Our First Christmas
I'm Alfred Pennyworth, and I'm just a butler, but now, I have to be more than that, I'm everything little Bruce has left.
It's going to be hard to have a normal Christmas without Martha and Thomas, especially given the reason that made them absent today… and forever.
Wayne Mansion is empty, all of the servants were dismissed since it's just the two of us now.
The mansion seems haunted, all of the pictures look pointless, there used to be color all over it, but now it almost seems like it's all painted black, or just dark.
Yes, dark…
We're in the living room, me and that sweet boy, Master Bruce.
I stare at him for a while, he hasn't changed much, but you couldn't expect him to change a lot in just a few months.
He still has those dark deep eyes and that wild brown hair, he's taller, but he was never short, my dear Bruce is a very handsome young man.
It pains me to see him like that, his radiant smile is gone, the glow in his eyes has also disappeared and he doesn't show the confidence like he used to.
My poor child, he is so brave, you might not see it, but I do, I know it. I'm also trying to be brave for him… I can't, we haven't even decorated the Christmas tree.
Ah…the tree…
It was Thomas's favorite part about Christmas, the laughter it brought, the brightness of it, the lights, the ornaments and the presents underneath the tree.
Martha's favorite part was the cooking, we haven't done that yet, she loved to bake although she shouldn't because she had servants for that.
I snap out of my trance hearing Master Bruce calling me.
"Alfred, do you think we should set up the tree? Will daddy be mad?" he innocently asks.
"Of course not Master Bruce, they would be very happy to see that you didn't give up on your own happiness" I smile, trying to hold my tears.
"Would you help me then?" he lights up a little and smiles.
"I'd love to" I smile back at him with pride and relief.
So the night went on and taking small steps we didn't give up on Christmas and I think that up there in the clouds Martha and Thomas were smiling with pride of our normal Christmas.
Well, it wasn't normal…But how would it be given the circumstances?