How Cruel the Frost........

"Ahh Paddy me boy.... how are ya now?"

"Ahhh I'm for heatin' my bones now if ya knows what I mean...it was a cruel ride across the 'crete just now, bein' that all the enclosed gravs are down for mayntaynance...as it were....brrrr...cold thingys they are that they are..."

"And just what would that be that yerself is hidin' under that greatcoat you ould coot ya!?

"Ahh meself, I thought to meself that a bit of Christmas cheer might be good for the bones on this hard, hard night."

"Hmmmm yes it would ...yes it would...."

And Golightly kicked the heater to liven it up a bit....

"Ummm I was also watchin' the toteboard before I decided to hazard meself in the cold as it were...."

"Aaahhhh yess...."

"Ummm did I not see that the Everett F himself has come aboard?"

Golightly was scrounging for plastic beakers....

"Ahhh yes thou didst...thou didst..."

"Well, then, just maybe my old bones are thinkin' that there might be some luck coming back to the fleet ....that it might....

She was a good ship, well founded.....and in a long line of well founded ships she was.....

But, no lass could stand against the tide that washed over them on Primus 7....no ship could stand...'

"But...." Paddy replied...." there she is.....they got her back.....and now....HE is here...."

Paddy decanted a dram into Golightly's beaker...

And looked out toward the sally port....

He could just barely see that the Everett F's security fence blinked on.... and that a Kleig light lanced out to expose the grounder....

He couldn't see Him step toward the ship.... but he did see the warm glow of a gangplank open.....

And maybe....just maybe he saw Everett F striding up the gangplank....

Paddy caressed the beaker before sipping a little....

"Ya know, you old sod you........" he said has he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.....

"Just maybe.... THIS Christmas day has more than one meaning for this old, tired world.....even with this cruel frost....and under these cold stars......maybe there is a new day about to begin...."