Jingle Bells by Charlene

Word Count 630

“Johnny, this is going to be fun.”

“How?”

Scott looked up at his younger brother and sighed. “Singing Christmas carols is a tradition in Boston that ushers in the holidays. It’s fun when everyone is together singing songs of the season.”

“I can think of a lot more ways to have fun than singing songs I don’t know.”

Scott rolled his eyes. His younger brother could be exasperating at times. Taking a deep breath, he looked back at his dark-haired sibling and in his best Lieutenant Lancer voice ordered, “This is our first family Christmas, and we are going to celebrate it properly which means that you will be singing along with the rest of us. Now, let me teach you an easy song that is really fun.”

Johnny shrugged, pulled out a chair at the long dining table and sat beside his brother. “Okay. What are we singing?”

“It’s a song called ‘Jingle Bells’. It was written in Medford, Massachusetts to commemorate the sleigh races along Salem Street in –”

“Do I gotta know all this to just sing the song?”

“Well, no, I just thought you would be interested –”

“I ain’t.”

“Fine. Let’s start with the lyrics then.”

“Okay.”

Scott’s dulcet tones carried throughout the great room as he began. “Dashing through the snow, on a one-horse open sleigh.”

“Sleigh?”

“I thought you didn’t want history?”

“Well, I don’t but what’s a sleigh?”

“You’ve never seen a sleigh?” Scott asked his little brother. At the shake of Johnny’s head, he explained. “It’s a sled pulled by horses. It’s made to go through snow. There are no wheels, it has runners, so it can go through snow and ice.”

Johnny shivered at the thought of snow and ice. “Don’t get that down in Mexico. Not here usually neither.”

“We’ll all have to go to Boston one year for Christmas. We can stay with Grandfather. I’ll take you and Teresa on a sleigh ride. We will sing ‘Jingle Bells” because you will know it by then. Now “O’er the fields we go, Laughing all the way.”

“Wonder what was so funny? Couldn’t be the snow.”

“Johnny,” Scott almost growled. “Bells on bobtail ring.”

“Now how’d they get a bell on a bobcat?”

“Not a bobcat, a bobtail horse.”

“I ain’t never seen no bobtailed horse.”

“They cut the tail.”

“Why?” Johny asked incredulously. “They can’t swish flies without a tail. That’s just wrong. Anybody try to cut Barranca’s tail and I’d shoot ‘em,” he said seriously, making a gun with his thumb and forefinger. “Pow!”

“May we continue?” a flustered Scott asked.

“Yeah, if you want.”

“I’m not sure,” Scott muttered. “Where were we … Bells on bobtail ring, making spirits bright
What fun it is to laugh and sing a sleighing song tonight … Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride In a one horse open sleigh …”

“In the cold snow? That don’t sound like fun to me. Now a nice horseback ride to the saloon for some nice warm tequila. That sounds fun.”

Scott dropped his head in his hands. “Go Johnny. Go. Ride to the saloon. Get some tequila. Bring me a bottle.”

“Don’t you want to sing no more?”

“Not with you. Go!”

“But you ain’t even got to the upsot part yet.”

Scott looked up. “Upsot?”

Johnny stood with a grin. “Ya know, when he and that Fanny girl get caught in the snow and get all upsot.”

“You know the song?”

“Teresa sang it to me yesterday.”

Scott growled. “Little brother …”

“Now big brother, don’t go getting all upsot.” Johnny headed off toward the kitchen in search of cookies singing, “Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way!”

The End

Merry Christmas!
December 2021

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