The Christmas Wish
By Natasha Mortland-Conley
Darien huffed in annoyance. Standing in his favorite part of the park, he found that there was nowhere to sit. The benches, sidewalks, and ground was all covered in the stuff. No longer could he smell the deep red roses he had been trimming all year, or write in his journal, or read from his textbooks in preparation for his finals. No. And all because of the huge inconvenience that had graced Tokyo at this time of year.
That huge inconvenience by the way, was called snow.
And oh how Darien hated the white fluffy stuff. Especially when it crunched under your shoes, reminding you that it was there to stay. He hated when it didn't melt and disappear. That meant people would play with it, and that was just the worst.
"Darien!" Serena squealed happily from behind him. He turned around, only to get hit in the face with a snowball. She laughed. "Hahaha! I got you, Jerk!"
Darien rolled his eyes as he wiped the snow from his face with his arm. Now his sleeve was all wet. "Real mature, Meatball Head."
She smiled up at him, the joy clear in her eyes as she reached down her hands together in the snow to make another snowball. "Maturity has never been my forte, but you already knew that."
Laughing once more, she threw yet another snowball at him, this time hitting his chest. It slid down his pea green jacket before making it back to the ground with a plop. Darien just shook his head at her.
"Oh come on, Darien! It's no fun if you don't fight back." Serena's smile faltered for just a moment, but she didn't let that last long. She ran up to him, pulling him by his hand with her pink gloved one. "Let's build a snowman, or we could make snow angels, or we could-"
Darien ripped his hand out of hers. "I'm not a child, Meatball head, and I have no interest in entertaining one."
She frowned at him. When he started to walk away, she couldn't help herself. She had to say something.
"Have you ever stopped to think about the things you say to me, and how you really make me feel when you say them?"
Darien paused, listening.
"You have no idea what's going on in my life, or the stress I am dealing with. I saw you here, and I thought maybe, just for once, spending a little bit of time with you would cheer me up."
Darien laughed. "You are too young to have any real stress in your life. You really are just a dumb Meatball Head, aren't you?"
He shoved his hands into his pockets before heading towards his apartment. He didn't have time for her childish antics, creating drama where it wasn't needed. When he was almost out of the rose garden, he thought he heard her say one more thing.
"I guess so."
He chuckled to himself. At least she could admit it now. Usually she would call him even more names and shriek at him in a wailing voice. Serena has sure grown up in the last couple of months since they'd met.
He'd just gone around the corner before he looked back at her. Except she was nowhere to be seen. He shrugged his shoulders, and continued on his path home. He felt cold on his nose and lips. When Darien looked up, he put his hand out in the air. Snowflakes hit his bare palms, and he sighed.
It was just his luck that it would snow again. Wasn't there enough on the ground?
He held himself with his arms, rubbing them fiercely. It was too cold, and the snow was coming down even heavier than just a few moments before. When he saw his apartment building, he sighed with relief. He had forgotten his winter coat and it was about time that he got to take a hot shower and warm up with coffee,and some tv.
He made it into the lobby, and shook the snow off his hair and his shoulders. He looked back at the cold air. He just hoped Serena had made it home safely. The girl was as dumb as a rock.
Well, maybe not as dumb as a rock, but still pretty dumb.
She did seem kind of upset…
But really, what did she have to be stressed about? She was just a fourteen year old teenaged girl!
For some reason though, he couldn't get the nagging feeling out of his mind that maybe she was upset about something serious.
"Probably sad about a bad grade or something. She does get a lot of them."
Darien opened the door to his apartment now, and the feeling in his gut went away at the thought. Serena did get a lot of bad grades, and she was always upset about them, so surely that was the case.
Serena left his mind as soon as the coffee mug was in his hand. The steam still billowed from his cup as he sat down to turn on the tv. He flipped to the news. The snow was expected to come down at the same rate tomorrow. At least 6 more inches. Several people caused car accidents, hitting pedestrians. The time was just hitting 6 pm, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to watch anymore nonsense about these people.
"Idiots." Darien said to himself, taking a sip of coffee.
But it was cold. Freezing cold. He could hardly swallow the brown liquid. How did it get cold in just a few minutes? He looked down at his cup. Around the coffee, the drink was crystallizing.
"What the?" He didn't understand how this was happening. He stood up, putting his cup on the coffee table. He bolted straight for his heater controls.
But they were on… He could feel the hot air blowing through them when he put his hands to them. Why was the house getting so cold?
"There has to be a reasonable explanation for this!" He whispered nervously.
"There's no reasonable explanation."
Darien heard the voice behind him, but he didn't understand how. Hadn't he locked his door?
"Well, yeah, you did."
Darien whipped around to see where the voice was coming from. "Who's there," he asked, frightened. "and how are you reading my mind?"
He saw no one.
"Well, you see, you don't believe I'm here, and that's why you can't see me." There was a calmness to this voice that was almost eerie to Darien.
"I believe you are here. I believe in what I can see and hear!" Darien was getting frustrated at this point. Where was this voice coming from? He spun around and around, but there wasn't anyone around.
"I've always been here. I've always been watching you. Whether you are asleep or awake, I know. I even know when you've been naughty or nice."
The laugh this voice made at this joke was twinkling, almost fairy like, and seemingly out of this world. Darien was sure of that.
His heart was racing. "So, you are Santa Claus? Then show yourself already!"
"Well, now you sound like Serena and Andrew. I'm certainly not dressed in red and white."
Darien blinked. Then he blinked again.
Standing before him was a young boy surrounded in a yellow like light, barely noticeable to the naked eye unless you were looking for it. He looked no older than nine or ten years old. He was dressed in a plain blue t-shirt with the word "Hope" on it, and a pair of black jeans with converse sneakers. His hair was brown and his eyes green, almost as bright as Andrew's.
"Do you recognize me?" The entity asked. His aura diminished, and before him stood a now plain looking child, with no twinkling voice. "If you pay attention to the people around you at all, you should."
Darien was confused. He looked the boy up and down, circling him as he did so. "I don't recognize you at all."
"That figures." The boy said. "Well, all that matters is I know you."
"How?" Darien asked. Then he realized possibly how. "Are you from the orphanage? Did I know you before I left there?"
"I was there, but no. That's not how I know you, not by a long shot."
"Then how?" This kid couldn't possibly have known him from anywhere else. He was too young to know Darien before then. Darien was sure of that.
"I've been by your side since you were growing inside your mother's womb."
"That's impossible!" Darien protested, rejecting the very thought. "You're too young. You are younger than me, even."
"Let me ask you this then, how do you think you survived in the car crash when your parents didn't?" The boy asked Darien, narrowing his eyes at him.
Darien fumbled with his words, startled the kid knew that about him. That he knew about his parents death, or even about the car crash. He finally managed to put a sentence together. "Th-they, I mean...I don't...no one knows. It was a miracle. They said it was the work of an angel!"
The boy smirked, pointed at himself, and said, "Bingo!"
Darien only had more questions for the kid at this point. "So...you are saying you are an angel?"
"Precisely." His green eyes glittered, and his aura flickered for a moment, showing a bright yellow.
Darien looked down at the ground, taking in all the information that was blowing his very mind at this moment.
"I-I don't understand how-I mean...why didn't you save them too?" Darien asked. He looked up to where the boy was, but he wasn't there.
He panicked, wanting to know answers, but felt a sigh of relief when he heard a bang from his kitchen. Darien saw the boy trying to reach his secret stash of chocolate above his fridge.
"But how did you know that was-?"
"First of all, it doesn't work like that. We all have our charges who we protect. Sometimes we protect entire families, but other times we only get a few charges, or if we really suck at our job, just one until they die." He turned around, taking a chunk out the chocolate bar. "Want some? It is your favorite right? Because it's Serena's favorite? Or wait, was it because it was Andrew's? Sometimes I lose track of your cover stories when it comes to that girl."
Darien stood, dumbfounded. He had no idea what was going on. Was it actually possible that this kid was an angel?
"Yes. Well, your guardian angel to be more specific. Sometimes though...I play the role of a spirit guide. Which is why I am allowing you to see me right now. I look pretty human, right?"
Darien nodded. What could he possibly need guiding in though? He was studying to be a doctor, he had friends, and goals and ambitions. Life was going well for Darien.
"I'm going to give you a choice. I can either give you advice, or grant your most desired wish on Christmas day. If you pick the advice, you will get it now."
"But I only have one wish, there would be no most desired wish." Darien rustled his hair in thought. "Besides, Christmas is such a lame holiday, to wait a whole four weeks just for a wish seems like a huge waste of time, doesn't it?"
"Ah, so you are wanting advice then?" The angel smirked like he had before.
"No, no. I'm not saying that, I just don't understand what the significance is to wait for that particular day."
"Well, you see...There's a catch to this wish if you choose it." The boy took another bite of his chocolate bar, grinning from ear to ear the entire time.
"Which is…?"
"Well, you have to grant someone else's most desired wish first. Only then will yours come true."
Darien paused for a moment. It seemed like an almost reasonable request. He probably just had to buy a mom her kid's Christmas presents, and he has a hefty inheritance from his parents to do that with. And if his wish came true, he would remember everything. His parents, his memories, his life before it crashed around him. It could be easy enough.
"So, you accept then?"
"Obviously." Darien knew there was only one answer, but from how his Guardian Angel had asked, obviously he knew that too. "So, who's wish am I granting?"
The angel laughed. "That's for you to figure out."
Darien wanted to punch the kid. "Are you sure you aren't a genie or something? I thought only genies played tricks with wishes!"
"I told you I came to play the role of a spirit guide today, right?" The angel opened his fridge and pulled out a soda. He cracked open the can in front of Darien and took a swig from it. After he wiped his mouth he said, "How am I guiding you in the right direction if I tell you what exactly to do?"
Darien rolled his eyes at this. How childlike. How annoying. "Can you at least tell me what the wish itself is?"
His angel shook his head no.
"Can you give some kind of clue so I know where to start?"
"I will give you one. This person is someone who you know. They could be anyone you have met in your entire lifetime, or lifetimes."
The angel laughed one more time before vanishing with a snap of his fingers before Darien's very eyes. The soda can dropped to the floor, the bubbly liquid spraying everywhere, and crystallizing all over the ground.
"That really narrows it down, 'Guardian' Angel!" Darien yelled at the bright yellow orb floating through his kitchen. "And also," He continued shouting as the orb was clearly going through his window, "You're really not going to clean this mess up?"
He heard an echoey laugh. The obnoxious laugh of the angel who was playing mind games with him. He grumbled under his breath about being sick of cleaning up messes as he opened his cabinet for a towel to clean up the spill that the angel intentionally made.
When he finished, he went to investigate his heater once again. It was still running, only this time, he could actually feel the heat circulating through the entire room. When Darien sat down to finish watching the news, he took a sip from his cold coffee only to find it piping hot. The news was exactly where he had left off, going on about being safe on the roads. The weirdest thing though, was that time hadn't passed at all. He looked at his watch to confirm the time on the tv wasn't right. But it was.
It was still exactly 6 pm.