When he returned to the house, he found Ruth sitting on the porch steps, bundled in a shawl far too large for her.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked.
“Waiting.”
“For what?”
She looked toward the road.
“Christmas.”
Caleb crouched beside her.
“Christmas will come whether you wait for it or not.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you waiting?”
Ruth rubbed her nose with the back of her mitten.
“Because Mama said Christmas was when people came home.”
Caleb felt the cold reach straight through his coat.
He sat beside his daughter, the snow pressing softly beneath his boots.
“Your mama loved Christmas,” he said.
Ruth nodded.
“She said she would always come home.”
Caleb closed his eyes for a moment.
He remembered that conversation. Sarah had said it during the previous Christmas, when Ruth was still small enough to fall asleep in her lap. She had been speaking about a visit to Sarah's sister, but a child's memory had transformed the words into something permanent.
He had tried to explain death to Ruth, but she was three. The word meant almost nothing to her. She understood only that her mother had left and that the people who loved her had told her not to expect her return.
“Your mama loved you more than anything,” he said.
“Then why did she go?”
He had no answer that could make sense to a child.
He put his arm around her.
“I don't know, sweetheart.”
Ruth leaned against him.
For a long while, they sat without speaking.
Then the kitchen door opened, and Adeline appeared with a folded blanket.
She did not ask what had happened. She simply draped the blanket around Ruth's shoulders, tucked it beneath her chin, and sat on the other side of the little girl.
“Your father was right about one thing,” she said.
Ruth looked at her.
“What?”
“Christmas comes whether we wait for it or not.”
The child's face crumpled.
Adeline took her hand.
“But I think we can still make room for the people we love. We can tell stories about them. We can remember the things they taught us. We can do something kind because they once did something kind for us.”
Ruth's lower lip trembled.
“Will Mama know?”
Adeline glanced toward Caleb.
He could not speak.