| The Creative Expressions of... Bill Vivrett |
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| Updated 12.24.04 |
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| THE CHRISTMAS OF '39 Page 1 of 9 - Luke 2: 9-11 �Don�t go in there!� �It�s dark down in there.� �Dack, I want to go home now. It gettin�dark out here.� All this whined by baby brother Billy. His two older brothers called him Will. It was twilight and he was cold. Jack was Billy�s hero but he was about to turn three and still couldn�t make the �J� sound, and by the time he could, he didn�t want to. I was dark in there, Jack thought to himself. But at eight and a half, he was already a leader, a dare devil, adventuresome and playful besides. �Something�s growling at me,� Jack repeated in a recurring whisper emphasizing a different word each time because he was sensing an unknown power all around him. He was whispering so as not to disturb it further, whatever it was. �Bob, grab a hold of my ankle. Hang on with both hands--no matter what! There�s some critter back in here an� I�m gonna bring it out,� he whispered back as the cave mouth swallowed all but one ankle. Jack had explored all the caves in the woods behind their small rented house. It was a fringe benefit of his assigned job of checking the rabbit traps each daybreak and twilight. At 8 1/2, Jack showed no fear. Not yet. This limestone cave had a small pinched mouth with a pouty lower lip. Their middle brother, Bobby at 6 1/2 would follow instructions with steadfast, quiet efficiency beyond his years. �What is it, Jack? What�s back in ther�? You be careful,� Bobby said to the ankle, being choked with both hands. Meanwhile, Bobby was already confiding in young Will. �Will, it�s either a dragon or a bobcat. I wish he�d let it alone whatever it is.� �I�m scared,� was all soon-to-be-three Billy could muster while his lower lip began to quiver at the oncoming darkness. He was becoming increasingly afraid of the unknown that was in there and now all around him out here as well. By the autumn of 1939, a dingy, gray shroud of fear had spread through the Heartland Hills like a cancer on the soul. The economic specter of Depression stalked the Missouri hill country and all who lived there. �Damn!� the dwarfish cave mouth swore softly. �Pull now, Bobby,� it commanded. And Bobby did. Immediately the disinterested mouth disgorged Jack, who twisted blithely up and out while cooing to a round ball of fur that smelled like baby�s breath. Swiftly he groped and dislodged two others, so of course their mother came out grumbling, and mumbling through both sides of her upturned mouth. �That�s not a dragon,� young Will declared by fiat, quickly overcoming all his fears. �That�s a doggie.� And she was too; a beautiful young collie that had been dumped off and just had her first litter of three pups, born in a cave. �Damn!� Jack stabbed the darkness in audacious disregard for their mother�s best efforts and only now discovering that the second and third were still born. �I�m tellin�� was all Billy could come up with to keep from crying. His two older brothers ignored this latest threat in their important preoccupation. It was a half-hearted idle threat that he quickly forgot in the exuberance the three shared over their new playmates. |
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