Their First Christmas
written by: Tom Minder
@tom_minder
Louie cut into the Fruit Loops box and carefully worked the blades around the Toucan. “Boy, it’s impossible to cut using these kiddie scissors,” he said, his concentration clear by the tongue between his teeth.
Frank nodded as he drew snowflakes, ornaments, and lights in bright colors onto the flattened toilet paper rolls.
They strung the cord first between the walls and then floor to ceiling. Two moth-eaten blankets formed the tree, tapered on the top and spread wide on the bottom, the base secured by chairs on both sides.
“I remember the Christmases growing up,” said Frank. “We’d drive out and find a tree. Dad would cut it down and we’d drag it into the house, position it into a base, handed down from my grandparents, fill the base with water, then decorate the tree with homemade trinkets which we made during the year.”
“I wasn’t so lucky,” said Louie. “Not so much money for decorations when your parents smoked and drank the savings away.”
“Well, now we’re here,” said Frank. “A petty thief and an embezzler. We got what we deserved, I guess.”
Louie turned on a small radio. “Let me find some Christmas tunes.”
‘Grandma got run over by a reindeer,’ streamed out. The men laughed. “Now it feels like Christmas,” Frank said.
Louie flipped his mattress and exposed his magazine stash. He cut out Mariah Carey, barely clothed in holiday garb, took a glue stick, and attached the singer to a plastic knife. The men carefully positioned their Christmas star atop the tree and stood back to admire.
“Merry Christmas, Louie,” said Frank. He reached for a cookie tin and held it out for his friend.
Louie found a chocolate Santa, as Frank chose a reindeer.
“Merry Christmas, my friend,” said Louie. “May you dream of sugar plumbs and Mariah Carey.”
Frank handed Louie a plastic glass of prison punch freshly mixed. He lifted his cup and proposed a toast.
“Merry Christmas, mein Freund, as The Red Baron said. And may we meet next year in better circumstances.”
“What’s circumstances are better than celebrating with friends,” said Louie.
“Merry Christmas,” came a male voice from the radio, ending the tragic story of Grandma.
The men tapped their glasses together and drank to Christmases in the future.
- Their First Christmas - December 14, 2024
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