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| courtesy of AboveTopSecret |
Almost as basic as sharing food together, storytelling is part of the human experience. You could even say this essential communication is part of our DNA. Since cave people days, humans have gathered around a campfire and shared the events of their days—first with gestures and then with words. A recent LiveScience.com article dates this gathering as early as 300,000 years ago. Back from a hunt, the successful expert shared the excitement of the chase and the kill with those who stayed behind and tended the fire─cooking or tanning or curing─allowing others to feel part of the essential activity that kept the band alive.
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| courtesy of Alamy.com |
The kitchen became the central part of family life
throughout the ages. Even now the clanking of pots and pans or good scents emanating
for that room will gather folks close.
I'm experiencing my family’s holiday visit with three
generations under the same roof for two weeks, and I hear stories at every turn.
Recalling past visits or sharing details of what has transpired since we were
last together—as probably with everyone else, the pandemic disrupted the 2020
holiday season─is one way we “know” each other. When I write, I always
keep these cherished visits in mind. Setting the majority of my stories in the
past when we didn’t fight the pull of technology and electronic devices allows
me to focus on the characters’ struggles to become acquainted.
As we gather in whatever size group we’re comfortable with,
be sure to listen to the stories around you or open a storybook and start
sharing. Because who doesn’t love being read to?
A Christmas Tree for Trudel
Rancher Gibson Bartleigh
travels to Pine Knot to investigate how his younger brother was swindled out of
his mining claim. He finds the suspect, businessman Bernard Heinrik, at a poker
table and squares off opposite him. Gib goads the man into betting big, staking
the mining claim and then ends up with the winning hand and retrieves the deed.
Goal achieved, he heads back to the hotel, planning how he’ll leave in the
morning and arrive triumphant in Redlands at the family home in time for
holiday festivities.
Mail-order bride Trudel Arensen traveled from Los
Angeles to Pine Knot to meet up with her fiancé, Mister Heinrik, with whom
she’s been corresponding for several months. But he’s a day overdue in meeting
her. She waits in the hotel lobby with her lace-making materials and her little
dog, Butterscotch. Released from the orphanage two months earlier, Trudel has
been on her own and terrified she will always be so.
When Gibson realizes he’s the cause for the lovely
lady’s misfortune, he’s stuck with a dilemma. If he confesses what he did,
he’ll have to offer the woman a ride back to where she came from. Propriety
demands they marry, and both agree it’s only for the duration of the trip. But
will forced proximity deepen the relationship into something more?
