Sarah recalled telling Dan how cruel she thought it was that they made students come to school on Christmas Eve, but right now she felt as though maybe she’d rather be back in school than the situation she found herself in. Her Christmas Eve was shaping up very differently than Dan’s. As time was ticking well into the night, Sarah sat propped against a couch listening to her cousins ramble on with mentally painstaking topics she had no interest in, and it was already way past her self-imposed ‘bed-time’. The family Christmas Eve party had been going on for quite some time now. All the pleasantries, dinner, and gift exchange had already passed. Everyone was now just lolling about the house, striking up conversation where it seemed fitting. There was no telling how much longer the gathering would last. Whenever all the relatives got together, it seemed as if time did not exist. This party, including its food, presents, conversation, and laughing, had always been a highlight of the Christmas season for Sarah, and it was very pleasant this year, per usual, until now.

Around the coffee table sat two of Sarah’s cousins, Jamie and Samantha. They were both about the same age as Sarah but very different from her in many ways. The difference used to be a welcomed thing. They were unpredictable and fun, pushing the boundaries, but in rather innocent ways, pulling friendly pranks on other family members and championing their latest wild ideas, which would be something Sarah would never have thought of, but reveled in the novelty of getting to participate. Just over the past couple years, the girls changed. 

There were no more fun pranks or games, instead they were obsessed about the latest Hollywood actors, gushing over their physical appearances, and saying things Sarah thought were downright inappropriate which she wished she could erase from her mind. When they weren’t looking at boys, they were looking at themselves, spending the majority of their time in front of bathroom mirrors or little ones they pulled from their purses. They were constantly fixing their hair and makeup and taking pictures of themselves and gushing over which boys they would send their photos to. Sarah, in contrast, sometimes forgot what she looked like. She would spend most of her time reading, or engaged in conversations discussing social or moral issues. 

They were very unlike Sarah, mostly because they were “stupid,” or at least that’s what Sarah thought of them. Sarah took language seriously. She would say the word “stupid” is grossly overused, but in this situation she felt her usage preserved the exact integrity of its meaning. She had expressed to Dan and Linzy before, “ I show great heartfelt pity and acceptance to one who is stupid yet moral, but to be stupid and immoral is an abhorrence.” Rarely her cousins showed any intelligence nor any adherence to any moral standards. Most of the time they were never on the same page as her, or even the same world. Their world was far more materialistic and carnal than that of Sarah’s.

Their latest habit felt most demeaning to Sarah. They would respond to anything she’d say with a simple, “that’s cute,” and leave it at that, as if trying to trivialize anything Sarah thought to share of herself. 

“I’m really thankful that we have the freedom to gather together and celebrate Christmas,” Sarah shared.

“That’s cute,” the girls responded.

“I’ve been reading this book, about moral obligations and the nature of goodness…”

“That’s cute.”

“I’m really trying to focus on work-life balance. School is so important, but I think this new year I want to engage with my peers more frequently and invest more in them.”

“That’s cute.”

Sarah was worn out. Sometimes, though pleasant, engaging with dozens of family members could be exhausting for her social battery, but now trying to engage with cousins, seemingly from another world, was utterly depleting. The girls were all slouching about the living room, except for Sarah. She’d say, “Slouching is not very lady-like.” They were all waiting for their parents and a silence grew long and deep between them. Then suddenly Jamie decided to change the tone of the room. She sat up tall. Her face lit up with excitement and suspense. “Omygosh! Want to hear like a story?” asked Jamie. Her eyes were wide as if an intriguing story was about to escape her lips. Jamie pulled her fingers back and cracked all her knuckles. “Okay. It all started last Saturday night–” 

“No it was Sunday night,” interrupted Samantha. It was obvious Samantha knew exactly what was about to be shared. 

“Okay, it was last Sunday night. I was like taking poochie out for his short walk– ”

“She was taking the dog out to go poop,” corrected Samantha.

“Shhh. Will you be quiet Sam? I am trying to tell a story, ugh!” Jamie decided to start the story all over again. “It was last Sunday night and I was taking the dog out to go to the bathroom.”

“There’s no bath-room outside,” Samantha butted in again.

“Ugh, shut up!” Jamie snapped back.

Sarah felt she had to extinguish the flames of the back and forth “The dog had to relieve himself. I understand. Go on.”

 “Okay,” Jamie smiled and continued, “I was like walking down the alley behind the old glass factory. The place has been like abandoned for years. It looks really creepy. It’s all falling apart. It’s ugly. It’s gross. It looks like it could be like haunted.”

“Yeah, haunted,” repeated Samantha, reinforcing the point. Sarah could sense the story was going to take a long while and was about to go down hill from here.

“So anyway, the night was like cold. The moon was like bright. The alley was like dark and creepy, besides like the light of the moon, casting shadows on like everything. I thought I had no reason to be afraid, like it’s Traigo, what could happen? Then I noticed my shoe was like untied. So I bent down to like tie my shoe and Poochie started barking like cray-zee. like he saw something, like an animal or something. I started to get like the chills. Scruffy was like looking right at the old factory and barking like every two seconds. I looked over at the building myself. I didn’t notice anything besides like snow. As Poochie continued to bark I heard like something else making a weird noise. It was hard to tell what it was with all the barking, so I took Poochie up in my arms and tried to like calm him down. While holding him in my arms, I was getting like a little bit scared. The noise I heard was coming from inside the abandoned glass factory. I thought it was a ghost.”

“A ghost,” Samantha repeated with wide eyes for dramatic emphasis. It almost seemed like the girls had rehearsed this, but Sarah was actually intrigued, appreciating the good storytelling after trying hard not to focus on Jamie’s overuse of the word “like.”

“Now, I am not the type of person that believes in like ghosts and spirity things, but when I heard this noise I knew there was like a spirit in our presence, and it started to sing. I was frozen stiff. I didn’t want to move because I was like too scared, so I just stood there continuously listening to the ghost sing.” Jamie paused. A worried expression came to her face. “Don’t tell my parents anything about this. They’ll kill me if they know.” She continued, “The voice was like so mysterious. It echoed in the old building.  I ended up standing there for like a whole five minutes, frozen stiff, until the singing stopped. As soon as it stopped, I started dashing towards home. Like, I don’t know about you, but I don’t need no ghost for Christmas. I ain’t no Ebenezzer…”

Sarah smiled, appreciating the literary reference. 

“… It was like really hard to run through the snow, but just as I was about to get away from the old factory, a door on the side of the building opened. It gave off a blood curdling creak. I knew someone had escaped the building, but I didn’t want to turn around to see who it was, because I was like so afraid. My curiosity eventually got the best of me, so I turned my head around, and guess what I saw?”

“What?”

She slowed down her speech for emphasis. “Standing within feet of me, was like the most gorgeous guy ever to exist. He was so hot that even the snow could melt around him. So it was like all a mystery, the noise and suddenly this super cute guy.”

“Super cute!” repeated Samantha.

“His face was like, oh so cute, and his body, oh my gosh, just so amazing. Like, Santa baby, hurry down the chimney tonight! He smiled at me and I drew near, flirty like. You know how I am.” Jamie flipped a strand of hair back around her shoulder and puckered her lips and forced her eyes to blink.  “I was a little afraid, but I liked it. Like, baby, do whatever you want to me, bad boy. I’ll be your Christmas present.”

Sarah cringed, hoping this strange fantasy didn’t go any further, and she was appalled. Please stop, she wished.  

“…He threw his like hulky arms around me and gave me like the biggest hug ever, and he smelled so good.”

“He kissed her,” added Samantha.

“No. He just hugged me,” corrected Jamie.

“I know, but I think it would have been more exciting if he would have kissed you. Maybe we can change the story to make it better.”

“You let him put his arms around you?”  questioned Sarah, appalled.

“That’s right. Then he asked for my number.”

“That’s repulsive,” stated Sarah. “You cannot be messing around with strangers at night in the back alley behind the abandoned glass factory. This is dangerous. You’re a vulnerable young lady, and you know nothing about this man. You don’t know who he is, where he came from, how he was raised. what his beliefs rest upon, what his values are, if he has any.”

“I don’t care. He was hot!”

“This is all wrong,” stated Sarah firmly.

“I know! Call me a baddie,” Jamie ignored all the seriousness of what Sarah was saying. “We are getting together tonight,” said Jamie, as if doing something shameful is worthy of pride. 

“Who even is he?” asked Sarah. Sarah didn’t like the sound of any of this. It all felt wrong to her.

“His name is Gabe. We’ve actually seen each other around, but we’ve never like said anything to each other. All I know is that we are meeting behind the high school tonight.”

“You’re meeting him tonight on Christmas Eve?!” Sarah’s face was turning red.

“Sarah, loosen up a little bit. I’m just getting together with the most fabulous person ever to exist. I’m sorry if you’re jealous because you can’t attract any guys,” said Jamie in the sweetest cruelest way possible.

“You know nothing about him. Don’t you think it’s a little dangerous?”

“Okay. So I might not know much about him, but what I do know is that I. Am. In. Love. The moment I saw him, I knew true love, hands down.” 

Sarah was burning up with anger inside. She couldn’t understand how her cousin could think this way. “You can’t say you love him just by the way he looks. There is no way in your right mind that you can get away with calling that ‘true love’.” How can my cousin be so naïve? Although the details of the story were surprising, it wasn’t extremely unexpected from Jamie. Sarah knew other girls from school who would have felt the same way. Sarah didn’t like it. She strove to be mature, while everyone else around her would always be rushing into decisions and getting into all sorts of trouble. Sarah was a very strong-willed person. She often had to stand alone, but because of this, she gained wisdom and independence. Her ability to move against the flow would save her from lots of trouble and in the long run be her biggest asset.

“Sarah, your problem is that you are like too good, well, only smartwise.”

“Smartwise is not a word,” Sarah was quick to correct.

“That’s a perfect example. You spend like all your time correcting others. You never just loosen up and have fun. You’re probably just like jealous because I found someone, and you know that no guy will ever like you. You’re a priss. You like never take any risks. Sarah, you are like so–”

Samanta interrupted, “Sarah’s problem is she hasn’t gone through puberty yet. She’s still just a child. We should let her just go play with her dollies.”

Sarah tried to remain calm on the outside, but inside she was livid. Sarah’s mom, unknowingly came to the rescue. “Well Sarah, I think it’s about time to head home?” she said. 

“Yes! Please!” replied Sarah desperately. She grabbed her coat and her presents. She felt she had one more thing to say, before she stopped outside. She was trying hard to look past the personal insults. Naturally she wanted to lash back with something biting, but she had to be careful. She had to remove herself from the situation. In sincerity, she opened up. “I want you to rethink your decisions and take a good look inside. I’m concerned for you,” Sarah said to Jamie.

“That’s cute.”

With her parents, Sarah left the party. She was relieved it was over, and she could finally relax in the back seat of the car. It was about an hour drive home. Sarah was filled with thoughts about what her cousins said. She wanted to forget it all, but it was too troubling to do so. Sarah thought of her life as a book. Each day was a chapter. She certainly didn’t want this indecorous story from her cousin cluttering up her book. She tried instead to think about Christmas being the very next day. It was so hard to believe. A whole year had gone so fast that she couldn’t even comprehend it. It seemed like yesterday was Christmas and tomorrow it would be Christmas again. How did I let all this time fly by? Where did it go? Soon, amidst all her wondering, her eyes lids fell heavy and she was asleep. 

A cold gust of air awoke Sarah from her sleep. Her father, sitting behind the wheel, had rolled his window down. Now awake, Sarah leaned up, looked out the window and noticed how much more snow they had gotten at home. The street light lit up all the mounds of snow which had been shoveled alongside their driveway. Her father leaned his head out the window and started talking to someone. It was Denver, the boy next door. Denver was a couple years older than Sarah. They didn’t know each other except for what they got from saying “hi” to one another while going out to the mailbox or walking home from school. Sarah thought Denver was a nice person. He was very polite and well-mannered.

“What’s this?” Sarah’s dad asked Denver, pointing at the cleared driveway. Denver was standing with a shovel. He was just finishing moving the snow. He stuck his shovel in a snow bank and walked over to the window of the car.

“Well, I noticed you weren’t home, and the snow was really piling up, so I decided I’d just shovel it for you and make things a little bit easier.”

“Well, thank you.” said Sarah’s dad. “We really appreciate it. How kind! Can I pay you for this?”

“No. It’s my gift. Have yourself a merry little Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas to you too!” Sarah’s dad rolled up the car window and pulled the car into the driveway.

“What a thoughtful young man he is,” commented Sarah’s mom. 

Sarah was flooded with a Christmas warmth, acknowledging the act of kindness. What a beautiful way to end the day’s chapter. This all gave Sarah some food for thought. She considered the sacrifice of a teenager giving up his time late at night, on Christmas Eve, to voluntarily shovel out someone else’s driveway. What kindness! What care! Sarah thought. What does this mean? What is the nature of this goodness? Did he find it a moral obligation, or was it simply from the heart? Her thoughts began to settle into truth. It was an act of love. Love is found in the sacrifice and the act of kindness. Abruptly upon coming to this realization, Sarah rolled down her window to catch Denver just before he went inside. “We love you too!” Sarah called out. She sunk back into her seat somewhat embarrassed to say such a thing with her parents present, but she just had to acknowledge the virtue behind his action. It was so refreshing after the conversation with her cousins. 

He acknowledged her with a departing wave.

“Awe, that was awfully nice of you to say, dear” Sarah’s mom commented. 

Read more about Wild Christmas on my website: www.joshhodge.com/wild-christmas

Chapter 8 Coming Soon!