Anastasia's Grail

by Mary Pearson

the right weight, he might think that person was too thin. A very thin man might say the same person is too fat. So someone who leans toward austerity in their personality might think the Church too opulent, but an extravagant person by nature would see it as austere.”

  Stacy nodded. “I’m beginning to see your point. A person who tends toward sexual excess would see the church as being oppressive and controlling…”

  Arthur finished for her, “and a person who tends toward prudishness would find it out of control and vulgar. Chesterton’s point was that the Church in actuality is right down the middle. Common sense indicates that if there are people criticizing her from either direction, she must be standing firmly right where she should be.”

  Stacy’s face reflected the relief she felt. “It seemed like I was the only one who was noticing these inconsistencies.”

  “Nope,” Arthur smiled ruefully. “Just like Chesterton, you set out to find the truth and landed in your own back yard.” He extended a hand to her. “Welcome back.”

  Stacy took his hand, then impulsively she hugged him. “Thank you for being here for me. You’re like the big brother I never had.”

  There was a look of vague pain behind his nod. “Any time… Sis.”

  As she was settling down to sleep that night, relieved to finally have some answers to her many questions about the church, Stacy realized with a start that it was mid-December. Christmas was only a couple of weeks away. She had not even begun to think about what she should get for people, and especially for Darius. It needed to be something pretty special since this was their first Christmas together. She would also have to get something for each of her family members. She counted the money she would receive from her work at the bread shop between now and then. Grandma Annie couldn’t afford to pay full wages yet. She and Emily would get $100 a week for putting in four hours a night. That would give her $200. She still had the forty dollars she hadn’t needed to spend on a dress. It wasn’t much. She regretted the fast food, movie and clothing purchases that had prevented her from being a better saver. She would just have to divide it out, with most going towards Darius’ gift—of course. She closed her eyes and decided to get started shopping that weekend. She fell asleep, counting possible gifts in lieu of sheep.

  Smokin’ Snowman

  Stacy knew it was absurd, but she felt guilty. She realized she hadn’t been much fun for Darius since the winter formal. First, she had refused to hang out with him so that she could go to Confirmation class. Then she had insisted he visit with her family so that they would stay out of trouble—only she didn’t tell him that. She didn’t want to be the reason their love died. She made a resolution to be more open to romance with him.

  When they saw each other that day at school she offered to hang out at his house and apologized for Reecie being such a pest the previous evening.

  “I wish we could. Tonight I’ve got some appointments—business,” he said quickly. “I’ve arranged to have a rock band do a sample performance for the manager of Chez Herman. I need to be there to negotiate.” He flipped open his cell phone and checked his schedule. “We could get together and do something Saturday evening.”

  Stacy nodded. “What time?”

  “I’ll pick you up at eight at your place.”

  Stacy socialized with the family for the rest of the week. She found she really liked doing religious interval training with George. It felt good to be working her muscles regularly and she appreciated being able to get a rosary in at the same time. She and Emily were growing closer since they had begun spending more time together. As a family they put up and decorated two Christmas trees—one at home and one in the hallway of the bread shop—on Friday night. They also dug out Stacy’s great grandmother’s nativity and arranged the little porcelain figures of Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus, plus sheep and cows and little shepherds. There were even a couple of porcelain angels. The pieces were ancient and yellowed. Stacy looked forward to seeing them each year at this time. Never one to jump the liturgical gun, Grandma Annie refused to put the camels and wise men out until Epiphany. But she had made a makeshift advent candle which they had been lighting every night when they prayed together. Reecie was mesmerized by all of this and by the whisperings of presents soon to come. In all it was a magical time, and when big soft snowflakes began to tumble from the sky early Friday evening, the little cul-de-sac where they lived took on the glow of Christmas past.

  Reecie and the teens had a snowball fight in the street between the shop and their house after the rosary and before it was time for that night’s movie, for which Reecie was being allowed to stay up. Last year’s hot Christmas film about a sick elf being saved by a dog sledder who just happened to also be a medical doctor had become available at Rupert’s and George had snatched it up with Reecie in mind. Actually the family was always careful to make sure that Reecie knew there was no Santa Clause; he was only a fairy tale. None of them had been raised believing in Santa. Their mother and Stacy’s dad had been too traumatized when, as children, they found out it was all a lie. Stacy’s mom felt that if they lied about Santa, why wouldn’t it be just as likely they were lying about Jesus?

  Stacy and Emily got up at the crack of dawn the next morning in order to catch some of the early bird specials which were advertised in the paper. It was less than half price for bathrobes and slippers. Stacy bought a soft lavender set for her grandmother. She got her mother gourmet coffee beans and had a mug made for her with a particularly nice photo of Reece that Stacy had taken when they were playing in a pile of autumn leaves.

  She bought George a new fleece jogging suit—he liked to wear that kind of thing. She really lucked out when she found a pair of tennis shoes in Zeke’s size in a pile of clearance shoes. They were orange, but who can’t use a pair of orange tennies?

  She found a soft baby ogre doll that sang off-key lullabies and bought it for Reecie. That only left Emily, who was with her, and Darius.

  “Check this out!” Emily had found a device that projected a floating image of Jesus. “That’s really cool!”

  Stacy agreed, but it cost a bit much.

  “We could go in together and get it for Arthur,” was Emily’s suggestion. After doing the mental math, making sure she would still have enough left over to get Emily’s—and especially Darius’—presents, Stacy agreed. Arthur had become almost family to them. It would be an oversight if they didn’t get him something.

  Stacy did have an idea for Darius. She had heard that the hot vintage band, Downhill Nikki, was going to be in town the week after Christmas. If she could get him good seats to that concert, it would really be a coup, and she had an idea of how she might get them. Libby’s uncle, Ryan, was a close friend of the band’s lead singer, Jeff. Using her as a go-between, Stacy was sure she could get tickets near the stage. She hoped so, anyways. She needed to do something big to let Darius know he was special to her.

  Driving home after a successful day of shopping, Stacy noticed the gas guage on her mother’s vehicle was low. She decided to put in a few bucks and pulled into the nearest station. Stacy had rarely pumped gas, so she carefully read each one of the directions—to no avail. She simply couldn’t get the thing to pump. She was getting pretty frustrated by the time she bothered to look at the station itself. She immediately saw it was closed and boarded up. They were still by the mall and this was a very busy street. Realizing how stupid she must look, she hastily replaced the nozzle and pulled out of the parking lot.

  “Why didn’t you tell me that gas station was out of business?” she asked Emily, whose head was buried in a novel.

  “Huh?”

  “Never mind. I’ll just get gas someplace else.” Stacy drove a few blocks and pulled into the lot of a different station. This time she made sure it was open. When she flipped the lever to access the gas tank she realized that in her haste she had driven away minus the gas cap. She must have left it sitting on the trunk of the car. She quickly put in a few gallons and paid for it. “We�
�ve got to go back to that other station and get mom’s gas cap. I lost it there someplace.”

  As they neared the boarded up station Emily alerted her, “There it is.” She pointed to an object lying in the middle of the intersection.

  “This is not good,” Stacy said. When the light turned green, she pulled into the middle of the intersection and put the car in park.

  “What are you planning to do?” Emily asked, anxiety in her voice.

  “I’ve got to get it.” She opened the door.

  “You can’t!” Emily frantically grabbed her arm.

  “I’ve got to. Somebody will run it over.” Stacy shook her sister off and jumped out.

  “There’s more people involved than just you!” Emily yelled after her.

  But Stacy had left the car driverless and was nimbly prancing into the middle of the street, Emily stilling hurling protests. Cars swerved around them, impatient to cross, but no one even honked. One older gentleman held up a copy of the state driver’s manual, tapped it , and shook his head. Who keeps a copy of the driver’s manual in their car…? After scooping the thing up and hopping back in—a feat that took probably thirty seconds, but felt like an hour—the light was no longer green. There they were in the middle of the intersection with a red light. Stacy