I set about heating a bowl of soup in the microwave and uncovering the leftover corn bread. "Milk or tea?"

"Milk, please. Momma, I can't believe you'll just take me in when I've been so mean"

"Do you want to get rid of that child you're carrying? Have you had a single doubt about letting it live, even though its father is a fool?"

She shook her head. "Never."

"I feel the same about you."

Tears filled her already swollen eyes and flowed down her cheeks. "I don't deserve this."

"You are going to be a mother. Congratulations. Once a mother, always a mother. You don't ever get to quit or retire. Soup's hot. I hear the front door. Billy Lee will take your things up to your room, and tomorrow we'll go buy whatever you need."

"Thank you, and I mean it," she said humbly.

She dug into the soup with gusto. When she finished that bowl, she asked for another and even washed the dishes when she was done.

"Now, was there something about a Christmas tree?" she asked.

"Billy Lee cut it out of the forest," I said.

Her eyes finally had a little life in them. "A forest in Tishomingo? Come on, Momma"

Amazing what a bowl of soup and the promise of a warm bed will do. Drew ought to be covered in honey and staked out on a fire-ant mound. Denying his own child a place to stay must have broken her as badly as Jonah's leaving had.

I amended my story. "Well, then, in the woods out behind his house. Tomorrow I'm going to the Dollar General and buying one of those ornaments for Baby's First Christmas. I'm going to be a grandmother!"

Crystal picked up an ornament and hung it on the tree. "Momma, are you sure you're all right with this?"

"What? A live tree? I love it. Always wanted one, but my mother said they weren't the `in' thing, and your grandmother Williams would have gone into cardiac arrest if we'd brought a live tree in after all the money she'd spent on that interior designer."

.,Not the tree. I think it's great. It smells like the stuff you spray out of a can during the holidays, only not as strong. About me living here and having a baby without a husband"

"Truth is, if you were the first woman to have a child without a husband, we could sacrifice you to the gods of the perfect, but since you aren't and most likely won't be the last, then I suppose we'll keep you and the baby both"

Billy Lee fairly beamed.

"What about you?" I asked him.

"Neighborhood needs a child in it," he said.

Crystal picked up another ornament and studied the tree. "I wasn't expecting you to understand, Momma. I figured you'd give me a lecture and tell me what it'd cost me to stay here"

"I'm a changed woman. Speaking of which, you are going to be a mother, my child. You're going to need to figure out what you're going to do. Mothering is a big, big responsibility. How do you plan on caring for this baby?" I hitched up my sweats again. I was going to have to break down and buy some smaller clothing.

Billy Lee kept putting one ornament on after another. "What is your passion, Crystal?"

She eyed him carefully. "Passion? What are you talking about?"

Passion to a kid had a different connotation than to us fortyyear-old dinosaurs. It had to do with steamed-up car windows in a parking place. She wasn't sure what he was talking about, and it showed in her face.

"As in, what makes you the happiest? You said you hate college. What makes peace in your heart? That's your passion." "

"Digging in the dirt and making things grow," she said, and she put a red bell-shaped ornament on a bottom limb.

I jerked my head around to stare at the child I'd birthed twenty years ago. She wouldn't pick up fall leaves without gloves.

.11 loved going to the garden with Grandpa Matthews. He used to let me plant all the marigolds around the perimeter of the garden, and I took some classes in horticulture in college. Daddy would have died if he knew I'd blown off pre-law and accounting and taken classes in plants. But that's the thing I liked. They're the only classes that kept my grades up high enough to even let me stay on probation. Someday I'd like to have a greenhouse and produce plants to sell to flower shops."

"You wouldn't rather own a flower shop?" he asked.

"Nope. For now I'll just get a job doing whatever I can, but my ultimate dream is to own a greenhouse. I'll have to save a long time for it, because even after I have one, it will be a year or more before it would support me and the baby."

This was my child, talking like an adult. Not once had she mentioned having her nails done or asked when we'd shop for a wardrobe.

"Sounds like a good idea to me. Job like that, you wouldn't have to take your child to a sitter. Never did like the idea of a baby being left with strangers," Billy Lee said.

"Me, neither. I don't know what I would have done if Momma hadn't stayed home with me. I didn't turn out too good even with that, did I?"

"I'd say you did all right. We're all entitled to a mistake or two in our lives." Billy Lee put several more ornaments on the highest limbs. "Gert would have liked the tree this year. I believe we're ready for icicles."

Crystal actually smiled when he handed her a fistful of long, silver-foil icicles. "Aunt Gert would have strung me up from the tree outside."

"I don't think so," Billy Lee said. "We aren't too judgmental here on Broadway Street."

He handed me the angel for the top of the tree and held the chair steady while I stepped up onto it and set her in her place.

"That's beautiful," Crystal said.

Billy Lee nodded. "I'm going home. I'll be around tomorrow morning to help start the holiday cooking. Seven all right?"

I didn't want him to leave, but I couldn't think of an excuse to keep him other than I didn't really want to be alone with Crystal. I needed his support.

Crystal's eyes bugged out. "Seven?"

"Seven in the morning, young lady, and you will be up with us. Whoever lives in this place works in this place," I said.

"Yes, ma'am," she said.

"You didn't think you were going to sleep until noon on Christmas Eve, did you? We've got pumpkins to clean and boil and a turkey to pluck," I teased.

"For real?"

"No, the turkey and ham are from the store, but don't say that too loudly. Gert will rise up out of her grave and haunt us," I whispered, and I waved good-night to Billy Lee.

"I'm dreaming."

"No, Crystal, you aren't. We'll get through this together. It won't be easy, and you'll face a lot of flak, but you'll live, and that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Now let's go to bed. I've got the most amazing Jacuzzi up there, and you're going to love it."

She looked around the room. "The old place is looking great. When are you buying furniture?"

"I'm not in a hurry about anything. But your room is furnished, so you won't have to sleep on the floor." I pulled the plug on the tree lights and flipped the wall switch. A nightlight guided us up the stairs.

"Oh, my," she whispered when she saw the bedroom furniture.