Mick's Christmas Wish
"And the angel came unto Mary, saying she was to have a child ... a very special child."
The fireplace was lit, the tree decorated and Beth had fallen asleep ... again. This seemed to be a regular thing lately. In fact, almost impossible to stay awake these days, what with all her nocturnal activities so
Mick watched his beautiful wife as she slept; a slight smile on her lips. He wondered what kind of a dream was putting that Mona Lisa smile on her face? He hoped he was in there somewhere but somehow doubted that he was the cause of that smile.
Glancing down, he spotted something on her lap. "Babies' First Book on The Nativity." It was ancient, the binding almost totally gone. Was this a Turner family heirloom? Had little Beth been given this book when she was first starting to read?
Mick remembered her shining blonde hair and bright eyes. He could picture her, sounding out the letters with her mother's help, having that ecstatic first moment of understanding: letters made words. Words made pictures and pictures told stories of the World.
That world would change so quickly; for the following year was when he first met her ... saved her from Coraline ... and fell in love. He felt the stirring of his body and knew he would soon wake her with his lovemaking but for now, he was content.
But was she? It still bothered him that they would have no children. Did she think about that also? She had said that there were all different kinds of families and they had made one together, despite everything. Still was that what she was dreaming of now with that soft smile? Was she smiling down at her own infant just as the Madonna was in her picture book?
Mick closed his eyes and silently said a prayer for the first time since 1951.
The newest angel, Kariana, heard her first prayer that night. Boy, she thought, do they always give the newbies the hardest wishes to fulfill? A heavenly chuckle was given in reply. "Nothing you can't handle."
A dark-haired angel appeared to Beth in her dreams, showing her a newborn about to become an orphan at the local shelter. She whispered, "Beth, wake up, your son is waiting for you!
Merry Christmas, my beloved Beth and Mick."
And God said, "Well done, Kariana. Come sit next to me and tell me more of this vampire who prayed for a child."