All Bundled Up | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: All Bundled Up | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lisa Cox
11/13/08
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It was early December and the trees would have been naked had it not been for the white snowy coats they now wore. It really was a beautiful sight but to Julie, a nineteen year old single mother, they looked like ghosts bearing the harsh news of a winter to a family who couldn’t afford the comforts of a warm house. The wind even seemed to mock her as she listened to it through the window while buttoning the top button of her coat.

“Mama?” Shelby, who was only three, whispered, as she played with a stack of Christmas cards on the table. “Maybe Santa will come early and bring us what we need…right Mama? He can do that cause he’s Santa, huh Mama?”

Julie had heard what she’d said but her thoughts were so far away that an answer didn’t come quickly. All she could think about was how desperate she felt. The bills had piled up quicker than the snow outside and her two jobs weren’t cutting it. So here they sat in their one bedroom efficiency, coats on, shivering in their own living room.

Watching Shelby as she played with each card, lining and stacking them up, running her fingers over each glittery, sweet paper confection made Julie’s heart ache. She could almost feel her daddy’s lap underneath her in Christmases past as they taped cards together decorating the entire house with them. Each year her father had kept every card in neatly stacked bundles until mother declared they had enough to fill the whole house. “Can’t you hear them Julie?” her father would ask? “No matter how bad things get, each card just beckons good cheer to us with their brightly colored words and glitter.”

Julie’s mind wandered to the days and months that had led up to this night. She had been a good girl, born to a good family, but when Julie became pregnant at fifteen it tore her family apart and her father’s reaction left their once close relationship broken. Julie was forced to move away and they hadn’t spoken since. He just couldn’t reconcile his baby girl having a baby of her own.

It had been early in the morning when Julie gave birth to Shelby. Julie cried when they placed all six of those sweet little pounds in her arms. It would be the only time Julie’s mother would hold her because she died shortly after. Julie had been forced to mourn privately because her father had kept the funeral information from her.

Julie’s thoughts were full. She missed her mother so much. Sometimes she thought she could see her or even smell her presence. Somehow though she seemed more alive than her father. Now there was someone who seemed truly dead. “Oh God…Not a phone call or even a letter in three years. Doesn’t he want to see his grandbaby? I miss him so much.” Julie thought.

The knock at the door didn’t even rouse her. If it hadn’t been for Shelby she wouldn’t even have heard it.

“Mama, mama…someone’s knocking!”

“Hello…Ms. Kendall…Julie Kendall?” the man said as Julie opened the door.

“Yes,” Julie answered.

“We have a rather large box here for you. May we bring it in?”

Julie unsure nodded a yes.

“See mama! I told you…it’s Santa!” Shelby cried in delight.

It took two delivery carriers and a dolly to usher in the box and they placed it right in the center of the room.

“What on earth?” Julie said as Shelby danced around in delight.

“Uh..Ms. Kendall, there is a gentleman downstairs in the lobby that’s asking for your presence once you’ve opened up the box.”

“What?” Julie asked.

“Just open the box Ms. Kendall.”

“Come on mama, open the box!” agreed Shelby.

Not understanding with butterflies in her stomach Julie pried the box open,
“Maybe it’s a box of money,” Julie chuckled as she tore off the lid.

Everyone looked in the box and only Julie understood.

There they were…like memories come alive, each and every card from every Christmas past calling to her the good cheer of her daddy all perfectly packed in their sweet tight bundles. She cried and laughed all at the same time, bathing herself in the bundles of cards that lay there, while waves of joy and forgiveness washed over her.

“Mama?” Shelby asked interrupting. “Is Santa waiting for us downstairs?”

“No baby,” Julie answered, “It’s way better than that honey….Let’s go meet your grandfather.”

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