The Christmas Wish

By Audrey W.

Johnny whistled the tune ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ as he strolled across the apparatus bay towards the locker room. On his way, he ran into Chet, who was already in uniform and headed for the dayroom.

“Aren’t you tired of Christmas carols yet, Gage? They’ve been playing them on the radio for a month!”

Johnny paused in his whistling and grinned. “Nope. Chet, tomorrow’s Christmas Day . . .where’s your holiday spirit?”

“I think it left about December 15^th.”

Johnny shook his head and continued whistling as he made his way to the locker room. Opening the swinging door, he walked in. Roy was still in the process of changing.

“Good mornin’,” Johnny said as he stepped over the bench and opened his locker.

“Morning! You sure sound happy.”

“I am. I figure we may have to work on Christmas Eve, but I’m gonna make the best of it.”

“Yeah? Well, I think I have something that’ll even make it better for you.”

Johnny glanced at Roy as he changed his shirt. “What’s that?” he asked, eyeing a small package wrapped in Christmas paper.

“The kids wanted to give you a present. So I told them I’d bring it for you today.”

His blue shirt unbuttoned, Johnny took the package from his partner and turned it slightly, examining the wrapping. The paper was crumpled on uneven corners and strips of tape were haphazardly placed about.

“They wrapped it themselves, huh?”

“Yeah. Jennifer does fine by herself, but get the two of them on it together and no tellin’ how it’ll turn out.”

“You know what it is?”

“Yeah . . . and I think you’ll enjoy it.”

Johnny eyed his partner warily, then sat down on the bench in front of the lockers and began tearing open the wrap. When the paper was off, he placed the children’s shoebox on his lap, and balled up the paper, tossing it into his open locker.

“Aren’t these gonna be kind of small?” the dark-haired man commented, staring down at the still-closed box. “Besides, I’m not into ‘Mary Jane’ shoes. It’s not quite the fad,” he kidded.

Roy rolled his eyes. “Just open it.”

Gage lifted the lid and pushed back green tissue paper, exposing a small plastic snow globe. He gently picked it up and tipped it upside down, then upright again. The little white ‘snowflakes’ slowly made their way down around the plastic snowman, deer and tree inside.

“A snow scene?”

The senior paramedic nodded. “Remember when you came over for Thanksgiving dinner and mentioned you wished you could have a white Christmas sometime?”

Johnny thought a moment, trying to recall the conversation. He pictured them eating dinner, then Jennifer and Chris following him around as he helped Roy and Joanne clear the table. The kids had been asking him all sorts of questions. They’d gotten on the subject of Christmas and. . .”Oh yeah, I did kind of casually mention it.” He looked at Roy in surprise. “They really remembered that?”

Once again, Roy nodded. “Kids have a mind like a steel trap when they want to. You’d be amazed at what they recall. . .some things you or I would probably think nothing of after a few days.”

“Huh. . .” he held up the snow scene and shook it, watching the ‘snow’ once again float down in the water surrounding it. A smile crept across his face as he recalled Christmas’s of past when it had actually snowed where he lived at the time.

As the last of the flakes settled, Johnny set the empty shoebox beside him on the bench, then stood up and placed the snow globe in his locker, making sure it was safely tucked away in a corner. Unbuttoning his jeans, he turned to his partner. “So, how about when I come over tomorrow afternoon, we get on the subject of sports cars and why it would be handy for a bachelor to have one as a second mode of transportation.”

DeSoto closed his locker and shook his head, grinning. “Get dressed. It’s almost roll call.” He stepped around the bench and headed for the apparatus bay.

The younger paramedic watched the door begin to close behind Roy. “Can’t blame a guy for tryin’!” he hollered. Getting just a quick wave over the shoulder from his partner, he returned his attention to getting ready for work.

Thanks for the beta read, Kenda! And thanks to my daughter who was drawing snowflakes today and inspired me on this.

Merry Christmas! :o)