“PEOPLE OF EARTH!” came the resounding roar, through every television, radio, or electronic device. All around the world, as citizens cleared the remnants of the Feast Of Thanks from the tables, the welcome voice boomed. “IT IS TIME ONCE AGAIN FOR THE FESTIVAL OF THE ANOINTMENT!”
*****
They kept to the side roads. They had learned, each
year, a little more. Some things, there was no way to stop: the star, for example
– and who would want to? But given that, in all other things, until the right
time, the less attention they drew themselves, the better.
The journey had to be made, every year. The actual location never mattered, provided that
the distance traveled was the same as that first, and so long as it ended at a
stable. Some things were immutable, some things were not. They no longer rode a
donkey, for example.
This year, it was an armored halftrack.
“Where are the cattle?” whispered this year’s Joseph.
They couldn’t count on cows being there, they’d
learned. If there was lowing to be done, they had to make sure it was ready to
go.
*****
Tom put down his dish towel. He looked at Lana. “I guess that’s it,” he said. “Will you be
able to put the kids to bed?”
Lana nodded. She helped Trini through her bath, made
sure Danny had brushed his teeth, at least (if not his hair!).
As she was tucking her daughter into bed, Trini asked:
“Mom, how long until the Saint visits?”
“Just a few weeks, honey,” Lana told her, patting her
head.
“Have I been good this year?”
“Uh-huh. Of course you have,” Lana reassured her. “You’re
always such a good girl.”
“Mom?” Trini asked, as Lana stood up. “Does the Saint
know I’ve been good?”
Lana nodded and kissed her little girl on her
forehead. “Of course he does, Sweetie. He watches you, all the time – and of course on Xmas Eve
he’ll come here and check one last time.” She looked at her watch. “OK. Enough for
tonight. Listen, you stay in bed all night, okay? Danny is in his room if you
need anything.”
Trini nodded. “Mom?” she asked.
“Yes,” Lana said, pausing at the door. “What is it?”
“Will you bring me something back?” Trini asked.
“Of course, sweetie!” Lana smiled. “That’s what it’s
all about!”
Downstairs, Tom was at the door with his parka already
on. “Don’t do this, Lana,” he said. “Stay home.”
Lana shook her head. “I’ve got to get to my post.”
Tom sighed. “You don’t have to. One per family is all
the Immortal Saint asks.”
Lana folded her arms. “I know that’s all he asks, Tom. But it’s not all I want to give.”
“Lana, it’s dangerous
out there. And we’re leaving the kids alone? It’s great you want to go out and
be on the front lines but you don’t have to do it. Remember: it’s the thought that counts.”
“Tom,” Lana said: “This… is war.”
*****
Joseph turned back to the private as the carrier was
camouflaged for the day. “What about the Secrets?”
The private flipped up a computer monitor and made
some gestures on it. A map resolved, showing glowing dots across the continent.
“We’ve got them spread out, lots and lots of them. They won’t deploy, most of
them, until the day before, if not the night before. But when they do they’ll
be all through the house. The Saint’s people won’t suspect a thing.”
“Hopefully,”
Joseph said. “I’d like it if they all heard the bells on Xmas Day.”
*****
Lana was stationed at the Mall just off I-50. Tom tried to monitor the news reports on
Huffington Post even as he watched his own, barely-visited artisanal street
mall on the edge of town. Information was both abundant and unreliable: first
it was reported that millions were staying home today, opting not to take part
in this year’s Black Friday. Those reports were fed to the media every year,
Tom knew, by both sides, in a massive
disinformation campaign that lately had erupted into overflow of data on the
Monday after the start of the Feast. He ignored them. While his own area might
be quiet, he heard enough intercom chatter to know that there was plenty of
action out there.
He saw a small crawl in one newsbox; it said that I-50
was shut down with traffic. Tom hoped it was just traffic. He was trying to click around and get more
information when two elderly people got out of an old station wagon. He watched
as the husband held the wife’s arm as she stepped up onto the sidewalk, still a
little slippery despite the spreading of salt.
As they approached him, Tom shouldered his gun.
“Happy holidays,” he said.
The woman glared at him, and even as he tried to pull
his gun down the man moved his arm to pull open his coat. Fire blazed up and out with a colossal roar…
*****
24 hours in, thought Joseph, as the private reported
heavy casualties. He was only this year’s Joseph, a man who a few days ago had
been someone else but whose real name was as irrelevant now as Joseph was at
the destination. He looked at this year’s Mary, who was barely 19.
“You doing okay?” he asked.
Mary patted her belly, lovingly. “I’m fine. Where are
we?”
“In the woods, actually. We’re going to hide out again
today, travel only by night.”
“Is that safe?”
“Safer than day. People have to sleep sometime.” Deep and dreamless sleep, he thought,
watching the silent stars above go by into the edge of the horizon as the sun
rose.
*****
“I just don’t understand,” Danny said. “Why was Dad
even there? Why would they kill him?”
“They’re crazy, Danny. Just obsessed.” Lana said. “They
won’t let us just live our lives the way the Saint wants us to. They insist
that we have to follow them, and do
things their way. We can’t have that
happen.” She didn’t want to get into the whole baby thing, either. Not with
Trini in the car. It was too complicated.
All three of them fell silent as they drove slowly away from the cemetery,
where they’d gone each day since the funeral.
Lana went there to strengthen her resolve. She felt the children needed
to go there so they would not lose sight of the results of fighting this war
each year. It was not enough to just
enjoy the spoils of the battle; they must learn how much those things cost.
And
learn that cost is no object, Lana found herself
thinking. The weather outside the car was turning frightful, and they had no
place to go.
*****
“24 hours to go. 24! We’ve got this!” Joseph said.
They were already at the site of the stable, and scouts had reported that the
manger was set. Livestock were being
slowly brought through the woods to the edge of town, ready to be stabled
tonight. Reports came in: the three wise
men had been found and provided their objects. Several privates had been
detailed to shepherd duty. Everything was coming together. Maybe this year... Joseph hardly dared let himself hope. So many
times they’d come so close.
“Joseph?” he heard behind him. In the confines of the armored carrier, the
dim computer lights barely carried to the corner where Mary sat. He looked at her.
“Yes?”
“I just wanted you to know, I appreciate this. We all
do. You’re really doing a lot, here.”
“Someone has to,” Joseph said.
“Well, it didn’t have to be you,” Mary said. “Maybe… maybe after this is all over we
could… you and I…?”
Joseph smiled ruefully. “Sweetheart, this may never be over.” Mary looked down,
sadly.
Joseph went and knelt by
her. “Unless this year we manage to pull
it off…” he whispered.
Mary looked up at him hopefully.
*****
Lana was so tired she could barely stand. She almost
just lay down on Trini’s bed next to the little girl, but instead sat next to
her, rubbing her soft hair as the girl relaxed.
“Mommy, will
you say the poem one more time?”
Lana smiled sadly. “Sure,” she said, then began the
creed everyone knew from memory:
Twas
the night before Xmas and all round the world
Were
nestled the good little boys and the girls.
While
Mom in the bedroom and Dad on the stairs
Stand
vigilant to protect what is theirs.
‘Til
over the rooftop they hear the loud thunder
Of
the Saint and his coursers, bearing their plunder.
From
the far frozen north comes the Saint in his quest
To
destroy and remove any claims someone’s blessed,
And
he’ll search every house, search them all one-by-one
Until
in the morning his grim task is done.
Then,
upon making certain no spirit is lurking
He’ll
throw wide the curtains and go back to working,
Allowing
the sun to shine in, as he goes,
On
the presents for the faithful that he has bestowed.
Lana paused.
The rest of it could wait. Trini was sound asleep, a small smile on her
face.
*****
“This is it, people,” Joseph hissed into his wrist
communicator.
Mary was breathing more heavily, and Joseph held her
hand as she bore down with the next contraction.
“That was great, Mary, just great,” he encouraged her.
“Only a few more.”
They were coming upon midnight, and all was clear. Joseph
began to hope, just a little.
*****
Lana went downstairs to make one last sweep of the
house, ensure everything was in order. She
found Danny in the recroom by the third tree they’d put up – couldn’t be too
supportive!—with some new girl Lana hadn’t met before.
“Who’s this?” Lana asked.
“Oh. Um. Mom. This is. This.” Danny began to blush.
“I’m Susan,” the girl said. “Danny’s… friend.”
Lana narrowed her eyes. “I don’t think I’ve heard of
you before, Susan. Shouldn’t you be home with your family?”
Susan nodded. “I was getting ready to leave in a bit,
but I got Danny in the gift exchange at school and came over to give him his
present. We were just going to…” she trailed off, gesturing at the backpack
sitting near her leg.
“All right,” Lana said. “But Danny, not too late. The
Saint won’t come until we’re all asleep, remember.”
“I remember, Mom. I remember.”
Lana wouldn’t have ordinarily left him alone in the
basement with a girl, like that, but she figured it couldn’t hurt, this year,
and Danny needed some cheering up since Tom… she headed back upstairs.
*****
“He’s beautiful,”
said Mary. She was crying, holding the
baby.
“Swaddle him. Swaddle him!” Joseph was already peering
at the sky, and: there it was. The star. The star! They’d done it. This time, for sure. Nobody was even near
them. He muttered orders into his communicator, got jingled confirmations from
the shepherds. They were on their way.
“Cue the cattle,” he said, as the little baby fell
asleep. This would be the second test: would the poor baby wake? Without making
a sound?
*****
Danny excused himself to go get Susan a Coke ™, and as
soon as she heard his feet going up the stairs, she opened up the
backpack. After pulling out a
gaudily-wrapped box that she set on the sofa, she dug deeper, and came up with
several little bells shaped like angels, each with a cord attached to its
head. She quickly moved to the tree,
hanging them from branches – not hidden, but not obtrusive, either. Then she went back to the backpack.
“Do you want ice?” Danny yelled from the top of the
stairs, nearly giving her a heart attack.
“Um. Yeah! Lots of it,” she said. She heard his
footsteps move away again.
She pulled from the backpack a treetopper star – six
pointed, gleaming with gold and silver and what she assumed were fake diamonds
but which looked real. On its face
was a small engraving of a baby in a manger.
Would
he notice it? She pulled off the topper the tree had had on it – a Star Wars™ figure, and
put the star up there. She kicked Xmas Vader under the couch just as Danny got
down the stairs, and as he turned the corner she said “Can I take off my
sweater? It’s hot in here,” thereby guaranteeing that Danny would not be
looking at the tree.
Secret
Santa 117, mission accomplished, she would later text to
the code source on her way home.
*****
“Now!” said Joseph, urgently into his commlink. Around
the country, operatives pressed buttons and activated switches. Joseph could
hear bells start to ring through his radio set, and then in the town around
him.
He turned back to Mary. “Hopefully that’s enough,” he
said.
*****
Lana woke to a roaring, gnashing howl. She immediately
assumed they were under attack, and rose from her bed to see what was the matter. She pulled on night-vision goggles while running downstairs, holding her gun. “STAY IN YOUR ROOMS!” she yelled to the
children. The sound was coming from the
rec room -- but upon entering, her wondering eyes began to goggle, and she dropped her
weapon.
She flicked on the light.
“Lana,” the voice said. It was a voice that could
have, in different circumstances, been jovial, even jolly, coming from so deep
in a belly like that, then pouring out through a curly, wispy beard. “Lana, I’m
so disappointed in you…”
She said “What…?” Her eyes followed to where the Saint
was pointing, his mitten dusted with soot and a little damp from the snow
outside. She saw the star, and on closer
inspection the tiny angel bells, which were ringing. She hadn’t noticed it when
she first entered the room; they were soft but clear chimes, like bells
carrying from far away across a frozen field, on a quiet still night.
“I thought you were a good girl, Lana,” the Saint said.
Lana dropped to her knees. “I am! I don’t know how…”
but before she could do anything, the Saint said “What?”
She looked up. The Saint was gazing into a snowglobe,
from which a voice came, telling him some news about a manger… Lana held her
breath.
“No!” the Saint yelled. He put a finger alongside his
nose and disappeared. In his place were three small lumps of coal. Lana began
crying.
*****
Joseph – for he was
Joseph now, having earned the name – flipped from channel to channel on the
television in the small hotel room they’d checked into just after sunrise.
Nothing said he had to stay in the
manger, after all.
“The President will address a joint session of
Congress…” one anchor said. On the next station a reporter in front of the
Kremlin said: “Mr. Putin said that his nation would join…” On the third
station, the anchor said, solemnly, “And so I and everyone at Channel 3 would
like to say: Glory to the newborn King.”
His voice lilted as he said it, turning it into a song.
“Come here,” Mary said. “Come look at him.” Joseph did. The kid was so cute.
No comments:
Post a Comment