The Christmas Cure

The glittering tinsel was swaying ever so gently with each movement of a family member passing by. It was Christmas Eve and the scent of bayberry filled the room. A more beautiful tree, Bella had never seen, of course she had that same thought every year.

"Aunt Bella! Merry Christmas!" shouted Julie, so sincere and full of all the pure glee her 7 years could hold. "Santa left you a big present!"

Julie had parents who believed in educating their daughter about the lie of Santa, but Julie was a believer nonetheless--TV would not show Santa if he were "just a pretend story book man."

She was ready to begin Christmas shopping the first day of November and sang Christmas songs all year long. "I'll show it to you now," she softly whispered to her aunt.


Bella was touched by the little girl's exuberance, "What would your parents think?"


"What would her parents think about what!?" Bella's sister and brother-in-law came through the front door with a strong Chicago wind pushing them forward. "Hi, guys, looks like snow out there," Dave said as he helped his wife with her coat.


Julie was jumping like her grandfather's nickname for her, "grasshopper."


"Mom, I want to give Aunt Bella her present NOW! Okay?"


Bella noticed the surprised look on her sister's face, clearly she knew of no "present."


Before she could answer her daughter, around the corner Julie ran. She hugged her sister and said, "This will be a surprise for both of us," and they laughed. After their parents had died in a drunken driver's bad judgement, just two years earlier on Christmas Eve, Christmas stopped being a day of gift-giving. The sisters never spoke of it, but they just stayed away from each other during the holidays. It seemed ever since that dreadful day, something life-changingly horrible happened each year. Julie's puppy running away, Bella's illness, the adults had nothing to celebrate; but, Julie looked only ahead to see rainbows and kites.



CRASH! A loud unidentifiable sound came from Julie's direction. Before the adults could run that way, there was Julie, pushing, then pulling, a large white...thing. It looked like pieces of white paper with crayon drawings on them, taped together haphazardly and ill-fitting, the contents which were then wrapped with a toilet paper bow, of sorts. Bella held back her laughter. The whole package was larger than little Julie.

"Ok! Let's open this! I am excited." While Aunt Bella actually was curious, Julie's mom and dad wondered what on earth their less than crafty darling put together as a gift.

All took a seat on the floor as Julie pushed the large monstrosity in front of her aunt.

"Can you help me unwrap it, Julie? Bella asked.

Together the unwrapping began. The first to peek out was a broom. "A broom! Thank you Julie, I love it! How did you know I needed one?" Julie smiled ear to ear and glanced at her parents who nodded and switched back to look at each other with bewilderment.

Next came a mop, a bottle of cleaning fluid, a cleaning cloth, a duster and two large folded garbage bags. With all the items laid in front of them, the adults looked back and forth to each other. Julie walked to her aunt and threw her arms around her.

"I know how sad you have been and mom says it is because you have a mess. I saw you cry when you talked about it. Please don't be sad. I will help you with your mess. I promise."

With that the little girl hugged her aunt again who had been diagnosed with MS a year ago, and both cried together. "You already have, sweety, you already have," Bella whispered.

It was a promise Julie never forgot. and the best gift Bella could dream of.