(Note: This story is from When the Light Returned to Main Street, a collection of short stories with holiday themes.)
The day started off poorly in the Hickman home. Charles was already running late when he opened the garage door and found son Henry’s dusty blue Firebird blocking his exit. He ran back inside and called up the stairs for Henry to move his car but was answered back with a shout that the battery was dead. Charles returned outside and was pacing in front of Henry’s car when his neighbor came out and offered him a ride on his way downtown.
Back inside, Henry and his sister Sue’s regular morning sniping had escalated into an all-out battle with slamming doors and insults as they fought over time in the shared upstairs bathroom.
Downstairs, their mother Kelly could take no more and shouted from the kitchen: “You two have one minute to quit that and come downstairs or you’ll be grounded through Christmas and all the way to New Years. The only use you’ll get out of phones or computers is to tell your friends, ‘See you next year.’”
Kelly was on edge because she and Charles had gone to bed arguing about finances. It was not a good conversation to have two weeks before Christmas, but it was prompted by Sue’s aspirations to go to college out of state with her best friend. The girls had been planning it for years and the clock was ticking at the midpoint of their senior year on finding the money to make it happen. Henry, meanwhile, was a whole different situation. They thought they’d be lucky if he just graduated. He was an OK student but was easily distracted and had to be pushed on just about everything. The only thing that seemed to hold his interest was tinkering with antique gadgets and especially that old Firebird that he bought with money from his after-school job and that he kept running with spare parts he found at junkyards.
When Henry appeared at the bottom of the stairs, Kelly gave him his first assignment of the day: “I need you to get that car started and take you and your sister to school, right now, or, I need you to push it out of the way so I can get Dad’s car out and take us all to school and work. Or maybe we’ll all just stay home today and fall further behind.”
Henry dashed out the door, leaving Kelly digging through a kitchen drawer for the spare key to her husband’s car. They’d sold her car to save money, leaving her to ride public transit to her job at the bookstore.
“What’s wrong, Mom?” Sue asked as she tumbled into view.
“Nothing that a little organization and attention to each other won’t fix.”
Just as she said that, they heard the roar of an engine and then the honk of a horn.
“See you this evening,” Kelly said and blew a kiss as Sue raced out the door to jump in with her brother.
With the two teenagers gone and the rare option of having a car, Kelly made a list of groceries to get on her way home from work.
The rest of the day went pretty much according to script for the four Hickmans until they all began to make their way home.
It started with Charles, who had a late afternoon appointment with a young man named Gabe who was the last on the list to interview for the marketing job. The interview went well and Charles was walking Gabe to the door when Charles suddenly remembered that he didn’t have a ride home. He huffed out loud, and when he realized that Gabe had heard him, he sighed, “It’s just par for the course. I’ll work it out.”
“I can give you a ride,” Gabe offered. “Where do you need to go?”
“Well, really just to Mockingbird Station. I can catch a train there and get within walking distance of home.”
“Let’s go,” said Gabe.
On the way they talked and shared small details about their lives that usually aren’t revealed in job interviews. Gabe said that he was new to town and single.
Charles laughed. “Single, huh? You want my family? I’ll sell the whole lot for cheap.”
Gabe smiled and looked at Charles. “What’s up with that? Nothing can be that bad.”
“We’re just all going in different directions. Can’t get any agreement on anything.”
“I get it,” Gabe said. “Me and my father are at odds right now. In fact, he said he didn’t want to see me again until I show him I can do something. That’s what brought me to your office.”
“Well, I can’t make any promises because I don’t have the final say on the job. As for your father, maybe if you find a quiet time and place to talk to him you can make peace.”
“Hmm,” said Gabe.
“Hmm what?” asked Charles.
“I don’t want to overstep, but perhaps you and your son should give that a try too.”
Charles leaned back in his seat. “You’re absolutely right. Who am I to be telling you what to do? And here’s my stop.” He pointed to the rail station and Gabe pulled up to curb.
Charles opened the door. “Thanks, Gabe. This has been a most unusual interview, but I think it’s gone well. One way or another, you’ll hear from me.”
“I appreciate that. Best to you and your family,” Gabe said.
The men shook hands, Charles got out, and his eyes followed Gabe’s car as it meandered into the parking lot of the grocery store next door and out onto the street. As he watched, his gaze landed on the green and white striped tent of a Christmas tree lot nestled across from the grocery store. He looked at his watch and decided to spend his thirty-minute wait checking out the trees. Something about the sight of the tent stoked an old memory of sweeter times. Maybe the aroma of a freshly cut tree is what we need this year, he thought.
Not too far away, Henry was driving home from an after-school band practice when the car in front of him suddenly stopped. He lay on the horn and shouted, “Come on, man, put your phone down and drive!” But then he saw the car door open and realized the driver was having a problem. What’s more, it was not a man but a girl about the same age as himself.
She looked back at him, shrugged, and mouthed, “I’m so sorry.”
Henry got out of his car and as he approached her she said, “I don’t know what to do.”
Henry looked around. “Well, probably the first thing we should do is get you out of traffic so our friends don’t see us on Instagram making a scene. If you get back in your car, put it in neutral and be ready to steer, I’ll push you out of the way and into that parking lot.”
She did as he suggested, and with a couple of good nudges with his heavy chrome bumper and a honk on the horn to clear the way, he got her safely across the street and into the grocery store parking lot. She asked to borrow his phone to call a tow truck, and then he waited with her in the fading light as evening descended.
“No phone? That’s rare,” Henry said.
“Yep, it’s a thing with my father – although he may want to reconsider after this. Don’t you need to be going home? I don’t want to make you late.”
“I’m in no hurry to get home.”
“What’s up?” she asked.
“It’s just brother-sister stuff. We’re just . . .”
“In each other’s way all the time,” she said, completing his sentence.
“Yes, pretty much. It’s like she’s always rushing to do something and I’m in her way. And on top of that, she does everything perfect and my parents are on me all the time. Especially my mother. She’s always saying, ‘Why can’t you be more like Sue?’ And the answer is I just can’t.”
The girl frowned. “I had the same problem with my sister.”
“What’d you do?”
Her eyes got red and she turned away and looked at the traffic out on the street. “I never got the chance to fix it.”
“Oh . . . I’m sorry.” Henry understood that something had happened.
She was silent a moment, and then the tow truck rolled up. She wiped her eyes and smiled.
“Well, looks like help has come. Is there something I can do to repay you?” she asked.
“No . . . except . . . give me your email address? I’d like to talk again.”
She held out her hand and he gave her his phone. She opened his contacts, quickly typed and then handed it back. “You can find me in the Gs . . . for Gabby.”
Henry watched her ride away in the cab of the tow truck and then started to get into his car when he looked over and saw the familiar figure of his father standing among the Christmas trees. “What?”
Inside the grocery store, Kelly was pushing her full cart toward the checkout line when she collided with another shopper and plowed into a display of boxed Christmas nativity scenes. One of the boxes hit the floor hard and broke open, sending small plastic sheep and donkeys and shepherds and wise men spilling out in every direction. Kelly and the other woman both dropped to their knees and began gathering up the pieces. As they did, they looked up, saw the store manager scowling at them, and they began to snicker. They stood up and piled the pieces together on top of Kelly’s cart. Kelly picked up the box, and they both saw that there was no putting it back together like new.
“I guess one of us is going to have to buy this,” said the woman, tenderly holding an angel with a broken wing.
“I already have several nativities,” Kelly said as she took inventory to make sure they had all the pieces. “Oh,” she said and looked around and then bent down to retrieve the Christ child from under the edge of a soap display.
“Several nativities?” the woman asked. “How wonderful. I bet you put them all out every year and it’s really pretty.”
Kelly thought a moment and blushed. “Actually . . . I don’t remember the last time we put any of them out. I’m not sure I even know where they are. What about you?”
“I don’t have one at all. I don’t have the money to buy this one, either, but the kids would love it.”
Kelly looked at the woman’s cart and saw that she had nothing but a loaf of bread and a jug of milk. “Then let me buy it for you. It’ll be my Christmas gift to you and your family.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. And besides, the crash really was my fault.”
“Ok, that’s very nice, but on one condition.”
“What’s that?” Kelly asked.
“You go home and find your nativities and put them out. You need to do that . . . for yourself and your family. Put one in every room. That way everywhere you go you are reminded what Christmas is about: God came as a baby to show us how to live today and for always.”
The words sank deep into Kelly’s soul and then bubbled up and out of the corners of her eyes in the form of silent tears. The woman leaned in and hugged her and said, “It’s OK. You’ve been away but there’s always time to come back.”
The women walked together through the checkout line and then walked out the door. Kelly handed the woman a bag with the nativity pieces.
“I’m Kelly, by the way. And you are?”
“Riella.”
“That’s beautiful . . . and unusual.”
“It’s short for Gabriella.” She smiled and walked away, and that’s when Kelly realized that the only bag Riella carried was the one with the pieces of the nativity.
Kelly left the store and was putting her groceries in the car when she looked up and saw her husband and son looking at Christmas trees under the twinkling lights outside the tent. She closed the trunk and started walking toward them when she heard footsteps coming quickly behind her. She turned to see her daughter.
“Hey everyone, what’s this?” Sue asked.
Standing in a circle in the chilly evening air – surrounded by the fragrant pine, fir and spruce trees – Charles, Kelly and Henry each shared their story, and then Sue shared hers.
“I went to catch a bus home after school and found a girl sitting on the bench in tears, so I started talking to her. She said she and her family were new in the country and she was new at school. She needed to find her mother at the grocery store where she worked but didn’t know which bus to take. I told her I’d ride with her and show her the way and then catch the train home. So we came here and I went inside the store with her and looked away for a moment because I thought I saw you, Mom, and when I turned back around the girl was gone.”
“What was her name?” asked Kelly.
“Gabriella . . . I think.”
The others looked at her and then at each other.
“Mine was named Gabe,” said Charles.
“Gabby,” said Henry.
“Riella,” said Kelly.
They all stood still for a moment, staring at each other in silence. And then they went home – Charles and Kelly in his car with a tall spruce Christmas tree tied to the roof, and Sue and Henry in his Firebird. Nobody said a word because nobody was quite sure what to say.
That evening Charles put the Christmas tree in its stand, while Henry climbed the attic stairs and brought down the ornaments. Kelly and Sue dug deep into an upstairs closet, found the lost nativities and placed them about. And then they all decorated the tree and played Christmas records on the old phonograph that Henry had salvaged. With each glass ball and star hung on the tree, the tension began to ease, the mood got light, the smiles returned. But there still was a whiff of puzzlement hanging in the air.
Until Sue suddenly spoke. “Henry, Didn’t you say that the girl – Gabby – gave you her email address?”
“Oh yeah, she did.”
Henry pulled the phone out of his hip pocket and checked the contacts under G as she had said. What he saw didn’t look like any email he’d ever seen – gabby@luke119. The expression on his face brought the others to his side and they looked with him. They all just stared, not knowing what to think, when Sue drew in a breath, put down the ornament in her hand, and walked over to the bookshelf. She pulled down a Bible, wiped the dust off the top of the pages, opened it and read these words out loud:
“The angel replied, ‘I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.’”