"Okay—who needs their shoes tied?"
A cluster of children shuffled to her, giggling and pushing each other. She tied a pair of Beauty and the Beast sneakers, Ninja Turtle boots, Aladdin sneakers, and two sets of Pocahontas moccasins. She paused at the moccasins, a terrible feeling in her stomach.
A small hand tapped her shoulder. She glanced up and for a moment her breath caught in her throat. It was the new boy, Asa. There was something about him.
"Miss Graham? My daddy's here, and he wants to talk to you about the ring."
"Great," she muttered, as another foot was placed in front of her. This is all I need, she thought, to explain to a complete stranger exactly how his antique ring was lost. She had automatically tied the new sneakers into a sturdy double knot, when she realized these shoes were large and free of any cartoon characters.
She closed her eyes for a moment and tried to rub away the pounding in her temples. Trying to compose herself, she stood, wishing the day were over. Wishing she were still asleep. Wishing she were anyplace but where she was.
"Em?" His voice was so soft she thought she had imagined it.
Her eyes opened, and there he was. Michael—her Michael.
Now he was wearing two sweatshirts, one over the other and jogging pants. But it was unmistakably Michael. He seemed larger than life, strong and sure in a world of child-size furniture. Yet it was him, his lustrous hair, the beautifully sculpted face, and those eyes.
"I'm sorry," he said, squaring his shoulders, his voice flat. There were circles under his eyes. "You like someone I know—someone I knew. I'm Asa's father."
He extended his hand, and she automatically took it. A warmth radiated from his grasp, a large hand. She knew.
"Michael." Her voice was shaking.
"Yes, Miss Graham?" One of the two Michaels in her class tugged at her skirt.
"No, not you. I'm talking to…" Her knees began to tremble, yet she held on to his hand.
"Em." Asa's father reached toward her with his other hand and tucked a strand behind her ear.
"The gold ring," she said, "I can't find it."
He nodded. He, too, seemed stunned. "Asa told me he took it to school. They're a set of wedding bands, they've been in my family. I checked the box last night, Em. They were both there." He swallowed. "They can't be separated. As far as I know, the rings have been welded together, liked, for over a hundred years." He glanced around the classroom before he spoke again. "I held them last night and had a dream."
"Indiana?"
He took a deep breath. "Yes. A prairie town in 1832."
"Overton Falls." This couldn't be happening. "The Larsons and Judge Hawkins."
"This is impossible." As he spoke his other hand rested on her shoulder. "Are you all right, Em? I mean, how do you feel."
"Fine," she said automatically. Then she shook her head. "Now I'm fine. This morning, when I woke up, I wanted to die."
He didn't smile. "So did I. I didn't know what to do, how to get through the day." He stepped back, his gaze again caressing her. "You got your schoolroom."
"Miss Graham has a boyfriend! Miss Graham has a boyfriend!" Emma couldn't identify the voice. She didn't care.
Finally he smiled, a smile that reached up and lit his eyes from within.
When she could speak again, her voice was a low rasp. "And you? What do you do?"
He looked down at his sweats and laughed, the rich laugh she thought would come to her again only in her dreams. Now it echoed in her classroom, mingling joyfully with the rest of the voices of the children.
"I was just about to jog in Prospect Park. I thought it might clear my mind." His entire body seemed to relax.
"It's snowing, Michael. The ground is frozen and it's snowing."
"I know. I was hoping to find a snowplow to run behind. I guess I didn't think about it too carefully." Pushing a hand through his hair, he continued. "I'm a public defender, Em. I was a partner with a large firm for a while but realized that's not why I went into law."
Asa had been watching them. Emma suddenly realized that the little boy had been staring at their entwined hands.
"We're planting rosebushes in our front yard in the spring, Miss Graham. It was my idea." He straightened his small spine. "All my idea."
With an enigmatic smile that made him seem much older than six, he strutted back to his desk.
"What do you think happened?" Michael also looked down at their hands. "How could we possibly have had the same dream? And why doesn't it feel like a dream?"
As she looked into his eyes, the eyes she knew so very well, she could only swallow an urge to cry, this time with happiness.
"Maybe," she said softly, "maybe it's just Christmas magic."
JUDITH O'BRIEN's first book, Little Lulu Goes to the Store, was self-published when the author was in the third grade. Although the print run was a disappointing single edition, the illustrations won praise from the author's parents. Over two decades later a second novel, Rhapsody in Time, was published. Ms. O'Brien is a graduate of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee and a former writer for Self magazine. Her work has also appeared in Woman's Day, Reader's Digest, YM, and Health. Her other novels include Ashton's Bride, Once Upon a Rose, and her latest, Maiden Voyage, soon to be published by Pocket Books. She now lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she is working on her next wonderful romance.
Judith O'Brien, A Gift of Love
(Series: # )
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