(Advent) Day 8: Christmas cards

Thursday, December 8

Normally, Thursdays were their days off, but Molly had decided that she wanted to go into the store to finish her cookies for the bake sale on Saturday. Also, it was easier to pack everything up there, since most of her supplies were at the tea shop. Schrodinger was happy to join her, as he loved seeing folks come in.

The snow had finally stopped, and it was a bright sunny day outside, the sunshine glimmering off the piles of snow that surrounded and surmounted everything. The air was crisp, clean, and sharp enough to cut glass. Schrodinger had worn both his hat and his coat, but he was still refusing to wear boots, since the fur between his toes was nice and thick and protected his paw pads. Molly had finally attached her Yaktrax to her boots, since there was a thin glaze of ice that coated the new snow.

Now, Schrodinger was drowsing in his bed next to the wood stove, and Molly was sitting in the kitchen, nursing a cup of tea and enjoying the quiet bustle before starting the decorations. All the candy cane cookies were packaged up and tied with red ribbons, and the tea cakes were wrapped in red and green cellophane. Sue had dropped off the labels she made every year the other day, so everything that was wrapped was labeled and in boxes, ready to go. All she had left to do was decorate the gingerbread men and women, and the snowflake cookies, and package the shortbread.

“That’s a very serious face,” Aunt Margie said, coming in and sitting opposite her. “What deep thoughts are you thinking?”

“Honestly, nothing that deep,” Molly admitted, grinning at her aunt. “I’m just wondering if dipping the vanilla shortbread I made in dark chocolate would be over the top or not.” She got up and poured her aunt a cup of hot water. “What kind of tea would you like?”

“Some of the peppermint herbal, I think, actually,” Aunt Margie said. “My stomach hasn’t been the best this week for some reason.”

Molly took down the peppermint and asked, “Do you want me to add a bit of honey as well? That might help.”

“No, just the peppermint, thank you.” Aunt Margie accepted the cup of tea and then said, “What if you dipped half in the chocolate and left some plain? That way, people could have a choice.”

“I might. I’ll see how long it takes me to decorate everything.” Molly took her seat again and picked up her mug

“Have you decided what your showpiece is for the gingerbread?” Aunt Margie asked her.

“Sort of. I’m still working on the details, but I think so.” Molly did a sculpture in gingerbread every year as her centerpiece for the bake sale, and she hated to repeat (although the magical lake with the skating children had shown up several years in a row before she retired it).

“You do realize that the bake sale is Saturday, right? Will you have time?”

“Yes, of course I will,” Molly said. “I’m not planning on doing something like the castle or the pirate ship.”

“Thank heaven for small favors,” Aunt Margie said dryly, and then laughed and got up. “I suppose I should go and make sure the store is still running. I assume that the children will be here after school?”

“Yes. Zeke was going to bring them in, since Kiaya’s already here writing, and Corrine’s working today.” Molly sighed. “And no, before you ask, nothing on Caliban.”

“I wasn’t going to ask, actually,” Aunt Margie said. “I don’t think he’s going to come here, Molly. I think you need to stop worrying, and enjoy the Christmas season.” She reached out a warm hand and laid it on her niece’s cheek. “There’s not always an underlying cloud, you know. Sometimes, people really do just move on, and I think that’s what Caliban has done.”

“I wish I could be sure of that,” Molly said, leaning against the warm touch.

She was working on the gingerbread men and women when she heard the children come in. Gideon and Kaylee were talking excitedly about something they had discovered, and she could hear Jack woofing quietly to Schrodinger. But she didn’t hear Lily, and had to actually look out to make sure her other niece had actually come in with them.

Lily had already taken a seat near the wood stove and was writing in her little notebook. Goldie was sitting near her, reading from his book, and watching her when he thought she wasn’t looking. Her aunt may think that Caliban wasn’t a big deal, but it was obvious that Pavel still did.

“Molly, can we do the castle now?” Kaylee had caught sight of her and came running over, Gideon right behind her.

She smiled down at them. “We can, if Lily’s ready. Let me go and get it. I’m decorating in the kitchen, so you’ll have to stay out here today, okay?”

Kaylee pouted a little at that, but Gideon nodded. “Because you have all the cookies out, right, Molly? Are we helping decorate cookies today?”

“Maybe,” Molly said, and went to go get the castle.

Lily had finished writing by the time she came back out with the advent castle, and the six of them looked for the little number 8. After a few moments, Goldie came over to join them.

“Isn’t that it?” he said, pointing to one of the windows on the main building.

Leaning over, Lily nodded. “It is, Goldie! Press it!”

The pirate’s finger touched the golden number, floating next to a large window. The window opened up and they all saw a room full of people sitting at desks, busily writing on small pieces of paper.

“It’s an assembly line of cards!” Lily said, awed, and Molly saw she was right. The cards started at one end, where the design on the front was drawn on. Then it was passed to the next person, who inked the design in. The third person then took the card and colored in the design. The fourth person wrote inside, and then it went to the last person, who stuck it in an envelope, wrote a name on the front, and placed it in a basket. There were two other people who were collecting the baskets and pouring the completed cards into a large mailing bag.

“Is that Santa’s assembly line?” Gideon wondered.

“It kind of looks like it,” Molly agreed. “I had no idea the Snow Queen did so many Christmas cards!”

One of the cards, instead of landing in the mail bag, sailed up and out the window, and landed in Lily’s hand. She opened the envelope, and read out loud, “I happen to know that the post office is in need of a special decoration this year. Do you think you can help them? Talk to Molly – she’s got the goods!” She looked up at her aunt. “What are we doing for the post office, Molly?”

“Well, what kind of decorations do you think they should have?” Molly asked.

“Christmas cards!” Gideon said promptly. “Because they do so many!”

“I thought you might say that,” Molly agreed. “Wait here. Goldie, can you help me and bring the castle back?”

Once the castle had been stowed in the pantry, Goldie and Molly brought out several large boxes of Christmas cards, glue , and scissors, as well as a large bundle of ribbon. “Aunt Margie found a whole box of these from last year that we thought we’d lost,” Molly explained, as they set everything in front of the kids. “So we thought that it would be fun for you to use them to make decorations for the post office. What do you think?”

“Oh yes!” The kids began to pull out the cards, and sorting through them. Goldie settled down with his book again, and Molly went back to her cookies, half-listening to them plan as she decorated.

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“These are amazing,” Lily said, pulling the cards out. “Look at them all.”

“What can we do with them?” Kaylee asked, running her fingers over one card that had penguins and a Christmas tree on it, all dusted with glitter.

Gideon pointed to the Christmas tree. “What if we made sculptures with them?” he said. “Like trees, and houses?”

I like that idea! We can make a village, and then they can keep it year after year, Schrodinger said. That would be cool!

Yes, we can make the Cove! Jack added.

In the end, that proved a little harder than they had realized. While it was easy to make trees from the cards, using the glue Molly had provided, their houses didn’t really hold together.

Well, how about this? What if we made the skating cove instead? Schrodinger said, as Kaylee and Gideon finally gave up on the house they were trying to put together. We have a lot of blue that we can use to make the ice, and we can do trees! And then maybe Molly will give us some lights to string through the trees.

“Oh, I like that idea, Schrodinger!” Lily gave him a hug. “You’re a genius!”

Once they had figured it out, the skating cove came together quickly, with lots of trees lining the shore. They had even managed to figure out how to make the rocks in the center, with flames leaping from the bonfire.

As they were finishing up, Molly came out with cups of hot cocoa (and tea for Schrodinger and Jack), and cookies. “Wow, guys, that looks awesome!” she said admiringly.

“Schrodinger said you might have lights we could use,” Lily said. “And we have lots of cards left over.”

“I do have lights, yes,”  Molly agreed. “And we’ll keep the cards for later. Unless you want to send some?”

They looked at each other. “That would be fun,” Gideon said. “I can send one to Grammie!”

“I can send one to Zoey!” Lily said.

“And we can send one to Brynna too!” Kaylee added. “And Grandma and Grandpa!”

By the time that Zette stopped by on her way home from the post office to pick everything up, they had a stack of envelopes for her, and Kaylee and Gideon were reading to Jack and Schrodinger while Lily worked on homework. The mail carrier exclaimed over the scene they had set up, and promised to send Molly a picture of it set up in the post office window.

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It had been a while since Caliban had walked among people, just walked, not flaunting his power, but moving like a ghost through their masses. He was dressed in regular pants, boots, and a jacket that he had seen pictures of in a window at one of the towns he’d passed through after he left Nadine’s palace, courtesy of his magic, but other than that and disguising his face so that he wasn’t recognized, he didn’t use any of his gifts. He was on foot, walking the Roads aimlessly, waiting to see where he was actually pulled.

He’d thought of going to see Jack, see why he’d sent him the brown leaf, but after leaving Nadine’s, that thought had drifted away, blown by the winds on the Roads. Caliban simply wandered, leaning on a slender oaken staff that he’d found one night, all his worldly goods in a simple backpack. It was soothing, in a way nothing had been in a very long time.

Now, he wandered through a small town, not really sure where he was, and not caring. Wherever he was, it was early spring: there were still small piles of snow here and there, mostly under eaves and tree branches, but the air held the promise of warmth, and he could feel the sun’s rays caressing his cheeks, even under the beard he’d let grow. There were light green buds on the trees, and it was mud, not snow, under his feet.

The village itself was busy, as if waking up from a long winter slumber. Windows were open and people called to one another in happy, cheerful voices, haggling over services and gossip as if they hadn’t seen each other in months. He accepted a small bun from a child selling them, and gave her a silver coin; she smiled at him and ran off to sell more. The bun was warm, full of raisins and cinnamon, and Caliban chewed on it contentedly as he walked down the main street.

Contentment. It had been a very long time since he’d felt anything like this, and Caliban almost fell over when he realized what it was. For so long, he’d been striving towards…what? Power? A kingdom of his own? He wasn’t even sure anymore.

Perhaps I shall find it on the road, he thought, the last of the bun melting on his tongue. Perhaps the road is what I’m looking for.

>Activity: Everyone likes to receive a Christmas card! Send one to someone you haven’t seen in a while.

Originally published at The words of Valerie Griswold-Ford. You can comment here or there.