A Christmas Adventure

(By Dave, 30 min)

And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. Luke 2: 6-7

      The snow was horizontal driven by a relentless wind. A single figure was walking through the storm, his beard encrusted with snow and frost. His hat was only visible from one side. The other was covered in snow as was the scarf encircling his ears leaving no part exposed to the cold save the ends of his long, curly, black hair.

      His gloved hands were frost covered. Only his right fingers were free from the snow as they wrapped around the handle of a wooden staff. The wood too was curiously devoid of frost as if cold had no business with it. The staff was planted firmly in the snow and the man leaned on it to take a step. Unnoticed by him was the small circle of melted snow that surrounded the staff’s tip. When he moved it for the next step, the staff didn’t plunge into the snow. It melted a hole through it.

      Squinting to find his target, Joe blinked. Frost extending from his eyelashes made the movement dramatic. There was something in the distance. It was barely visible. When the wind eased, he could see it. Maybe, he thought.

      He leaned hard on the staff with each step because it hurt to put weight on his right foot. A byproduct of failing to see the curb in pursuit of the thief. He quickened his pace despite the pain, the staff an oddly comforting presence for him.

      What was stolen must be retrieved. His eyes filled with tears at the memory even as his resolve stiffened.

******

      Chloe’s entire bedroom was tinged with blue frost when Joe and his wife, Mary, burst through the door. A wave of frigid air greeted them, their hard breathing easy to see. The parents came running from their work on the final Christmas decorations downstairs when it sounded like the entire upstairs was shaking.

      Joe saw his daughter and stopped for a moment in shock. She was in her bed with the same blue frost on her. He grabbed the very staff his cold hand now clasped from the corner of her room where it lived intending to use it like an ice pick on the bedding to free her. As he approached his precious sweetheart, the frost in the room melted before him. An advancing wave where the blue was banished, and the normal color of her room returned. By the time he reached the bed, she was free of frost. Focused on his daughter, Joe noticed none of this.

      “Are you okay?” he said as he scooped her up in his arms. Mary took Chloe from him and wrapped the shivering child tightly in a blanket she had retrieved from the closet.

      “Daddy,” Chloe’s small voice called him. He placed his large plumber-muscled hand on her head as his eyes filled with compassion.

       “It’s okay sweetie, we’re here now.” 

      “It stole my happiness, Daddy. I want it back.”

      Joe looked at his wife who was as confused as him. “What stole your happiness sweetheart?”

      “I was so happy and excited about tomorrow and then it was gone. It was gone….” Her little eyes gently closed, and Mary breathed a sigh of relief as the color fully returned to her daughter’s face. The two adults stared at each other.

       “I’m going after it,” Joe said with determination. To his amazement, Mary shook her head yes. They both instinctively knew this was not an issue for the police, and for some reason neither one paused to wrestle with the unreality of this Christmas Eve. They knew one thing for certain. Something took their daughter’s happiness, and she wanted it back. 

      Looking down at his innocent sleeping child Joe hesitated before leaving. “You think she’ll be alright?”

      “I don’t know. It’s not like she’s got a cold. I don’t know what’s happened to her.” Mary’s face conveyed confusion and frustration, but under it the same determination expressed by her husband. “I’ll see to her, Joe.” She placed her hand tenderly on his face. “Now go.”

      “What if this happens to you?”

      “While this child is in my arms, Joseph, no force on earth can take my happiness. Go see if you can find out what happened. What was stolen must be retrieved.”

******

      Joe said the phrase again and again to overcome growing fatigue as he pursued the mysterious dark figure in the snow. Not an hour ago he looked from his daughter’s window and received his second shock of the night. Snow was everywhere. An un-forecasted blizzard was underway when just moments before Mary wanted to open the windows downstairs because of the mild temperatures. Now as he looked down the street a storm raged. He ran to the closet, grabbed his coat, scarf, and gloves and rushed through the front door searching for whoever or whatever took his daughter’s happiness.

      He looked down the familiar street and saw random bedroom windows of many houses crusted in blue frost. Lights were on everywhere and sirens were fast approaching. He supposed many parents believed the police could help them. Could help explain why their children were no longer excited about tomorrow. Why they were shivering and tired.

      “Joe, Joe!” It was Elizabeth their next-door neighbor standing in her driveway in a robe and slippers. “Is Chloe okay?”

      “I think so. But it’s the strangest thing Lizzie,” he shouted over the gale.

      “She’s not excited about tomorrow, is she?”

      “It happened to Alex as well?”

       “I think it happened to all the kids.” Lizzie began to shiver from the cold wind.

      Joe knew her house well. Just last year he fixed her toilet and the drain in her sink. Little Alex had tagged along interested in watching the repairs. Joe’s heart broke because he really liked Alex and Elizabeth. Knowing the boy had lost his excitement for tomorrow and was tired like Chloe made him sad and angry.

      “I’m going to find what did this Lizzie.”

      “My sister is with Alex. She was visiting for Christmas and called the police.” She grabbed Joe’s arm. “But I don’t believe they can help us, can they?”

      “No, I don’t think so.” Then, Joe had yet another shock.

      Lizzie said, “What was stolen must be retrieved.” The same words Mary used. They sounded so familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he heard the phrase before.

      “Agreed,” said the large plumber. He took a step while still looking at Lizzie and twisted his ankle falling from the snow-buried curb. It was then that he realized he was still holding the staff from Chloe’s bedroom. A gift to his daughter from his trip down south. He used it as Lizzie helped him stand.

      When he scanned the street there was no indication of whatever stole Chloe’s happiness. He looked frantically for any sign of a person who might have done this, thinking they must have left a trail in the snow. But there were no footprints or signs that anything living had walked from their house. Yet Joe noticed something.

      The bluish frost was not the same everywhere. It was hard to see through the blinding snow, but the neighborhood lights revealed it. Over Lizzie’s house and his own the frost was rather thick but houses further away from theirs were less covered. As best he could, he scanned the farmer’s field that bordered his neighborhood. Yes, there it was. A central zone of blue frost coating the snow, but it was fading as new snow began to cover it.

      He walked as fast as his painful foot allowed into the farmer’s field and the center of the darkest blue frost. That was an hour ago and he was gaining. Even though the snow was hiding its passage, Joe caught glimpses of a dark figure he felt certain stole the kid’s happiness. It seemed to him the storm raged around it like the figure was walking in the center of a snow tornado.

      The plumber walked faster despite his fatigue, but then as he stepped into the most intense part of the snowstorm, he struggled. His foot was feeling better, but his determination was fading. He stopped, the staff falling from his hand. As it did, Joe had trouble remembering why he was chasing anyone. His memory of Chloe and Mary seemed clouded and his happiness at their memory was disappearing.

      The big man fell to his knees. Blue frost began to form on his face and chest. The target of his pursuit was now moving toward him.

******

      Mary was standing at the front door with Chloe in her arms as she watched Joe descend the front steps and look up and down the street puzzled. She saw him talking to Lizzie and was opening the front door to join them when Joe went down.

       “Joe!” Mary rushed through the door slowing to avoid slipping on the snow-covered steps. By the time she cleared them, he was limping into the farmer’s field. She shouted for him to stop, but her words were swallowed up in the storm.

      “Lizzie,” Mary shouted as she ran to her neighbor.

      “Mary, get back inside. It’s too cold for Chloe.” Mary looked down at her daughter’s face and could see some color had drained from it. The effect of being chilled earlier was not gone. “Can you come with me?” Mary shouted as she started toward her house.

      “Let me tell my sister where I’m going.”

      Mary ran through her front door and over to the fireplace wrapping Chloe more tightly in the blanket. She sat down in front of the flame and her child’s face returned to normal.

      Lizzie came through the door without knocking. “She okay?” she said looking at Chloe. Mary nodded. “I told Patty to bring Alex over here. I think we all need to be together.”

      Mary nodded again as Lizzie’s sister came through the front door carrying Alex wrapped in a down comforter. “The snow is easing a bit.”

      The three women sat down cross-legged on the floor in front of the fire with the two sleeping five-year-olds between them. The Christmas tree in the corner was still lit and Mary noticed the cookies she and Joe put on a dish for Santa just before the upstairs rumbled. What in the world is going on? The kids opened their eyes at the same time. They stared at the fire, and both moved closer to it. Mary broke the silence.

      “How do you feel sweetheart?” The question was directed at Chloe.

      “I’m okay.” Her face was blank.

      “What happened upstairs? Do you remember?” Both kids nodded their heads.

      “I was laying there so excited about tomorrow.” Chloe paused and Alex continued.

      “Then the room got cold. I pulled the blankets up, but it didn’t help. Then I wasn’t thinking about Christmas anymore.”

      Lizzie asked, “What were you thinking about?” Alex looked from the fire to his mom.

      “Nothing,” he said with little emotion.

      “I miss being excited Mom,” Chloe said. Her little voice trembled with emotion. “Where did it go?” Mary reached out and pulled her daughter close. She started to hum and gently rock back and forth. Alex crawled into his mother’s lap as well. The two women looked at each other as their kids drifted back off to sleep.

      “Lizzie, did you feel anything when this happened to your house?”

      “Well, I sure did,” Patty chimed in. “The upstairs kind of shook stopping the two of us dead in our tracks on the way to the kitchen.”

      “That’s not what I mean.” Mary’s gaze shifted back and forth between the sisters. “Did you feel anything inside?” She patted over her heart. “When our house shook like yours, my attention shifted but not my feelings about Christmas. How come this happened to the kids, but not us?”

      “I don’t know.” Lizzie was thoughtful. In the confusion of the night, she didn’t stop to think about specifics.

      “I wonder,” Mary said to no one in particular. She picked up the telephone sitting on the end table next to her and dialed a number.

      “Hi, Donna it’s Mary. How’s everything at your house? Your kids okay?” Mary listened.

       “I see. Yes, the same thing happened to Chloe and Alex from next-door.” Another pause while Donna spoke.

       “Donna, how about Isaiah and Justin?” Mary listened intently, her face beginning to register alarm. “Okay Donna, thanks so much. Our prayers are with you.”

      She hung up and gently placed Chloe on the sofa making sure the blanket covered her. “Lizzie, can you and Patty stay here with Chloe?” She hurried to the front closet.

      The two sisters looked at each other a bit bewildered. Lizzie said, “Sure, but where are you going.”

      “I’ve got to get to Joe.” Mary returned from the closet putting on her coat, hat and gloves. “Isaiah and Justin are fine. No effects from whatever happened here.”

      “That’s great. First good news I’ve heard tonight,” Patty responded.

      “Don’t you see?” Mary looked at them.

      “See what?” they responded together.

      “Lizzie, you’ve been in Donna’s house, right? Isaiah and Justin share a room, right?

       “So.”

       “They weren’t affected by whatever is happening and neither were any of us because we weren’t alone. Whatever this thing is, it steals from people who are alone. The kids sleeping in their individual rooms were affected, but not us, and not Isaiah and Justin because none of us were alone. But Joe is and he’s running right after it.”

      Mary raced toward the door. She shouted, “Thanks for staying with the kids,” and stepped into the storm.

******

       Mary made her way across the street and stared into the farmer’s field wondering which direction Joe went. She looked down at the snow expecting to find no trail from him, but there were small circles that went off into the distance.

      Dropping down on one knee she looked at one of the holes. It went all the way to the ground. There was at least 5 inches of snow on the field, but none of it was falling into these holes. She watched as snowflakes melted any time they landed on the hole. What in God’s name.

       Mary stood, her sense of urgency about Joe overcoming curiosity. She took off following the trail of mysterious unfrozen holes. Patty was right. The snow was letting up, but that wasn’t true for long. As she charged headlong after her husband, the wind and snow intensified.

      As it did, Mary began to lose her sense of urgency. Her pace slowed and her focus on Joe faded. Chloe became hard to remember. Alone and with no support, she stopped in the frozen landscape and started to feel a chill penetrate. A blue frost was beginning to cover her clothing. Her eyelids became heavy, and she desperately wanted to sleep.

      Looking down, the little holes that couldn’t be filled caught her attention and a single thought came alive in her mind. What was stolen must be retrieved. Mary’s mind clung to the phrase repeating it again and again until Chloe filled her thoughts.

      “You stole my daughter’s happiness,” she said to the storm and continued on despite the swirling snow gaining in intensity and her own exhaustion. The wind began to blow so hard she had to lean into it to stand erect. “One step at a time,” she said almost under her breath, “I’m coming for you Joe.”

      As she staggered forward, she could feel the thief’s great effort to resist her. Chill penetrated deep into her body and soul. Chloe would fade out of her mind, but then rapidly back in. Her concern for Joe would fade and then come back into focus. It was all she could do to keep them in her mind and not collapse face down in the snow in despair. She dropped down to one knee, her head sagging down toward the snow. Thoughts of her family were fleeting, but she clung to the phrase now saying only part of it in her mind. What was stolen…..What was stolen….. What was stolen.

      With tremendous effort, she lifted her head for one last look forward. There he was. Joe, on his knees and unmoving, a dark shadow before him. Mary felt the thing’s attention shift to her as she began to crawl toward her husband, the wind and snow turning directly into her face. On the brink of passing out, her body covered in a thick crust of blue frost, one hand found Joe. She crawled up his back and threw both her stiff arms around his shoulders hugging him tightly.

       He took a sharp intake of breath. The wind became unbearable burning her skin, and it took all her effort to keep from being torn away from her husband. Joe reached for the ground, but he could barely move. Mary felt cold seeping out of him into her, but her gaze followed his arm to the ground. The staff that Joe dropped was lying there just out of his reach, a circle of melted snow around it. With one arm around his neck, she followed his arm down as the gale of the wind became almost a living shriek.  

      Mary grabbed the staff and Joe came alive under her arm. He turned and wrapped his arms around her. Chloe’s two parents embraced each other on their knees before the dark figure. The wind and snow intensified. Joe’s hat flew off his head as did Mary’s, their hair streaming out behind them as the thief focused a last-ditch effort of wind and snow directly on the couple.

      Mary looked up at her husband. He smiled the warm, loving smile she knew so well, and the wind suddenly lost its grip on them. They stood unaffected by the Arctic gale, hair resting easily on their shoulders. Every inch of them was free of frost and snow. Together they turned toward the figure. Mary looked at the staff in her right hand. Then she lifted it tentatively before her, and without effort the parents walked toward their adversary.

      Holes emerged in the dark figure as its edges became blurry and indistinct. In the middle of it was a frenzied attempt to close the holes. Mary tipped the edge of the staff into the darkness, and it flew apart scattering into the very gale it was creating.

       The snow stopped and the sky cleared as if the night was now relieved of its burden. A gentle breeze replaced the hurricane like winds. As the couple breathed heavily, Mary said, “Joe, where did you get this pole?”

      “That’s a story that has new meaning for me now. I’ll tell you it all, but let’s get home and see if everything has been set right.”

      The couple turned back toward the neighborhood only to see they were maybe a football field away. “Good Lord,” Joe said. “I thought we were at least 5 miles from home.”

      Mary was already walking. “Let’s get to Chloe.”

******

      The parents entered their home and were surprised that neither Lizzie nor Patty were there. Mary was concerned and raced up the steps to Chloe’s bedroom. She was sound asleep in her normal-looking room. Joe joined her and the two walked over to their daughter. Mary touched her head with the back of her hand. No chill, she was fine. Chloe’s eyes opened.

      “Is it Christmas morning, Mommy? Can I get up?“  Her little face was lit up with excitement.

      “Not yet, sweetheart,” she said and stopped. Joe had opened the curtains broadly so that the light of dawn shone easily through the window. Their eyes met and her adorable husband shrugged his shoulders as if to say: “Well, whatever.”

      He said, “Yea, sweetheart you can get up.”

      Chloe raced down the stairs with her confused yet relieved parents following behind.

      “What has happened, Joseph?”

      “I don’t know, but it’s Christmas morning. Let’s get to it.”

      The exhausted parents ambled down the stairs to enjoy Christmas as if last night was just a dream.

      As Mary sat down to watch Chloe open her presents, she chuckled to herself. There in her hand forgotten in the hullabaloo of arriving home was the staff. Last night was no dream, she thought. Unless dreams give you wooden poles.

******

      Joe returned from putting Chloe to bed and plopped down next to his wife.

      “Well?”

      “No memory of it at all. When I asked her about Christmas, not one peep about being cold, or unhappy or anything else. Just the normal stuff about being excited and how much she liked her presents. I read her a story, tucked her in and she went right to sleep. Did you call Lizzie?”

      “Yeah.”

      “Is Alex okay?”

      “Yeah, but Lizzie wondered why I was asking. Yesterday and today were just normal Christmas days for them.”

      “You thinking maybe we dreamed the whole thing?” Joe wanted to get a feel for what she was thinking before telling his tale.

      “Well, maybe. But then…” She reached behind the couch and brought the staff out. “How did this get downstairs?”

      “Maybe we carried it down here,” Joe said with no real conviction.

      “Where did you get this thing? I know you came back with it from Myrtle Beach, but where did you get it?”

      “An antique store.” He smiled knowing what was coming.

      “An antique store? Since when do you go to antique stores? I’ve tried to get you in an antique store for years and you had no interest whatsoever. You take one trip with your brother and now you like antiquing?”

      “Not quite.” He moved so he could stretch out, laying his legs across his bride’s lap. “Drew really wanted to go into this one shop. He passed it on the road and insisted we stop. It was just some ramshackle building with all kinds of junk lying in the front yard. There was nothing else on the highway next to it. Just this single house and a small sign that said, Quality Antiques.”

       “I didn’t know Drew liked antiques.”

       “That’s what I said to him! He just shrugged his shoulders and said he wanted to go in there, so we went. We looked around until I saw this thing leaning in the far back corner of the store. Then it was me that had a weird urge. I wanted it for Chloe.”

      “You know,” Mary said, “when you gave it to her I thought it was the weirdest gift for a five-year-old. Who gives a five-year-old a cane?”

      “Well, let me tell you what happened when we got to the counter to pay for it. The shop was run by a very old woman. When I handed it to her, she wanted to know why I liked it. I remember thinking, what do you care? I’m about to buy a stick for $20 I could pick up in the woods for nothing. Then she said, “It’s more than a stick.” Joe looked at his wife, eyebrows raised, waiting to see if she noticed. She did.

      “Well, you must’ve said what you were thinking aloud.”

      “Nope. I asked Drew and he heard exactly what I said to her next and only that.”

      “What did you say to her?”

      “I told her I thought my daughter needed it.” Mary’s mouth dropped open just a bit as she stared at her husband. Joe went on. “I don’t know why I said it, but that’s what came to mind. Sort of weird considering last night don’t you think?”

      Mary nodded, her face a mix of disbelief and curiosity. “How did she respond?”

      “A huge smile came across her gnarled face. She took the thing and put it in a box taping it shut all the way around. Then her face got very serious. She told me she was waiting for me. She said the staff, that’s what she called it, was in the corner of her shop for over 40 years. That in those 40 years not once did someone bring it to the counter. It just sat there undisturbed until me and Drew walked in.”

      “Did you believe her?” Mary asked.

      “I really did. Her face just seemed so genuine and serious. So, I asked her what was so special about it? Apparently, she got it in Israel just after starting her business. She found it in a religious artifact store. The owner of that store told her the staff came from wood that was in the manger described in Luke where Jesus was laid in Bethlehem. He told her legend has it that the hope of Christ is in that staff so it is a wonderful antidote to despair.”

      Mary looked down at the staff and remembered the previous night. “Did you believe any of that?”

      “Not before last night. But something in me told me to buy that staff.

       “Did she say anything else about it to you?”

      “Yep,” Joe nodded. “She had one final strange thing to say.” He paused for a bit and sat up to get closer to his wife as if he feared she would misunderstand his next words. “She said the staff will help you when your daughter’s happiness is taken. What was stolen must be retrieved for the good of the world.”

       Mary was dumbstruck. “I said that last night. Well, maybe not the good of the world part, but all the rest of it.”

       “I know, so did Lizzie.” The couple sat in silence for several long minutes.

       “I thought a lot about that old woman today and I wonder, Mary.” He laid back putting his hands behind his head. “What if all of this is very real. What if our world has forgotten what’s most important about Christmas and we are unhappy because of it? Is it so outrageous to think maybe all human despair came together as something alive last night and it sucked up all of the happiness it could find?”

      Mary chuckled at her husband’s speculation. Still…. “I guess we’ll never know Joe.” She paused. “But I’ll tell you one thing, this cane is going back to Chloe’s bedroom.”

      The plumber nodded his head in agreement. “Seems like that’s where it’s supposed to be.”

******

       On the other side of town, a police officer was breaking up a fight over some stupid issue. Climbing into his car alone he wondered what difference Christmas made. He zipped his jacket tighter with a shiver, tapped the dashboard and wondered aloud, “I thought I left the heat on”.

Have a blessed Christmas everyone, Dave