“Christmas Eve”
“Supremely-anticipated Christmas Eve finally arrived. Snow fell that day and all the neighborhood kids gathered for snowball fights and snowman construction. He wore black-rubber boots with metal fittings that snapped in and locked tight, a heavy woolen coat, a knit scarf, and mittens that made it difficult to use his hands. When covered in snow […]
Continue reading“Christmas Ritual”
“Another ritual the children anticipated with impatience was the trip to Lazarus, a large downtown department store in their hometown. The family rarely went downtown and the fact that this trip took place at nighttime added to its mystery and romance. A seventy-five-foot-high Christmas tree made out of silvered electric lights blazed across the front […]
Continue reading“Christmas Preparations”
“He watched with silent fascination as his mother opened the boxes containing the invocatory ceremonial utensils, as holy for him as any shining on a church’s altar. There was the small Christmas tree that one wound up and set spinning. As it rotated holiday music emerged from an internal mechanism, invisibly, as if by magic. […]
Continue reading“That Sky!”
“Orenda was the first to notice the extraordinary color of the sky. It was malachite green! Not one of them had ever before seen a sky of such color. But Sonca knew what caused the phenomenon. “I read about this once. It’s called airglow and is a form of chemiluminescence. It’s sort of a wispy […]
Continue reading“Arrival”
“The path was difficult to follow as the trees there grew closely together. But, after a long slog, he finally emerged on the far side of the dense forest. He stood on a smooth-earthed beach, which ran alongside a riffling stream of beautiful aquamarine-colored water. The moment that he saw the water, the boy realized […]
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