5. Christmas (1/2)

chapter v

julia was counting days until christmas. she felt as if god was making each day ten hours longer and it felt like that because of the most horrible thing that her family was now doing ever since this memorable day in mid-november; they were waiting. waiting for more and more news from europe and merry.

one way or another, julia and her family managed to smile and laugh, and generally keep up the good spirits. julia was the main reason for the encouragement; she was doing everything to make her family smile and she did a very good job. not that she never had any

eakdowns along the way but she hid them very gracefully and nobody apart from walt, blythe and rose knew about them (it seemed easier for julia to just send a letter to her closest friends than to talk about what's in her heart face-to-face with someone).

one evening at the beginning of december, rilla ford and nan meredith got phone calls from their oldest sons. gil and jake enlisted and will be leaving 'somewhere in january' for training. gil signed up to the rcaf (royal canadian air force) and jake to lfc, just like merry and troy.

"i knew it was coming; deep inside me i think that i was even prepared for it in some ways. " said rilla with a small grin on her pale face.

"you know, rilla…" nan squeezeed her sister's hand "i think i was prepared as well. i could read through the lines of jake's letters what he's up to, this dear boy." she said and both she and her younger sister cried together for the next half an hour. after that they both stood up and started preparing christmas cookies while singing "winter wonderland" together in the kitchen, remembering that after all, they had each other to hold each others' hands whenever they needed it.

julia knew that gilly and jake would enlist soon. they were both writing to her on regular basis and three quarters of thei letters was about war and "how

illiant it would be to be a part of it". when she learned the news, she felt very downhearted and stayed in her room for the whole evening. her handsome cousins too heard the piper's song and would be gone soon. "who will be next?" she thought and shivered, feeling how the wave of coldness crossed her body.

22nd of december, the day expected by everyone, arrived eventually and the whole blythe, ford and meredith clan gathered on the train station to greet their 'redmond students' for christmas.

blythe, rose, gil and jake were greeted by the bunch of happy faces and by the snow falling down on their heads as soon as they stepped off the train.

"thank goodness we will have christams with snow this year!" jem said when he kissed his son on the forehead.

"i always thought of 'snowy christmas' as a good sign." blythe said when he got a big kiss from his sister leslie on his red cheek.

"it surely is." gil said joyfully.

"let's go and dance between snowflakes!" julia shouted and grabbed walt's and cee's hand and the three siblings waltzed from the train station to ingleside with their cousins singing and dancing with them.

and they almost looked like little children again.

"julia, sweetie, did you add flour to your cookies?" rose asked her cousin in a doubtfull voice.

the whole family was in prepartions for christmas day which was to be the next day. grandmother blythe, grandmother rosemary, faith, una, julia and rose were all stuck in the ingleside's kitchen, being hardly able to move, preparing all dishes from the old family recipes.

"what do you mean, anna rosemary? of course i did, i'm not such a bad cook, am i?" julia asked her almost angrily but she went hurriedly over to the oven and looked inside. when she saw her cookies inside, she sighed with disappointment "i think that maybe i didn't add enough flour… i know i did add it but, oh, why am i so…" she started dramatically but her grandmother interrupted her.

"so like me?" grandmother blythe finished and laughed. her sweet voice filled up the whole kitchen so beautifully that for a moment they all forgot about merry, gil and jake going to the front in a few months' time and replaced it with excitement for the upcoming christmas.

"don't worry, dear, we will start them again." grandmother rosemary said warmly and put her arm on julia's shoulders.

she sighed again and took off her apron "this time, i will keep out of the kithen's zone, for i think that i will not make a great cook, not ever. oh, why people write recipes? they make your life so complicated!" she exclaimed and left the room.

faith was the first one to let out a small giggle "i sometimes wonder how such thoughts come up in julia's head." she said.

"it runs in the family, i suppose." rose chuckled, looking at grandmother blythe meaningfully.

the christmas dinner was delightful. the dishes were full of wonderful food and the table was surrounded by laughter and chatter.

there was one empty chair in the place where merry was always sitted, right next to julia's chair near the window. sometimes each blythe, ford or meredith would turn their heads towards the empty chair and sigh, lost in their own gloomy thoughts about what's to come or not to come.

no one talked about the war though, at least not during dinner. not even gil or jake dared to say a word about the war events that were happening in every corner of europe, for fear that this wonderful, their last for a long time christmas atmosphere will vanish completely. later on though, men went to dr gilbert blythe's office and spent two happy hours of chatting about nothing but the war events, leaving women and all girls to themselves in the living room.

"so tell, me, rose dear, what is it about this mysterious john richardson, you mentioned to me about in your letters?" julia asked her cousin with a raised

ow.

julia, rose, leslie, cilia and luna were sitting in the ingleside's living room, all together on the one sofa near the fireplace, looking almost like five angels being covered by shadows of the flames coming out of the fireplace.

rose's cheeks flushed with

ight red "well, he's in his last year of redmond and helps me with my history classes, or rather helps me and jake in our history classes." she said and took a sip of cocoa from her cup she was holding.

"and..?" julia inquired with a raised

ow and all the girls sitting around looked at rose expectantly.

rose chuckled "oh, julia, i can never hide anything from you, can i? well, after first two months in redmond, john wanted to spend some evenings with me alone, while walking through the park together or going to a dance…" she started with her eyes shining.

"you didn't tell me anything like that in your letters, you horrible creature!" julia exclaimed and patted rose's hand quickly.

"well, anyway…" rose grinned lightly "i suppose that after all, i'm in love as well!" she said eventually and all the girls laughed happily.

"that's splendid, rose." said leslie and then turned her head to julia "did you have any letters from troy, sheba?"

julia sighed "yes, i had two so far. they are full of military training and guns and nothing else really. i'm quite disappointed i must say because i was so excited about getting my first love letters!" she concluded with a loud "oh!" at the end.

"well, he is excited about fighting, that's all, dear." rose said in a matter-of-fact tone "and what about merry?"

"he's the same. his letters are full of hopes for fighting as soon as possible. "my fingers are shaking from excitement, julia" he wrote in his last letter." julia said and rolled her eyes.

"then i suppose i'm the lucky one!" cilia said in the most vi

ant tone "marshall's letters are full of love and he hardly says anything about the guns or the training itself. oh, it's so nice to be in love!" she sighed and put her hand on her forehead in a very theatrical way.

the girls giggled and then stopped when the door opened swiftly and blythe came into the room and sat down beside his sister.

"bored already of a men-talk?" julia asked him playfully.

"completely disinterested." blythe replied and grinned "someone will join me for a walk through rainbow valley?" he asked looking at each of the girls but the most meaningfully at julia.

"no! it's too cold for me!" rose crossed her arms.

"oh, you're so strange sometimes! when you'll be eighty and have white hair, you will regret it." julia said to the girls and she stood up taking out her hand towards blythe who gently put his own into hers.