Last Christmas
Making his way down the hallway Mica Daly shuffled through the normal collection of bills and junk mail. One bright red envelope caught his eye and the scrawl on the front was very much his mother’s writing. A ghost of a smile played across his lips. Can always count on mom to send an old fashioned card in the mail. And it would likely contain a check or a restaurant voucher, momma always worried her boy wasn’t getting enough to eat in the big city.
Mica slipped a key in the lock and breezed into his tiny apartment. While the hallway smelled odd, for some reason it always seemed to be that way, the pleasant aroma of cinnamon greeted him in his place. The best smell of the season. Besides mom’s apple pie. He kicked the door closed with his heel and tossed his keys on the nearby counter. On second thought he ditched the majority of the mail, plucking out the card. Slipping out of his shoes and jacket he moseyed over to the couch, sinking onto the worn cushion.
One of these weird shades of green plastic trees sat on the coffee table. With the push of a button he turned on the strand of battery operated lights. There were no ornaments on the tree save a sparkly felt snowflake topper. Three gifts lay under its little branches. A box wrapped in old newspaper comics from his best friend. An envelope from his boss that would turn out to be Mica’s pleasing holiday bonus. And a little box in plain blue wrapping from his girlfriend. Ex, don’t forget to stick an ex before the ‘G’ word. She made it perfectly clear she didn’t want to see you after that last fight.
Another failed relationship.
Another Christmas spent alone.
Mica sighed, adding the card to the meager stack. Tomorrow was the big day; he’d open things in the morning, though he wasn’t entirely sure what to do about her gift. Keep it; give it back, what was the usual protocol? There was only the fleeting touch of guilt that he hadn’t bought her a gift, probably because he knew on some level the whole thing was going to fall apart.
“One of these years,” he said, staring at the twinkling lights on his little tree. “Some Christmas in the future I won’t be alone and I’ll do everything right. It’ll be like a holiday special.” Quite by surprise he felt the burn of tears in his eyes. You’ll get it right. There’s going to come a Christmas when you’ll be with someone you love.
* * * *
Present Day
While searching through boxes of decorations, the memory of last December 25thpulled him back. Mica experienced a subtle ache for what had been and what would never be, his life having undergone a number of big changes since then. And though some of them had been considerably scary he wouldn’t even think of trading what he had now for what he had then, a sense of calm settling over him.
Mica laid the fake tree back in the box. For a handful of years it had served its purpose, bringing a little cheer to his apartment as well as his life, and he saw no reason for that to end now. Especially since the ultimate desire has been quenched. Grabbing the box, he wove through the attic’s other treasures, mementoes from past generations, stirring up a cloud of dust. Maybe someday he’d poke around, see what there was waiting to be discovered.
Merrily humming “Jingle Bells,” Mica passed through the upper halls of the big ranch house and down the staircase, evergreen garland lining the banisters. The ranch, his home for the last few months had been through a transformation the likes he had only been able to imagine. The lights, the holly, the garland, all these bits and pieces made Mica feel like a little kid again. In fact, the only thing lacking to keep the picture from being perfect was a tree; which he’d now found. Mica set the box on the coffee table, careful not to mess up the centerpiece; an oversized glass candle holder filled with pinecones and little red ball ornaments.
He’d have to find a different resting place for it, but for now he put it off to the side.
There were a few other trinkets in the box, his job and social life keeping him too busy in the past. However, in going from a big bustling city to a town with way too many cows and where men still sported cowboy hats and boots while dressed up, the amount of parties he was obligated to mingle at dwindled to nearly zero. Though judging by the posters around town some big shindig would be going down between Christmas and New Year’s, an affair dubbed The Final Snowflake.
