A
Tapestry Christmas
By M & T Erickson
It was Sarah’s first Christmas at the Tapestry.
She had no idea what to expect, especially
after what they’d gone through to get the family Christmas tree yesterday. Because her parents had tried living like
humans, she’d only been to tree lots.
Getting a tree from the Beyond had been a lot more than she’d bargained
for.
Taps, with Jeffrey at her side, stood before
their group, seven teenagers, in the dining room and announced, “Now that you’ve
secured our family tree, there is one more Christmas tradition that I must
introduce.”
She held out her hand and Jeffrey reached into
his pocket and pulled out a small hand carved wood box and placed it on her
palm. On the front was: Twiggle and beneath that: Handcrafted by Messrs.
Persimmons and Cujels.
The beaming Taps carefully slid open the lid.
Inside, was…a pickle. It was six inches tall, there were bumps for
facial features and a red scarf was tied where a neck would be. On its hands were miniscule red and white
mittens. On its spindly legs were
oversized white fur boots that reached to its knobby knees. The odd boots had curled toes with a bell
dangling from each.
“The bells are used for children under age
eight, so you won’t need those.”
They disappeared.
“You are all up for the challenge.”
The blonde Cam and dark haired Sal looked at
each other, no doubt wondering how a pickle would be a challenge.
“What do pickles have to do with Christmas, mom?”
asked T, Sarah’s adopted brother.
Taps smiled.
“If you catch him, you get to find out.”
T’s pupils enlarged and his shoulders
twitched. “I’m ready.”
“First the rules, Tristan.”
“Oh, right,” T said, eyes fixed on the
pickle. “It’s just that something in me
wants to bite it…is that allowed?”
“No.” Jeffrey
answered with one eyebrow rising. “If
you do, you’ll be disqualified, your mouth will be glued shut, your teeth will
dissolve, and you’ll never play
Twiggle again.”
Taps gently cleared her throat. “Twiggle was started by my father, finished
by Jeffrey, and enchanted by my mother.”
Cam looked at his idol. “Cool…but, what’s the point of the
tradition? It’s a pickle, not a jinn trapped
in a pickle – or is it?”
All of them looked at her, knowing anything was possible with Taps.
She smiled as Jeffrey answered, “The tradition
was begun the year that Madam’s sister, Liddy, was born. Master Persimmons and I made it to keep Madam
from driving her mother to distraction.”
Taps’
cheeks pinkened. “Back to Twiggle.”
The glass-looking pickle stood up in the box
and the bumps he had for eyes opened, revealing his eyes were like tiny head
lamps.
“Why is he called Twiggle?” asked Dee, looking curiously at the pickle.
“Twas a combination of twitch and giggle,”
Jeffrey said, looking fondly at Dee, who, with her coppery hair, looked a great
deal like Taps. “Madam will demonstrate
before she releases him.”
Taps instructed, “For the following 24 days you
will search for Twiggle. He is limited
to the house proper. He cannot go into
the kitchen, below stairs, or into any red-knobbed rooms.”
Cam looked dumbfounded. “Why would we want to chase a pickle?”
“And what if Raffy or Rascal catch him?” Dee bit her lip, worried about her pets.
“Then I guess they’ll get the present,” Taps
answered in a tone that indicated it was unlikely.
“What present?”
T asked.
“For each of the twenty-four bumps on Twiggle’s
body, there are seven gifts – one for each of you. If you catch him you get the presents the day
represents. If he remains uncaught, the days
presents go beneath the tree, which Jeffrey and Prance warded to prevent
peeking.”
Jeffrey stared at all of them with narrowed
eyes, “They will be holograms of the real thing, so there’s no use in trying to
shake, peel, or use magic to discover what’s inside.”
T looked disappointed. “What about my sense of smell?”
“You’re welcome to try,” Jeffrey said.
“You can’t smell holograms,” Zack pointed out.
“How do you know? Have you ever tried?” T asked, flopping down
at the table.
“What kind of presents?” Cam asked. “A candy cane or what?”
“No candy.
It could be something as simple as an upgrade for your lunchbox or as
complex as a one-time trip to the Hall of Mirrors.”
“The what?” Zack asked, his attention drawn
away from Sal for the first time.
“A space where time and place mean nothing and
everything,” Jeffrey smirked.
“A puzzle?” T asked.
“I wish Ronnie were here,” Sal said
softly. “She’d love this. She’s awesome at puzzles.”
“Well, she should be,” Dee said. “She’s a three.”
Sarah felt Sal’s heart strings tighten. Ronnie, Sal’s little sister, had been
kidnapped months ago with no new leads.
“What does Twiggle do and how do we find it?” Ransom,
the only human in their group, asked.
“Watch.” Taps softly said, “Tis the
Season.”
The pickle’s body glowed and glitter-like sparkles
filled him, then faded
“He’s so cute!” Dee said, smiling widely. “Can he stay in my room?”
“No,” Jeffrey bluntly answered.
“It’s time to show you his bag of tricks.” Taps held Twiggle up to her face, stared at it,
and said, “Blend.”
He became invisible except for a faint
outline.
“Jump.”
Now visible, he leaped from her hand up to the
chandelier, giggling mischievously and twitching, making the chandelier sway a
bit.
“Sneak.”
He walked off the edge of the chandelier and
walked on air, doing a swan dive to
the floor, tucking and rolling at the last moment. He jumped to his booted feet and with a
salute, disappeared.
“Where’d he go?” asked T, his eyes scanning the
ground.
“The hunt has begun,” Jeffrey calmly announced.
“Can we work together?” Dee asked. “Raffy and Rascal will want to be part of
this.”
“Course,” Taps answered.
“How long did it take you to catch it?” Sarah
asked.
“Twenty-seven years, with Lacey’s help.”
“That explains a lot,” Cam whispered to Zack.
Lacey was Taps’ cousin and very…unpredictable.
“One more thing, children,” Taps said. “Twiggle carries the true meaning of
Christmas within.”
Ransom gave her an odd look. “A pickle
carries the meaning of Christmas?”
“Truly,” Taps confirmed. “If no one has caught him beforehand, I will
summon him on the eve of the 24th. Good
luck.”
*
The entire month of December, no one had any
luck beyond seeing Twiggle’s footprints and too-brief appearances.
He’d appeared in front of Cam, whacked him on the
nose, and disappeared.
Twice, he’d appeared on Sarah’s shoulder and
she was bowled over by others in their efforts to get him.
Ransom was smacked on the head with a bag of
mistletoe as he looked at Sarah at dinner. Twiggle ran off, giggling madly, diving
into Prance’s tiny mug. The pink goblin,
who was head of security, gave a grinchy grin, a wicked laugh and vanished, mug
in hand.
“Now we’ll never
find it!” T complained.
The next day, Dee nearly won the game by
accidentally catching Twiggle in her crochet work, but he got away because she
shook him free. “You should see the knots he left behind!”
Sal and Sarah had their first serious argument
when Twiggle appeared on Zack’s head and Sal used her bat to try and knock
Twiggle out. She missed. It took Sarah an entire afternoon to heal Zack’s
concussion.
T was all over the place trying to catch the
elusive pickle, only to find him sitting on his forehead whenever he woke – and
disappearing on the spot, with a giggle and twitch.
One night after dinner, Sarah excused herself.
“Where are you going? Did you spot the pickle?” Cam and Sal both
rose to their feet, their eyes scanning the room.
“No, I’m going to bed, I’m tired.”
“You give up way too easy,” Sal said with a
frown.
“We’ll get a present anyway,” Dee calmly said,
finally untying the last knot Twiggle had made.
“Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve,” Sarah pointed
out. “I don’t care about catching a
pickle anymore. It took Taps twenty-seven
years to find it!”
“It’s not about the gifts!” Cam exclaimed.
“Then what is it about?” Ransom asked him.
“It’s about the right to gloat that I did it faster
than Taps!”
“Exactly,”
Sal agreed.
“There it is!”
T yelled, howling like wolf and knocking over the table to capture
Twiggle.
Zack rolled his eyes and waved good night to
Sarah.
She walked up the stairs, feeling Ransom’s eyes
on her.
Honestly, they were no closer to capturing the
pickle than they were on the first day.
In the future, she would not join the hunt. She’d rather spend time walking around the beautifully
decorated Tapestry grounds…with Ransom of course.
On Christmas Eve, they went to the parlor after
dinner. Taps entered the room with Jeffrey, who moved to stand over by the gorgeous
family tree. It had the surprising habit
of slapping your hands if you touched its ornaments.
Taps opened her hand and said, “Silent Night.”
Twiggle appeared at the top of the tree near
the star and jumped down to her gloved palm.
Once there, he split in half like a broken peanut shell.
A mem began, filling the entire room,
enveloping them in a small manger with the Christ child in swaddling clothes,
gazing up at the beautiful Mary and his foster-father, Joseph. A brilliant star beamed overhead and a
heavenly choir of angels was singing. In
silent awe they watched as shepherds came to worship the child destined to save
them all.
There was a moment of silence as the image
faded.
“Thank you,” Ransom said into the reverent
quiet. “My family used to read the story
every Christmas Eve. It’s been a long
time since I’ve heard it and now I got to see it in a way I’d never dreamed
possible as a boy.”
“Mom, did you burp baby Jesus while you were
there?” Dee asked.
Taps gave her a long look. “That was a mem of a portrayal my father witnessed.”
“Wow, that is
old,” T said, unselfconsciously.
Jeffrey nodded.
“Indeed, as he was born in the 14th century.”
“It’s all the more precious because of it,”
Taps agreed with a happy smile. She put
the now-whole Twiggle back into the box.
As she slid on the lid, heaps of presents appeared beneath the tree and
spilled out onto the floor.
“My father always said, The only way to Christmas at the Tapestry is through Christ,” she told
them. “Because all worthwhile gifts come
from Him.”
“I can hardly wait for next year!” T said, his
eyes fixed on the box with Twiggle inside.
“I’m glad,” Taps said with a twinkle in her
eye. “Because this year we went easy on
you. Next year, the rules change.”
Background story: We have a family pickle. I hid it every year in a different spot and
our children searched always found it. As
they got older, I finally found the perfect spot and the pickle remains hidden
to this day. This set me to thinking
what a magical pickle would be like – at the Tapestry. (Michelle)
Merry Christmas to one and all!
This was a cut scene from Book 3. We just couldn't fit it in. But we still wanted to share this special moment with all of you. Mom and I had a fun time writing it!
I hope you enjoy the Christmas season and hold the true meaning deep within your hearts.
-T. Erickson
