by Matt Zachary
Brrrr, rrrr, rrrr, rrrrrr….cachuk!
Mom’s car was an older, powder-blue, Chrysler station-wagon that never seemed to want to start when it was cold outside. Mom tried again, and it finally cranked. “Oh my God…it’s sooooo c-c-coooollllddddd in here,” Sarah complained. She always seemed to be complaining about something. Mom turned on the Christmas carols to take our minds off of the frigid car while it slowly warmed up. Then, she stepped outside to scrape the ice from the windshield. Meanwhile, I bundled up in the blanket I kept on the back seat for long trips. I got car sick very easily, so if we were going to be in the car long, I always had to nap to prevent myself from getting too nauseous. There was always a blanket and pillow waiting for me, just in case.
“Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells! Jingle all the waaaayyyy…” I sang as we backed out of the driveway. The car began to heat up and we started out to the first neighborhood. The first few houses didn’t have any lights on, even though their yards were decorated. We did manage to find enough houses that had their lights on to make it worth it, though. We sang along to the carols on the radio, in between our trio of “ooohhhhs” and “aaahhhs” as we saw bigger and bigger displays of lights. One house even had wooden cut outs of cartoon characters, and had re-enacted a scene from my favorite Christmas special, involving a lonely Christmas tree.
Once we left a few of the smaller neighborhoods, we made our way to the King of Neighborhoods, as I nick-named the sub-division due to the enormous sizes of the houses. I don’t know if you’d call the houses in Ashton Woods Estate mansions, but they are certainly the biggest houses I had ever seen. Each house was covered in stone, and even had a smaller attached home for their housekeepers or cooks. We weren’t what I would call poor, but we rented our home…and had an older car. Mom provided for my sister and I alright and we haven’t been on welfare. Even so, money was tight. I could never imagine living in a house as large and luxurious as the ones I was looking at. There must have been at least seven or eight bedrooms in each main house…and probably just as many bathrooms. Imagine that….not having to share a bathroom with Sarah anymore. It brought a smile to my face.
The lights and decorations on the mansions looked so elegant. It was my absolute favorite stop every year. My mom always worried that we would get arrested, because of the looks of our car. “Surely, they’ll think we’re casing the joint,” she always joked. One of the houses had a huge tree in the middle of the spacious, front yard, and they always decorated it to look like a Christmas tree, complete with the tree skirt and larger than life presents underneath. It was so big, it reminded me of the tree at the end of the How the Grinch Stole Christmas cartoon special. If I would ever become rich, I’d want to give my Mom a Christmas tree like that…with just as many presents.
We continued looking at more houses and more pretty lights, but I must have fallen asleep because I awoke to my Mom tucking me in to bed.
“Sweet dreams, Jimmy,” she said as she kissed my forehead.
“Goodnight, Mom,” I lazily muttered back.
BBBBBZZZZZ. BBBBBZZZZZ. BBBBBZZZZZ. BBBBBZZZZZ.
I hated my alarm clock. Connor had an iPod dock that would wake him to his favorite music. I didn’t have an iPod or cell phone…hell; we didn’t even have enough money for a generic mp3 player. I tossed my simple but effective alarm clock across the room and slowly got out of bed.
I had to bang on the bathroom door, repeatedly. “Hurry up!” As usual, Sarah was in there doing her makeup. “You can do that in your room,” I suggested for about the millionth time.
“I have to look extra, extra hot today, you know…so I can make Andrew jealous,” she explained as she exited our only bathroom, “…so, chill out, dweeb.”
“Whatever…” I mumbled as I closed the door and started the shower. I wasn’t really a vain guy. I didn’t get haircuts every two weeks like Connor, or workout religiously like Mikey. Most days I barely ran a comb through my hair. But, I thought I was an attractive enough guy, in an average sort of way.
After getting ready and grabbing my book bag, I made my way next door to Connor’s so we could head to the bus stop. We always rode the bus on cold mornings, because it was just too cold and early to make a hike to school in the snow and ice. Most of our friends got rides to school from their parents, but Connor’s parents and my Mom were already at work by the time school started.
As we pulled up to the school, Mikey was there waiting. “What took ya’ll so long?” he asked with a fake, southern drawl.
“We’re here at the same time as always, Mikey,” I replied. He just punched my shoulder and started telling us about the cool, new tablet computer he got last night for Hanukkah. Mikey lived on the wealthier side of town. His parents were both doctors, so he tended to always have the best of everything. I liked living vicariously through him, especially when he would tell us about all the new gadgets he got as presents. But, after 10 minutes of him rambling on about this new $700 tablet computer, even I was jealous and ready to change the subject. “So….how did you guys think you did on yesterday’s English Lit test?” I offered to steer the subject in a different direction.
“I aced that biotch!” exclaimed Mikey, even though he rarely got anything above a “C.”
“I think I did pretty well, too,” I stated.
Of course, Mikey had to start in on me, again. “I’m surprised you could concentrate on the test, what, with you drooling over April all day.”
“I think that was you, Mike!” Connor interjected, coming to my rescue yet again. “We’d better get to homeroom, though, before the bell rings.” We took our seats just as the second bell rang.
The rest of the day went by without incident. In Biology, April even gave me a note that of course smelled of roses. I waited until last period, though, to read it:
Jimmy,
I think you’re really cute. I hope you think I’m pretty, also.
I was hoping you’d ask me to the Winter Dance, if you don’t already have a date.
Let me know…okay?
- April
It was a short note, but one that made me very happy. It got me equally as nervous, though. I had never even held a girl’s hand…so how was I going to take one to the dance? I had nothing to wear, and I’d have to get a corsage. At the end of the night, she’d probably expect me to kiss her. It’s not that I didn’t want to, but what if I was bad at it and she told everyone at school? I definitely didn’t want Mikey to know about this note, but I’d probably tell Connor about it on the way home from school.
“Hey, Connor,” I started as we made our way home, “April gave me a note today in Biology.”
“No way, dude! That’s great….what’d it say?”
“She wants to go to the Winter Dance with me.” I explained. Connor thought that was great. “But, I’m scared. I have never been that close to a girl. How will I know if I should kiss her?”
“You’ll just know,” he offered with confidence. Connor had kissed a few girls over the last year, even though he never really dated any of them.
“How will I know how to kiss,” I asked, “…so I don’t gross her out?”
My best friend just started cracking up laughing. “You know I’m your best friend and would do anything for you, dude….but, I’m not kissing you!” he teased. Hearing that made me laugh and lightened my mood.
That is, until we rounded the next corner. Blue and red lights were flashing near my house. I could see a portly police officer putting my Mom in the back of a squad car. She was handcuffed!
I forgot about Connor and the note from April, and sprinted to my house as the police car containing my Mom drove off. I don’t know when I started crying, but tears were streaming down my face. At first, I figured it was just snowflakes that landed on me, melting. I was screaming, trying to catch my mother. I didn’t know what was going on. As I reached my house, a tall, middle-aged, uniformed officer asked if I was James Nelson.
“Where did you take my Mom?” I screamed
, through my sobbing and tears.
“It’ll be alright, son,” the officer told me. “Are you James Nelson?”
“YES! YES! Why did you take my Mom away?” I demanded.
“Because she isn’t your Mom,” the tall officer answered.
That’s all I remember before I fainted.
Click here to purchase “As the Snow Falls – Vol. 1” by M.D. James from the Kindle Store.