter asleep on the couch from exhaustion, and Kelly running around the house throwing confetti everywhere."
Annie laughed out loud at the picture, and reached out to cup her daughter's cheek with one slim hand. "So, Carolyn," she said, a faint smile on her lips, "I'd guess your hat is red?"
She could feel as her daughter relaxed into the caress. "How did you guess?"
"It's a phase, Honey. Your sister is testing you."
Carolyn sighed. "Yeah, I know. But it's frustrating!"
"It will pass. She's just want's Peter's attention. And I think she's afraid that you might like Peter better than her."
"I do," Carolyn said promptly. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" she said, seeing the frown pass over her mother's features. "But Peter is nearer to my age, and he's not a pest, and..."
"And that is why Kelly is trying so hard," Annie finished gently.
"Oh," Carolyn said softly, in a tone filled with revelation. She leaned on Annie and tucked her head on her mother's shoulder. "And I've been just as bad, haven't I? All week we've been fighting over Peter. Why didn't you tell me?"
Annie stroked the blonde head. "I wanted you to see it yourself. And it hasn't been that bad...I don't think Peter noticed."
"He noticed," Carolyn admitted, closing her eyes. "How can I look at him now?"
"Sweetie, don't be dramatic. He's your brother. You and Kelly will get over it. This has been a rough month with all the holidays, and the past week, being practically snowbound hasn't helped. You've all been cooped up too long. The honeymoon is over," she added with a laugh.
Carolyn bounced slightly in protest. "We didn't *marry* Peter, Mom," she protested.
"In a way, we did though," Annie said slowly. "When Peter joined our family. We took him 'To have and to hold, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, for as long as we all shall live,'" she misquoted.
"So what does a honeymoon have to do with that?"
"It's a phrase, Carolyn. It means that at first everything is beautiful, and new, and exciting. But after a little while real life sets in, and you have to deal with who uses the bathroom first, who gets to sit in the front seat, and who's responsible for the lost library books. I think we're just trying to adjust to real life. Peter knows that both you girls love him...you and Kelly just have to work out having three kids in the family, not two. You've done fine so far."
"I wonder if Peter would agree," Carolyn muttered, squirming as she reviewed the previous week.
"You want my advice?" Annie asked, her voice gentle.
Carolyn nodded against her mother's shoulder.
"This isn't a competition. Peter doesn't have to choose between you and Kelly. Kelly doesn't need to choose between you and Peter. Think about that."
Part 2
Peter was standing in front of the closet seeing, not the board games he was looking for, but New Year's Eve a year ago...
~Peter poked at the dinner on the plate before him. "What is it?" he asked dubiously.
"Stuffing, I think," his friend Kyle muttered sadly. "The rubbery white stuff is turkey, and the mooshy white stuff is mashed potatoes. The green goo is peas."
"Isn't this what we had for Thanksgiving?"
"I think they think that all holidays have the same celebratory meal," Danny, one of the smaller boys piped up.
Peter sighed and poked again at the unappetizing plate in front of him. Pineridge was certainly all he had been warned it would be...and that was bad. Picking up a fork full, he put some in his mouth, hoping it might at least taste better than it looked. It didn't.
His attention was caught by a tapping sound coming over the dining hall's audio system.
"The turkeys for tonight special dinner were donated by our trustees." Director Ward stood in the front of the room, a microphone in hand as he looked over the faces of the boys sitting in rows at the tables. "Please remember to thank them in your prayers."
A low murmur filled the room. "He's not serious, is he?" someone whispered incredulously. Peter grimaced. This meal certainly wasn't any different from their usual fare. Not enough to warrant praise, let alone prayers.
The man cleared his throat and glared for attention. Immediately, the voices quieted. "Now, we are going to have a little...activity before dessert is served.
"I want you all to think about the year you've just had, and make a resolution for the coming year," the director said. "Fill out your name and room number on the form now being passed out, then write your resolution in the appropriate space. Your counselor will speak to each of you about your goal for the year at your next assigned..."
"He's joking. He is joking, isn't he?" Peter whispered to Kyle, as the man droned on about obligations and monthly check-ins.
"I wish," Kyle answered, his mouth twisted in disgust. "But he isn't. Make sure your resolution is something you can keep. If it's not, you'll get in trouble for it, AND they'll call you in for special meetings a couple extra times a month."
Peter set his lips in a grim line. Nothing was private in his own little corner of hell. He knew what he'd LIKE to write down: *My resolution is to be out of here by next year.* With another sigh, he took the pen and paper given to him and, after filling out the form with his name and room number, wrote *My resolution is...* and paused. How could he finish that sentence?
To get better grades? To learn how to play the guitar? Although theoretically possible, neither one of those was probable, given that he'd need either a tutor or a guitar-and Pineridge certainly wasn't going to spring for one.
To quit smoking in the woods with Kyle? To stop skipping classes? Yeah, those would go over real well. Peter winced as he thought of the endless lectures he would have to sit through after writing that on his paper. Chewing on the end of his pencil, he looked over at his friend. "What did you write?" Peter asked Kyle.
"My resolution is the same as it has been for the past three years--to make a new friend," Kyle smirked. "Hey Pete! You're last year's resolution come to life!"
Peter smiled, feeling a rush of affection for the one good thing he had found at Pineridge...his friendship with Kyle. He could write down the same thing...but that wouldn't really be HIS resolution. He couldn't think of anything he wanted that was possible.
Biting his lip, Peter glared at the unfinished sentence, then scribbled the end: *...to get out of this place forever.* He knew it would get him in trouble, but it was the only goal he had for the year.~
And here he was. Out of Pineridge, in a new home, with a new family. Hopefully forever. Maybe there was someone out there, looking out for him. Maybe Kwai Chang Caine had some pull with God, or Buddha, or whoever was up there. The shelves in front of him blurred.
"Peter! You haven't even picked out the games yet!" Kelly said, tugging on his sweatshirt. "Are you *crying*?" she asked with astonishment, looking up at his face.
Peter blinked hard. "No, I'm not. Which game do you want?" he asked the little girl. She ignored the question as she reached up to touch one finger to his cheek.
"You were. Why?"
Looking down at the wide-eyed innocent staring at him with a combination of sympathy and worry, Peter couldn't tell her. "I wasn't crying, Kel," he denied.
"I'm sorry," she said, her lower lip trembling. "I didn't mean to be mean."
"Mean?" Peter asked in confusion, trying to follow his little sister's train of thought. "You weren't mean."
"Yes I was," the little girl said, staring at the toe of one shoe. "When we were making the hats. I was only trying to make Carolyn mad though. I didn't want to make you sad."
"Oh, that," Peter said, thinking back to the scene at the kitchen table. "I'm not sad about that. You weren't being mean. I just didn't know what to say."
"You mean you really *haven't* had a party for New Year's before?"
Peter shrugged. "Not that I remember."
"Even when you lived at the Sho...Shal..." Kelly rolled her eyes and gave up. "Before?"
Pushing the more recent memories of the orphanage behind him, Peter grinned slightly as he recalled the Temple. "Well...we *did* celebrate a New Year there...just on a different day."
His little sister looked up swiftly. "But New Year's is always on January first," she objected. "You couldn't have celebrated it on a different day."
With a crooked grin, Peter reached out and tapped his little sister's nose.
"You can if you celebrate the Chinese New Year!"
Kelly's face brightened. "We learned about that in school. Gung Hay Fat Choy!"
Peter laughed, surprised to hear the familiar greeting-albeit pronounced with an atrocious accent. "Exactly."
Biting her lip, Kelly studied the tall boy. "You know what? I'll teach you all about OUR New Year today, if YOU teach ME all about yours when it happens! Is it a deal?" Seriously, she stuck out one hand.
"It's a deal." Peter took her hand in his and they shook on it.
"Okay. The first thing is to pick out some GOOD board games...that all three of us can play." Dropping to her hands and knees, Kelly crawled into the bottom of the closet to find something. Her voice floated out behind her. "Peter-take this. Can we stay up until midnight on the Chinese New Year too?"
Feeling happier than he had all day, Peter bent down to retrieve whatever the little girl was trying to give him. "We'll see..."
***************************
Part 3
Peter had never known that a party could be the cause of so much commotion. Carolyn and Kelly had stopped their third game of Clue just as Peter had been about to announce that Colonel Mustard had done it in the Ballroom with the Candlestick, in order to help Annie get dressed and find the right jewelry for the celebration.
They'd been gone for a long time. Peter sighed and picked up a book he was supposed to read over vacation. Maybe he could try to get some homework done. Giggles floated down the stairs, making it difficult to concentrate.
"Peter, are you ready?" Carolyn called. "Mom wants to show off her new look!"
"Yeah," Peter said, putting down the book.
"Go to the bottom of the stairs!"
Grumbling, Peter walked into the foyer, waiting to see what had taken so long. Paul opened the door at exactly the right time, whistling at the figure coming down to join them. Peter stood beside him, his mouth dropping open at the elegant woman who paused for effect in the middle of the staircase. If it hadn't been for her two giggling shadows, he wasn't sure he would have recognized his mother.
"You look stunning!" Paul said, admiration carrying clearly in his voice.
Annie grinned. "I had better. Our daughters just spent at least an hour fussing over my hair and makeup." She turned her head towards Peter. "Sweetheart, close your mouth, you're letting out air."
Peter blushed, closing his mouth firmly. "Hey, how did..." he asked belatedly, in some confusion.
"Well, I could say that I heard you breathing," Annie said, finishing her trip down the stairs and reaching out to wrap an arm around his slender frame. "But mostly, I think it was because I heard the whispers from behind me to that effect. Your sisters," she clarified when Peter still didn't say anything.
Paul laughed and ruffled the boy's hair. "You can't blame him for being in awe of your beauty."
Annie snorted. "Flattery will get you nowhere, Blaisdell." But her arm tightened around Peter, and a small smirk of satisfaction formed on her lips.
"It won't be for lack of trying!" Removing Peter's arm, he embraced his wife.
"Paul, you're all wet!" she protested, quickly squeezing, then pushing him away. "You'll ruin the dress."
"Is it snowing again?" Kelly asked, jumping on the banister to slide down the rest of the way.
Carolyn made a face. "Why can't it snow before regular school days? If we'd had all these storms anytime other than vacation, we'd have snow days." Peter nodded in agreement. Even blizzards just weren't as much fun on weekends and vacations.
"Relax kids. It's not snowing, it's raining. The weather report said that it won't be cold enough for snow tonight." Paul took off his coat and dropped it over Kelly's head, laughing as she squealed. Picking up the entire bundle of coat and child, he handed her to Peter, who staggered under the squirming weight.
Annie felt the face of her wristwatch. "You don't have much time to get ready," she said pointedly. "And we still have to pick up a housewarming gift and some champagne."
Peter put down his wriggling sister. "Do you need help getting ready, Paul?" he asked, in mock seriousness. "After all, you might need someone to do your hair or...uh..."
"Make up?" Carolyn inquired sweetly.
"I think I can handle it," Paul snorted, patting both teenagers on the shoulder. "You go help your mother wait patiently. Maybe she'd enjoy a game of Trouble."
"I heard that Blaisdell!"
*******************
"Bye! Have fun!"
"Have a happy New Year Mommy and Daddy!"
"Don't do anything we wouldn't do!"
"Be good. We'll call you at midnight," Paul laughed as he waved to the three kids standing in the doorway.
"And be careful with the fireplace!" Annie called as they backed the car from the driveway.
"We will," Carolyn said, rolling her eyes. She poked Peter in the ribs.
"What?" he jumped, startled by Carolyn's glare. "Oh. Yeah, we will," he called, even though the car was too far away. "Bye!" The three of them shut the back door and stepped into the warmth of the kitchen.
"Time for pizza?" Kelly asked hopefully.
"Time for pizza," Carolyn agreed.
Carolyn and Kelly ate their dinner on the floor in front of the fireplace; Peter sat on the couch, close to the girls but not directly facing the fire. After dinner, they played Monopoly, while listening to Casey Kasum's New Year's Countdown playing on the stereo.
"I love this song," Carolyn said, as Air Supply came on at number 23.
Peter groaned, not sharing his sister's taste in music. "Air Supply? Caro, they suck! I'm gonna go get a brownie for dessert," he said. "Does anyone else want one?"
"I do, I do!" Kelly said, bouncing in place. "Bring me one!"
"Can you get a couple logs for the fire while you're up, Peter?"
Heaving a dramatic sigh, Peter headed through the kitchen to the log pile on the back porch. Opening the door, he stepped out into a world of glistening beauty. "Wow," he breathed. Despite the predictions of meteorologists, the temperature had dropped; the rain that had been falling all evening had frozen. Everything-trees, fences, cars-was encased in a cocoon of ice. The pile of logs, wet from the blowing wind, had frozen into a solid lump. Peter picked up the splitter and tapped the pile, trying to free some wood.
"What's taking so long?" Kelly asked, appearing in the doorway. "Carolyn wanted me to come check on you..." she paused to take in the icy world. "Whoa. It looks like the ice rink! Can I go get my skates? I bet I could skate on the sidewalk!"
Peter shook his head. "You don't even have on any shoes. Go in before your socks freeze to the porch." Shivering suddenly, he felt as though an icy finger had drawn a line down the middle of his back. "Go on, Kelly. I'll be there in a second with the wood."
Pouting, the little girl stomped back into the house. Her mood changed abruptly as the telephone rang. "I'll get it!" she shouted, running for the wall phone. So when Peter returned, he was surprised to find Carolyn on the other phone, her face tense, in the living room.
"Yes... No... They left a couple hours ago. Okay, Uncle Frank. We'll be fine, Uncle Frank. Yes, I'll have Daddy call you when we hear from him." Carefully, she placed the phone back in the receiver. She looked up at Peter, and he flinched from the expression in her eyes.
"What's the matter?" he asked, feeling like there was no air was in his lungs. He wanted to block his ears, not to hear what Carolyn had to say. He listened anyway.
"Mom and Dad never got to the party."
*****************
Part 4
Carolyn and Peter looked at each other across the room. Carolyn frowned and pinched her lip. Peter's eyes were wide, his face pale.
"It's probably nothing," Carolyn said uncertainly. "They told us they were stopping to get a housewarming gift and champagne. It must have just taken longer than they thought."
Peter cleared his throat. "Two hours? On New Year's Eve?" To his own ears, his voice sounded high-pitched and thin...but Carolyn didn't seem to notice. Or perhaps she did. She was giving him a funny look. "Don't all the stores close early?"
"Well...maybe they ran into an old friend and they lost track of time," Carolyn offered. "Maybe Daddy had to stop by at the precinct. Lots of things could have happened. I'm sure it's nothing."
Peter stared at her. "It's really slippery outside," he said, closing his eyes and thinking of the icy world he had seen from the porch. He shivered. "It would be easy to have an accident..."
Kelly came in from the kitchen, chewing on a brownie. "Carolyn, you should see what it's like outside... What's wrong?" she asked, looking from one to the other.
"Nothing's wrong, Kelly. Mom and Dad are running a little late. Why don't you go get brownies for the rest of us," Carolyn suggested, not wanting to worry the younger girl. She needed her out of the room while she talked to Peter.
"No, something is wrong. Turn on the TV, Kelly." Peter said, countermanding his sister's command. "We need to see what's going on."
"Peter!" Carolyn protested. "Nothing is wrong. They're just running late." She looked over at her brother, only to see him withdrawing into the corner of the couch. He wrapped his arms around himself. His eyes wouldn't meet hers; his face was blank. That scared her more than anything else. "Turn on the TV, Kel," she said, giving in.
They watched in silence for a few minutes. Kelly sat on the floor by the television set, turning the channels at her older siblings' direction. Nothing was on but countdowns to the New Year.
"Can't we just finish our game?" the little girl complained. "I'm tired of turning channels. I'm leaving it here." She put it on Channel 3, just as a reporter broke into the Times Square broadcast with a weather advisory warning. The children watched intently as the reporter, looking very solemn, warned of icy roads, drunk drivers, and several already fatal car accidents in the metropolitan area.
Carolyn broke the silence that had settled over them. "If something had happened...not that anything did," she bit her lower lip, casting a protective look at her younger sister. "But if something did...well, someone from the precinct would have come to tell us." Police took care of their own; she was a police captain's daughter, she knew how it worked.
"What happened?" Kelly asked, sounding frightened. "Tell me!" Nobody answered her.
"Maybe," Peter said, addressing Carolyn's statement. He knew that his newfound happiness with the Blaisdells had been too easy. Whatever had happened to Paul and Annie was his fault...it had to be. He was bad luck to everyone. Peter felt cold. He huddled closer into himself, drawing his knees into his chest, wrapping his arms around them. A tremor ran through his body. Maybe he didn't deserve to be happy, but it horrified him that he'd dragged Carolyn and Kelly down too.
"Peter?" Carolyn was staring at him from very far away.
"I'm okay," he lied. His teeth chattered.
"What's going on?" Kelly wailed, "You're both acting weird!" Climbing to her feet, she ran to Peter. "Did something happen to Mommy and Daddy?" Peter wouldn't look at her, so she ran to Carolyn. "Tell me," she demanded, her voice shaking.
"Kelly, *nothing* is wrong," Carolyn reassured her, pulling the younger girl into her arms. "Uncle Frank called to say that Mom and Daddy didn't get to the party, but I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation."
"Then why is Peter acting so strange?"
Carolyn took her sister's hand. "I don't know." She looked over again at their brother and saw the shuttered look that had scared her when they first met...the look that said he expected something terrible to happen, and she suddenly understood what the problem was. "I think Peter's afraid," she whispered, her heart hammering. How was she supposed to deal with this? Helplessly, she looked at her little sister.
"Why?" Kelly tried to whisper, but she wasn't very good at it. "Why is Peter afraid?"
"Shh..." Carolyn hushed her, trying to figure out how to explain what she'd just figured out. "Maybe because something did happen to his parents," she offered tentatively. "So he expects that something bad *has* happened..."
"Oh." The younger girl considered this for a moment, then pulled out of Carolyn's grasp and walked over to Peter. Climbing on the couch to kneel beside him, she put both hands on the one shoulder she could reach. "Peter?" There was no response. She shook him gently, not noticing when Carolyn crossed the room to sit behind her. "Peter?"
Peter turned. Hazel eyes met dark brown ones; Kelly smiled. "Peter, don't be scared. We're here."
Carolyn chimed in when the boy didn't respond. "Peter, nothing happened to Mom and Dad." She looked at his unresponsive face and took a deep breath. "But Peter, even if something did, you'd still have us." Reaching around Kelly, she patted the silent figure on the back. "We're your sisters, and that won't change."
"Yeah, we love you Peter." Kelly wrapped her arms around Peter's neck and squeezed. "No one will take you away from us." Carolyn hoped he could breathe through the tight grip.
Slowly, Peter's tense body relaxed. Kelly pushed his arms away and insinuated herself onto his lap, then looked expectantly at Carolyn.
Carolyn hesitated only a moment before scooting over into the spot her sister had left vacant, to sit shoulder to shoulder with Peter, taking one of his hands into her own.
"It'll be okay, Peter. We do love you and we won't leave you." She stretched her other hand to Kelly, who took it with a smile. The three of them sat that way, in the corner of the couch, for a few minutes, until Peter sighed and relaxed completely.
When he shifted uncomfortably, Carolyn knew it was time to break apart. "And you too, I guess, squirt," she added affectionately to her little sister. "Why don't you let Peter go now."
Kelly picked up the cue. "Bossy. You're so bossy," she said with a fake pout, releasing her hug victim.
Peter looked at them, his eyes swimming. "Thanks." Carolyn squeezed his hand and smiled. "All for one, and one for all, huh?" he asked.
"Exactly," Kelly said, nodding with satisfaction.
Sighing, Peter said, "I'm okay now. You can get up."
"Maybe we like sitting like this," Carolyn said with a grin. "Maybe that will be my New Year's resolution...to make you sit still for a few minutes each day, so we can sit with you..."
The telephone rang. Peter started; Kelly wrapped her arms around him again.
Carolyn got up. "I'll get it," she said, hoping she sounded calm. "Hello?" She picked up the receiver--a smile filled her face as she listened. "Daddy! Yeah, Uncle Frank did call..."
She paused, waiting, then looked over at her brother and sister. "Who, us? Nah, we weren't worried at all."
***************
The sound of the car driving into the garage woke both Peter and Carolyn. Stretching, they were on their feet and in the kitchen to greet their parents as they walked through the back door.
"Happy New Year! So, how was your party?" Carolyn asked, stepping into her mother's embrace, while Paul wrapped an arm around Peter's shoulders.
"Oh, it was fun," Paul said. "Your mother was the most beautiful woman there."
"We missed you three though," Annie declared. "So, where's Kelly?"
Peter and Carolyn exchanged grins. "She fell asleep about ten minutes after midnight," Peter admitted.
"I guess she's not as indestructible as she pretends to be," Carolyn said with a laugh. "But she did win almost every game we played and threw so much confetti that the living room will never be the same."
"She probably won't eat for days either, since she managed to finish half a pizza and drink more sparkling cider than the two of us put together," Peter warned.
Paul released Peter to take off his coat, slipping Annie's from her shoulders as well. "I'm sorry that Frank called you," he said as he hung them up on the coat rack, his voice apologetic. "He just didn't get the message that we stopped at the scene of an accident to help out."
Carolyn exchanged glances with Peter. "That's okay. We were okay, right Peter?"
"Right," Peter replied. "I made a resolution tonight," he said abruptly. "Would you like to hear it?"
Annie looked puzzled at this sudden change of topic. "Only if you want to share, Honey. You don't have to tell anyone."
"It's okay. I want to." Peter took a deep breath. "My resolution is to not worry so much and to enjoy my...my family." His face flushed as he studied the floor intently.
Until Annie wrapped him in a warm hug. "I think that's a wonderful resolution, Sweetheart." She kissed his forehead. Peter smiled shyly, looking around the room at the faces of his family. Carolyn was beaming at him, Annie smiled gently, Paul...
Paul looked at him, uncertainty in his features. "Did something happen tonight, Son?"
Son. That sounded so good. Peter felt a smile spread over his face as he felt the love surrounding him. "Well...nothing bad, anyway. Hey, Carolyn. You wanna help me get the squirt into bed?"
"Sure," Carolyn said. Linking elbows, they smiled at their bemused parents and left the kitchen.
"Something definitely happened," Paul said slowly.
Annie fell into his embrace. "Whatever it was, Sweetheart, it's made them closer. Let's not ask questions. When they're ready, they'll tell us."
The end.