Gingerbread Ornaments of Hope

This is Mother Combs's Unofficial Vocal Community Challenge. Here is my short fiction story entry. Thank you so much, Mother Comb for this opportunity.

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In a little town far away in Crystal Light Forest's lands was an orphanage run by the Sisters of Everlasting Hope. They were not part of any organized religion. A woman in her early 50s, Sister Everbright, assembled a group of other Sisters to create this place of sanctuary for homeless children. It was over twenty years now that they had pledged their oath to teach children to keep the light of hope in their lives.

Day after day, whether it was raining, sunny, or a winter blizzard, babies and children were left outside their wooden door. Sometimes, by Social workers, and other times, babies were left in a box or basket. The Sisters would hear a bang from the silver dove door knocker that hung on their walnut mahogany door.

Sister Everbright had chosen the dove door knocker to symbolize peace and harmony at their place.

A few children and babies were left with scribbled notes saying, "Give them a home, one filled with hope." Other times, orphans were left with no notes at all.

All the little orphans were given cots in a big bedroom. Girls and boys were separated, and the Sisters worked on grouping the children by age. The babies were in a nursery connected to a few Sisters' shared room. The Sisters were thankful that the old mansion had many rooms and could house up to thirty orphans at a time.

During the day, the orphans would attend classes that the Sisters taught to learn arithmetic, reading, science, and history and a course solely on learning to keep the seed of hope growing in their hearts.

When a prospective family came to visit a child, Sister Everbright ensured it was a good match. Each family went through an intensive interview before they met with the child. One of Sister Everbright's questions to the family was whether they would continue instilling hope in the child's life. She felt that having hope was valuable in navigating life's challenges.

One blistery winter day, a six-year-old girl named Margaret arrived at the orphanage. Margaret wore dirty blue corduroy pants with holes and a worn red turtleneck. Her long brown hair was stark against her pale skin. Big, tired circles were under her brown eyes. She was an angry little child who seemed very lost.

The social worker who dropped Margaret off told the Sisters of Everlasting Hope that she had found Margaret next to her mother, who was a drug addict, dead on the street. She had tried asking Margaret where her father was, but the poor child didn't understand what a father was.

The Sisters of Everlasting Hope welcomed Margaret into their fold. They showed her where she could lay her head at night in a little cot near other girls her age. They had dressed Margaret in a pine green uniform made of the softest fabric. Margaret had been given a bath, her hair washed, and given a pair of penny loafers.

The Sisters took Margaret on a tour of the classes and the gathering rooms. Margaret screamed at the orphans and refused to listen in class. She never spoke but had no trouble expressing unhappiness about being there.

Sister Everbright told the other Sisters to give Margaret space, not to force her to do the school work or play with the other orphans. She could see that Margaret was afraid and unsure of what had happened.

One afternoon, Margaret watched as all the orphans ran to gather around the Sisters, who carried a big evergreen Christmas tree into their parlor. Christmas was just a week away, and the orphanage was busy decorating.

Margaret turned her back and refused to participate. The Sisters quietly let Margaret do her thing. They knew it took time to come around. When Margaret had a temper tantrum, the Sisters stayed patient and never reprimanded her for her actions.

Calmly, one of the Sisters would pull Margaret away from the other orphans, take her outside for a walk, and let the wintery cold kiss Margaret out of her frustration.

The lovely Christmas tree was decorated with cute gingerbread house ornaments. Margaret would sit there mournfully, staring at the gingerbread ornaments. She was curious about the symbols on each ornament.

But when Margaret noticed that one of the Sisters caught her looking interested in the Christmas tree, she would quickly turn away in a huff.

The day before Christmas Eve, Margaret had a massive fit in reading class. She ran into the parlor where the Christmas tree stood and grabbed a couple of gingerbread house ornaments. She looked at them and threw some of them down to the ground. Fortunately, none were damaged because they were not made of glass.

Sister Everbright walked over to Margaret, who stood staring down at the ornaments strewn across the ground. The Sister calmly picked up the ornaments off the red wool carpet and hung them back on the tree.

When Margaret saw that her frustrations did not get the response she was used to, no yelling, no smack, nothing, she decided to leave the Christmas tree alone.

Christmas Eve appeared the next day with a bright arctic silver sky. The orphanage was filled with scents of nutmeg, cinnamon, pine needles, and chocolate. As cookies and cakes were being baked by the Sisters and orphans. By midday, a fresh coat of snow fell on the ground, delighting the orphans had a chance to play in the snow before supper.

Margaret stayed in the parlor, watching the children play through the frosted window pane. She still turned down any chance of getting to anyone.

As the hours ticked into the evening, dancing snowflakes began to fall again outside the Everlasting Hope Orphanage. The Sisters played soft piano tunes of Christmas melodies as all the orphans played in the parlor by the tree.

When supper was completed, all the Sisters gathered the orphans back into the parlor for their Christmas Eve festivity. When everyone settled down, she began to call out to each orphan to receive a gingerbread house ornament.

Margaret couldn't understand what was so special about receiving gingerbread house ornaments. But she watched as Sister Everbright whispered something to the child and handed the ornament to their little hands. The child would beam back at Sister Everbrite and hug their ornament to their chest, returning to their spot on the red carpet.

One by one, each ornament was given out to the orphans.

When one last ornament was hanging on the tree, Sister Everbright looked at Margaret. She beckoned her to collect her gingerbread ornament.

Sister Everbright looked at the bewildered child who stood before her; with a smile and a twinkling in her eye, she handed the ornament to Margaret.

Margaret stared at it, not sure what to do. She looked up at the Sister with bewilderment in her troubled eyes.

As Sister Everbright suspected, Margaret couldn't read. Softy, she said, "The word is Faith."

Sister Everbright bent down a little closer to Margaret and, with a smile, continued, "Have faith and trust in your journey. When you feel uncertain, this ornament will remind you to hold on to faith as it will be your guiding light to hope."

Margaret took her ornament and sat beside other orphans on the carpet. She stared at it and traced her finger on the delicate decoration of the gingerbread house ornament and the word faith.

That evening, when all the children got ready for bed, Margaret's curiosity got the best of her. She looked at the child beside her and asked, "Why do you have five Christmas ornaments under your cot?"

The little girl answered, "Each house counts for the years I've lived here."

The little girl bent down and pointed to each gingerbread ornament. She said, "Courage, promise, potential, inspiration, endurance, and I received a blessing this year."

Margaret thought about what she learned and stared at her own ornament. As Sister Everbrite came in to read all the orphans a Christmas bedtime story, when she finished the story and tucked the orphans into bed, she noticed that Margaret had yet to lay down.

Sister Everbrite walked over quietly to Margaret and waited for Margaret to ask the question that she knew would come as it did with all the other orphans that had come her way.

"Why?" Margaret asked Sister Everbrite as she held up the ornament.

"Because every child should learn that they are worthy, loved, and to nurture the belief of hope and faith."

Margaret was silent for a minute and then said as softly as a mouse, "Will you teach me how to read?"

"Yes, I will," answered Sister Margaret. Sister Everbright helped Margaret into her covers and wished her a Merry Christmas. Margaret turned to look out the window at the snowy cobalt night full of snowflakes and held her gingerbread ornament.

As she fell asleep, Margaret held on to her gingerbread house ornament and whispered, "Faith."