Welcome to We're a Wonderful Wife. This is what happens when a writer falls in love with his characters, the writer just doesn't let go. I wrote a story for the Winter Holidays contest and missed the deadline because I just couldn't let go. After missing the deadline I started to write the back story and fell in love with them even more. There is even a tie-in with the Stormwatch series, but it's far down the tracks in this tale. When looking for a way to start the back story, I decided to start at the end, that way when you read the end from a different perspective you know that the story is over. The idea made sense at the time, let's see if it works.

As always, I write in the "today" whenever your today is, except for when I give a disclaimer like this one. We start about 20 years ago from today and eventually catch up to today, whenever that is. This may sound like an entry for the Winter Holiday contest, and one chapter will be submitted to the Winter Holiday 2022 contest, but not this part. You also may get the impression that I have a thing for snow storms... Imagine my surprise when I realized that not everyone gets buried under several feet of snow every year, so this is my way of sharing the "joy" of being stuck in a house for days on end while snow piles up, doors freeze shut, and cars won't start. As always please make sure your seat belts are fastened, your tray tables are stowed and your seat backs are in a comfortable reading position. Keep your hands and feet inside the car at all times until the story comes to a complete end.

All characters in this story that are engaged in adult activities are adults even though they may not act like it all of the time. Don't worry about the kids in the story, they will behave. They're good kids, they can hold off until they're 18.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Kim-ly was rousted out of her sleep on this icy Christmas morning by two of her most favorite people on earth and before she realized what was happening they stripped her of her nightgown and proceeded to use her body in ways that even her lustiest dreams were milquetoast in comparison. "Why?" she gasped, "Why now?"

Kim-ly found herself kneeling upright on the bed and was sandwiched between a beautiful, buxom platinum blond and one of the most loving men she's ever met. Their hands roamed over her body without mercy, stroking and petting, their mouths kissing and suckling on her neck, she could feel his hard cock pressing against her back while his hands drove her out of her mind. He reached around and sought out her pussy and fumbled through her silky pubic hair and dove for her clit. Contact! "Too much," she groaned.

The blond stopped suckling on Kim-ly's nipple long enough to say, "We're just getting started darling."

"No..." gasped Kim-ly, "not without coffee, I need... upl!" a finger soaked with her own juices was put in her mouth.

"You seem ready already darling," sighed the blond. "I am too."

Kim-ly's beautiful black almond shaped eyes rolled in pleasure as the four hands and two mouths touched her everywhere she's been aching to be touched for so long. Always the wiseass, Kim-ly never revealed her feelings when a crude joke would suffice. "What is this? Fuck the Asian day?"

The platinum blond held Kim-ly's face still and gazed into her eyes, dark brown almost black Asian eyes met lustrous green Caucasian eyes. "Yes! And you're our grand prize winner!" and their lips met. In a morning of shocks, this was the top shock, that girl can kiss! thought Kim-ly. As the blond's tongue probed deep into Kim-ly's mouth, the man's hands became more gentle, gently stroking her clit and teasing a nipple, then she felt his lips at her ear.

"We love you Kim-ly, you're a part of us and we can't bear to lose you," he whispered.

The blond broke off the kiss leaving Kim-ly stunned, she's never been kissed like that by man or woman in her 35 kink filled years. The blond's eyes were softer now, maybe even tear filled. "He's right, we love you. If you want to go we won't stop you, and if you want us to stop we will, but this is something we've wanted to do for a long time..."

Kim-ly pulled the blond to her and silenced her with a kiss. "No decisions like that before coffee!"

The blond grinned as relief coursed through her body, she didn't say stop! "Coffee or not, I'm going to try to sway your vote."

"I dare you," grinned Kim-ly, but inside she was screaming, "They want me!"

The blond started kissing her way down Kim-ly's soft, surprisingly curvaceous body paying attention to her large, hard nipples, and round breasts. "She's right, we've wanted this for a long time," he whispered in her ear.

Kim-ly arched her back and groaned trying to push more breast into the blond's mouth, "Why didn't you say anything? OhGodThatsGOOD!" The blond left Kim-ly's breasts and started to kiss her way down Kim-ly's narrow waist and flat tummy getting nearer and nearer to Kim-ly's pussy.

"You know, life. It's been a long, long..." he choked up but Kim-ly twisted in his arms and brought her lips to his and silenced him with a kiss. Their tongues were tentative, gently probing, reaching for each other and when they finally connected the kiss beaconed Kim-ly to heaven. It went on forever, a kiss that she waited so long for, one she never dared dream was possible. They were only interrupted by the blond pushing Kim-ly's legs apart.

"I wanted this too," Kim-ly gasped as their kiss ended and the blond's tongue began to flick her labia gently. "Oh God how I need this," she gasped then fell forward, catching herself on her hands, staring at a patch of platinum blond pubic hair. "God damn!" thought Kim-ly, "she really is a natural blond!" and she lowered her mouth to the blond pussy as the blond guided the mans long, thick cock into her cunt.

The woman she was kneeling over in a perfect 69 had the most delicious pussy she had ever encountered and Kim-ly found herself addicted to the juices that flowed from the blond's pussy, but suddenly the buxom blond was pushing Kim-ly away. She had already cum several times tonight and Kim-ly's lips and tongue were becoming a sweet torture to her pleasure ravaged body. "No more," she gasped, "please..."

Kim-ly stopped her oral loving on the pussy set before her and just concentrated on the cock that was pounding her into sensual oblivion. The blond twisted out from under her, but remained licking the back of Kim-ly's neck which turned Kim-ly on even more. Head down, ass up, the hot 35-year-old Asian beauty was in heaven. Her fucker was pounding her with a nice steady rhythm, his hands gripped her hips, owning her, and she let him take full control. This was a fuck for the ages, a fuck she had waited years for, and now she was being rewarded for her patience. As her orgasm ravaged her mind and body, she could hear the blond say, "He's nowhere near coming, I drained him earlier, so this is all for you. Merry Christmas honey."

Kim-ly's coal black eyes rolled back in her head as she groaned "Best Christmas present ever!"

The sun was just starting to come up, the sky she could see outside the bedroom window was starting to lighten up, and his cock was relentless. It was so long since she had a cock in her pussy, and even longer since she had someone who could wield a cock properly. She once spied on this cock slamming another pussy years ago as she diddled herself to an incredible orgasm. Oh god, just thinking of that night back then caused another brain rattling orgasm! "Fuck! Me! Fuck! Me! Fuck! Me!" She chanted this mantra in time with his pounding rhythm, another orgasm was building and the previous one hasn't finished yet!

"Harder! Harder!" she gasped, "You can't hurt me... I won't break..." His strokes became more forceful, the sound of their flesh slapping together filled the room. "Fuck that pussy!" she groaned into the mattress. The blond wriggled free then reached under Kim-ly and her fingers searched for a nipple to twist, meanwhile another finger probed for her asshole. Her fingers found their targets at the same time and as she twisted Kim-ly's nipple she began to fingerbang the Asian's virgin asshole hard.

Oh God! That did it! The strongest orgasm in Kim-ly's life hit her like a freight train and Kim-ly started yelling in her first language "Đi đi mau! Đi đi mau!" Vietnamese for "Go! Go! and Kim-ly knew it would spur him on. His hips were a blur as he pounded her pussy into a foaming lather. Kim-ly bit the blankets and screamed a muffled scream as hard as she could. This was fucking!

His piledriving hips ram fucked her as he pounded his way to his own climax. "C-C-CUMING!" he roared as he slammed his hips forward and his cock began to spurt his semen into her vagina, splashing against her cervix. With a very unlady like grunt, Kim-ly collapsed on the bed, that marvelous cock still imbedded deep in her body squirting what seemed like a gallon of sperm into her, her lover collapsed on her back, pinning her to his bed. She relished in the feel of his cock going soft inside of her, she wanted to shout "Mission Accomplished!"

Exhausted he rolled off to one side of her and that big titty blond curled up on the other side. She rolled to face the blond and they kissed gently. She felt her hair being moved to the side and the big dicked man began to gently kiss the back of her neck. She's waited her whole life for this moment, not just the mind-bending sex, but cuddling in post coital bliss with a lover who really, really cared for her but would also let her up to do her own thing. Maybe that's what she wanted for Christmas most, a caring lover, and now she's sandwiched between two. Her heart leapt with a joy she didn't know was possible. The three of them snuggled closer as they absorbed the knowledge that their lives have been inexorably changed forever.

Two thoughts popped into Kim-ly's mind, first she came into this knowing that she didn't use birth control, his sperm could be reaching her egg any time. Her second thought was:

I hope I didn't wake the kids!

~~~~~*~~~~~

Kim-ly's first and only other three-way happened years before when she was an eighteen-year-old sophomore at the State University of Minnesota at Bemidji. She and her twin brother Bao received full scholarships to SUM@B when they graduated years early from their high school in Minneapolis where they were living at the time. Their parents had an opportunity to branch out in the family business, so they moved to Grant Valley, a semi-rural community near Bemidji Minnesota and opened a restaurant saving the twins a fortune on food and dorm fees. Being an accounting major, Kim-ly could understand their concerns, she had two older siblings in Minneapolis both working on their post grad degrees, sister Tam looking for her doctorate in psychology, and brother Huy working on his degree in juris prudence. Her other brother Trung was going to school in North Dakota at UND on a hockey scholarship studying agronomy. She helps her parents with the books at the restaurant and at home. There was no way she and Bao could get their university degree solely on what the restaurant brings in, so everyone pitches in to make Nguyen Pho a success, and we do what we can to pay the tuition fees.

That was her family, má, ba, three boys and three girls. The only one she didn't mention was her little sister Lanh. Lanh was born two years after Bao and Kim-ly and was a preemie. She was born tiny and fragile, and her mom Mai was almost too terrified to touch her, Lanh had so many tubes and sensors on her for so long that Kim-ly and Bao weren't allowed to touch her for months after she came home. Eventually eight year old Tam, the oldest Nguyen child started taking care of tiny Lanh while their mother worked and concentrated on the rambunctious twins.

Lanh grew up lonely, sad, and sullen. The older kids tried to get her to smile, but their antics merely terrified Lanh, so the boys gave up on her. So weak and tiny she wasn't able to go to kindergarten until after she turned six, and she wasn't able to advance in school rapidly like her siblings, putting in the effort that they did almost killed her. Kim-ly loved her, but Kim-ly's attempts to play with her little sister often hurt Lanh, so Kim-ly also distanced herself from Lanh.

When the family moved to Grant Valley the move traumatized Lanh, in rural Grant Valley High School she was the only Asian in the school. Being Asian and no taller than most student's kid sisters branded her as an outcast. Her only outlets were excelling in her classes just to piss off the other students and the debate team where her skill and analytical mind made her the first freshman captain of the debate team in the history of the school. Her final outlet was a goldfish named Marissa with whom she confided all of her secrets.

Fast forward to Kim-ly's eighteenth year, she was no longer that underage kid in college, she still couldn't buy alcohol, but that didn't mean she couldn't get it. She quickly discovered that sex was a bigger rush than alcohol and if she wanted alcohol, all she had to do was swing her cute little ass at any of her classmates who were all several years older than her. "You bring the wine, I'll bring this," in a sexy voice was all it took.

Then came Poli-Sci. Gawd how she hated that class, all of her classes are straight A but Poli-Sci just galled her, and it was a prerequisite for her degree. Her grade in that class was border line mostly because the professor would spend the hour on a personal rant then assign reading from a book that a friend of his wrote, and her grade stuck out like a big sore thumb. She had to do something to get that grade up.

Her opportunity to improve her grade came when her poli-sci professor invited her to his place for a "kwanza wine and cheese soiree" but only if she could "leave her bourgeois moralism behind." She was hoping he meant "let's snack and fuck." This may be her chance to bump her grades up, her buddies all told her they're doing it, there's no reason to let her 4.0 GPA go to shit just because of one stupid class.

Professor Lefkowitz shows up to class every day wearing a knit suit coat with elbow patches, a t-shirt emblazoned with slogans like a black power fist above the word RESIST! in stencil typeface, and blue jeans. He was so scrawny she doubted he could stand up against a stiff breeze let alone a well thought out disagreement, but she needed an A in his indoctrination... um... class, so why not give it a try? He only asked her to his place because she was hot, so why not?

At five foot six she flaunted her 35-22-32 figure with clothing that showed off her curves, and she didn't try to hide the fact that she was Asian by dying or perming her hair, in a land of blue-eyed blonds she wanted to stand out! She wore her hair straight and left it black, and it did raise eyebrows. She even flaunted her love of everything kawaii by carrying a Sunshine Bunny! notebook and a Domo Kun purse.

Kim-ly arrived at Professor Lefkowitz' apartment fifteen minutes late because being punctual was "soooo bourgeois," as he said in class. He greeted her at the door wearing a dashiki, the colorful robe worn by men in western Africa, and an African kufi hat which made him look like he was wearing a rainbow colored pill box on his head. At least it covered his bald spot. He ushered her in to a dark apartment lit by candles and black lights. The air was thick with the smoke of incense and marijuana, both of which being the cheap kind. This place was like a temple to the year 1968 and Kim-ly couldn't wait to tell Professor Lefkowitz that the Beatles broke up.

As she sat on the couch waiting for Ruben, or Ruben X as he insisted he be called by the students, she studied the posters that covered the living room walls, most were communist "workers unite" kind of thing. She began to wonder if Ruben X ever physically worked a day in his life. The rest of the posters were black velvet black light posters depicting strange images. One showed Elvis sodomizing Jesus with a naked John Wayne sitting next to them smoking a post coital cigarette, another showed the coyote sodomizing the roadrunner and saying "Now let's hear you say beep-beep you son of a bitch!" Kim-ly wasn't a psychology major, but clearly Ruben X was fixated on something.

The music was strictly 60's stoner, late Beatles, Grateful Dead, Grace Slick, etc. A 60's style light organ flickered with the music as an eleven-inch reel to reel slowly churned out the stream of acid inspired rock music. As she surveyed the bookshelf from a distance, praying she'd find a copy of the Federalist Papers, or at least anything by Orwell, a naked woman walked into the room and sagged into a chair across from Kim-ly.

This woman was scrawny, ghost white, and stoned out of her skull. Her ribs and hip bones stuck out, there was barely any flesh on her legs and arms, her knees and elbows were knobs marking the halfway point down each limb. Her eyes were sunken, and her breasts were merely folds of flesh with dangling nipples. Her head was adorned with a huge ginger afro and her cheekbones were prominent but with sunken cheeks she looked like a skull that was painted with flesh colored paint.

She stubbed out her cigarette in an overflowing ashtray, then slowly rolled a joint from the pile of stems and seeds on the coffee table. She twisted it as tight as a toothpick and making sure she had a roach clip at the ready, she lit the joint and took a long deep drag. As she sucked on the joint it snapped and popped, then she took a deep breath and held her breath for what seemed like forever. Then she let the smoke out with a cough and looked around the room with bleary eyes. Only then did she notice that Kim-ly was in the room with her.

"Oh wow... like... hi. My name is Wetlands." It leaned forward and held it's hand out.

Kim-ly shook hands with Wetlands, her weak spiritless grip was as cold and damp as a Minnesota swamp. "Hi, I'm Kim-ly," she was going to say that she was a student of Professor Lefkowitz, but she wasn't sure Wetlands could process that much information.

Wetlands took another hit off the joint, then offered it to Kimly, "Ear..."

"I'm waiting for the wine," Kim-ly declined the joint with a wave of her hand.

"That's cool..." followed by a maelstrom of coughing.

Just then Ruben X appeared with a tray of wine, cheese and grapes and a bong. He pushed some books onto the floor and set the tray on the coffee table then sat next to Kim-ly on the couch. "I see you met Wetlands."

"Yeah, we were just talking."

"She named herself after a vital natural resource that's being destroyed daily in this American hell hole," said Ruben X. His rabid dislike of America was real and it was scary, but then he relaxed and smiled. "We had a meaningful renaming ceremony in the middle of the Mississippi near Alida."

Kim-ly tried to suppress a chuckle and was almost successful. Where the Mississippi flows past Alida, Minnesota, "Old Man River" is two yards wide and a foot deep. The only thing meaningful there is the mosquitos which fly in WWII style bomber formations and were rumored to carry off small children and slow livestock. Ruben X picked up the filthy bong and a bic lighter and offered it to her.

"Ummm, no. I'm boycotting weed. It oppresses the poverty stricken masses in central America and puts American money into the pockets of cartel leaders."

"Cool," he smiled, "I'm down with that. It makes me hot to hear that. I have some horse if you'd like the fruit of the poppy," he said with a knowing smile that showed he knew where opiates come from.

Kim-ly shook her head, "Afghani slave labor..."

"Quite astute! Wine then?"

"Domestic?"

"Sadly, yes."

Kim-ly put on a great show is sighing, "California grape pickers, we have to show solidarity!" but she did grab a piece of cheese and a slice of apple. "Some of my best friends are dairy farmers."

"Cheese is liquid meat," moaned Wetlands. Kim-ly made a great show of putting the cheese into her mouth and enjoying it greatly just to piss off that sack of bones.

Somehow, they ended up having sex, or at least a close replica of sex. Professor Lefkowitz was naked under his dashiki, and Kim-ly found herself trying to urge one of the smallest penises she's ever seen to erection. Having babysat a lot, she's seen quite a few small penises, but this guy was so stoned he could barely get it up. At least when he did get it up she could deep throat the guy without a problem.

Successful deep throat, check that one off the bucket list.

Soon she ended up on her back with her panties around one ankle, her skirt and bra rolled up, and Rubin X slobbering on her tits while guiding his penis (way too small to be called a cock) to her pussy. As he began to fuck her like a hamster on speed, Kim-ly opened her eyes and saw the hairiest, ugliest cunt she could possibly imagine lowering to her face. At the same time Rubin X grunted, "you are the best my eastern angel!"

Kim-ly was shocked, He came?!? Ten tiny strokes and he came?

Lanh was the first thing that popped into Kim-ly's mind when she scoured her brain looking for an alibi to get out of this god-awful excuse for a sexual interlude that was her first menage a trois as Professor Lefkowitz put it. "Oh my god, look at the time!" She quickly untangled herself and gathered up her clothes, "I forgot that I have to take my kid sister to her first high school dance!"

"Family is a bourgeois concept created by..."

As she struggled her panties into place and rolled down her skirt she whirled on the professor and shouted "Not to an Asian! Family is everything to an Asian! That's a very racist thing for you to say professor!" She whirled on her heel and carrying her sweater, her jacket, and her Domo Kun purse she stormed out the door, "I may have to speak to the dean of students about that!"

She had no idea if what he said was anything close to racist, at least she put some fear into that bug fucker. She fired up Tam's Toyota and headed home and suddenly she decided what her term paper is going to be; "Senator Joe McCarthy May Have Been A Drunken Lout, But When It Came To Communists He Was Right." Let's see Rubin X give her a failing grade after tonight's fiasco.

When Kim-ly arrived home, her baby sister was a terrified, jittery mess. She was pacing in the kitchen and wringing her hands. "Are you sure you want to go through with this?" big sister Tam asked Lanh.

Lanh nodded her head so hard she almost shook off her glasses. "I've got to! Mrs. Gunderson said it would look good for the captain of the debate team to attend school activities."

"But a dance?" asked Kim-ly, "That's kind of... personal."

"She just wants to wallflower," said Tam. "She just wants to be seen by her teammates."

"Courtney said she was going to introduce me to a nice boy," insisted Lanh. Tam, Kim-ly, and Mai didn't like Courtney, she was a Sophomore like Lanh, but she was a varsity cheerleader, and those girls were snobs. They've all seen the varsity cheerleaders in their restaurant, ordering Lanh around like she was their slave, leaving four cent tips for all their demands... "I've been practicing, in my room," insisted Lanh, "with Sydney."

Sydney McCluskey was Lanh's only friend in school, a fellow debate team member, a slightly chubby white girl, and a social innocent like Lanh.

Their mother Mai sighed, this was a bad idea, she had a feeling about it, but when Lanh made up her mind, there's no changing it. "Kim-ly, keep an eye on my baby, please?"

"I will," said Kim-ly as she fished Tam's keys out of her purse. "Let's go tôm!"

"Stop calling me shrimp!" demanded Lanh as they headed for the door.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Lanh wasn't the only outcast barely making it though Grant Valley high school. Don Campbell was foundering socially and academically. His grades weren't good, in fact he was barely above a D in just about everything. He hasn't cared about anything since he was eight when he watched his mother waste away, finally succumbing in morphine dulled agony to spinal cancer on that horrible Christmas day... Thank God she was numbed out of her mind on the drug, so she wasn't shrieking in agony when he spoke to her before she died. She could barely recognize him as she said goodbye and went peacefully holding his hand. But ever since, he just didn't care about much anything other than swimming.

He loved swimming, his dad has a big lake oddly called "The Pond" on their property and even before the ice has fully melted, he is in there swimming as hard as he can, his dad Ralph in the rowboat coaching him and keeping an eye out for snapping turtles. Don almost always skipped gym class, unless it was a swim day when he could swim in the indoor pool. He was so much better than his classmates, and his gym teacher, Mr. Mach noticed it, he just couldn't find a way to get through to that kid. He can't have a kid skipping class on his JV team, but if he can get him on the team, they can work on that.

At swim team practice recently Mr. Mach gave that piercing whistle that put the silver whistle he wore around his neck to shame. "Lewicki!" he called, "Front and center!"

Craig Lewicki, a junior but captain of the varsity swim team because of his talent, hoisted himself out of the pool and approached the towering hulk of a coach. "Yes coach?"

"Do you know Campbell?"

"Don? Yeah, kind of. We don't talk, he's not a talker. Not much of a team player..."

"I don't care, he can swim, that's what I care about. I want him for the two hundred freestyle, he's got the speed, he's got the lungs, we need him. Do what you can."

"I don't know coach..."

"I want a Christmas miracle, and I want it now Lewicki."

"Yes coach!"

~~~~~*~~~~~

Don was only at the Christmas dance because Craig Lewicki wanted to talk to him about swimming. He hung around, dressed in his Goodwill industry best. Not having older brothers there were no hand-me-downs so everything he has to wear comes from the second hand store, and the "darling little angels" of Grant Valley High School made sure he was reminded of that loudly and often. He sullenly watched the girls dancing with each other to all the modern songs, and sometimes they even danced with boys. Whenever there was a slow dance, the floor emptied except for the couples that were dating. On rare occasions a guy would ask a girl he didn't know or just casually knew to dance a slow dance, and it was almost never when she said yes. Of course later those same girls would complain that NO ONE asks them to dance.

The gym was decorated for the holiday dance, red and green crape paper streamers lined the walls, Christmas trees surrounded by gift wrapped boxes sat in each corner, there were smoke machines and disco balls, and a DJ dressed as Santa Claus spun actual records, but everything was actually on CD. Meanwhile faculty and parents stood at the ready to quash any and all unauthorized necking, groping, or canoodling.

Craig Lewicki saw Don there and was shocked, Don doesn't come to school dances, he doesn't come to sporting activities either, he just mopes around from class to class dressed in rags. He's got to find a way to talk to him, and the fact that Don showed up proved to Craig that he might be interested in talking about the team. Craig visited the sophomore boys swim class yesterday and saw what Coach Mach saw in Don, the kid has the speed and the lungs. He could be what they need in the 200. However, as he walked up to Don, Tad Larson and Dale Swenson both seniors from the baseball team walked up to Don also. Something is up.

"We got a chick you really need to ask to dance," said Dale Swenson, a grinning blond blue eyed son of Norwegian stock that made up a large part of the population of Northern Minnesota. Don himself was more than half Norwegian, but with a name like Campbell he was still an outcast.

"You betcha, go on man, it's going to be hilarious," said Tad Larson to Don. "We want to prank this chick."

"Yeah, she's going to be all spastic with her arms and hair flying around," said Dale Swenson.

They had it in with the DJ, when the DJ saw Don on the dance floor with any girl he was going to play a slow number, and they had the perfect nerd girl to get Don to ask to dance. They'll convince Don that it will be a fast dance, but when the DJ plays a slow song they'll be so embarrassed. A laughingstock! Their girlfriends on the cheerleading squad have the perfect little nerd bitch ready, they just got to get Don to ask her. Then that ass kisser from the swim team shows up, Craig Lewicki.

Craig put his arm on Don's shoulder like they've been buddies all these years. "Come on dude, what do you have to lose? Hey! there may be a spot opening up for a sophomore on the swim team, Jamie Davidson's family is moving at the end of the quarter, we'll need a middle-distance swimmer."

Don had heard about Jamie's family moving, but he knew he'd never make the swim team. "You think it will happen?" he asked meaning the girl, not the swim team.

"Dude! It's in the bag!" said Tad, "all you got to do is ask Miss Prim and Proper out on the dance floor. These guys say that next song is going to be a real rocker."

"But I can't dance," said Don looking down at his worn sneakers and his patched blue jeans. It's been pretty lean at the farm this year, there's no spare money for better clothes or even a trip to Goodwill. No girl would be seen dead with someone who dresses worse than a hobo.

"Dudes aren't expected to know how to dance, girls practice all the time. Dolly tells me that this bitch can't even tie her shoes without falling over," grinned Dale Swenson. "Now go!" They gave Don a shove and he took that long lonely walk across the dance floor to meet his doom.

Escorted by Tad, Dale, and Craig, Don walked up to a group of girls who parted like the Red Sea before Moses, revealing Miss Prim and Proper, a tiny, skinny Asian girl with waist length black hair, thick square glasses, and a mouthful of braces. He knew her! She was the cutest girl he had ever seen. He's been watching her from a distance since he first saw her at freshman orientation last year, but she was taking college prep classes and acing them while he was failing dummy classes. He felt even more like a nobody than ever before. "Oh God, I want to die," he screamed at himself. But she was smiling at him like... like... like he was worthy... oh God! His asshole puckered in fear as Tad nudged him.

Don stepped up to Lanh and tried to talk but he found himself failing even that. "Care to... I mean would you... uhh... like..." Don was dying; he hasn't spoken to a girl since the fourth grade, and he was now face to face with HER!

"Dance? She'd love to!" called out one of the girls standing with HER. It wasn't clear to either of the butts of the joke but obviously to everyone else watching, these girls were in on the joke too. They pushed the tiny girl out onto the dance floor where she stood staring at Don, her sweet smile never fading.

"What the fuck did you do?" demanded Craig as he faced off against Tad. Tad had four inches and thirty pounds on Craig, but Craig was a swimmer. Pound for pound there's no high school athlete more powerful that a swimmer, except for a wrestler, and Craig was both.

"Lighten up fish," sneered Tad using the popular derogatory term for a swimmer. "It's just a joke."

Suddenly there was another Asian girl next to Tad, she was taller than the butt of their joke, but still shorter than Tad. "If you do anything to embarrass my sister I will shatter your spine," she hissed. There was fire in Kim-ly's eyes, and a black belt in her closet.

"Take it easy lady," said Tad but before he could say anything more, she had him in an extremely painful thumb lock and was twisting his arm up behind his back painfully.

"I'm already having a bad night," she hissed in his ear, "so spending a few hours in the ER watching you die won't bother me at all."

The song was coming to an end and the gyrations of the other dancers slowed as the song faded. "I really don't dance," said Don as they took their place away from their tormenters.

"I don't either," said the little Asian so quietly that he could barely hear her.

"It'll be fun," assured Don, then suddenly his heart sank. Elton John began singing and everyone in the gym could name that tune by the opening three notes.

It's a little bit funny

This feeling inside

I'm not one of those who can easily hide

I don't have much money, but boy if I did

I'd buy a big house where we both could live

"Your Song by Elton John! oh God" groaned Don inwardly, one of the sappiest, most romantic slow dances on earth! Normally all the dating couples would step out on the dance floor, but he and this girl were all alone out there, and a spotlight just illuminated them.

They realized that they were both the butt of a huge joke and the whole school was in on it. The crowd waited in silence for the chance to laugh and humiliate the couple. Maybe he'll wet himself in embarrassment, that would be incredible, but if the girl ran off in tears, that would be perfect. Kim-ly knew what was happening and was paralyzed with shock, yeah the tiny twerp is a pain in the ass, but she's KIM-LY's pain in the ass, no one tortures her sister.

Both kids almost ran, they looked around nervously but they didn't run. "Let's try it," said Don softly. Almost magically the two outcasts both decided "what the hell" and after a moment of fumbling, they figured out how to place their hands, Don even held her right hand with his left hand because he saw it in a movie. The thought that the last female whose hand he touched died before his eyes nine years ago kept entering his head, but he somehow chased it away. With more confusion than they could have believed possible, they started rocking in time to the music. "Hi, I'm Don," he finally said, his voice harsh from the dryness of his throat.

"I'm Lanh," muttered the little girl.

Don had seen her name in the town paper when she and her family moved to town. "I know, Lanh Nu-guy-en?" Don suddenly blushed crimson red, here he was dancing with a girl, the Whole School was watching them, and he just slaughtered her name. He was so embarrassed; he nearly ran from the gym. God! She's so cute! He's been stalking her with his eyeballs since their freshman year. When ever she walked past him in the hallway his whole day brightened up.

Lanh suddenly giggled. "It's pronounced N'win."

He felt like such an idiot! He had heard her name a dozen times on morning announcements, but he didn't associate it with HER, he saw her in the school paper almost every week when it came out and he thought her name was Lanh Nu-guy-en. When Lan Win was mentioned quite often on morning announcements for some academic achievement he thought that was someone else. Now he really did want to die. He soldiered on and asked, "How do you get Win out of Nguyen?"

Lanh looked up at Don and shrugged. "Don't know!" and she giggled again, it was a nervous giggle, but it was more of a giggle of relief. He was a real person!

At the same time Don thought she doesn't hate being with me, and she's a real person! "I like the way you laugh," smiled Don, terrified that if he said the wrong thing she'd run from him, and he'd be alone... again. Like always.

"I like the way you blush," smiled Lanh, "it's cute," which made Don blush even more. Suddenly Lanh gasped "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"No, it's ok, it's just... I've never..." Don sputtered trying to explain the ocean of feelings that were exploding in his heart, how do you tell someone that you fell in love on first sight over a year ago? And as their embarrassment faded and their friendship blossomed, they stopped their Frankenstein like rocking and began gently swaying to the music. They didn't become Fred and Ginger, but they became comfortable with each other. Little by little their bodies grew closer together.

"Awwww," sighed Kim-ly as her little sister and the young boy grew closer together, and their eyes remained locked, the world around them disappeared and Elton continued singing. "Ain't that sweet?" Kim-ly asked Tad. "She just saved your life, dumb shit." She shoved Tad away and said, "Get the fuck out of here before I get mad."

I hope you don't mind

I hope you don't mind

That I put down in the words

How wonderful life is while you're in the world

"I think I'm going to start liking this song now," said Don as he got lost in Lanh's coal black eyes.

"I think so too," said Lanh as she experienced the first real smile of her painful young life.

Craig Lewicki stood next to Kim-ly and smiled. He turned to her and said, "I like your style, you got fire!"

Kim-ly eyed him up and gave him a rating of Not Bad. "You old enough to buy beer?"

"Nope, sorry."

"This day just keeps getting worse and worse," she muttered.

Meanwhile the song had changed to another slow dance, this time Lionel Richie, and Lanh and Don continued to dance. Seeing that the joke had fizzled out, other couples stepped out on the dance floor, and they were forgotten, just the way they like to be. Eventually the DJ played a faster song and Don and Lanh drifted off to a dark corner of the gym where they talked about everything.

"Do you like to fish?" asked Don.

"I never tried," she said just excited there was a boy out there that wanted to talk to her. "But I like to cook fish!"

"We could be a team, I'll catch them, you cook them, and we'll sell them."

"Yeah!" said Lanh, "we'll start simple then as the customers get used to a fish fry, we'll start working in some Asian fish dishes. Turmeric fish with rice noodles, no! Cá kho tộ!"

"What's that?" asked Don, catching her enthusiasm.

"Caramelized and braised catfish, sweet and salty!" Lanh was getting hungry just thinking of it.

"I love catching catfish! We have tons in our pond!"

"Let's do it!"

But just then Kim-ly appeared. "Let's go Cinderella, your pumpkin coach awaits."

"Awww, ten more minutes?"

"We're already an hour overdue, let's go." Kim-ly showed Lanh that she had her coat. "Say your goodbyes... and no tongue!"

"Monday?"

"Monday!" and like that, she was gone.

Don watched her and her sister head down the hallway to the exit when a storm of cheer leaders appeared in a mood to get revenge for their joke backfiring. They lost face in front of the whole school and they wanted payback. They promised humiliation of two nerds, and they end up with nerd romance. They're going to get that bitch...

Don hopped off the bleachers and sucking up a lungfull of air he held his arms out. "Let 'em go."

"Oh, fuck you, outta my way dork," a blond tried to push past Don, but he stepped in front of her.

"Leave Lanh alone," he ordered.

"Out of my way!" the blond screeched. Her scream brought her boyfriend Tad Larson and his toad Dale Swenson immediately.

"Problem?" grinned Tad.

"It's not your concern," said Don, his only thought was to distract the seniors long enough for Lanh to get away.

"I say it is," said Tad and swung at the boy who was barely half of his size.

The beating Don took was sharp and brutal, Tad and Dale used him as a punching bag and didn't leave a square inch above the waist untouched. When Don finally slumped to the ground the cheerleaders began kicking his prone body until the shouts of "Fight! Fight! Fight!" brought the school administrators.

As Mr. Mach and several other teachers tried to sort out what happened, they failed to keep an eye on Don. He slipped out of the school and wandered off the school property without his coat. The cold actually eased his pain as he walked hunched over from the beating he took to the midsection. Eventually a car rolled up and the window rolled down, it was Mr. Ritenour, one of dad's buddies from the legion. "Don! Donovan!" but Don kept walking. "Come on, you'll freeze to death."

Don looked at him sadly with an eye that's starting to swell shut. "I... I don't..."

"Damn it Don, I have a full six pack and an empty bladder, I can bother you all night long or I can give you a quick ride home, what'll it be?" Don surrendered and climbed in the old car. "Damn son! What happened to you?"

"High school stuff," muttered Don, "usual thing. Please don't tell dad."

"Ok, but remember I saved your life. I may come calling for help come calving season."

Don nodded; all dairy farmers need help come calving season.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Don hardly got any sleep that weekend, mostly from the pain he suffered after Lanh left the dance. But beside the pain he spent the weekend torn between anger at those guys who used him to embarrass Lanh, and anger at himself for believing that he could actually have a shot at joining the swim team. That and getting the crap beaten out of him. Don kept thinking of Lanh, their dance was a joke, they weren't supposed to actually dance. They were supposed to be embarrassed, and they were both the biggest jokes of all the "Woodcutters" at Grant Valley High School.

At least Lanh left unscathed, Don didn't care what the bullies did to him, he was worried about Lanh. She was the first girl to ever treat him nicely, he wanted to protect her and Lanh had no clue of what happened after she left.

Don had lunch during fifth period and as usual he sat in the corner of the cafeteria furthest from the food line facing the back wall so no one would see him. It was the loser's corner, this is where the nerds, the geeks, the dweebs, the rejects, the losers sat and it was his home. He opened up his brown paper bag and found a bologna sandwich, a bag of chips, and an apple. His dad packed several lunches for him before he left for work in Mankato on Thursday and this was exactly the same as all the others. Don sighed, his teeth and jaw hurt so much that everything in that lunch bag was impossible to eat. He didn't really care; he was done with high school. Right now, his only plan was to put his books in his locker and leave. To where he was going was something he'd decide once he got there.

At the far end of his table someone sat down, he didn't look to see who it was, if they were sitting here and not with the animated crowds toward the front of the cafeteria, then they were a loser too. He stared at the half-smashed sandwich (Larry Jensen tried to crush Don's lunch earlier) and ignored whomever it was at the other end of the table. Whoever it was picked up their tray and stepped away in a few moments anyhow. He made another attempt at biting the sandwich, it hurt so much, but he was so hungry! He could bite a bit off, but he couldn't chew so he tried biting off tiny pieces and swallowing them unchewed. Just then someone sat down right across from him. He heard a tiny feminine voice say "Don?"

He didn't look up; he knew it was Lanh, her sweet little voice was music to his soul. He wanted to scoop her up and run away with her, but he couldn't let her see him like this. The jerks in this school must be torturing her just like they're torturing him. He kept his head lowered and said "I'm sorry I put you through that, I didn't mean to. I didn't know..." He stopped right there, he didn't know how to talk to a girl...

"You didn't know what... that I was lonely?" She didn't sound angry, she sounded sad. "You didn't know that I was scared to talk to any man that wasn't a relative?" Lanh started to freak herself out, Oh God, I don't believe I said that she groaned inwardly. Now he's going to know that I'm a loser. She had sought him out to say goodbye, there was a bottle of sleeping pills that she had stashed behind her fish tank. She stole the pills one by one from her mother's medicine cabinet and now she had enough. This morning she was walking on air, then Cindy Reese told her all about the joke and how she and Don were just dorks and looked so homely out there on the dance floor, a total joke.

Thanks to Cindy Reese Lanh was planning to sneak out of school, go home, lock herself in the bathroom and take every single one of those pills and end this living nightmare she found herself trapped in. She just wanted to say goodbye to the one nice boy she's ever met in her short, sorry life.

Don could only shake his head, why won't the earth cooperate and just swallow him up whole. "I... I... I didn't know... they were..." he said again, then he felt a gentle finger on his aching chin.

"Don, look at me," she started, and when he looked up, she saw the bruises and gasped, "What happened to you?"

"When you left..." Don was suddenly interrupted by a sneering pair of jerks.

"Well, well, well, isn't this a pretty sight, the chink and the farmer. Hey farm boy, you gonna put in 40 acres of rice for her daddy's chop suey shop this spring?" It was Tad Larson and Dale Swensen, both in their baseball lettermen's jackets. Dale grabbed Don's lunch bag, wadded it up, and tossed it in the trash can like he was making the winning basket. "Nothin' but net!"

"You just go away!" shouted Lanh as she tried to imitate her mother, she was loud enough to silence the typical hubbub in the cafeteria. "Haven't you cause enough pain?" The entire population of the cafeteria stopped whatever they were doing to turn toward the losers corner and see Lanh leaning over the table and touching Don's chin, frozen in anger at two jock upperclassmen. The whole school smelled blood, and they knew it would be the nerds doing the bleeding.

"Shut your chi-com bitch up," yelled Dale, "my Uncle James was shot over there because of commie cunts like her."

At his words Lanh stepped back in anger, and Dale reached forward and gave Lanh's lunch tray a shove. It slid off the end of the table and crashed to the ground. With a deep breath Don slowly stood up, it was clear he was going to get another beating, and he wasn't going to escape it. He just hoped he could distract them long enough for Lanh to get away again. He looked Dale right in the eye and spoke truth to power, "Your Uncle James was shot by one of his own men for selling them chow hall oregano and calling it marijuana." It was a legend known by all members of the local American Legion post and their kids, like Don. His dad would share stories like that after legion meetings. Don steeled himself for the blow which should be coming any second...

Suddenly a hand appeared on Tad and Dale's shoulders. "Problem here boys?" it was Craig Lewicki. From Don and Lanh's point of view, Craig looked as big as the Woodcutter's team mascot, Paul Bunyan.

"Just teaching these nerds a little manners, nothing to concern yourself about Craig," sneered Tad.

"Well Tad, then we have a problem. Don Campbell is my new two-hundred-yard swimmer, and if he can't perform at practice tomorrow, I may have to assume it's due to those bruises and we may have to speak to Coach Mach about how those bruises got there. Is there an understanding between us?"

Tad just glared at Craig. Coach Mach is adamant about his teams being ambassadors for the student body and he demanded how they need to act as such at all times. The coach benched their starting quarterback two seasons ago, sacrificing the regional championships because of the quarterback's behavior toward underclassmen. That's the problem with having the coach be the Guidance Counselor, he expected his players to behave, and he got their compliance. Tad made a face and tried to shrug Craig's hand off of his shoulder, but Craig held tight. "I asked, is there an understanding between us?"

"Yes," Tad snapped and wisely kept his mouth shut.

"Will wonders never cease, learning has occurred on the baseball team. It's a Christmas miracle. Now keep your fucking hands off of my team." And with a shove he propelled Tad and Dale away from Don and Lanh. He then grabbed a chair and spinning it around backwards he sat down and leaned forward on the backrest. "Let me see those bruises," and he reached forward to inspect Don's injuries. "Ow, I'll bet that hurts."

"Yeah, it does," said Don through gritted teeth.

"Ok, forget what I said to those two, I don't think you'll be ready to swim for a while. Swing by the gym Wednesday for a suit, cap, and goggles and we'll go over the team schedule, get you set up for a team physical and get the paperwork done. Please don't tell me you use a nose clip."

Don was incredulous, "I'm on the team?"

"Well, yeah. I mean not yet, if you can't swim you're out, but yeah, we want you. Did you think I was lying to you on Friday?"

"Yeah," said Don, "I did."

Craig rested his arms on the back of the chair. "I don't play that game, not with the swim team. Mr. Mach came to me and told be to check out your form in gym class, we think you have some talent, so after Christmas break let's see what you got."

"Ok," Don wasn't sure Craig could hear him, his voice seemed restricted.

Craig got up to leave, then paused. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for Friday, I didn't realize what those jerks were up to. I thought it was a, 'ya know, a hookup. For what it's worth, you guys looked great out there." And with that Craig left and the two were left in stunned silence.

Finally, Don broke the embarrassed silence, "I'm sorry they called you a chink and a chi-com." He still couldn't look her in the eye. She was so cute! What is she doing with a loser like me?

"Would you be upset if someone called you a dumb canuk?" she asked.

"No, I'm not Canadian."

"See?" she grinned, "I'm not Chinese or a communist." When she saw Don smile, then wince at the pain that smile brough she said, "You should eat." Why did he stick up for me? she asked herself, he's so nice! He could have any girl...

"I can't, hurts too much."

"Did you try the soup?"

Don looked at the lunch line then shook his head sadly, "I don't have any money."

"We'll get you some soup, come on." Lanh stood and leaving her lunch tray on the floor she led Don out of the cafeteria through the empty halls to her locker where she grabbed her jacket, then they retrieved Don's jacket and headed back toward the cafeteria. As they approached the cafeteria the period changed, and students poured into the halls. They used the bedlam in the halls to make their escape, they stepped out of the cafeteria exit, walked across the parking lot, ducked through the tree line that defines the school property boundary, and headed up Main Street.

The cold wind and the blowing snow made Don's bruises feel better, but Lanh looked cold. He offered her his Minnesota Vikings scarf which she accepted eagerly. She wrapped it around her neck and over her head to keep her head and ears warm. As they walked their hands brushed against each other and soon they were unconsciously walking hand-in-hand. Shortly they entered a small restaurant that Don had never noticed before. The sign on the front said Nguyen's Pho. "What is Foe?" asked Don.

"It's pronounced Fuh, it's soup."

"You have a restaurant just for soup?" Don couldn't conceive of a thing. Money is tight on the farm, so if they saved up enough for a meal at a restaurant, it was going to be more than just soup.

"You try it then tell me if a soup restaurant is a good idea." As they entered the restaurant Lanh called out in a piercing voice something at the top of her lungs which startled the patrons of the establishment. A female voice from back in the kitchen answered in what Don would soon learn was Vietnamese. Lanh seated him in a booth then disappeared back in the kitchen. He could hear animated chatter from that area, then she came back and sat across from him, a happy smile on her face. Soon the beautiful Asian woman that he saw with Lanh on Friday night brought out Don a huge bowl of hot fragrant soup, placed it and a large glass of iced cola in front of him.

Don looked horribly embarrassed, he looked down at his hands, they too were bruised, not from hitting someone but from getting stomped. He was lucky they weren't shattered. "I'm sorry, there must be a mistake, I can't afford this, I should go."

He started to get up and leave but the waitress plunked herself down on the booth seat next to him blocking his exit. "Oh no, you're not going anywhere mister." She further slid in the booth bumping her hip against his forcing him to center himself in front of the hot steaming bowl of Pho. When her shapely hips stopped nudging him into the booth he found that his breath caught, he's never seen someone so beautiful before in his life. "You got my dorky kid sister out on the dance floor?" she grinned, "Buddy, you earned this and so much more!"

Another beautiful Asian woman arrived with a platter of bean sprouts, onion, jalapeño, Thai basil, lime wedges, hoisin sauce, and Sriracha and placed it alongside Don's bowl of Pho. She looked at the seating arrangement and with a quick few words in Vietnamese Lanh and her sister quickly changed positions without question, then the woman sat down across from Don. "So? Introduce us," she told Lanh.

"Don, this is my mother Mai, and my older sister Kim-ly. Mom, Kim-ly, this is Don Campbell. He's a sophomore like me and we danced together on Friday." Lanh was blushing horribly by the time she finished these simple introductions, but she really started blushing when Kim-ly spoke up.

"They were really cute má, you should have seen it," said Kim-ly with an oddly dreamy look in her eye. "They daaaaaanced, then they went and sat in the bleachers and taaaaaalked... It was like a Hallmark channel Christmas romance." Lanh tried to kick her sister under the table.

"Mrs. N'win, I really want to say that the few minutes I've been blessed to spend with Lanh have been simply wonderful. Meeting you shows me exactly where her beauty comes from."

Mai was impressed that he was able to pronounce Nguyen properly, but she remained stoic. Kim-ly on the other hand rolled her eyes and said "Plain Jane beautiful? She rarely brushes her hair, and she never wears any makeup..."

"Not all beauty comes from a bottle," said Don softly, it was one of his grandmother's favorite sayings.

Mai's right eyebrow raised when she heard Don say that. She finally spoke "Young man, you are either the nicest person on the face of the earth, or you are so full of shit your eyes should be as brown as mine. As Lanh's mother I'm hoping for the former, but until I see any proof of that, I'll be considering you the latter."

"I understand ma'am."

"I have some questions, and if you want to see Lanh ever again you need to be straight with me, the first one is, what happened to your face?"

"I got beaten up on Friday night."

"I can see that, let me rephrase question one, why did you get beaten up Friday night?"

Don did not want to answer this at all, but it was Lanh's mom that asked, and lying to someone who just brought you free food is simply wrong. "After Lanh and I danced, a couple of the cheerleaders were intending to hurt an underclassman. I got in their way and their boyfriends took offense to that and hit me."

"It looks like they hit you a lot," frowned Kim-ly.

Mai took a few seconds to understand the answer. Having raised six children, she knew when kids were lying to her, and this boy was telling the truth, but not the whole truth. Slowly she took a breath then asked, "Why were they going to hurt Lanh?"

"I didn't say it was Lanh, ma'am."

"You didn't have to. Why were they going to hurt Lanh?"

Don moved his bruised and aching hands to his lap and looked down at his lap. "Because the whole thing was a cruel joke, they picked the two dorkiest people in the school and conned us into dancing a romantic slow dance so they could laugh at us, but we ruined their joke by not being embarrassed and ended up liking each other."

Lanh looked shocked, Don did that for her? And then knowing what kind of beating he would get, he stood up for her again today?

Don sagged. Where was that crevasse to swallow him up when he needed it the most? Before he knew it, the words spilled out, "I do, I really like Lanh. I feel right around her... I haven't felt right in a long time."

"What does your mother think of this?"

Again, he paused, but Mai raised that eyebrow which seemed to pry an answer out of him. "My mom died when I was eight, it's just been dad and me. I had to repeat third grade because..." and his voice drifted off from there.

If Don was expecting Mai to soften up when he said that he was going to be sorely disappointed. "How did she go?" Mai asked him softly, but with enough iron in her voice to let Don know that if he was lying to get her to go easy on him, life as he knew it, would come to an end.

"Cancer, she had a spinal tumor that was inoperable. It spread to the bone, and she died on Christmas morning when I was eight."

"What about your father?"

"We have a farm just outside of town, right now he's down in Alida working for the Parks department for the past week, they're clearing a few acres of pulp wood, I'm watching the farm 'till he gets back tonight." Then he asked "Do you mind if I eat? I haven't eaten since Friday, and this smells so good."

"Go ahead, what are you waiting for?" scowled Mai.

"A spoon."

Lanh giggled nervously and held up the Chinese spoon, a spoon with a short, thick handle extending directly from a deep, flat bottom bowl. "Oh, I thought that was a spoon rest," said Don, "my dad has one that he puts his teaspoon in when he drinks coffee." Ignoring Kim-ly's guffaws, Don tasted the broth and his eyebrows shot up, "this is so good! I have to bring my dad here."

Don started having trouble with the noodles, he tried to cut off chunks of noodle with the edge of the spoon, but was having difficulty doing that with the thick, ceramic Chinese spoon. Lanh gave him the chopsticks and said, "We eat the noodles with these," and tried to help him wield the sticks, but his hands were so bruised and swollen he couldn't hold them, so she ended up feeding him the noodles, bean sprouts, and beef.

Kim-ly offered (in Vietnamese) to get Don a fork, but Mai smiled and said (in Vietnamese) that they were doing fine. Finally, Mai got up and said, "I have a restaurant to run," and started to leave, then stopped and added "One last question," in a tone of voice that told Kim-ly and Lanh that má (mom in Vietnamese, it's pronounced "may") was about to drop a nuke. "School doesn't get out for almost two hours, what are you doing here!"

"He's starving momma! I had to..."

"Enough!" said Mai with a chopping motion of her hand. "You, young man, why are you not in school."

"I couldn't eat and I don't have money to buy soup at school... I was going to drop out... then I met Lanh... and the swim team wants me... I don't know..." Don's head was swimming with the strange twists his life has taken in the past 72 hours.

"They were going to beat him again momma, they called me names and he stood up for me, so we ran away."

Mai glared at the two, her features clouded over. Skipping school? Over a farm boy? Unheard of! Lanh's older siblings were all in college and grad school, all had foresworn entanglement with the opposite sex to make something of themselves. And now here was Lanh, flirting and giggling like a Saigon bar girl, did she not learn from her brothers and sisters' example? Mai was ready to explode when several customers walked in. "I will be back," she hissed. "You eat, and we will discuss this." And with that she put on her hostess face and turned to her new customers.

The whole time Mai and Kim-ly waited on the new customers Mai kept a close eye on Lanh and the boy she dragged in. She continued to feed him, and they were smiling, every time their eyes met, they would blush and look aside. In the end, Mai didn't see any behavior that would lead her to think that there was anything suspicious going on, but a mother shouldn't let her guard down.

Finally, Tam, her oldest child came in the restaurant and whispered, "What's wrong with Lanh?"

"What do you mean what's wrong with Lanh?"

Tam shook her head as if she saw something unheralded. "She was smiling."

Mai sighed and threw a dish towel over her shoulder as she stacked dishware. "She met a boy."

"It's so weird, Lanh never smiles, and she doesn't like people, she only talks to her goldfish."

"Go look at her now! She's out there feeding him like a momma bird... he's going to pounce like a wolf!"

"I don't think so, má," said Kim-ly as she entered the kitchen, "He's not the pouncing type, he's just a scared kid who found someone he can talk to."

From the kitchen Mai continued watching Lanh feeding Don. "Do we have something to worry about?" asked her husband Duong.

Duong stepped away from the stove and looked out at the teenagers seated near the kitchen door. "No, not yet. Maybe in the future. I think our precious chick has finally found a friend." She and her husband Duong spoke softly in Vietnamese about this sudden change in their baby's life. The foot of authority must come down, but Mai insisted that with a dad who works out of town and a dead mother, he also needs to turn to someone. As the mention of a dead mother, Duong knew exactly who this lad was by reputation. They made their plan and waited for Don to finish his lunch.

Finally, when Don had eaten every drop of Pho, Mai went back out to the couple who now expected the full and legendary wrath of momma Nguyen, but she was accompanied by Lanh's father Duong. The slim, graying Asian patriarch demanded "No more skipping school!" his glare traveled from Lanh to Don and back, "either one of you!" He said going straight to the bone of contention without even introducing himself. "The next time will be the last time you see each other. And your grades mister?"

Don withered under his stare. "C, sir."

"Not good enough! If you wish to associate with my daughter, I expect straight A's." then he glared at Lanh, "And woe be to you if your grades slip one iota. We did not fight to come here to be stupid!"

Lanh trembled and stared at the table, "Yes ba."

"If you have to study at the table with this boy all night long to get his grades up, you will do it. Understand?" asked Mai.

Lanh trembled more and said, "Yes má."

Behind her Kim-ly turned to her older sister and said, "I don't think she gets it."

Tam grinned and shook her head in agreement, "She doesn't."

"And you!" Duong glared at Don. "If you want to eat here you must pay or earn your food!"

"Yes sir."

Mai stepped behind the couple and asked Lanh. "If I gave away a bowl of soup to every man who risked a beating to protect one of my daughters, do you realize how much soup I would have given away?" Mai demanded of Lanh as she walked around behind the teens.

"No má, how much?"

Mai leaned over the back of the booth bench and gently hugged Don. "Not enough." She whispered in his ear "Thank you for being brave."

~~~~~*~~~~~

Two nights later Ralph Campbell watched something he never dreamed possible; he watched his son Don teach a tiny Asian girl how to ice skate at the public rink. Sunday and Wednesday evenings are "open skate nights" at the town arena, a chance for ice crazy Minnesotans to stretch their legs, and it provided the arena a chance to train new organists and Zamboni drivers.

Don never mentioned why he wanted to come, he just insisted it was important. It had been over a year, maybe two since Don skated and Ralph was worried that he'd need a new pair of skates, and he did, but Don soon realized that with a few pairs of socks, Ralph's old hockey skates fit just fine. That left Ralph with one choice, his old speed skates. Ralph's figure skates were hung up eight years ago, along with his wife Emily's skates never to be touched again.

They hopped into the old "Three on the Tree GMC" pickup and headed for the arena, the darkness of the night made even darker by the rain and wet roads. "Meeting the gang there tonight?" asked Ralph trying to break the silence.

"No... I just wanna skate. Uh... warming up my legs for the swim team."

It was an obvious diversion thought Ralph, he's got a reason to want to skate tonight. Shouldn't be hard to figure out what that reason is. "Welp, it a good ting I brought my speed skate wit, eh? Uff-da, haf not skated in a cow's age!"

Don rolled his eyes in embarrassment at his father's "Norwegian Bachelor Farmer" accent. "Daaaad!" he groaned.

Ralph was a bit surprised at Don's reaction. Maybe he's going to meet a girl! "Ok, well -- the Legion is closed tonight for cleaning, me an' the boys are going to hang out and drink hot cocoa with a splash of peppermint." He patted his chest pocket indicating that he had a flask of peppermint schnapps to fortify the cocoa. Normally the response would be for Don to beg to drive the truck home afterwards.

Instead, Don said "Good idea, I hear they have new chairs and tables in the break room." Yep, thought Ralph behind a hidden smile, it's a girl. The truck hadn't rolled to a stop in a parking spot when Don bailed out and headed for the arena without a word. Definitely a girl.

Ralph went in, paid for ice time even though he probably wouldn't skate, purchased a cocoa and a cruller from the women's hockey boosters, then took a seat in the shadowy bleachers a couple of rows up at center ice. Several couples and a few teens began to step out on the hockey arena, and Ralph was sure that he couldn't be seen.

He saw Don come out on the ice and skate a little bit getting used to the skates, doing one slow circuit of the arena, then one fast one weaving in and out of the other skaters, then he went off the ice and disappeared behind the bleachers. After a long wait Ralph saw Don step one foot on the ice, then turn to help someone behind him on the ice. Ralph was right, it's a girl. He chuckled at his successful detective work. She was a full head shorter than Don, who like his dad is a bit on the short side. She had long flowing black hair and a tiny nervous grin on her mousy little face as she stepped out on the ice. She wore a long black coat, a scarf of neon colors, and a knit cap with kitten ears.

Don steadied her, then taking her hands he skated backwards slowly, pulling her along with him. Their first circuit of the rink was slow and cautious, and they stayed right at the edge of the ice next to the boards. The second circuit was marred by a couple of falls that were accompanied by laughter, but by midpoint of the third circuit they were skating side by side, slowly and cautiously. This time the little girl wasn't concentrating on her feet and was no longer looking down at the ice, so they were able to converse.

About that time an Asian couple stepped up next to Ralph to watch the skaters. Ralph looked up and recognized Duong, an acquaintance and fellow member of the local American Legion post. "I hear a rumor that your son Don is skating with our daughter," as they shook hands and sat down.

"That fellow with the purple Minnesota Vikings cap and the black eye to match? that's my son Don. Donovan Aloysius Campbell, named after his grandpa, and this whole thing was a secret to me." He handed his flask to Duong who took it and spiked his hot chocolate and Mai's cup also before handing it back.

"That's our daughter he's skating with, her name is Lanh..."

"Then am I safe to assume that the fellow in the sunglasses, the guy in the UND jacket, and the young couple skating behind them is her brothers and sister."

"You are correct Sergeant Campbell. That's Huy in the sunglasses our oldest son, the one in the UND jacket is Trung, and the couple is Bao and his twin sister Kim-ly."

"That's a good-looking family, wait... Trung Nguyen? Plays left wing for UND?"

Duong grinned "You know your hockey, this is my wife Mai, the brains of the outfit. The woman to your right is our eldest child, Tam, she engineered this..." Duong's had swept indicating the skating rink, "defensive strategy."

Ralph held out his hand and shook Mai's hand. "Ralph Campbell, ma'am. You'll have to get your hubby to bring you out to the legion on occasion."

"He'll have to take me anywhere on occasion," she said with a sideways glance at her husband. "Are you fellows legion buddies?"

Ralph and Duong shrugged. "We shoot pool on occasion," said Ralph. "I was just saying that I noticed that no one gets close to Don and Lanh. Your kids are good." And indeed, that's what they were doing. Huy, Bao, and Kim-ly followed Lanh and Don at a discrete distance and gently but firmly insured that other skaters avoided them. If anyone got too close, Trung swooped in like an avenging hawk to protect his charges.

Tam cleared her throat. "Mr. Campbell, do you realize that the bruises Donovan wears are from defending my sister?"

Ralph looked genuinely shocked. "He said that two guys that attacked him, but he didn't mention a girl, what happened?"

Quickly Tam explained what Lanh told her happened at the dance, and then what followed in the cafeteria on Monday and how they played hooky so Don could get some soup to eat. All the while she spoke Ralph watched Don and Lanh skating around the rink, both oblivious to the world around them. Their entire world was exclusively wrapped up in each other. Both were smiling so much you could see Lanh's braces from up in the stands.

"Are you ok Mr. Campbell?" Tam noticed that Ralph was no longer paying attention to her, his eyes had a misty, faraway look in them.

"It's just... I haven't seen Don smile in such a long time." He wiped his nose with a handkerchief. "His momma and I, every chance we'd get, we'd come down here on a Sunday night to skate. We even had a little sled we could put him on and pull him around the rink when he was just a tot."

Don and Lanh started laughing at something either one of them said and Kim-ly looked up into the bleachers as if to joyfully say, "Are you people seeing this?"

"My sad little bird has been like that since birth," said Duong, "she rarely laughed like other children do, and her smiles have grown further and further apart. To be honest, Lanh has been sullen and withdrawn since we moved here, I was afraid that Lanh would commit suicide. But now..." He held his hands up indicating the teens, "it appears that those worries are in the past. To be honest, new worries will arise, but none as horrible as losing a child."

"I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have the same concerns for Don since his mother died," said Ralph.

For a long time, the four of them watched the young couple skate around the rink, until finally the announcer called "Last skate" and he put on a "special request," it was Elton John's "Your Song." Don and Lanh looked at each other in surprise then skated toward the center of the rink. As they held each other the same way they did five nights ago, Don started to skate gently backwards pulling Lanh with him. They were so fixated on each other as they rocked and swayed in time with the music, neither of them noticed Tad Larson as he slid past them face down on the ice, nor did they notice Lanh's brother Trung as he skated past them with a grin of victory on his face.

Later Don climbed in his dad's old beaten-up pickup, a peaceful smile of sheer joy on his face. "Hey," said Ralph, "I've got a few extra coins, let's go to the truck stop and get some fries and a coke. Christmas break, eh? so there's no school tomorrow."

"Yeah, let's do that," smiled Don, not ready to let the night end. He leaned his head on the side window and watched the snowflakes swirl down in the night. The amber clearance lights on the cab roof further illuminated the flurry. For the first time in years, he didn't turn his face away from the window in anger when a house gaily decorated for the holidays slid past.

The truck stop stood on US 2 just outside of town and was one of the best 24/7 restaurants for miles. As far as Don knew, it may be the only 24/7 restaurant between the Canadian border and the Twin Cities. As they pulled up to the parking lot Don saw that the truck stop windows were decorated for Christmas with strings of lights, green tinsel garlands, and believe it or not, Glass Wax stencils. As they entered the truck stop the interior continued the 1950's themed Christmas decorations and music. Normally when Ralph and Don visited the truck stop, they ate at the lunch counter or one of the small booths up front, but tonight Ralph led Don to the big dining area in the back, past the professional driver's section, back where the tourists and large parties generally ate.

Ralph led Don to a group that pulled a couple of tables together. "Don, these are my friends Duong and Mai, their sons Huy, Trung, and Bao, and their daughters Tam, Kim-ly, and Lanh."

"Hey Ralph!" cried Duong, "Pull up a chair and join us!"

"Thanks, I believe we will!" and as Don and Lanh hid their faces in embarrassment Ralph seated Don next to Lanh and joined in with the laughter.

Mai leaned across the table, "Don, we're not here to embarrass you..."

"Speak for yourself," laughed Trung, "I'm loving this... ow!"

Mai laid down the spoon she rapped Trung's knuckles with and said "...we want you to know that although we don't fully understand what you're going through, we are all here for you."

"Hear, hear!" cried Ralph and raised his coffee cup in toast to his son and Lanh.

"Hear, hear!" joined the Nguyens raising their glasses or cups. Lanh for her part was so embarrassed she wanted to die, but instead of burying her face in her hands or scarf as she usually would, she buried her face in Don's shoulder, something that was picked up upon by Mai, Tam, and Kim-ly immediately.

As Don and Lanh shared a large order of crinkle cut French fries, Duong explained to Don that his life has inexorably changed. "If you wish to spend time with my youngest daughter, you need to get your grade point average up, and she has agreed to tutor you. Therefore, in order to get your average high enough to spend time with my daughter, you will need to spend time with my daughter so she can get your average high enough."

"Is that acceptable?" asked Ralph.

"Heck yeah!" grinned Don.

"Motion made and seconded, all in favor say aye!" called Kim-ly.

"Aye!" rang the voices.

"Anyone opposed?" asked Kim-ly.

"Nay!" cried Lanh, who hid her face again at the outbreak of laughter and confusion.

"Nay?" asked a shocked Don.

"Well, yeah," said Lanh, blushing in embarrassment. "You're a Grinch. I can't teach a Grinch."

When the laughter subsided, Don finally said "Ok, for you I'll give this Christmas thing another try."

~~~~~*~~~~~

Don was obviously frustrated with algebra and Lanh knew exactly why. She hated his algebra book with a passion because it left out a big portion of Algebra that was crucial to successfully negotiating the language of numbers. Whether it was left out because it was expected to be taught in a previous grade, or in a following grade she didn't know, all she knew was that Don didn't understand the math because this one crucial point was missing. She frowned then looked at Don and said, "Ok, just put the book aside, let's do it like this..." she drew out an equation on a blank piece of paper:

4 + 2 × 3 =

"No X's, no Y's, no fractions. Have at it"

Don tore into the straight arithmetic and came up with the answer 18.

"That is exactly why I hate this book," she said.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"You were doing good, but your mistake was here," said Lanh, "you worked left to right, four plus two is six, six times three is eighteen. But this is math, not reading. You read left to right, but there is a specific order to "read" equations. P.E.M.D.A.S. You perform the mathematical functions in this order; Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction. So, when you follow that order, there's nothing in parentheses, and no exponents. So, you move to multiplication, and you get two times three equals six. There's no division so you move to addition, so six plus four and you get ten, which is the correct order and the correct answer."

Don stared at the paper unblinking and moaned, "ok, it makes sense, but I'll never remember this."

Undeterred, Lanh pressed on, "Now if you write the equation like this and apply P.E.M.D.A.S..."

3 x (4 + 2) =

Don did the math and said "Eighteen?"

"Yes! All I really did was put parenthesis around 4 + 2, and that changed the order of operation which changed the answer." She used a few more equations and he got each one correct. She was smiling and praying that he got it, but she deflated when he said, "I really understand it, but I'll never remember that abbreviation."

Deflated, but not defeated. She ran into the living room and searched around for something that she wears every Christmas season. She found them, put them on, then dashed back to the kitchen table wearing a green Christmas elf hat and fake elf ears. "I'm an elf!"

"A pretty cute one too," said Don who was wondering where this was going.

Lanh grinned, how could he say that to a skinny little girl with a mouth full of braces and glasses thicker than a phone book? But she grinned none the less, God it felt good to have someone outside of your family that likes you! Pressing on with her math lesson she grabbed a Christmas cookie off the plate in front of Don. "P.E.M.D.A.S. also means Pudgy Elves May Demand A Snack!" she said and bit the head off the angel shaped Christmas cookie.

"P.E.M.D.A.S. that works for me," smiled Don. "But you're not even close to being considered Pudgy."

"What do you mean?" asked Lanh puffing her cheeks out. Quick as lightning he reached out and poked her ribs causing her to laugh spraying cookie crumbs on Don.

"You're just skin and bones," he said and started tickling her ribs. Lanh whooped in laughter and slipped off her chair to escape his tickling fingers. Not wanting to let her escape, Don followed her below the table where they rolled around under the table tickling each other until a pair of feet appeared at the doorway. They immediately stopped their tickle war and held their breaths.

"I know you're under there," said Lanh's older sister.

"It's Tam," whispered Lanh.

"I can hear you," said Tam.

Don quietly whispered into Lanh's ear, "she can't hear us."

"Yes, I can."

Lanh turned to Don, her eyes wide in surprise, but Don hadn't moved and suddenly they were nose to nose, eye to eye. Don never knew why he did it, but he leaned in a little bit and gave her a little kiss on the lips. Lanh's beautiful dark brown eyes flared open in surprise, and she gasped a tiny gasp in surprise and pleasure.

"I heard that too!"

Lanh popped up from below the table, "You did NOT hear us kiss!"

"I didn't say I did," grinned Tam, leaning against the doorway, "but now I know what was going on down there."

Lanh screamed in anguish and slumped back to the floor. "We're busted," she groaned.

For his part, Don climbed up into his seat then looked down at Lanh. "You can get up; I found my pencil. We can get back to work."

"It won't work," sighed Lanh, "we're already busted."

"Yeah, you're busted," said Tam, her arms crossed in a display of urgent impatience. "Now clean up your mess and get the table set, Mr. Campbell is joining us for dinner."

Slowly, knowing that they were going to die, the two young students put their books away, the joy of Don's learning breakthrough lost. He never had the chance to show her the A he got on his English test, an A that never would have happened without her help. And now, because of him, it was all over. "I'm sorry," he whispered as she handed him plates to set out on the table.

"What's done is done," she said softly, her eyes not meeting his. It's not fair! She finally meets someone who gets her! Someone she can talk to! And now her dad is going to freak and it will be all over. All the while Tam watched them with an evil smile on her pretty face.

She showed him how to set the table the way her father insisted on doing it, chopsticks along with western silverware, where the sauces and condiments need to be placed, all guided by sudden bursts of instructions from Tam in rapid fire Vietnamese which terrified Don. "I'm so sorry, I don't know why I did it..."

"It's ok, I..." Lanh looked at Don, her face crimson with embarrassment. "I liked it." They were interrupted by Kim-ly and Bao coming in from class.

"Hey squirt!" called Bao, as he tussled Lanh's long ebony hair. "How's the fish doing?"

"Marissa is fine," said Lanh softly.

"Not that fish," he growled and turned and put Don in a headlock. "I hear the JV team has a hope for the future!" He started giving Don noogies, "Old Ebony Eye! Isn't that right?"

"Awk!" was all Don could say, it was a pretty good choke hold that Bao had him in.

"Let him go!" demanded Lanh as she tried to free Don from Bao's grip.

"What is going on?" demanded Trung as he entered the dining room. He was far bigger and stronger than any of the Nguyen boys, and years of hockey insured that he remained that way. He had just arrived from Grand Forks and was still carrying his travel bag.

"Just saying hi to our guppy," grinned Bao.

"Let him go, he's starting to turn purple." Trung used a tone of voice that wasn't exactly a threat, it was a warning of a threat to come. Bao immediately released Don who dropped to his knees and gasped for air. Trung leaned down and checked Don's eye which was still bruised from the beating over a week ago. "Damn, that shiner is a good one, you got some tough cheerleaders in your school."

"Fuck you," muttered Don.

"What?" laughed Trung, "He just told me to fuck off! I like this kid!" laughed Trung as he helped Don to his feet. "You got guts kid," and pulled a very confused Don in for a bone crunching hug.

Soon the entire Nguyen family along with Ralph and Don Campbell gathered at the table for "Leftover Night"; the night of the week when left over ingredients from the restaurant were brought home for a potluck dinner. Noodles, rice, sauces, vegetables, different cuts of meat and were brought from the restaurant into the home and were eaten up rather than thrown out. As the popularity of the Pho restaurant caught on, leftover nights became fewer and further apart and had become somewhat of a family celebration.

Dinner was a loud, boisterous affair full of laughter and humor now that all of Duong and Mai's children were home from college for the holidays and swapping stories of their academic adventures. Until this week it was just Lanh, Kim-ly, and Bao at home, Kim-ly and Bao being in their second year at Bemidji State University and closing in on their bachelor's degrees and quite often did not get home until late. Trung was at the University of North Dakota on a hockey scholarship, and both Tam and Huy were finishing their studies at the University of Minnesota.

Lanh and Don sat side by side at dinner with an ever-growing cloud of dread hanging over their heads, they were sure that Tam was going to spill the beans, and Mai was going to demand that they stop seeing each other. And Duong? Dad was going to kill them. The tension was palpable and Lanh was sure that at any moment she was going to scream. She knew how to get out of this, she and Don could run away together and not have to worry about meddling siblings or parents.

They sat staring at their plates, terrified over what was going to happen. Don tried to eat a morsel here and there but his hands were shaking too bad to work the chopsticks which everyone was using, even his dad Ralph. Finally, their worst nightmare materialized, Tam said "I saw something interesting today..."

Lanh was sure this was it. Her life would soon be over. Under the table she held hands with Don, their hands clenched in terror.

"...I peeked in on Lanh and Don's study session and..."

"OK! WE DID IT!" Lanh burst out. "WE KISSED! We were having fun and it just happened! And I'm not sorry!" Her hand clamped down on Don's hand and she held on for dear life.

Her outburst was met with polite chuckles, but what really incensed Lanh the most was when her mother said, "We're sure you did, dear, but you're interrupting your sister, go ahead Tam."

"WE DID!" cried Lanh, "LIKE THIS!" she put both hands on Don's startled face and pulled him close and gave him a kiss.

The room was silent for a long moment, everyone staring at the shocked young couple until Tam said, "I was going to mention that you used the elf ears to teach Don the mathematical order of operations... but what you have is good too."

The room broke into riotous laughter and Huy came up behind Don and putting him in a headlock, rubbed his knuckles into Don's scalp, and said "Welcome to the family fracas brother!"

~~~~~*~~~~~

As "punishment" for her outburst at dinner, Lanh was made the unofficial "Lady of the House" at the Campbell residence with the task of Returning Christmas to the Campbell's farm. On Christmas Eve morning Kim-ly and Bao drove Lanh to the Campbell farm to see what her chores would be. The moment she saw the house, Lanh fell in love with the place. The farmhouse was huge with a wrap-around porch, and a giant maple tree dominating the front yard with branches that simply begged for a tire swing and a leisurely summer climb. She could picture Sunday family reunions in the summer with softball being played out back, Frisbee's being tossed, and horseshoes being pitched. In the front yard was a hand pump well, and Lanh just had to try it out. It took only four strokes of the pump handle to get the water flowing.

Don stepped out of the front door, and the wooden storm door squeaked and slammed just like Lanh knew it would. She ran up to the porch, slipping and sliding in the newly fallen snow, with her arms wide open. Don caught her up and spun her around before setting her down on the porch. "It's perfect! I'm ready to move in now!"

"I'm ready to let you except for, y' know, parents."

"Show me! Show me everything!"

The Campbell's house was built when the average farm family was at least 10 people, not including hired hands. The kitchen and dining room was built to feed the farm work force, so they were necessarily huge. The workforce lived in a bunkhouse attached to the main farmhouse just off the dining room. The living room and parlor were quaint, outdated, and perfectly beautiful to Lanh. The walls were covered with photographs and shelves full of books. She marveled at the wide plank wood floors and noticed that each room had a kerosene lamp and lampshades with tassels in case of power outage. And waiting for her in the living room was a stack of old cardboard boxes, each marked as "Christmas decorations."

While Ralph welcomed Bao and Kim-ly, Don continued to give Lanh a tour of the house including all the little hiding places he had as a child. When he showed Lanh the saddest room in the house, the room where his mother spent the last year of her life, Lanh grabbed his arm. "I'm sorry if I embarrass you at dinner other night," she said so softly he could barely hear.

"No, you didn't embarrass me, but you did surprise me."

"It just... in Vietnam culture a kiss is just for a couple. When we kiss under the table, hide from Tam, it ok, but in front of parents..."

"You're speaking funny, are you ok?" A sudden dread washed over him. "You're breaking up with me?"

Lanh looked horrified, "No! When I am nervous, I go to speaking like I did when I first learn English." This was something that would haunt her forever, when she got nervous her accent which what slight, would dominate her speech until she was almost impossible to understand. She wrung her hands together; the words are coming harder. "We are very traditional people, and we don't kiss when people watch."

"Did anyone tell you to talk to me about this?"

"No, but..."

"Did your mother or father tell you that kissing me was bad?"

"No, but..."

"Is anyone mad at us for kissing?"

"No, but..."

"Do your parents kiss in front of you?"

"Yes, but..."

Don took her tiny hands in his, "I don't know, maybe they already see us as a couple. But if it makes you nervous to kiss, then I would rather not do it."

"Maybe not nervous," she said, "maybe I like it too much?"

"Me too." And as they hugged, Ralph called up the stairs "Hey, you better get that tree before the weather turns, it's supposed to get nasty later."

Don slipped on his winter gear and headed out to the tractor shed with Lanh and Bao in tow. He opened the side door of the tractor shed and flicked a switch; an ancient lightbulb glowed weakly illuminating the collection of farm implements. Lanh peered around in the spooky interior of the barn sized garage while Don checked out the old Ford tractor. Satisfied that there was enough gas, oil, and anti-freeze in the tractor, and that they were in all the right places, he fired up the old motor and pulled out of the shed towing a single axle trailer. He then hopped off the tractor and left it running while he went for more equipment. Lanh and Bao investigated the puttering tractor while Don disappeared into the shed. He soon re-emerged with two chain saws, a container of gasoline, and some oil. He hopped up into the tractor seat and shouted, "We'll be back soon!" over the noise of the tractor's motor. With Bao riding on the trailer, they headed out across the snow-covered pasture to the woods where a tree awaited them.

Lanh returned to the house where Ralph and Kim-ly were going through the contents of the boxes, lovingly packed away nine years ago by Emily Campbell while she was still healthy. The boxes were left untouched by Ralph or Don since that day. They unpacked candles and lamps, center pieces, tree ornaments, garland, and string after string of lights. Ralph opened one box, then peering in, he closed it back up and said, "Let's save that one for Don."

Out in the woods Don had parked the tractor and the teens hopped off and were looking up at a seventy-five foot tall Black Hills spruce, known in Minnesota as a Black Spruce. Don patted the trunk and said, "This one will do nicely."

Gazing up at the wooden behemoth, Bao shook his head. "Think it's tall enough?"

"We just need some of it for now," but Don was concentrating on how to lay down the tree. He finally settled on a path that ran east/west. It was a narrow path between other trees, but there wasn't any obstacles to damage the tree as it fell. He grabbed a chain saw off of the trailer and put on eye and ear protection. "Here, put these on and I'll show you how to drop a tree," he said handing a set of "earmuffs" and safety glasses to Bao.

"Ok we're going to cut a wedge exactly perpendicular to the direction we want the tree to drop," he took a stick and drew on the tree trunk where he planned to cut. Then he took the chain saw and pointed out the settings to Bao, "Gas, prime, choke. Then you grab the cord and as you pull the cord, you push the saw away." With three yanks of the starter cord the chainsaw sputtered to life. He revved it a few times to warm up the motor, then he set the saw to the tree, and he made his wedge cut.

The saw roared and wood chips flew from the blade, this saw didn't make saw dust, it made spruce slaw. Bao was fascinated with the saw's remains, little eighth inch squares of wafer-thin wood. His analytical mind demanded that he investigate further. Looking at the chain of the chain saw he saw that the blade didn't even resemble the blade of a hand saw, it had little claws that gouged out little chunks out of the wood as it comes around.

"Ok, now we make a hinge. One straight cut just a few inches above and behind the wedge cut. Stand to the side, if I get anything wrong, the trunk will kick straight back, and you don't want to be in its way." Again, the chainsaw bit into the tree and chips flew as the chain's teeth tore into the tree. Finally, with a groan, a creek, and a few snaps the tree began to lean. Slowly it began to lean in the direction that Don required, it pivoted on Don's cuts like a door swinging on a hinge. Then faster and faster it began to fall, and with a whoosh and a cloud of stirred up snow it landed precisely where Don wanted it to drop.

"Voilà!" said Don shutting off the chainsaw.

Bao looked at the tree laying precisely where Don said it would land. It was huge! Not big around but tall... I mean long! Bao was sure he's never seen a bigger tree in his life, seventy feet long laying on the ground, it looked monstrous. He shook his head and said, "You'll never fit it through the door."

Back in the farmhouse as the wind began to pick up and the snow began to fly Ralph lit a fire in the living room fireplace and put some orchestral Christmas albums on the stereo. Lanh and Kim-ly unwrapped the decorations and asked Ralph if there were any stories or memories associated with them. Soon the house became cheery as the decorations that have not seen the light of day for nearly a decade began to warm the house as much as the crackling fire.

With every discovered treasure the sisters were able to instill more Christmas cheer with the decorations. A tiny Christmas village sprang to life atop the spinet in the living room, garlands and pine boughs outlined doorways and livened up the staircase. There was even a cheery Christmas fire screen for the fireplace. Inside one box was an item wrapped in several layers of tissue. Lanh unwrapped it to find a large, lacework bell shaped decoration. It was constructed of heavy wire painted white and covered with tiny white puffballs to make it look like it was frost covered or snow covered. Inside instead of a clapper it had a sprig of mistletoe inside the bell. "What's this?" asked Lanh.

"You don't know mistletoe?" Ralph asked surprised.

"She's got the kissing part down," grinned Kim-ly with an elbow to Lanh's ribs.

"Ow! Stop it, and I don't..." then remembering that Ralph was there at dinner to see her outburst she said "Ok, a little bit, but this is so pretty!"

"This was Don's mom's bell, she loved this ol' thing." He sniffed wistfully, "I guess it's up to me to make sure it gets passed on."

Lanh moved a stepladder into the doorway between the dining room and the living room and hung the bell by its red ribbon to a hook that was already in the doorway. She then climbed down and viewed it from all sides, insuring it was centered on the huge, gaily decorated dining room table, and the future location of the Christmas tree in front of the living room windows. "You're spending a lot of time on that mistletoe," said Kim-ly, as Lanh nudged the tree stand into alignment with the mistletoe bell and the dining room table.

"I think má and ba can't complain about kissing under mistletoe. It's a tradition."

"The only one worried about kissing is you, em," laughed Kim-ly as she arranged a pine bough garland on the fireplace mantle. "Is someone feeling a little bit guilty about all that kissing, and you've only known each other two weeks?"

"Má and ba can't complain about our kissing if there's mistletoe involved," said Lanh with a saucy wiggle of her eyebrows. "They're always lecturing me on how important tradition is, and this is a tradition." Which is true, Lanh and her siblings were born and raised in America, their parents were just children when they emigrated, but they try to keep their Vietnamese traditions alive. However, Mai and Duong's kids are just as American as anyone who was born here. Yes they learned to speak Vietnamese before they spoke English, they listen to the same music as their classmates, their dad even served in the US Army for six years. As far as Lanh was concerned, traditions were just there to keep her grandparents happy and entertain their customers at the restaurant.

Just then the rumbling of a distant tractor engine announced that Don and Bao were returning. "Typical," huffed Kim-ly, "they're just in time for lunch." Lanh dashed to the dining room window and saw the tractor's headlights peering at her from out of the snowy gloom. With a squeal she grabbed her parka and dashed outside through the kitchen door.

By the time she got out to the tractor shed, her brother had hopped off the trailer and lifted the seven-foot-tall top of the tree they just cut down. "What do you think?" he grinned.

"It's... different," she said. The branches were spaced further apart than the trees her father and Huy usually bring home from the Christmas tree lot and it's shaped kind of funny, it's not a perfect cone like the tree lot trees. Bao had pulled most of the cones off of the branches on the trip back and Lanh helped him pull the rest of the cones off of the tree. They didn't want the cones to open in the warm house and drop seeds all over the carpet.

"You took long enough," Kim-ly called from the kitchen door.

"This was the easy part," called Bao, then he pointed to the trailer that was loaded to the brim with logs, each cut to eighteen inches in length. "That's where most of the work came in."

"What is with all that wood?" asked Lanh eyeing the eighteen-inch-long sections of tree trunk in the trailer.

"That's the rest of the tree," grinned Bao.

"What?"

"It was a pretty big tree, it's now firewood. I have to split it later," answered Don. "We don't waste a tree. And come this spring I'm going to plant ten saplings."

"Cut one, plant ten. That's how we do it," said Ralph peeking out the door over Kim-ly's head.

After parking the tractor and trailer in the shed and putting the tools away, Don walked to where Bao was wrestling the tree up the front steps and smiled, "What do you think?"

"It's kinda big," Lanh said as she pulled off the last of the pinecones.

"Let's take it in before it gets covered with snow," said Bao through the increasing squall.

"Don't you have to trim a few inches off the bottom? asked Lanh who was used to watching her father and brothers prepare the trees they purchase from a tree lot for trimming.

"We already trimmed about seventy feet off the bottom," said Don as he held the door open for Bao.

"What?" Lanh was completely confused.

Don followed Bao and Lanh into the house and he was stunned, the decorations changed the old bachelor farm house into something more wonderful. He was overwhelmed with the ghosts of Christmases past, helping his mom with each delicate ornament, listening to the stories of the aunts, uncles, or grandparents associated with each one. He walked through the house stunned as the memories he had locked away came flooding back, he could almost feel his mother's love one last time.

"Are you ok?" whispered Lanh.

"Yeah, it's just so beautiful," it was clear to everyone that he was fighting to holdback the tears. "Thank you so much..." he pulled Lanh close to him and was amazed how wonderful she felt in his arms.

"Your dad was worried, he didn't know if you would take it well."

As usual Kim-ly's timing was perfect, "All right you two, either get under the mistletoe or get to the table, it's lunch time!"

After lunch the tree was bolted in its stand, watered, and quadruple checked for alignment by Lanh and Kim-ly. Ralph put cheerier Christmas music on the stereo and the four youngsters started decorating the tree. Many hands make delightful work go fast and soon Don and Bao were finishing up the tinsel as Ralph went to answer the phone. "Ok, what's missing?" asked Kim-ly.

"A puppy to drink the tree water?" suggested Lanh hopefully.

"No, this!" said Kim-ly as she handed Don a large, heavy box. "Your dad said it was for you to open once the tree is up."

Don set the box on the floor and opened it. Looking inside his eyes grew misty. He reached in and began pulling out the Lionel train set his parents had given him nine years earlier. It was the last Christmas gift he received from his mom. "I forgot all about this!"

When Ralph returned to the living room the O27 scale Santa Fe Southwest Chief was running laps around the tree. Lanh and Don were on the floor watching it, Don sitting cross legged in front of the speed control and Lanh was on her knees wearing Don's old mattress tic engineers cap and watching the train, fascinated with what she saw. Ralph snapped a few pictures of them then turned to Bao and said, "That was your mom on the phone, she said that the roads are getting too bad to drive on, you should stay here tonight."

"We can't impose..." Bao started.

"This is North Central Minnesota, I can't let you out in all good conscience, especially knowing what you have in the trunk of your car," said Ralph.

"She told you?" Bao sighed, "Ok, sir. If I'm not back shortly, send the dogs out for me," and he grabbed his parka and stepped outside. Bao was back in a few minutes with three backpacks slung over his arm and carrying a medium size box. He looked over at Lanh and Don who were still playing with the train like little kids. Lanh was now setting up the train station and placing the little people on the platform, Don was setting up a pair of road crossing lights with lowering arms. Kim-ly had gotten into the act and was making a mountain out of boxes and a white sheet to give the train a tunnel in a snow-covered mountain to pass through.

"Come on," said Ralph, "I'll show you where you're bunking tonight." He led Bao upstairs to a bedroom with a pair of twin beds, the decor was nondescript, and the mattresses were bare but there were stuffed toys on the beds. "My nieces and nephews stay here when visiting so we'll put the girls here." After Bao placed the two overstuffed pink back packs on the beds, he followed Ralph down the hall, "This is my room, and here is another spare room, across the hall is a spare bedroom, and over there is Don's room."

"Where do you want me sir?" asked Bao.

"Well, I could put you in this spare room, or I could put you on a cot in Don's room to cut back on any possible commuting. I trust Don, I trust him with my entire farm, and I'm sure you feel the same way about your baby sister. But I don't trust teenage hormones if you get my meaning. So, I'll leave it up to you as to where you want to sleep."

Bao took a deep breath, he didn't know Don well at all, but he knew Lanh. She was a sweet girl but other than a goldfish and the occasional stray cat, she never had a friend, let alone a boyfriend. The emotions of first love are overpowering and he was sure that she wasn't ready for it. Bao understands the emotional overload of first love first-hand. His first love has always been his sister Kim-ly and woe to any man who dare get between them. If Don is feeling the overload that Bao has experienced... "Where can we find that cot sir?"

When Ralph and Bao returned to the living room their absence hadn't been noticed. The train was running with Lanh at the controls, while Don and Kim-ly finished draping the last of the tinsel on the branches. The uneven branches allows the tinsel to hang straight down, and it looks like the icicles that the tinsel is intended to reproduce. Memories of walking through the woods with Emily, looking at the sunlight glinting off the icicles on the trees caused by the sunlight melting the snow flooded back into Ralphs's mind and he felt his heart hitch on a beat or two...

The large twinkling Noma lights that were strung near the trunk of the tree filled the center of the tree with old fashioned joy, while the tiny mini-lights that were strung on the branches resembled multi-colored fireflies. Ralph had forgotten the beauty of the antique glass ornaments that had been stored for nearly a decade, and the angel atop the tree looking down on Ralph and Don resembled their lost Emily so much even she would understand why they chose to forego her favorite holiday for a few years.

Outside the wind and snow kicked up so much that the large size Christmas lights that Ralph hung earlier on the porch were swaying in the wind and the snow was piling up out there. The kids were having so much fun that Ralph was sorry to break it up, but this was a farm... He cleared his throat. "It's about that time Don."

Don looked at his watch. "Oops, sorry dad." He placed the last of his tinsel on the tree and stepped away.

"Where are you going?" asked Lanh, her voice sounded deeply concerned.

"Time to milk the cows," he said as he headed toward the kitchen. Lanh stopped the train at the station and followed Don. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"To help," she said. There was no question in her voice at all, she was going to help and that was that. Don pulled on his brown canvas one-piece insulated coverall while Lanh pulled on her pink parka with neon purple faux fur on the hood and the Sunshine Bunny! mittens. They stepped out into the farmyard and followed Ralph's footsteps in the snow to the barn, Lanh making sure she stepped in Don's footprints.

The dairy herd is only 18 producing cows and a small handful of yearling calves. The cows moved into the milking parlor with little encouragement and their heads were locked into the stalls. As Ralph and Don worked the milking equipment down the line, Lanh worked hard feeding the cows. Don had showed her how to fill the wheelbarrow with silage and she gave each of the cows an even share of feed. In short time the milking was done, and the herd was turned out to the yard, and the three headed back to the house.

In the kitchen Lanh stomped her feet and rubbed her hands together. "Cold!" she gasped.

"Your mittens aren't very warm," said Don. He stripped his coverall to the waist, opened his flannel shirt, and pressed her frigid fingers to his chest and held them there.

"You're so warm!" she gasped with a smile. It was the first time she touched another human being in years. When she was very young, she took baths with Tam. Bao and Kim-ly were too rambunctious for the tiny preemie, but she didn't remember that, but she did know that Tam always took a bath with her. She didn't know if she ever touched a man outside of her father, her brothers never seemed to be interested in her.

Don held her tiny hands to his chest and felt her fingers warm as she absorbed his body heat. He wanted to say something profound, to say how much her touch meant to him, to describe how important it was to him that she was there with him, and to put in to words the maelstrom of feelings that were swirling around his heart. However, all he could do was drink in the beauty of her almond shaped eyes and worry that she would think he's a dork for putting her delicate, perfect hands on his sweaty chest.

"A-HEM! ah, guys?" It was Kim-ly standing in the doorway to the dining room.

Lanh smiled but didn't move her hands. "Thank you for warming my hands," she finally said, but her hands stayed. She too had so many things to say, she wanted to describe how overwhelmed she was with emotion in a good way, that she wanted to kiss him again and again. She wanted to explain that her hands were touching the bare chest of a man for the first time in her life, and how she wanted it to go on and on forever.

"Thank YOU for helping with the cows." He held her hands to him, his large strong working hands covering her tiny, delicate little hands. She smiled and closed her eyes and even closed her eyes were beautiful, like tiny, sweet smiles.

"Guys, this is getting creepy," Kim-ly was getting annoyed.

Slowly, reluctantly Don pulled Lanh's hands away from his chest. She buttoned up his flannel shirt as he unzipped her parka for her. Finally, the trance was broken, but it was a moment that Don and Lanh carried in their hearts for a long time.

"It's almost time for dinner!" said Ralph as he entered the kitchen and unzipped his overall. "You guys ever have sauerkraut and knackwurst?"

To hide his blush Don opened the lid of a large soup pot and took a deep whiff. "Knoephla?" he grabbed a spoon and tasted a small sample. "Mmmm!" Lanh stood next to him with her head back and her mouth open. Remembering how she fed him just days ago, Don took a spoonful and brought it to her mouth. "Hot!" he warned.

Lanh's sweet lips closed around the spoon and savored every drop. "So good!" her eyes lit up at the flavor.

"It's a German/Russian potato and dumpling soup, it's perfect for warming up after working out in the cold," said Don as he carried the soup pot to the dining room table. "Knoephla is the German word for button, and I think it's called that because the knoephels, the dumplings, are the size of buttons."

"I thought you were Irish, not German," said Lanh.

"If I made you Pho will that make me Vietnamese?"

"It depends on how good it is," she said with a straight face as they returned to the kitchen and collected plates, bowls, and silverware.

Like good restauranters, the Nguyen teens inspected every bite of the simple farm food, trying to discover the meaning and nuance of every ingredient, down to the chopped apple and the caraway seeds in the sauerkraut. The potato/chicken broth of the knoephla soup was a huge hit with the soup experts, as were the knoephels which Ralph made the exact size and shape of the pieces of potato in the soup, so by sight alone you couldn't tell what was on your spoon, making each mouthful a bit of a surprise. As they finished, Ralph called for their attention.

"Don and I want to thank you so very much; this is the best Christmas Eve we've had in 8 years..."

"It's the ONLY Christmas eve we've had in 8 years," interrupted Don.

"That being said," with a withering glance at his son, "I have some good news and some bad news. The county has not shut down the roads, but your parents and I decided it was too dangerous for you to head home tonight, so you all will be staying as our guests."

Lanh's eyes shot wide open in happiness and below the table she grabbed Don's thigh as tight as she could. "What's the bad news?" Don asked trying not to wince from Lanh's forceful grip.

"The bad news is that you now have a room-mate. I spoke with Mai, and we're not going to tolerate late night visitations. Bao volunteered to ensure that Don stays in his room and if Lanh sleepwalks, she'll be rerouted back to her room. Kim-ly and Lanh, you have the room at the top of the stairs, your mom packed some clothes in backpacks in case this might happen."

"She overreacts," sighed Kim-ly.

"She watches the weather report," corrected Bao.

A well-timed gust of wind shook the house as Ralph continued. "Unfortunately, you're stuck here for Christmas with a pair of Norwegian Bachelor Farmers, and we are out of practice when it comes to celebrating the holiday."

"I have some ideas," said Lanh brightly.

"I'm sure you do!" grinned Kim-ly wagging a finger at her little sister.

"No!" cried Lanh in shock, then she paused, "Well, maybe a little, but no! I was thinking about baking Christmas cookies and stuff like that."

"Can you make lefse? It's not a holiday without lefse," said Ralph.

"We're cooks, of course we can make lefse," said Bao.

"Yeah, just one question," said his twin sister Kim-ly, "What's lefse?"

After dinner Kim-ly and Lanh insisted on washing the dishes and used the opportunity to inspect the kitchen and pantry while Bao scoured the cookbooks. He leaned on the kitchen counter going through an index file of recipes that Emily and her mother, and possibly her grandmother collected over the years. Some of the recipes appear to be quite old and written in a Nordic language with English translations penciled in. He finally said, "I found it... they want potatoes?"

After washing and drying the dishes, then a bit of rearranging the kitchen to meet her standards ("I am the lady of the house now," she reminded her brother and sister) Lanh started peeling some potatoes that she found, diced them, and put them in water to boil. While they boiled, she rearranged a bit more and then went into the living room and asked Don and Ralph what they do with the lefse. Their answers were frustratingly vague and all encompassing, such as "You can do anything with them!" and the only thing they actually agreed on was spreading some butter on them then sprinkling on some sugar, then rolling them up tight like a taquito.

Shaking her head, she drained the cooked potatoes and set them out to cool, then went upstairs to make her bed and see what her mother packed. She made her bed with crisp sheets and warm, fluffy blankets and a thick heavy hand sewn quilt. Then she looked at her Domo Kun backpack, bulging at the seams with enough clothing for a softball team. There was enough clean underwear for her to wear until February, two full changes of clothes, and a silly onesie pajama that was blue, with a light blue tummy and it even had a hood that had kitten ears.

She looked at herself in the mirror and frowned. The onesie clearly showed her lack of curves and complete lack of breasts. It also emphasized her addiction to anything cute, which was something she is hoping and praying to outgrow. But considering the fact that her oldest sister Tam uses a Sunshine Bunny! notebook for her post graduate work, it may be a genetic problem.

She came downstairs wearing the one-piece pajama that her mom packed and saw Don sitting in a wing back chair reading a magazine. She pulled up her hood and stood in front of him, kitten ears and all, ready for the humiliating remarks. He just smiled and patted his lap and said, "Come sit with me." No laughter, no accusations, no disappointment, he appeared to be genuinely pleased to see her. Her heart leapt and she curled up in his lap and as he read his Field & Stream magazine, she opened up the latest Farmer's Almanac and learned what rural life was all about, happy to be simply close to him.

For his part Don was surprised how warm she felt against him, has it been that long since he's held someone? He loves his dad, but dad isn't a hugger, and if Don was honest with himself he'd realize he's not quite open either. He finally asked her, "Did you get the lefse figured out?"

"Yes, but I need a lefse roller, a flipper, and a grill."

"I'll find those for you in the morning." And he put his arm around her and pulled her close. She leaned her head on his shoulder and snuggled up to him, her heart leaping with joy. For his part he felt so at peace, he could die happy right now. Neither of them noticed the fascinated stares from Ralph, Bao, and Kim-ly.

The TV was turned to a local station that was exclusively showing short Christmas greetings from local residents and businesses, something Lanh never saw down in Minneapolis where she grew up. The gentle Christmas carols on the stereo, the snow drifting past the front window, the beautiful tree, the train, the fireplace, a hot bowl of knoefla, and Don. It was everything Lanh ever wanted for a Christmas eve, and soon she slipped into a contented sleep in his lap.

~~~~~*~~~~~

"Comeon sleepyhead, wake up! Let's see what Santa brought us!"

"Mmm?" Lanh finally woke up at Kim-ly's urging. There was light coming through the windows, but it was still snowing heavily, as Lanh looked out the window it looked like over two feet of snow fell last night. "How did I get to bed?" she groaned.

"You fell asleep on Don's lap last night, he carried you up here about 10:00 o'clock."

Lanh was crestfallen, she wasted an entire night with Don by sleeping? She pulled on a bathrobe she found hanging in the closet and the fluffy slippers her mother packed for her, then headed downstairs to see what was happening. The moment she stepped into the kitchen she found herself wrapped by Don's arms. "Good morning gorgeous! I missed you at morning milking."

"I'm sorry I fell asleep on you," she said sadly.

He scooped her up in his arms and said, "This is how I carried you upstairs last night," what he wanted to add was "and if it wasn't for your brother and sister, I would climbed in bed with you and not have let you go," but he didn't.

She giggled softly and she wanted to say, "Thank you, I felt so at peace and so secure in your arms." But all she was able to do was put her arms around his neck and bite down on her bottom lip and smile. He carried her into the dining room and sat down at the table with Lanh on his lap and he proceeded to spoon feed her like she fed him at her parents' restaurant. She didn't like the taste of his coffee, but when he added some real cream and a little sugar her beautiful brown eyes shot wide open in pleasure and she kept the cup, refusing to relinquish it back to him.

She almost gave up on the coffee when she tasted fresh whole milk for the first time in her life. So creamy! So sweet! For a while she held the coffee in one hand and the milk in her other hand refusing to release either. The rest of the breakfast was toast with strawberry preserves, fruit salad, and oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins. As they ate, they talked in hushed tones and laughed softly to each other, their noses touching as they laughed.

Kim-ly and Bao watched open mouthed as they saw their sister transform into a completely different human being, a huge change from the sulky girl they were used to living with. Normally stoic and withdrawn, this Lanh was craving Don's attention, and returning every bit of his affection! At one point Don wiped a stray blob of oatmeal off of Lanh's lip with a finger, she in turn cleaned his finger with the tip of her tongue, then sucked half of his finger into her mouth which caused Bao's blood to boil. He was about to explode when Kim-ly whispered in his ear "She doesn't understand the symbolism."

"But that's..."

"She doesn't know yet." Kim-ly has had talks with Lanh about boys was shocked at how much her little sister doesn't know. Judging from Don's reaction, he's equally as innocent himself. "Just let them be for now. Let them be cute." Their conversation was in Vietnamese so in case it was overheard, at least Don and Ralph wouldn't know what was said.

"Hey, you guys, don't you want to see what Santa brought?" called Ralph from the living room.

Kim-ly looked a little shocked, "Santa?"

"Santa Má sent a few gifts along in case we get snowed in," said Bao as he led his sister into the other room. Kim-ly wore a two-piece pajama that was loose and flowing and did nothing to hide her soft curves, something that Bao and Ralph worked hard to ignore, and something Don didn't seem to notice. You could have set the house on fire, as long as Lanh continued to sit on his lap, he was happy.

Don led Lanh into the living room where they immediately resumed their positions on the wingback chair from last night and they returned to their private conversation until Ralph had to remind Don why everyone was gathered in the living room. Lanh being 2 months older than he is made Don the youngest in the room, so it fell to him to deliver the packages. Don and Ralph exchanged simple gifts, shirts and tools, Bao got a pair of insulated work gloves, Kim-ly and Lanh received earmuffs and knit gloves, and all three got matching knit caps and scarves.

There was also two small packages, one for Lanh and one for Don, they each contained one pillowcase and embroidered on the pillowcase was a stick figure, a boy on Don's and a girl on Lanh's. When held side by side the figures were blowing kisses at each other, the kisses represented by little red hearts floating from one stick figure to another. On the reverse side of the pillowcase was the stick figures catching the floating hearts. The tag on Don's box said it came from Mai, and the tag on Lanh's box said that the gift came from Ralph. She hopped up and ran to Ralph and wrapped her arms around him crying "Thank you so much! They're so cute!"

He patted her on the back and said, "Your mom made them, I just came up with the idea, they're long-distance relationship pillowcases."

Returning to Don, Lanh was all aglow, she looked at the tag on his box and gasped then showed it to Kim-ly and Bao. The three started chattering in Vietnamese and laughing. Lanh returned to Don smiling and blushing. "What's the big deal?" asked Don.

"See this symbol here in the From line?"

"Yeah," said Don, "the box with the lines through it."

"That symbol, we would say má, you would say mom. I think má likes you."

"That reminds me," Don picked up a long slim package and stood in front of Lanh who sat in his wingback chair. As he practiced last night with Bao over and over until he got it right. He said "Lanh à, em yêu chi, this was my mother's. She received it from her mother, and it now comes to you." He bowed deeply and held the package out to her with both hands.

For her part she gasped and started to shake, Bowing while holding out the gift with both hands was the deepest sign of respect one could make in the Vietnamese culture, so she couldn't refuse the gift, it wasn't done! But the words that Bao taught him, "Lanh à, em yêu chi" clearly did not mean what he thought he was saying... did he?

Don wanted Lanh to know that he was speaking with affection, so he turned to Bao for help and taught him to say "Lanh, I love you." She was stuck in a quandary, a young man just confessed his love for her, then hands her a gift in a way that she can't refuse.

With shaking hands, she took the package, bowed, and said "Cảm ơn bạn," Vietnamese for Thank You. She unwrapped the package and found it was a very old box and the words on it were in a Nordic language. Opening the box, she extracted what looked like a rolling pin, but it had deep narrow grooves cut into it very close together. It was an antique lefse roller, well used and well loved. She threw her arms around him and practically wept as she thanked him for the gift.

"The grill and flipper are in the kitchen, it's all part of the set," and he led her to the kitchen. As they passed under the mistletoe bell, they paused for a quick chaste kiss.

"You taught him that, didn't you?" Kim-ly asked her brother in Vietnamese.

"Yeah, he's a quick learner. We will probably have to start looking for a wedding gown for her now."

Kim-ly pondered what she just saw. Lanh clearly understood what he said, but she didn't freak out. But still, there's business here to take care of. "Thang ngoc!" (Idiot!)

Ralph didn't ask why Kim-ly started to hit her brother.

~~~~~*~~~~~

It was starting to get dark by 5:00 PM when Duong, Mai, Tam, Huy, and Trung pulled up. The roads were cleared and since Christmas was in an uproar due to the storm, Ralph invited the Nguyen's to dinner. As they entered the house and Mai and Tam were stunned at the decorations that covered almost every surface and added holiday cheer to a house that has been in mourning for years.

When they arrived they brought dishes from their own kitchen, Bao met them at the door before they could knock or ring the doorbell and ushered them in and with a finger on his lips, he urged them to be quiet. He then pointed to the couch and there was Lanh and Don, snuggled up tight together, both appeared to be sound asleep. Don was on the inside with his back against the back of the couch, and Lanh slept facing him, her face snuggled tight against his chest.

In the kitchen Mai asked Ralph how long the teens had been asleep. "Only about 30 minutes, they've been working pretty hard," and as he went to describe how Lanh made some of the best lefsa he's ever had, and at the same time put together tonight's feast, Don had been out in the barn splitting and stacking all that wood they cut yesterday, and then plowed the driveway and shoveled the walk, stairs, and porch and together Don and Lanh milked the cows.

In the living room Lanh was awake listening to the family talk about them. "Are you awake?" she asked Don.

"Yeah," he said, and pulled her tighter. "I'm sorry if I embarrassed you. Kim-ly told me what I said."

"Bao... he's such a jerk." She sniffed and her throat tightened up. "You can take it back if you want to."

"Is it ok if I don't want to?"

"Good, 'cause I'm going to keep it," she whispered. "It was my favorite Christmas present."

"I wrote it down last night, so I'll never forget it, Lanh à, em yêu chi."

"Donovan à, chi yêu em" she sighed. Then sadly added, "they're going to make me come home tonight,"

"I want to stay like this forever," Don responded. "That's what I really want for Christmas, to never have to say good-bye, just good night."

"Mmmm," Lanh agreed, snuggling closer if that were possible. The scent of the Christmas tree filled Lanh's senses, and she wished she could remain here in Don's arms forever. "My angels are watching, maybe they can help."

Not far away, thinking they were unseen, two spectral blond women stood in the living room and were shocked at what Lanh just said, they looked at each other in confusion. They were nearly identical, but one was a bit older, the other had tinted the tips of her hair purple and they were sure that Don and Lanh could not see them. "Angels?" they whispered before fading out of sight.