Just around the corner

I’ve searched everywhere I possibly can, except for my hometown newspaper archives, which are 900 miles away, and I can’t find the Christmas story I wrote back in about 1982. So I’m going to try to rewrite it as best I can. Maybe this version will turn out even better than the yellowed newspaper clipping gathering dust somewhere in my basement.


Grandma’s house was magical. I could stick a piece of white paper in a tray of water in a big, long sink in a room with a funny colored light, swish the paper around with tongs, and the paper would turn into a photograph! Cereal at Grandma's house had tiny colored marshmallows. And at Christmastime, her tree had candle-shaped lights that bubbled!

Grandma’s house always had wonderful smells. In the mornings, before the sun came up, we could smell the freshly pressed corduroy she would iron for Grandpa before he went to work. Grandma had a drawer full of beautifully shaped and ornately decorated bottles of perfume, and she always let me pick which one to sprinkle onto the freshly washed hankies edged with her delicate hand-crocheted lace and sometimes decorated with her detailed silk embroidery. And at Christmastime, Grandma’s house always smelled of homemade gingerbread.

Of course, the pleasure of decorating the gingerbread houses was reserved for us kids, as was licking the bowl when we were done.

Each year, there was a trip to the mall and a visit with a jolly old man in red with a real white beard.

One year, I asked Santa for a bicycle. All the kids in my neighborhood rode their bikes to school, and they’d ride up and down the street after school. My turquoise strap-on rollerskates with a key no longer fit, and it was time for two wheels.

“Have you been good?” the old man asked after I whispered in his ear.

“Oh, yes, Santa, I have been very good! I make my bed, and I pick up my toys. I help Grandma hang the clothes on the line in the backyard, and I always clean my plate.”

“Well, then,” Santa replied, “I think you should look for a very special package beneath the tree on Christmas morning."

I just knew I’d have a shiny, red bike on Christmas morning! I could barely keep my feet on the floor as I rushed to tell Grandma the good news.

“Oh,” she responded, “Christmas is still just around the corner!”

The days seemed to take too long, and I impatiently asked Grandma every day, sometimes more than once a day, “How much longer until Christmas?”

Always, she gave the same response.

“Christmas is just around the corner, Sweetie.”

Finally, I could no longer contain myself. The boys were in the tub, splashing away, and Grandma was busy trying to keep the water off the floor. Grandpa was golfing. Dad was at work. No one was watching.

So out the door I snuck, closing it behind me, ever so softly. Down the street I skipped. Around the corner I peered. Nothing but houses.

Well, maybe it wasn’t the right corner. I skipped another block. Around the corner I peeked. Cars whooshed by, but there was something across the street. I had to get closer.

I looked left, I looked right. I waited. I looked left again, I looked right, and across the street I darted. Down the grassy slope into a big, huge parking lot, filled with cars and undecorated Christmas trees and people rushing to and fro. I walked toward the big building, and the closer I got, the better I could see.

There, right in front of the big glass entryway, was a whole row of bright red shiny bicycles!

On my heels I turned, and off I ran, still carefully checking left and right before crossing the busy street. I ran all the way back to Grandma’s house, slowly pushed open the door, then gently closed it behind me. I peered into the hallway, where Grandma was wrapping warm, oversized towels around my soaked little brothers.

“Where have you been?” she asked me, turning with her hands on her hips, the universal signal for, “You’ve been caught, Little Missy!”

“I found Christmas!” I gushed.

“Oh,” Grandma said, chuckling, a familiar twinkle in her eye, “Christmas is still just around the corner!”

But I knew! I had seen it! Christmas truly was just around the corner!

Tweet

Pin It