the door was shut tight, locked three times with fingerprinters so that the only possible person who could open it was the girl who lived in the apartment. the child looked at it a moment, then calmly ignored all the laws of physics and pushed the door gently open. the first thing to enter the darkened room was her left hand, in which burned a small white candle on a golden holder. the child poked her blonde head in and let her eyes adjust to the darkness. when she could see clearly, she stepped into the room, gently closed the door behind her, and took in her surroundings.
the apartment consisted of only one room, but within that room was anything a person could possibly need. the room could go from kitchen to parlor to bedroom to bathroom and then right back to kitchen again, all at the push of a button on the small control panel next to the door. right now the place was set to bedroom, and the only piece of furniture in the room, other than the bed, was a small dressing table upon which had been placed a miniature tree. the tree was drowned in tiny multicolored lights, and its branches were weighed down with so many large glass balls that it looked as if it might topple over at any moment. the very top evergreen branch was adorned with a shiny golden star. beneath the tree were a few colored boxes, and next to it was a glass of water and a plate of rich brown cakes and small white tablets. near the glass was a small computer, its screen emitting a cool bluish light.
as the child looked around the room, her gaze fell upon the girl lying asleep in the bed. the girl's dark hair was spread over her soft white pillow, and even though the bed was the very best in sleepware she stirred frequently in her dreams. on the wall above the bed another screen was hanging; on it the date was shining, "december 25, 4075."
the child padded over to the tree, the sound of far-off rusted glass bells echoing after every step she took. she grinned at the overloaded tree a moment, then turned and looked bewilderedly at the food and the screen. realizing that the screen had writings on it, she squinted into its light and began to read.
dear mr s nicolas,
wow. i feel very peculiar writing this. i mean, i don't really believe in you at all, i only found out about this festival last month... it took me forever to find these antique baubles for the tree. i hope they're okay. i'm studing ancient beliefs, and in one history file i found they mentioned this old religion. well, i guess i decided to celebrate your pagan festival this year because i liked the idea of having a tree indoors. kind of a crazy reason, i know - if the authorities found out they'd probably lock me up for a few days. well, i don't care. i think it's educational to experiment with the old ways a bit, it doesn't mean i'm going to go crazy and start crusading against the trillimaium or anything. but after this, i don't thin i'll risk dabbling in the subject anymore - they've already got their eyes on me because of my medication. well, anyway, i suppose i'm boring you a bit so i'd better get to the point - what i want for as a gift is an antique of some sort. something very old, like a zipper or a telephone. there, i'm done. i did want a few other things, too, but since i don't really think you'll come along and leave me anything i went and bought them for myself. put them in decorative boxes and everything, just like the document said... ah, well. goodnight.
- fiantri
p.s. - the book also said it was common tradition in the ancient times for milk and cookies to be left as a sacrifice... i couldn't leave milk, though, because cows have been extinct for several decades. i left you water and calcium tablets instead, i hope they're okay - and i had my box cook you fancy cakes instead of cookies to make up for it. hohpefully they'll still be soft tomorrow so i can eat them after satisfying myself that you haven't come...
when she reached the end of the letter, the child laughed. the sound, like a fire crackling, caused the girl on the bed to awaken with a start. she let out a little cry at the sight of the child, and then was unable to do anything except stare.
"hello," said the child. her voice was so soft it was barely audible.
"hello," answered the girl. wondering how this hologram of a little girl who had apparently just awakened from sleep had been projected into her room, she realized with a start that only the authorities would have done such a thing. that was probably why the child had been looking so intently at the heathen array on the nightstand. she looked warily at the transparent little girl in the old-fashioned white nightgown, trying to think of a decent way to explain herself out of this mess. perhaps she could claim that she didn't know what she had done was illegal. she toyed with the idea for a moment and then remembered the letter on her computer with a sinking feeling. somehow, even in the middle of such a crisis part of her was wondering how the authorities got their hologram-child to glow silver like that, and why the image was carrying such an ancient lighting device. that was her problem, the girl thought disgustedly - she was too curious. the little girl was just standing and looking at her, as if waiting for something to happen. feeling as if she ought to say something, she whispered "are you going to take me away?"
"what?" the little girl asked, sounding bewildered. "how could i take you away?"
"well, you yourself couldn't, but the planetary guard could come in and grab me if you told them to..."
"what do you mean?" the child's voice held genuine confusion, and the girl realized maybe she hadn't been discovered after all.
"aren't you from the authorities?"
"no."
there was an awkward pause in which the girl's embarrassment prevented her from asking who the little girl hologram was from, and what it was doing in her room at such a crazy hour.
finally the child spoke. "are you fiantri?"
"yes." the girl became nervous again at hering her name. "who is sending you? what do you want?"
"sending me?"
"yes, sending you. holograms don't just send themselves, you know - is this some kind of a cruel joke?"
the little girl sounded utterly lost as she asked very quietly, "what's a hologram?"
fiantri stared. "what do you mean, whats a hologram? you're one."
"no, i'm not." the child's voice was beginning to quaver, and fiantri was afraid she might start crying.
"well," she said a bit more gently, "what are you then? only holograms are transparent like that, you can't be anything else... unless..." the girl began to feel frightened again very quickly. she knew about ghosts, she'd read many files about them and up until now had been almost positive that they didn't exist. after all, the dead were dead, and the trillimaium stated that when a person died the soul went directly to geimert, where it was sorted...
"unless what?"
"unless you're a..." fiantri's voice dropped to a whisper, "...ghost."
"oh, that. well, yes, i am."
"you are?"
"in a way. i died when people stopped believeing."
fiantri stared. "who are you?"
"my name is noelle."
the name sounded familiar, and fiantri turned it over in her mind. "noelle, noelle... doesn't that have to do with the christmas festival?"
the little girl smiled a bit. "well, yes, i suppose you could call it that."
suddenly a thought hit fiantri, and she scrunched up her eyes miserably. "am i having a hallucination again? i hope not, i took my medicine..." seeing the look on the child's face, she explained, "i get these hallucinations in my sleep, sometimes... the doctor calls them night terrors. i have to order a special medicine directly from the authorities for it, and they keep it on record and everything - apparently people who get these night terrors are statistically more likely to cause public mayhem."
"you think i'm a dream?" the little girl asked.
"perhaps. are you?"
"perhaps."
there was a long lull in the conversation. finally fiantri spoke, in a voice that seemed as if she was trying to convince herself of what she was saying more than trying to convince the child. "i am dreaming. i think i'll go back to sleep now."
"that's probably a good idea." the little girl agreed.
fiantri took a small bottle out from under her pillow, removed a sleeping pill form it and swallowed it with a sip of water from the glass by the tree. the pill began to work almost immediately, and she snuggled deeper into her sheets, her eyes shut. she was still for a long moment, and then one of her eyes opened again. looking somewhat dazedly at the child who was still standing by the tree, she asked sleepily, "who did you say you were again?"
the child smiled. "the spirit of christmas."
"ah." fiantri murmured and promptly drifted into sleep once more.
the little girl stood still for several minutes, thinking. then she pulled a sheet of yelowed paper and an old pen out of her pocket, placed the page and the candle on the table, and wrote:
dear fiantri,
here is your antique - a silver pen from a time when they used to write by hand. i hope you like it.
love, noelle
p.s. - thank you for the milk and cookies, but i'm not terribly hungry. thank you also for awakening me, even if just for one more year.
the little girl put down the pen and picked up her candle. she looked over at the sleeping form of fiantri, and the girl stirred again in her sleep. smiling fondly, the child leaned overand tucked the blankets gently around the dreaming girl. then she stepped to the door, opened it quietly, and paused to give one sad, sweeping, satisfied glance over the apartment. with that, the spirit of christmas jingled out of the room, closing the door behind her.