Tangled in Light
Jared slowed to look at the house; along the edge of the roof, lights glowed in bright Christmas colors, curling colorful paths down the porch posts and along the railings. Candy canes lit in red and white marked the path to the front steps. The couple spent every Thanksgiving, and the day after, decorating. Worse than a kid, Alex wanted the maximum amount of time to enjoy the Christmas season. Pulling the truck into the driveway, Jared headed inside to find Alex.
Unlike the brightly lit exterior, the inside of the house was dark. Flipping on the kitchen light, Jared frowned. Alex usually didn't go off somewhere without letting Jared know where he'd be. They normally left work at the same time and came home to fix dinner together. If one of them left early he got elected to cook. No enticing smells came from the kitchen and the stove was cold.
Jared grinned. If Alex cooked the smells were more likely to be interesting than enticing. Not much of a chef, Jared tried to make sure Alex rarely left the office early alone. Despite his inept cooking ability, Alex always stuck to their agreement, but there no evidence showed he'd even been in the kitchen.
The only illumination in the living room came from the light of the Christmas tree. The huge tree spoke of Alex's influence as much as their light-trimmed roofline did. Most of their friends had pre-lit trees with beautiful coordinated decorations of silver and blue or red and gold, accentuating their professionally decorated homes. Jared wondered at their circle of friends sometimes; how they ended up there at all. No part of Alex and Jared's house had been professionally decorated. It was just home. They had a real tree, and not even a perfect example of a real tree; the branches weren't straight and it had a couple holes. Alex called it… personality.
"What's the point of having a real tree if people have to touch it to know it's real?" he always asked. It amused Jared and he became as fond of their eclectic tree as Alex. While other, normal people snoozed off Thanksgiving dinner, Alex and Jared searched for the tree with the right personality. They didn't come home until they had one in the back of the truck, all wrapped up in one of those green and red nets, looking like an alien fish they'd gone out and landed. They rearranged the living room to showcase it. It glittered with colored lights and tinsel and from its branches hung all the memorabilia from their childhoods as well as the ornaments they'd picked up over the last fourteen years of their relationship.
Fourteen years. Hard to believe this Christmas his boy turned thirty. Jared's memory of Alex, just turned sixteen, with snow in his hair, was as fresh as yesterday. Realizing he knew where Alex must be, Jared's grin turned fond. He looked out the sliding glass doors that led to the back yard and found Alex, up in the branches of the huge old oak that dominated the yard, twining white lights around the lower limbs. Jared watched for a few minutes, his eyes soft with love, before he went to start dinner.
* * * *
Alex struggled down the ladder, the leftover lights slung over his shoulder. He could have used them higher in the tree, but tradition demanded lighting only the bottom branches. He never knew why Jared used to hang lights on the tree behind his old house, tucked away in the back yard where not even the neighbors could see, but he always had and those lights had become a part of the magic of Christmas for Alex. On his way to the shed he glanced back at the house. Their first Christmas hadn't been here. Jared's cozy little bachelor home had become a thing of their past. This house, the one he designed, and Jared built, was theirs. Born in their hearts as a dream, and made real by the sweat of hard work. He'd been so young when they met, their first year filled with moments he never forgot, but one stood out from the rest. There had been a tree, and snow, and glittering lights, but most of
Jared slowed to look at the house; along the edge of the roof, lights glowed in bright Christmas colors, curling colorful paths down the porch posts and along the railings. Candy canes lit in red and white marked the path to the front steps. The couple spent every Thanksgiving, and the day after, decorating. Worse than a kid, Alex wanted the maximum amount of time to enjoy the Christmas season. Pulling the truck into the driveway, Jared headed inside to find Alex.
Unlike the brightly lit exterior, the inside of the house was dark. Flipping on the kitchen light, Jared frowned. Alex usually didn't go off somewhere without letting Jared know where he'd be. They normally left work at the same time and came home to fix dinner together. If one of them left early he got elected to cook. No enticing smells came from the kitchen and the stove was cold.
Jared grinned. If Alex cooked the smells were more likely to be interesting than enticing. Not much of a chef, Jared tried to make sure Alex rarely left the office early alone. Despite his inept cooking ability, Alex always stuck to their agreement, but there no evidence showed he'd even been in the kitchen.
The only illumination in the living room came from the light of the Christmas tree. The huge tree spoke of Alex's influence as much as their light-trimmed roofline did. Most of their friends had pre-lit trees with beautiful coordinated decorations of silver and blue or red and gold, accentuating their professionally decorated homes. Jared wondered at their circle of friends sometimes; how they ended up there at all. No part of Alex and Jared's house had been professionally decorated. It was just home. They had a real tree, and not even a perfect example of a real tree; the branches weren't straight and it had a couple holes. Alex called it… personality.
"What's the point of having a real tree if people have to touch it to know it's real?" he always asked. It amused Jared and he became as fond of their eclectic tree as Alex. While other, normal people snoozed off Thanksgiving dinner, Alex and Jared searched for the tree with the right personality. They didn't come home until they had one in the back of the truck, all wrapped up in one of those green and red nets, looking like an alien fish they'd gone out and landed. They rearranged the living room to showcase it. It glittered with colored lights and tinsel and from its branches hung all the memorabilia from their childhoods as well as the ornaments they'd picked up over the last fourteen years of their relationship.
Fourteen years. Hard to believe this Christmas his boy turned thirty. Jared's memory of Alex, just turned sixteen, with snow in his hair, was as fresh as yesterday. Realizing he knew where Alex must be, Jared's grin turned fond. He looked out the sliding glass doors that led to the back yard and found Alex, up in the branches of the huge old oak that dominated the yard, twining white lights around the lower limbs. Jared watched for a few minutes, his eyes soft with love, before he went to start dinner.
* * * *
Alex struggled down the ladder, the leftover lights slung over his shoulder. He could have used them higher in the tree, but tradition demanded lighting only the bottom branches. He never knew why Jared used to hang lights on the tree behind his old house, tucked away in the back yard where not even the neighbors could see, but he always had and those lights had become a part of the magic of Christmas for Alex. On his way to the shed he glanced back at the house. Their first Christmas hadn't been here. Jared's cozy little bachelor home had become a thing of their past. This house, the one he designed, and Jared built, was theirs. Born in their hearts as a dream, and made real by the sweat of hard work. He'd been so young when they met, their first year filled with moments he never forgot, but one stood out from the rest. There had been a tree, and snow, and glittering lights, but most of
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