Here is a Christmas story of sorts, but really it is just a story that wanted to be written. It is neither 99 words long, nor six sentences. It is, no more, no less, a continuation of the story that has lately come week by week, prompt by prompt. It’s most recent episode was HERE.
Unto Us by D. Avery
A gray haired man was sitting at the end of the counter where I usually sit, so I climbed up onto the stool next to him. He didn’t even glance my way but when Katie put a piece of pie and a glass of milk in front of me he spoke.
“Where’s your mother?” he grumbled, and I had to say I don’t know because of course I didn’t. I live with Daddy. The man snorted and pushed his coffee cup forward for Katie to top up.
“All I wanted was lamb stew. You don’t have lamb stew on the menu anymore but you serve kids that just wander in?”
“Looks that way,” Katie told him. I’ve studied Katie for a while now so I can tell you, she did not like this man. Like she used to not like me, when Daddy first came to work at the diner. But that was last summer and now it’s almost Christmas.
“I like lamb,” the man said. “Kids, not so much.”
“I’m going to be a lamb,” I said.
“What?”
“I’m going to be a lamb. In the Christmas pageant.”
The man snorted again, slurped his coffee. Daddy and Katie stood talking at the edge of the kitchen.
“You know him?” Katie asked.
“I know who he is,” Daddy said. “His daughter left town a few years ago. It wasn’t clear if she took off because he was always angry, or if he was angry because she always took off.” He sipped his coffee. “She was mixed up too.”
“You knew her?”
“Not well. Not well at all.”
“You can come if you want,” I said to the man.
“What?”
“You can come to the Christmas pageant, at the church. I’m going to be a lamb and I’m going to sing ‘Away In a Manger’ and ‘Silent Night’.”
The man swiveled on his stool but then was quiet as he looked at me. “You look like my little girl did,” he said. He kept looking at me. “She used to like to sing. A long time ago.”
He stood and put money down by his plate but asked me which church before the door of the diner jingled behind him.
“I didn’t even know she was pregnant,” I heard Daddy tell Katie. “Then she shows up and pretty much leaves a baby at my doorstep.”
“Could she prove it? Did you test?”
“She said I was the father. I never wanted to test.”
“Why?”
“I never loved her. But I fell in love with that baby immediately. I couldn’t bear it if I found out I wasn’t her actual father.”
“You are,” Katie said. “Without a doubt.”
“Daddy!” I interrupted him and Katie. “That man might come see the Christmas pageant.” Then I wondered if I’d done something wrong because Daddy got a strange look on his face. He went back to the grill and Katie got busy clearing and wiping down the counter. It was almost closing time so I started gathering the ketchup bottles off the tables, singing ‘Silent Night’ real quiet as I worked.
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