Meri's Christmas Stories: The Christmas Wish

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Meri's Christmas Stories:
The Christmas Wish

Written by Nuuan

Spotting their music teacher walking up to the edge of the ice several of the boys looked up from the intense game of hockey to wave at the woman who had quickly become the student’s favorite teacher. It wasn’t due to the boys thinking she was the prettiest teacher either, everyone including her fellow teachers found Miss Maas to be one of the friendliest and helpful teachers in the small school. “Hi Miss Mass!” several of the boys shouted over the frozen pond, including a smaller boy guarding one of the goals dressed in a goalie outfit with a Minnesota Wild jersey, long hair splayed from under the painted goalie helmet across the boy’s shoulders giving the appearance of a young girl tending goal.

Having the puck, one man decided to use the distraction to his advantage and shot the puck at the net the smaller boy was guarding only to watch the boy catch it in his glove. “Score still five zip!” the small boy shouted as he tossed the puck up and down in his glove.

Meri smiled at the young boy tossing the puck triumphantly as her thoughts drifted toward how much things had changed for him since last Christmas. Shawn had woken that Christmas morning to find their Christmas tree surrounded with brightly colored gift wrapped boxes that were not there the night before. Opening his gifts he found new hockey skates, padding, gloves, a goalie stick, several pants and jerseys from various NHL teams that he liked and a goalie helmet, custom painted to resemble the head of a shark, the cage of the helmet’s face protection surrounded by the teeth of the shark’s open maw. With his new gear and his desire to play goalie, a position most the other boys didn’t wish to play, Shawn went from never being picked to play unless the other boys needed to even out the teams, to being argued over which team could have him as their goalie. Shawn had become an incredible goalie, his smaller size and speed working as an advantage for him making it so that whichever team had Shawn in goal usually did not lose, even on the occasions the boys played against adults as they were now.

Mrs. Dyer, Shawn’s grandmother, has been more surprised than her grandson Christmas morning. Living on social security herself, she had been advised to let her grandson go to foster care after his parents had died. Shawn’s widowed grandmother would have nothing to do with, ‘such nonsense,’ as she called it. Immediately taking custody of the orphaned boy and giving him the one thing she had in abundance, her love. She had no idea where the gifts had come from or how they had suddenly appeared in their house. At first Mrs. Dyer had thought it could have been their pastor, but he had denied all knowledge of her, “Christmas miracle.” She had quietly asked around about their benefactor, wanting badly to thank whoever made her grandchild’s Christmas so memorable, but no one seemed to know anything about the gifts or how they had appeared in her home.

One of the men out on the ice skated toward Meri, tucking his gloves under one arm after removing them. Removing his helmet while stopping at the edge of the ice beside Meri, he leaned toward her, “Hello beautiful.”

“Having fun?” Leaning toward him, Meri met him halfway with a quick kiss on the lips.

Chuckling, “The Wall shut us down again, five to zip this time.”

“The wall?”

“Yeah,” Steve chuckled. “That’s the nickname the boys have given him. It’s fitting too, putting him in front of the net is like putting a wall in front of it.”

“I’m glad to see that he’s able to play,” Meri smiled. “Shawn really loves playing the game. And to see him and Carl becoming such good friends too.”

“He the best goalie we have in school,” Steve stated proudly. “If I know Jim at all, he’ll snatch both him and Carl out of JV just as soon as the rules allow.”

“Well I’m glad they have that rule, that way the kids play with others their own age.”

All the boys that had been playing skated over to where Meri and Steve were talking. The largest one of them, wearing a “Chiefs” jersey with the name ‘HANSON’ spelled out across the back spoke up, “Miss Mass are you going to ride on the bus with us to Franklin tonight?”

“As long as no one tries singing bottles of beer on the wall again, I wouldn’t miss it for the world Carl,” Meri smiled at the large boy.

“Nope, we all promised not to sing that anymore!” Carl turned, waving to the other boys to join him as he skated away, “Come on guys, let’s get our stuff for the game tonight!”

~o~O~o~

A few of the parents and kids walking toward the entrance of Franklin’s sports complex could hear the singing coming from the school bus pulling into the parking lot, many grinned, some chuckled and a few even sang along quietly as the bus came to a stop. Inside the bus both kids and adults both sang along to what was quite possibly the most famous song played between periods while the ice was cleaned and resurfaced.

I went down to the local arena
Asked to see the manager man
He came from his office
Said, son can I help you?’
I looked at him and said
Yes you can

I wanna drive the Zamboni
I wanna drive the Zamboni
Yes I do

Ever since I was young
It’s been my dream
That I might drive the Zamboni machine
I’d get that ice just as slick as could be
And all the kids would look up to me

I wanna drive the Zamboni
I wanna drive the Zamboni
Yes I do

The manager said, son
I know it looks keen
But that right there’s one expensive machine
And I’ve got Smokey who’s been driving for years
About that time I broke down in tears

I wanna drive the Zamboni
I wanna drive the Zamboni
Yes I do

I wanna drive the Zamboni
I wanna drive the Zamboni
Yes I do

(I want to drive the Zamboni, 1990, Gear Daddies)

~o~O~o~

The game went well for the boys, their team, the Fairview Flames, won with a score of three to one. Shawn was still angry at the one goal the Franklin team had put past him, not that they had scored but how they had scored. Shawn was sure the Franklin player had intentionally entered the crease hooking Shawn’s skate with his stick, taking Shawn down to the ice so the other player could slap one in over him. It was dirty and Shawn felt the ref should have blown the whistle on the play. Even with laying on his side down on the ice Shawn had almost stopped the puck raising his leg up to block it, although it caught his skate with a glancing blow allowing it to continue on into the net, giving the Franklin Raiders their only goal with only minutes left in the game.

Still angry after the game, Shawn lagged several paces behind the rest of his team as they made their way across the parking lot to their bus. That far behind his celebrating teammates Shawn was able to hear the sounds of a scuffle going on near the back of the building. Looking over he could see several boys in a semi-circle around another, half hidden by a dumpster. One appeared to be holding another as others swung their fists and kicked at the trapped kid. “Hey STOP!” Shawn yelled, dropping the large duffel bag that held his hockey gear, as he ran toward the fight. Seeing something was wrong, the rest of Shawn’s team dropped their duffel bags and followed at a run. Seeing over a dozen teens and several adults running toward them, the assailants dropped the boy they had been using as a punching bag and ran.

Shawn was first to arrive and discover the now unconscious form lying on the ground. The long almost knee length coat the figure had worn had been pulled partially down immobilizing the person’s arms behind and exposing the clothing the figure was wearing, the sight of which made Shawn’s blood boil. Turning his head toward his approaching teammates, “Those bastards beat up a girl!”

Without breaking stride, Carl raced past Shawn in the direction the boys had ran, “We’ll get ‘em!” He yelled back, followed by most of the team.

“Stop!” Rex Stevens, the coach of their JV team yelled. The boys turned and walked back toward their coach, many of them grumbling under their breath.

With the sports complex having a policy of always having paramedics on duty during any large event, paramedics arrived within minutes of the nine-one-one call and began triage of the unconscious girl’s injuries. The police arrived and began taking statements as the paramedics were loading the girl into the ambulance. Looking over at Steve as Meri followed the paramedics into the back of the ambulance, “I’m going with her.”

Knowing it was better to accept what Meri was doing rather than argue with her, Steve looked at the paramedics, “Which hospital are you going to?” Once he received an answer he looked back to Meri, “Once we get back I’ll grab my truck and meet you there.”

~o~O~o~

An older woman wearing a gray business walked in carrying a Brown paper grocery bag, the top folded over and rolled down so she could carry it one handed. Spotting the young man wearing jeans and a knitted sweater sitting in one of the love seats, a very stunning blond woman wearing a long red coat with plush white fur trim appeared to be asleep, her head nestled against his shoulder. “Excuse me, Are you the couple that came in with the child that was attacked at the skating rink?”

“Yes,” Steve nodded while reaching across to give Meri’s arm a gentle shake. “A lady’s here about the girl,” Steve said when he saw Meri look up at him.

Meri looked over to see the older woman with dark hair beginning to gray that was tied up in a bun, “Is she going to be alright?”

“I think there may be a bit of confusion,” The lady began. “You are the ones that came with the child that was beaten at the sports complex, correct?”

“Yes,” Meri nodded, “One of our kids saw it and we ran over.”

“Maybe I should start at the beginning,” the woman sighed. “My name is Blanche Crawford, I’m with the child welfare division of social services here in Franklin. The boy who was attacked, Nathan Dabney, has been living in the Powell home for boys since his grandmother passed away last year.”

“Oh, from the way she, I mean he was dressed…” not knowing what to say Steve stopped talking.

“An easy mistake to make with Nathan as he is a very petite boy,” Mrs. Crawford nodded then added, “Even when he is wearing boys clothes. Which I have been told he wasn’t.”

“Not trying to argue with you, but I find it difficult to believe that she is a boy,” Meri stated. “I mean, yes I know it’s possible but she looks so feminine.”

“I understand how you can imagine that,” Mrs. Crawford continued, “That being neither here nor there, the doctors tell me his genitals have been crushed so badly that the only options they had for him was living life as a eunuch or sexual reassignment surgery, the latter the state of course will not condone.” Mrs. Crawford sighed heavily, “If only we’d been able to find foster parents for him sooner maybe none of this would have happened to the boy. And with what the doctors say need done now, he definitely can’t stay in the boy’s home especially after I found this.” Mrs. Crawford couldn’t understand why she felt so comfortable talking to Meri about this but there was something about the young woman, her heart told her, somehow she could help the poor child. Opening the brown paper bag that held all the clothing and things Nathan had with him when he was brought into the hospital she retrieved an envelope that she handed to Meri.

Meri saw the envelope was addressed to Santa Claus and it appeared to have already been opened. Pulling out the letter she began reading,

Dear Santa,

I really miss mom, dad and grandma, I know you can’t bring them back so I won’t ask for that. Mrs. Crawford, the lady that runs the place I live now, is really nice. She tells me that Mom, Dad and Grandma are in heaven and even though I can’t see them, they can see me and will be watching over me until it’s time for me to meet them there. Mrs. Crawford says that will be a long time away for me and that I should never do anything to try to go before heaven is ready for me to come as that could make me go to the bad place instead.

Mrs. Crawford keeps telling me that as cute as I am she will be able to find me new parents. I know I’m supposed to be patent, but it’s been so long. Mrs. Crawford keeps telling me it takes time to find the perfect parents.

My Christmas wish is for a new Mom and Dad. I don’t care if they are perfect like Mrs. Crawford says they should be as long as they love me. If they would let me be their little girl, I promise to be the very best girl on earth for them.

Love, Nikki

A tear rolled down Meri’s cheek and landed on the letter. Where they tear drop landed on the hand written words, they began to glow gold. The golden glow spread out until all the words were glowing, then suddenly the glow vanished. Sitting beside Meri, Steve’s eyebrows went up when he saw the letters take on the magical glow but he was able to hide any further surprise from showing. Mrs. Crawford either couldn’t see the letters glow from where she sat or was interrupted too quickly as a doctor appeared asking to speak with her privately. Several more tears fell to the handwritten letter to Santa Clause, each one sparkled when it hit the paper and a tiny snowflake floated up a few inches off the paper before they faded into nothingness. Steve was about to ask Meri about what he saw when Mrs. Crawford walked back in and sat down across from the couple.

Taking the open letter and envelope that Meri held out for her, Mrs. Crawford sat silently for several minutes staring at the letter. “This is a terrible situation,” Mrs. Crawford broke the silence. “To leave the poor child in-between, neither a boy nor a girl now and so close to Christmas, it… it breaks my heart that he will be left mutilated for the rest of his life.”

“As you said, it is almost Christmas.” Meri smiled, “Some say more miracles happen around Christmas than any other time of the year.”

“I’ll be praying for one for him.” Mrs. Crawford added, “They are going to be taking him into surgery soon.”

Sitting in silence once again, Meri closed her eyes as she snuggled against Steve’s arm.

~o~O~o~

Nathan had woken very confused at his surroundings, everything looked blurry and it was really bright, there were also a lot of people moving around. Nathan tried to remember how he got there, but the last thing he could remember was watching the hockey game. While Nathan loved to skate and was quite good for his age, he would never consider playing hockey. To Nathan hockey was a boy’s game and he had never thought of himself as a boy. Nathan’s grandmother was once a figure skater and had taught Nathan how to skate. He could sit with her for hours watching figure skating on TV with his grandmother, who would explain the moves to him as they watched. Nathan was fascinated with figure skating and dreamed of one day wearing the sparkling skater’s dresses and skating on TV.

Nathan was pulled out of his thoughts by a tugging feeling on his arm. Turning his head he could make out a nurse putting a syringe into the IV in his arm. ‘I’m in the hospital?’ He thought to himself as he began to find it very hard to stay awake and drifted back to sleep.

~o~O~o~

Nathan saw a pretty blond woman skating toward him across the ice. He marveled at how beautiful the Christmas themed white fur trimmed, red sequined skaters dress she was wearing looked on her. The green tights she wore under them made him think she looked like one of Santa’s elves, although she was too tall to be one, she even had a Santa hat on. Looking around Nathan noticed he wasn’t in the skating rink where he normally went skating, he was on the natural ice of a frozen pond, a pond he had never seen before. Nathan had a shallow pond behind the house he grew up in. He had been told his great grandfather had built it for his grandmother when she was small. Too shallow to even teach a toddler how to swim, Nathan had found it fun to play in during the hot summer and even more so once it froze over and his grandmother began teaching him how to skate.

“What’s your name?” The elf dressed woman asked as she stopped in front of Nathan on the ice.

Looking up at her, Nathan wished he could wear a dress like the one the woman had on, “Um, Nathan.”

“You don’t look very much like a Nathan to me,” The woman giggled. “Nathan is a boy’s name and a boy would never wear that on the ice.”

Nathan’s eyes grew wide as he looked down at himself to see he was wearing an identical skaters dress as the woman had on. What surprised him further was the small bumps, the tell-tell signs of a girl’s breasts starting to develop.

Raising one hand to her cheek the woman tapped a finger against her cheek several times while looking like she was contemplating something. “I’d say you look more like a Nikki to me,” she beamed a warm smile at Nathan.

Nathan gasped, ‘How could she know my secret name? The name I wish I had if I had been born a girl,’ Nathan could only think of one explanation. Looking up to the woman, “You, you’re Mrs. Claus?”

The woman giggled, shaking her head, “No, but she does make some of the best cookies you’ve ever tasted. Want to try one?”

Nathan watched as she reached toward him, a cookie magically appearing in her hand as she did. Taking the cookie he saw it looked just like the ones his grandmother used to make for him, Chocolate chip with several M&M’s pressed into the top. Looking back at the woman, “Who, who are you? Are you an Angel?”

“Angels have wings silly!” The woman giggled, “I just wanted you to know that Santa got your letter.”

“But I never had a chance to mail it?” Nathan tried to say with a mouthful of cookie.

~o~O~o~

Scrubbing for the procedure, Dr. Kincade was surprised to see Dr. McAllister walk in and begin scrubbing up beside him. Looking over at Dr. McAllister, “I’m surprised to see you down here Sandy?”

Her smile was hidden by the surgical mask, “I’m covering for Ted so he could fly home for the holidays and I like to assist in normal surgeries when I can, it reminds me of where I started.”

“I should feel honored, big time cosmetic surgeon like you in the OR with me,” Dr. Kincade joked.

“Not today I’m not, today I’m your assistant.”

Seeing the doctors walk in the anesthesiologist spoke without looking away from his monitors, “The patient is ready Doctor.” Noticing something out of the corner of his eye, the anesthesiologist looked away from the monitor back to the small child to see what appeared to be a small glistening snowflake land on the child’s forehead. Looking closely, he could find no tell-tell wet spot where it had landed. Looking around to see if anyone else noticed it, he shook his head and went back to watching the monitors.

~o~O~o~

The first thing Nathan noticed when he woke was a dull throbbing sensation between his legs. He could hear a man’s voice talking, “… at that point I asked Dr. McAllister to take over the procedure.”

Nathan then heard a woman, “Once we had determined the best course of action, I repositioned the urethra, retraced the clitoris from its extended position back to a normal positioning and used the tissue that would have been discarded in the original procedure to create a vulva.”

“Does that mean I’m a girl now?” Nathan asked hoarsely, opening his eyes to see Mrs., Crawford and two doctors standing by his bed.

The lady doctor knelt down to Nathan, patting him on the hand, “You always were a girl, you just had a slight birth defect that we fixed sweetie.”

Dr. Kincade continued speaking with Mrs. Crawford, “It was a good thing we discovered her condition when we did, much further into puberty it would have caused serious health issues for her.

“I just hope the state insurance pays for this,” Mrs. Crawford stated her worry. “If they see this as sexual reassignment…”

“It isn’t,” Dr. McAllister stood and turned toward Mrs. Crawford. “For one, medically speaking she is and always was female, we only corrected a birth defect that if had not been found and corrected before she began menstruating, would have posed a serious threat to her life. Two, the only bill they will be receiving is the one the hospital sends for their services, she’s already paid for my services with that lovely smile she has right now.” Everyone looked over to the bed to see the largest smile possible plastered across Nathan’s face. Turning back to Nathan Dr. McAllister bent over and kissed his forehead then whispered, “Merry Christmas.”

The next several hours were spent with Mrs. Crawford and nurses come in and out of her room. Later that night after Nathan, now Nikki as she begged everyone to call her told Mrs. Crawford about the dream she had during the surgery and how she was sure the lady in her dream was an angel.

“It was just a dream dear,” Mrs. Crawford brushed a stray lock of hair out of Nikki’s face. “And as you said, Angels have wings.”

“I think she was hiding hers Mrs. Crawford.” Nikki continued, “Or maybe Christmas angels don’t have wings like regular ones do?”

“Maybe you’re right?” Mrs. Crawford mused, ‘Maybe it was a Christmas miracle and God did answer her prayers.’

The next morning Nikki was sitting up in bed picking at the leftovers of her breakfast when several people stepped into her room. Nikki’s eyes went wide when she saw the blond lady wearing the thigh length ‘Santa’ coat. Grabbing Mrs. Crawford wrist s she leaned over, Nikki whispered, “It’s the angel, it’s her!”

Stifling a chuckle, Mrs. Crawford explained, “Nikki that is Meri, um Miss Maas. She is the one that rode with you in the ambulance when you were hurt. She stayed until we knew you were going to be alright.”

“Anne?” A dark brunette woman gasped when she saw Nikki lying in the bed. “Sorry honey,” The woman apologized, “You just look like someone I grew up with. We sort of lost touch several years ago, her husband’s job had then out of the country so much.”

Looking up from where she sat beside Nikki, Mrs. Crawford spoke, “Nikki lost her parents several years ago. She lived with her grandmother, Lucille Dabney, until cancer took her grandmother.”

“Dabney?” the brunette asked, “Was your mom’s name Annette Nichole?” She watched the young girl nod as tears formed in the girl’s eyes, before rushing over to sit on the bed and gently pull the girl into an embrace. Looking back up to her husband Mike standing in the doorway, her own eyes glistening with the beginnings of tears.

Hearing the small girl’s story and seeing the look in his wife’s eyes, Mike knew what he needed to do. Looking at Mrs. Crawford, “Um, ma’am could I have a word with you, in private?”

~o~O~o~

Meri sat at her usually bench at the pond, Steve’s arm wrapped around her shoulder, watching the children and some of their parents out on the ice while sipping on mugs of hot coco Meri had poured the both of them from a thermos. Many of the kids wearing new skates and coats they found wrapped under their Christmas trees that morning. As normal a group of boys were off to one side playing hockey, Meri could easily see new helmets and sticks some of the boys did not have the last time she saw them on the ice.

After taking the first sip from his steaming mug, “Mmmm, This tastes like your mother’s recipe?”

Holding her own mug up to her face with her mitten covered hands, to cover her grin, “It is Mom’s, she remembered how much you like it and sent a thermos of it back with me last night.”

“This was one of the main reasons I wanted to go with you again,” Steve grinned after taking another drink of the hot liquid. “This and of course driving a sleigh again.”

“And here I thought it was because you wanted to spend time with me,” Meri giggled.

“Well that’s a given,” Steve smiled, pulling Meri tighter into his embrace, “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Several feet away a preteen girl in a long pink coat that came down past her knees, cupped her mitten covered hands around her mouth and yelled out onto the ice, “Carl, mom wants you home!”

Leaning forward so she could see the girl better, “Hi Nikki, did you have a good Christmas?” Meri asked.

“It was the bestest Christmas ever!” Nikki raced over giving Meri a hug, “I got a new Mom and Dad and a big brother!” Then lowering her voice to a whisper, “And an angel made me a girl.”

“Nikki, you heard the doctors, you were born a girl.”

Nikki giggled, “You used your Angel magic to make the doctors think that, but I know it was you. Don’t worry It’ll be our secret.”

The End

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Comments

Christmas Wish

My5InchFMHeels's picture

This was a great follow up to last years story. Was kinda hoping Nikki would end up with Meri and Steve, but friends of her mother is definitely just as good. She'll be able to hear stories of when her mother was a young girl.

The muse was leading me

The muse was leading me into the direction of having Nikki in Meri's custody. Since Meri prefers to use her magic in very subtle ways that are easy for us simple humans to think of as coincidence, luck, or in Nikki's case a misdiagnosis at birth, I decided in having a couple that wanted more children but could not have them and was already thinking about adoption (sorry, it's backstory that never made it into the story)

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

It explains why you

It explains why you introduced a character who had little to do but was actually key in hindsight in Carl, why he did it was a ripple of the magic ;)

There's always the future with the couple, a poor soul could end up with the couple when your muse finds a way.

I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime

The Muse

The Muse seems to always have me throw extra characters in for no reason at times, that I sooner or later when working out a plot I say to myself, "Oh that's why I dropped that character into the previous story!"

Okay I'm only half kidding as I do tend to begin a character bio even for side characters that may never appear again in a story. I think it has to do with the fact that I began building worlds long before I began writing. I found it saves on being forced to reread a story the character appeared in before, so that you can get the hair color or any number of things correct if and when the character appears again. Also allows me to keep notes about how I have used the character and the attitude, personality etc that I write them with.

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Bio notes

I would be lost without them. Especially on some of the characters that first appeared more than a decade ago.

For example, the mob of characters surrounding the Martins has become extensive and complicated. And I'm about to add four kids.

That's one of the biggest...

That's one of the biggest reasons I love using Scrivener. It already having the place to store notes, character details, and just about everything else right in the story's files. Rather than in separate word documents or text files that can get lost or misplaced.

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Nikki may be mistaken

But she is pretty close to the truth :)

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Utterly Fantastic

An utterly fantastic story. Brought tears to my eyes. I hope everyone has their own Christmas Miracle. The world needs it.

Kymmie

Thanks, it was my hopes

Thanks, it was my hopes that everyone would find it as touching and heartwarming to read as I found it was to write.

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Lovely story

Thank You.

Thanks

It's my greatest wish that readers enjoy the stories I write as much as I enjoy writing them.

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Meri

I’m thinking she is Santa Claus and mrs Clause daughter. That’s why her name is meri Maas. I think she took over after Santa retired. I think the miracle was a Christmas one.

hugs :)
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna

Correct

Her past and how all that came about is covered in the prior two stories about her :)

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Previous stories

I haven’t read the previous two :)

hugs :)
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna

While all Meri's stories are solos

And can be enjoyed without reading the earlier ones, each one does build upon the ones that came before it.

As of now my biggest concern is how is my muse going to come up with one next year that can rival this one!

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Muse

I'm sure you'll come up with another touching story. Maybe even for the New Year, maybe with new life of new family members.

I had thoughts...

Of doing something along those lines but the Muse has pulled me into a different direction. While similar to Meri's stories in that it will have a supernatural being with magical abilities that helps us poor mundane humans, the characters motivation will have an interesting difference.

If I can get it completed soon enough (I'm off work until the 7th and for once have plenty of time to write) I may enter it into the January serialized story contest. :)

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

one next year that can rival this one

Lucy Perkins's picture

As of now my biggest concern is how is my muse going to come up with one next year that can rival this one!
Don't worry. I've seen into the future and she did that for you. Love the series.. I'm looking forward to 2020's one..no pressure!
Love Lucy xxx

"Lately it occurs to me..
what a long strange trip its been."

Her full name

Not sure if her full name was given in the original story, which is Merilyn Kristina Mass, of course she goes by Meri Kris Mass :)

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Touched the Heart

BarbieLee's picture

The pace was perfect. In the context of Christmas Miracles this one was right there with Miracle on 34th Street. Very nicely done.
always,
Barb

Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl

Wow, Thanks!

I've always considered Miracle on 34th Street (the original movie) as one of the greatest Christmas movies ever made. Seeing someone compare Meri's story to that story truly takes my breath away!

Thank you for such outstanding praise :)

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

I had the same issue...

I had the same issue with dust making my eyes water while writing it :)

We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Wow, what a story

Jamie Lee's picture

What a wonderful story, well told and guaranteed to make anyone believe in miracles.

Others have feelings too.