Chapter Four

By December 20th he house was full of gifts! They were crammed into every nook and cranny that Calla could possibly fit them in. She bought loads of toys for the children, books, dolls, and learning DVDs by the cartful. Although she tried hard to stick to the one present apiece rule, there were just a few little things she wanted to get for each of their friends and so she did.

True to his word, Daniel came home early almost all the next week and they battled the Christmas Shoppers together. The stores were crowded, the roads were mobbed and bad now that the snow had become so deep, and overall, while she liked buying things for the people she loved, Calla hated Christmas Shopping. Worst of all it was so cold these days, the sun was gone by four in the afternoon and if she didn’t wear the big heavy mittens Daniel had given her last year, her fingers were frozen within moments. The blanket was in the backseat of the car once more, she would bundle it over her knees while they drove around. Last night, on their way home, they stopped and purchased a large Christmas tree at a roadside stand. It took a good deal of the night to move the living room furniture around and wrangle the thing through the front door but they finally managed it and now it stood in a stand by the picture window waiting for her to decorate it.

Calla now stood at the dining room table wrapping the last of the gifts while Nicholas and Colleen happily munched on ArrowRoot cookies in their swings being entertained by Thomas the Tank Engine.

The telephone began to ring. Calla looked into the kitchen to see the clock on the stove; 11:43. Glancing back at the phone she decided to let the machine pick it up. Daniel’s cheery message flicked on and then was followed by dead silence while the caller held the line and their tongue. She wished whoever it was would stop calling, it was obvious that they had the wrong number. Why did they have to sit there like that? Why couldn’t they at least say something or just hang up? The caller held the line until she shut the machine off.

With a small annoying shiver running down her spine and pile of brightly wrapped gifts behind her. “Well, whoever it is, we don’t want to know them either, now do we?” She asked of her son who was looking up at her with a quizzical expression, half-mauled cookie in his hand. Colleen held her arms out to her mother, Calla planted a peck on her cookie-strewn cheek and was happily surprised when the baby put her arms around her mother’s neck and gave her a much-needed hug. “My two troopers,” Calla remarked and turned her attention to that barren tree in the living room.

Earlier in the day she had gone up to the attic and pulled some old photographs from a trunk she had stored up there, along with a few boxes of what she now knew were Christmas decorations. Once she had the lights on the tree, she plugged them in.

“Oooooooo” Nicholas shouted with delight and balled his little fists while he shook them in the air.

“Ury,” Colleen agreed.

“Pret-ty”, Calla corrected. “Pret-ty, just like you.”

“Put-ty, eee!” She mimicked back with glee.

With one eye on the faded color Polaroid and one on the tree, she began to hang the ornaments very carefully, one by one, until her work was almost finished.

The ornaments were old; some were brightly colored glass balls while others were most treasured decorations made by children long grown into men. She looked each one over and handled it with loving care while putting it in its proper place. Calla was not so enwrapped in her work that she did not notice the time or hear the front door open.

“Hi, hon....” Daniel stopped short at the sight of the tree and his living room. Everything around him seemed to echo and swirl, as though he were going through the Gate but not to another World but another Time. Suddenly he was nine years old again and awaiting the arrival of Santa Clause with great anticipation. Just the way that his children were now holding their cookie encrusted arms out to him.

“Daniel?” Calla asked with concern as she saw the look on his face; she hid the photograph behind her back. She watched her husband swallow hard and sniff back what she thought was a tear. “Are you all right?”

“You did all of this?” Standing very still, he looked around the room. There on the mantle was the nativity set which once sat above a different fireplace in a town called Chicago. On the table was a familiar set of ceramic carolers. On the door to the den hung a very familiar cloth cut out of Old Saint Nick himself. “Where did you get this stuff?” Any moment now his mother was going to come through the kitchen door with a tray of cookies in her hand, Davy would come rushing in the front door and throw his books on the table. Yes, any moment now...

Quietly Calla began to explain how she came to be in possession of the items he was so in awe. Unsure if he would be angry or not she carefully proceeded forward. The first thing Daniel had done once he got his hands on David’s death certificate was contact a lawyer in Illinois and start things in gear for selling the old family house. “All of this was in the house in Chicago,” she said quietly, “after you...died...I had people go through it, they found somethings in the attic, the decorations were among them.” Carefully she looked up at him and could not tell if he was pleased or on the verge of being angry. “ I’ve upset you, haven’t I? I’ll take it down.”

For the first time since he walked in the door he looked down at his wife and saw the hand behind her back. Daniel took her forearm and brought the old photograph around to the front of her body where he took it from her hand. Yes, he was nine. This was the best Christmas ever! It was the year his parents bought them the big Lionel train set! There it was in the photograph of him and David; they each had their conductor’s caps on and were wildly excited at watching the train go around the track set at the base of the Christmas tree. Daniel gazed from the tree in the picture to the one in his living room and back again. “It’s perfect.” He muttered joyfully and wrapped his arms around her in a big hug. “God I love you. It’s perfect, Calla.” Daniel planted a kiss on her cheek. “I can’t believe you did this for me.” Looking down at the picture in his hand he asked; “Where did you get this?” Daniel brushed a tear away from his eye.

The soft emotion in his voice brought a tear to her own eyes. This was the first time that he’d told her he loved her in weeks. “I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?”

“It’s supposed to be one of your Christmas gifts.” She stumbled with a wide-eyed look. “If you want it now, I guess you can have it.” Calla gave each baby a fresh cookie, reset their swings and then lead him up the stairs to the attic. “Follow me,” she went up the steps and Daniel followed. “Over there, it was in the house.” She pointed to a large trunk in the corner of the attic. “I was wondering how I was going to get it downstairs, now you can do it.” She joked as she lead him to it. Calla stopped in front of it. “Now, I haven’t looked through it very much, just what was on the top.” She explained. “I felt like I was intruding.” Calla began to mumble her words. “I didn’t even know if you’d want this, you must have packed it away for a reason....”

“I didn’t know it was there, move away.” Daniel told her as he walked over to inspect the old steamer trunk, the initials NVB boldly emblazoned upon it. Nicholas Victor Ballard. “This was my grandfather’s.” He marveled as he bent to his knees and opened it. Inside was a treasure trove of old family photographs and memorabilia. Faces of his parents when they were young, his grandfather, great-grandparents and people he did not know stared back at him. There were cards and letters from people he didn’t know to relatives long dead. Pressed flowers. A family genealogy chart. A lock box. An old mink stole and pair of long white gloves. The archeologist was absolutely enthralled with the Time Capsule he had found.

“I take it that it’s a good gift?” She chided from behind him.

“Yes, come down here, look with me.” Daniel invited. “Where’s the key for that?”

“I don’t know.” Calla told him as she knelt down and picked up the box, she hadn’t dug that far and didn’t know the lock box was in there. She shook it a bit and heard the items rattle around, it was fairly heavy. “What do you suppose is in it?”

“No idea.” Daniel dug through the trunk further.

Downstairs in the living room, Colleen began to cry. Nicholas probably stole her cookie. He was always doing things like that to his sister. “I’ll get her, you stay here.” Calla rose and went to the stairs, she glanced back at Daniel who was busily going through the items and listened as he began to hum a little tune to himself. Yes, it was a good gift. Happy with herself, Calla tended the twins and began dinner. If he was that happy with the old trunk, she was positive he would be over the moon with the other gift she was going to give him.

After dinner, Calla gratefully announced that she was finished with the Christmas shopping and only had a little bit of wrapping left to do. He volunteered to give the twins a bath and get them ready for bed while she finished up the last of her Christmas chores. Drying Nicholas with a soft towel and getting him into his pj’s Daniel stared down at his son and asked; “What does mommy want for Christmas?” Nicholas laughed and Colleen echoed it. Daniel looked over at her in the swing and back at his son. “What does mommy want for Christmas?” He asked again and swore that he saw recognition in both of their eyes.

“Da...Da...Da....Da....” Nicholas began to coo excitedly.

“Dada” Colleen echoed.

End of Chapter Four
Daughter of the Gods: She's a Wonderful Wife (A Christmas Story)
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Chapter Five