"Mummy, Mummy. Wake up, Mummy. Mum, it's Christmas!" Jackie woke up to the young blonde girl grabbing her arm, jumping on her bed, and trying to pull the blankets down. Rose scrambled around the room, her small body barely able to contain all of her energy.
"Santa came!" Rose yelled, leaping of the bed and proceeding to fly in airplane circles around the room. "Mummy, Santa came and he left us some presents and I looked and I saw our stockings!"
Jackie rolled over and groaned. The clock blinked 6:48, and it was still dark outside. But one look at Rose's face told Jackie that there would be no going to sleep until the presents were opened.
"All right, sweetheart, I'm coming." Rose squealed and rushed out of the room.
Jackie sat up, rubbed her bleary eyes a few times and found her dressing gown. Rose continued to zoom around the tiny apartment, chattering all the while. Jackie toned out the endless talking as she began to rummage in the closet for her slippers. She pulled out a shoe, one of Rose's trainers.
Jackie looked at the shoe sadly for a moment. It was worn, secondhand when she bought it and in even worse condition now. She had pulled out the one with the hole in the bottom, the hole Jackie had tried to repair with hot glue and the plastic lid from the oatmeal container. It wasn't much, and the shoe was nearly falling apart. Jackie had wanted to buy Rose new trainers from Christmas, but after getting fired from the diner, she couldn't afford new shoes for Rose.
"MUMMY," Rose yelled, making the the word into five syllables, something Jackie hadn't even thought was possible. "I'm getting impatient!" Rose ran into the bedroom, dancing with excitement.
Jackie smiled at Rose's interpretation of her. She put the old trainer back in the closet, and rummaged around until she found her slippers. Putting them on, she followed Rose back into the living room.
A tiny Christmas tree with a single string of lights sat in the corner, decorated with paper ornaments Rose had made. Two stockings sat on the couch, and Rose pulled her mother over to the couch so they could open presents together.
Jackie smiled as she watched Rose open the presents in her stocking, oohing and aahing over each gift. Rose was only seven, and wasn't big enough to realize the packages of peanuts that came from Jackie's old diner job and the small bottles Jackie had filled with her own lotion. Rose was just so excited to have things over her very own that she didn't even notice Jackie opening the empty boxes, keeping the Christmas magic alive for Rose.
After the stocking, they moved on to the few presents under the tree. Rose had made a calender at school for her mother, filled with pictures made by Rose's tiny hand prints. Carefully going through each page, Rose pointed out the pictures to her mother, making certain her mother understood what each picture was. Jackie smiled to see Rose's littler hands next to her own tired ones.
Rose opened the few presents under the tree Jackie had been able to afford, the presents scrounged from secondhand stores and carefully saved for. She opened each present with new delight, thrilled to find the toys that were completely new to her.
"This has been the best Christmas ever!" Rose said, running to hug Jackie after opening a package with a Barbie doll, head carefully glued back into place and dressed mended. Jackie beamed at Rose, but she still couldn't help feeling sad. Rose didn't understand how pathetic their meager gifts were, how lacking their Christmas truly was.
"Wait, we forgot one," Rose said, reaching back under the Christmas tree. Jackie quickly wiped her misty eyes, and looked in astonishment at the present Rose had just pulled out from behind the tree, hidden from Jackie's view.
The box was wrapped in brilliant blue paper, glistening and wrapped much better than Jackie could have ever attempted. Staring at the package, Jackie couldn't understand how the present had gotten there. It wasn't there last night when she had carefully laid out the gifts.
"It's to me!" Rose was nearly quivering in anticipation.
"Well who do you suppose that's from?" Jackie said, trying to reach to take the package from Rose.
Rose gave her mother a funny look, holding the present out of Jackie's reach. "Santa, of course," she said, nearly rolling her eyes at her mother's disbelief. In seconds, Rose had ripped off the paper and lifted the lid on the box.
"Look, Mummy!" Rose screamed and hopped off the couch. "New trainers!"
Jackie looked in astonishment at the contents of the box. Brand new Converse high tops, with white laces and in Rose's favorite color: hot pink.
"Put them on me. Please, put them on me!" Rose kicked her feet up towards Jackie, and Jackie tied them on Rose's feet, almost automatically. She couldn't imagine where they had come from, or who could have given Rose this gift. The shoes fit perfectly, of course.
"Look at me!" Rose began to dash around the apartment. "Watch me run, Mummy!"
"Careful, Rose," Jackie chided halfheartedly. She sat for a few minutes more, examining the paper and the box, trying to find any clue where the present could have come from. But there was nothing, save a small tag which simply read To my Rose.
Finally, Jackie gave up. She had never believed in God or angels but she knew that some things are best left not understood. "Thank you," she simply said to the empty room.
"Mummy, look at me!" Rose yelled again. "I can run forever!"
Worlds away, a lonely man in a blue box turned off his view screen. He knew he couldn't cross his own time line, but he did what he could.
"Run while you can, Rose," he said. "Merry Christmas."