Andrea And The Christmas Owl

Christmas had always been such an enchanting and significant time for the Nickerson family. The snow, Christmas carols, and the smell of pine and cinnamon always seemed to put a smile on their faces and joy in their hearts. Mr. and Mrs. Nickerson, Bill and Margie, were very festive people and were known by their neighbors as Mr. and Mrs. Claus for how joyful and jubilant they were during the holidays. The neighborhood that Bill and Margie settled in was full of mostly elderly people who didn’t get out as much. It was always a delight to see the Nickerson’s extravagant Christmas lights or to get a batch of Margie’s famous Christmas cookies that she would bake every year for the people in the community. Margie and Bill Nickerson treated every holiday season like it would be their last and that’s what everyone cherished about them. Every year, Mr. Nickerson was in charge of finding the Christmas tree for the house, which was never that hard of a task due to the locale of which their home was built. In the countryside of Vermont, The Nickerson's were surrounded by a plethora of nice, sturdy, trees to pick from. Mr. Nickerson would go out, with his tree ax in tow, and find the biggest and most opulent tree he could find. To Andrea, the only child of the family, the trees were as wide as buss and as tall as her school’s flagpole. She could never manage to figure out how her dad carried such big trees into the house and barely broke a sweat. The Christmas season seemed to make Mr. Nickerson and Superman look alike in her eyes. Margie, on the other hand, managed everything on the inside of their home. Andrea would go to sleep one night and wake up the next day immersed in a land of colorful Christmas lights and tinsel. The sweet smell of sugar cookies and hot chocolate would take over the house most nights and would oftentimes remain until later the next day. The beauty of Mrs. Nickerson is that she never treated two Christmases the same. To her, each Christmas deserved its own memories and its own uniqueness. She held strong to this particular belief when it was just her and Bill together, but when Andrea was born, she latched onto the idea even more and became more serious about the Christmas season. Every year since the birth of Andrea, Margie’s mind would race with ideas of how to make every part of Christmas memorable to her precious baby girl.

This Christmas was adorned unusually with extra thick and compacted snow. When Andrea, now a six year old girl, woke up from the smell of Mrs. Nickerson's breakfast, she jumped out of bed and ran to peer out of her windowsill. As she stood on the tips of her toes to peer out her window, she could see the heavy white sheets of snow that covered every inch of her back yard. Although her window was closed, she felt the incredible yet haunting silence that winter snow brings and could see the uniqueness of the frost that edged the sides of her window panes. Today happened to be Christmas Eve, and it was very common to see snow outside on this specific day. But what wasn’t common today, was the sensation deep in her gut that Andrea felt. Something about today didn’t feel quite right. She felt a profound sadness that couldn’t be explained, at least for a fun, caring six year old like Andrea. She decided to leave her window to see how everything was in the house and as she expected, everything was as it should’ve been for this time of year. She could hear the love and laughter of her parents and the lovely sounds of Christmas tunes coming from her family radio downstairs. Hearing her parents laugh and play always brought a smile to her face. It was something about Christmas that made their love seem invincible. But regardless of everything around her being in place, she still felt uneasy. As she closed her door shut, she sat on her bed and felt tears swell up in her eyes. Something wasn’t right, but Andrea shook it off and swore to not let this weird, strange feeling ruin her Christmas. After all, Santa was coming tomorrow and she was sure that he was watching her every move. So with the idea to impress Santa and her new toys in mind, Andrea swiped her tears away quickly and raced downstairs to greet her parents.

That night, the Nickerson's had their fireplace lit with the smell of cinnamon thoroughly throughout the house. The inside Christmas lights were on and brought Andrea the joy she seemed to be missing from earlier that morning. They just finished their family tradition of decorating the Christmas tree and sat down to read one of Andrea’s favorite stories: The Adventures of Mr. Owl In Christmasville. But as she crawled into her mother’s lap on the living room rocking chair, she could see suspense written on both of her parent’s faces. There was something to be told and Andrea could tell that it was very important news. After a moment of bizarre silence and very strange looks between her parents, Mr. Nickerson finally spoke. “Wait here just one second hunny. Santa Clause said we could give you a gift early this year!” As Mr. Nickerson left the living room and went into the kitchen, Andrea was left with overwhelming excitement. Santa never allowed an early Christmas present. He must have seen how she acted this morning and wanted to reward her for it. Oh how she couldn’t wait to tell her friends once she was back in school. “Close your eyes!”, Mr. Nickerson shouted as he came back from the kitchen. Andrea immediately closed her eyes shut and could barely keep in her anticipation. Was it that new baby doll she wanted all year long? Or could it be the nursing kit she had been asking for? As all of the possibilities of what it could be raced through her mind, she felt something small placed into her hands. As she opened her eyes she saw a very tiny light blue box with a dark blue ribbon tied around it. “Okay love you can open it now.” , Mrs. Nickerson said. Andrea untied the ribbon hastily and took the lid off the box. Once opened, Andrea couldn’t help but stare in astonishment, not knowing what to do with the supposed gift in front of her. How could this be a gift for her? Inside the box was a pair of small white church shoes. The shoes would never fit her. Understanding her confusion, Mrs. Nickerson takes it upon herself to announce the exciting news: “You’re going to have a baby brother!” Andrea looked up at her mother in pure bliss. She remembered asking Santa for a baby brother last year as a Christmas gift and again this year, but never thought he would actually give her one, thinking that it was too much to ask. He was finally giving her a little baby brother. “Are you excited hunny?”, Mr. Nickerson questioned. After hugging her mother, Andrea jumped off her mothers lap and ran to embrace her father. Her parent’s hugs always reminded her of how loved and protected she was and always would be. “Okay, Andrea let’s get going on your favorite book shall we?”, Mrs. Nickerson said. Andrea scurried back to her mother and climbed right back into her lap. As she got herself situated, Margie opened the book and softly began to tell the story of a magical Christmas barn owl and how he would take children to Christmasville to experience the ultimate Christmas. As Mrs. Nickerson finished the story, she walked Andrea upstairs to tuck her into bed with Mr. Nickerson right behind. Andrea began to yawn and Mrs. Nickerson knew it was officially time for bed. As Mr. Nickerson tucked Andrea into bed, Margie finished the story and Andrea never felt happier. She forgot about the feeling she had this morning from all the excitement she experienced throughout the day. “Okay sweetie. We will be right back. We’re going down to the neighbors house to drop off some gifts we bought for them”, said Mrs. Nickerson. “You just go to sleep and Santa will be here before you know it.” “Goodnight hun”, Mr. Nickerson said as he kissed her forehead and smiled down on her. Mrs. Nickerson did the same and the next thing Andrea knew, it was Christmas Morning.

As soon as her eyes could feel the rays of sunlight from her bedroom window, Andrea was up and ready to go downstairs. She was sure Santa had stopped by and it was officially time to see what else he had graced her with this year. “Mommy! Mommy! Daddy!”, Andrea called, but no one was home, at least not her parents. To her surprise, as she reached halfway down the staircase, she saw Agnes Sylvester, her widowed neighbor, sitting in her mother’s rocking chair with multiple suitcases surrounding her. This was very strange. No one ever sat in her mother’s rocking chair. The feeling from yesterday morning was starting to make its reappearance as Andrea started to take in her surroundings. She realized that she didn’t smell her mother’s cooking nor did she see her family’s bright red truck outside the living room window. Andrea vividly remembered that her mother said they would be back from the neighbor’s house. Where on earth could they be? They would never miss a Christmas morning, especially not after the big announcement they made last night. As she looked around the living room, she saw no presents under the tree. How could this be? If Santa could give her a baby brother, how could he not give her the new toys she wanted? “Hi, Mrs. Sylvester. Where's my mom and dad?”, Andrea said to Mrs. Sylvester. She was starting to feel sick. Andrea could feel her body starting to shake and could feel her throat tightening as she waited for Mrs. Sylvester to explain the disappearance of her parents. “Come with me dear. You have to stay with me now.”, Mrs. Sylvester said sweetly. But unfortunately for Ms. Sylvester, not sweet enough. Mrs. Sylvester was a very old woman and her skin was awfully wrinkled. Her eyes were once a bright and vibrant blue, but with time, turned into an ashy color that haunted anyone that happened to look into her eyes. When she spoke, her words came out slowly while her voice quivered due to the uncontrollable shaking of her body. She was never known to be a cruel woman, and in fact, Andrea had stayed with her several times before when her parents had errands to run, but she was quite fiery and her presence always came across as intimidating to children. Even when you thought Mrs. Sylvester wasn’t around, she was. The manliest and sturdiest of men seemed to deflate their egos once they were near her, even though she was well into her eighties. After noticing Andrea’s understandable resistance, Mrs. Sylvester turned cold and awfully serious. As the tears started to swell in Andrea’s eyes, Mrs. Sylvester grabbed her cane and rose from her seat. As she walked towards Andrea, she noticed a footstool pushed by the stairs. Agnes hooked the bottom of her cane to the underside of the stool and pulled it off the wall. Despite her elderly age, Agnes squatted down on the stool to be more on the child’s level. After all, her parents were just found dead not too far from her home. The Nickerson's had a deadly car accident caused by a patch of black ice on the road. They had always been so kind to Agnes even though most were often standoffish towards her. The least she could do was take in their child to stay with her while everything was being arranged. This wasn’t going to be an easy thing for Agnes to explain or for Andrea to hear. Emotions were never something that Agnes considered herself well versed in. But, Agnes knew she had to suck it up and tell this baby the truth of the matter. “Your parents are dead dear. They won’t be back. I'm taking you to stay with me for a while. Now, let’s go pack your things shall we? I’m terribly sorry dear.” As Mrs. Sylvester slowly crept up from the stool and walked upstairs, she could hear the terrible pain and confusion in Andrea’s cry. Why did she have to be the one to do this? She couldn’t imagine how hurtful this was for Andrea to hear, specifically because of how young she was. Agnes quickly walked up the staircase. She couldn’t bear to hear the sounds of a heartbroken child like this. As she reached Andrea’s room, she quickly took in her surroundings and closed the door behind her. She sadly did what needed to be done. And as she wiped away the tears that started to form, she took a deep breath and began packing some of Andrea’s things.

Andrea couldn’t believe her own ears. They were dead. She would never see them again. On that morning, Andrea’s soul had aged. At six years old, Andrea knew her life had forever changed. As the tears flew down her face, she ran upstairs back to her bedroom. Paying Mrs. Sylvester no mind as she packed her things, Andrea grabbed the book her mother read to her the night before and raced back downstairs. Full of anger and sorrow, Andrea ripped the pages out of the book and threw them in the fireplace. With each tear, she felt her heart shatter into pieces. As she watched the pages of her favorite book burn, she vowed to never celebrate Christmas again. “ I hate Christmas! I hate Christmas!” Andrea cried, hoping that this was all just a nightmare and that she would eventually wake up. Her mother, father, and what was to be her baby brother were gone. Everything had changed. As she watched the pages burn into dark ashes, Andrea dried her tears. There was nothing left of her. She was completely crushed. After what seemed like ages, Mrs. Sylvester finished packing Andrea’s things and took her back to her home. Mrs. Sylvester wasn’t too far from Andrea’s home and Andrea was somewhat familiar with it. As soon as Andrea stepped into the home of Mrs. Sylvester, she immediately shuttered at the thought of what her life would be like. The house was very big and was kept very neat, which surprised Andrea because of how old Mrs. Sylvester was. How did she keep everything so clean and tidy when she could barely walk herself? The mystery of Mrs. Sylvester was great amongst the community and was never able to be solved, even years after her death. As Andrea looked around, she noticed that every book was edged perfectly with their leather covers shined to perfection. Not one book was out of place and there was not one speck of dust around. “We will go and get the rest of your things later. All we need right now are the necessary things that a six year old child would need”, spoke Mrs. Sylvester. “I will show you to your room now. Later on tomorrow we will go over the rules of the house and make sure that we understand the way things are done around here.” As they walked through the house, Andrea continued to look around. One thing she noticed, besides how hauntingly silent the house was, was the lack of Christmas joy. There wasn’t even a single wreath yet alone a Christmas tree in the house.

Andrea couldn’t say she was totally shocked considering how cold, stern, and anal Mrs. Sylvester was. Hopefully, this stay would be temporary. “And yes, your stay will be only shortly. Arrangements have been made for your grandparents to retrieve you.” Did she read her mind? Andrea felt bad for thinking about the things she did about Mrs. Sylvester, but the sooner her grandparents came to get her, the better. Andrea didn’t know if she could do this for very long. “Here is your room. You should find that everything you need is in here.” And with that, Andrea was left alone in her new room. The room was a fair size but seemed defunct. Everything in the room seemed to be drained of life from the squeaky bed to the chipped wood floors. The color of the room seemed to be almost completely gray and the ceiling fan ran at one tauntingly sluggish speed. How was Andrea going to make this her home? As the day went on, the sun started to set and it quickly became night. Andrea couldn’t wrap her head around how much her life had changed in one day. Even worse, she couldn’t believe that this was how her Christmas turned out. As she pondered about what was to be of her new life without the presence of her family, Andrea took notice of the windowsill in the room. Just like her old room, she could see the backyard and enjoy the beauty of the outdoors; this was truly the only good thing about this room to her. As she opened her window, she felt the cold breeze rush into her room. The moon and stars were exceptionally bright that night and made the snow glitter as if an abundance of diamonds were buried within the snow. As she gazed up at the moon, her attention was suddenly taken by the sounds of rustling in the trees. As she looked to her left, she saw a beautiful barn owl in the barren winter trees dusted with snow. The owl was as white as the snow around it, but seemed to have a golden aura surrounding it. The owl’s eyes were extremely / intense and seemed almost magical. Andrea was captured by its beauty and couldn’t take her eyes off of it. The owl seemed intrigued by Andrea as well. The owl studied Andrea and moved its head in all sorts of ways as if it was needing to look at her from all possible angles. After a moment, the owl flew away majestically almost like a rising phoenix. As she watched the owl fly away, Andrea took one last look into the night sky and crawled into her noisy yet oddly comfortable bed. But at the very moment she fell asleep, she heard a strange noise from outside her bedroom. As she began to rise from her pillow, the noise repeated itself and guided Andrea to take a look out of her window. When she looked outside, she found the owl she saw before she fell asleep, sitting on the exact same spot as before. But, the difference is this time around, the owl had a piece of paper in its mouth. A little bit unsure of herself, Andrea opened up her window and called out to the owl. “Psst! You can come closer!” After Andrea repeated herself several times with no response from the owl, Andrea started to walk away. As soon as she hopped onto her bed, the owl swooped down gracefully and landed on her windowsill. Once the owl landed, Andrea got a good look at the piece of paper in its mouth and found familiarity in it. The sides and edges of the piece of paper were burned and the paper itself had an almost ancient look to it. Andrea walked over to the owl and gently and slowly guided her hand to grab the paper from the owl’s mouth. Once she received the paper, she flipped it over and was washed over with heavy emotions. As she looked over the paper, she read what was written on it aloud in complete disbelief: “Dear sweet baby girl Andrea, we love you very much! We want you to know that your smile and laughter has brought pure joy into our lives. No matter what happens to us, just know that we are always by your side even if you can’t see us. And when Christmas comes around, we pray that our love for you grows deeper and our presence is felt through each Christmas cookie you eat and in each Christmas song you sing. Love, Mommy and Daddy.”

By the time Andrea finished reading the letter, tears had drenched her cheeks and made small stains on the paper before her eyes. She recognized the letter as the note her mother and father wrote for her in the back of The Adventures of Mr. Owl In Christmasville when they originally bought it for her. Her mother would always read the letter to her after they finished reading the book together on Christmas Eve. This year, her mother never got to read the letter to her and Andrea was sure she burned all the pages up back at home. Andrea’s heart immediately grew full as tears streamed down her face. She took a moment to close her eyes and breathe with the letter close to her chest. When she reopened her eyes, she saw that the owl was still there. “Thank you Mr. Owl. You’re really real.”, Andrea said as she ran towards the owl and embraced it in a hug. After their lengthy yet sentimental hug, the owl cooed, as if saying goodbye, and flew away towards the moon. Andrea vowed, at that moment, to always keep her parents' letter close to her and to never let the power of Christmas escape her heart. Even though Andrea felt pain and hurt now that her parents were gone, she went to bed with peace that night. And as time went on, and as Andrea grew old, whenever she felt down or in need of some Christmas spirit, Andrea would read this letter aloud and remember the love and joy her family experienced during those sweet yet short six years she had with them. And once she finished reading her parents’ letter, Andrea would, quietly yet sincerely, say “Thank you Mr. Owl, thank you.”