Under the Christmas Tree
1983 | Under the Christmas Tree
“Sissy?” Luke’s squeaky voice asked. “Sissy? Is it Christmas?”
Jesse sat up in bed. “I think so.” She rubbed her eyes. “You want to see if Santa came?” she asked her little brothers. Luke and Ezra scrambled off of the bed after her, slowing down only as they reached the living room.
The tree was all lit up and the presents were beneath it. Three Christmas stockings lay on the loveseat waiting to be rifled through. Dolores was on the couch and Robert was pouring a cup of coffee in the open kitchen.
“Mornin’ kiddos!” Robert crowed. “Merry Christmas!”
Stockings came and went quickly, and Jesse, because she was the only one who could read, was elected to pass out Christmas presents. She quickly warmed to the job, handing this present to Ezra, this one to Momma, this one to Luke, this one to… wait a minute.
Under the brightly clad cedar tree behind several of the presents was a large white sheepskin. Laying on the sheepskin, wrapped tightly in the palest blue blanket was a tiny baby. His little fists were curled up under his chin and he slept deeply, his little chest rising and falling gently.
Jesse’s eyes were ever so wide as she very gently reached for her new baby brother. She lifted him quietly onto her lap and he only wiggled for a minute. She was careful to support his tiny head. He yawned the tiniest yawn and fussed for a moment and then fell back asleep.
Jesse looked up at her mother who had tears in her eyes at the surprise she had planned for her daughter. “His name is Noah Robert, Jesse. He was born this morning before you woke up.”
Jesse looked at her baby brother and then back up at her mother. “He’s beautiful, Momma.” She looked back down at the tiny red person. “Just beautiful.” She said his name. “Baby Noah.”
“The book was fabulous, and the story, although extremely sad, was truly inspiring! I loved the way Jesse loved her siblings. My heart broke that a child so young had to care for so many children, the house, and her useless parents. She never had a childhood of her own. Great book. Thank you for sharing your story.”
— Wesley L.
“It never ceases to amaze me how much humans can over come. How much heaviness gets put on children and the hope that lies underneath them all. This story is all of that.”
— Katherine S.
—
At the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains sits the small farm towns of Rockwell, Sugar Loaf and Liledoun, North Carolina. A large family struggles to survive the chaotic nature of the family head: their mother, a terrifying blend of rage, disappointment, and religious command. Her husband follows sheepishly behind, a monster of his own kind.
And then there’s young Jesse: unwanted from conception but kept as a pawn for her mother’s bidding. Her life is a tale of growing up with no one to count on but herself.
A story of southern hills, a mother’s neglect, fireflies, kidnapping, birth, death, and the taste of sweet mulberries ripened by the sun. Jesse is a girl, hidden, who becomes a woman, discovered.
