Here's a little short Christmas drabble I wrote when I was bored. Enjoy.
Marion Cavanaugh was a loving mother, a daughter, a sister and a loyal participant to the town. She worked as a pediatric nurse for thirteen years. She had a lot of unique interest in baking bird watching, painting, playing the piano, hiking, being a devoted wife, and caring for her beautiful son. Every Sunday, Marion would be at church singing along to the hymns. Only a few remember her beautiful voice and the way she played the piano with such grace. During her free time, Marion would give piano lessons to anyone in town that wanted to learn. She never did it for money. She just did it out of the kindness of her heart. That's who Marion Cavanaugh was. A kind-hearted woman. That's how Toby remembers his mother and that is how he wants the town to remember her. He doesn't want them to only think about the lady who suddenly stopped showing up to church on Sunday's. The lady who left her job to be home. The lady who never left her home because she felt scared. The lady who stayed in bed all day. He doesn't want people to remember her as the lady who lost her mind and killed herself. That was not who Marion Cavanaugh was!
December 13th, 2001
Eight-year-old Toby sat down at the piano with his mother while she attempted to teach him how to play simple songs on the piano. She kept instructing him how to place his hands and fingers on the keys. He messes up a lot but Marion continues on with a smile and tells him how good he's coming along. Toby just finished playing what some people may or may not recognize as Silent Night.
"Good job, sweetheart," Marion tousled his shaggy light brown hair.
Toby let out a pathetic sigh and said, "that was awful."
"No, it wasn't!" Marion exclaimed. "Honey, it takes a lot of practice that's all. You're getting better and better every day."
"I suck!" He folded his arms over his chest and bowed his head.
"Listen," Marion grabbed his chin and raised his head back up so he's looking her in the eye. "You, my sweet boy, do not suck at anything. You hear me? You do not suck. You are not a failure. You are smart, strong, loving, wonderful human being. You are good at a lot of things."
A half smile crept along his face, "like winning scrabble!"
"That's right!" Marion laughed. "You are the best Scrabble player I know."
Toby's face lit up, "thank you, mom. You always know what to say to cheer me up."
"Well, it's in the mom job description so, I kind of have to cheer you up."
Toby laughed, "I love you, mom."
Marion squeezed his little dimple chin then hugged him tightly, "I love you too, Tobias."
December 11th, 2019
The air outside this evening is bitter and windy. Snow had begun to fall around 4 that afternoon and it's been coming on and off for the last 3 hours. Toby drove home carefully in the snow. He's already been in several accidents in his life. He doesn't need another and he knows his wife wouldn't care for it either. After a fourteen minute drive, he pulled up into the driveway of his newly built house. The small, but homey, the blue house is all decorated with tons of beautiful shiny red and green lights. Toby shuttered when he left the warmth of his car to walk up the drive to the front porch. He got his key out to unlock the door but found the doors already unlocked. Toby smiled to himself and rolled his eyes knowing that his wife had forgotten to lock the door… Again.
"Honey, I'm home!" He called out.
The house is warm and smells like apple pie. There's an iPad set up on the coffee table playing Christmas songs off of Pandora. Toby shredded off his coat and hung it up on the rack. He looked around at all the decorations hung up around the house. There are a couple Christmas reefs hanging up and red ribbons tied around the door knobs. A fire is lit in the fireplace and there are a few holiday candles burning on the coffee table and on the mantelpiece. He walked through the entranceway to the living room and there's a 6ft tall green Christmas tree standing up in the center of the room. Right now, all that's on it are several strains of white lights and silver tinsel draped around the branches. He doesn't see any ornaments on the tree right now or a star on top. Even though he's in awe right now with how great the house looks right now, he wondered where his wife is. He started walking back to the family room to get to their bedroom when he heard some cluttering coming from the closet to the left followed by a disappointed grunt. More sounds came from that closet so Toby took that as his first bet of where to find her.
"Spence?" He called out.
More cluttering sounds, grunts, and a couple curse words came from the closet. Yeah, she must be in there. Toby peaked in the closet and he could not help himself from laughing at what he saw. There Spencer is standing on the highest point of her tippy toes trying to reach a box that's up pushed back far on a high shelf. There are two boxes she's trying to reach. One box is labeled Christmas ornaments and the other box is labeled star.
Spencer sighed in annoyance and finally said, "well, are you just going to stand there laughing at me or you going to give me a hand?"
"Well, to be honest watching you has been pretty entertaining," he said with a smile.
She stopped reaching and turned to glare at him. Toby unfolded his arms and stepped forward to reach the box. He stood in front of her and lifted his arms up to pull the first box down. He handed it to her and said.
"Here you go."
"Thank you," she said.
Spencer took the book from him and walked back to the living room. She set the box down on a chair and Toby walked over to the second box.
"The tree looks great," he complimented.
"Yeah, it's going to look even greater when we put the ornaments on," she smiled up at him. "Help me?"
"Of course," he happily said.
They spent thirty minutes or so putting ornaments up on their Christmas tree. Occasionally, they'd hum along to the Christmas music. Spencer found an ornament that Toby made in the second grade. It's a little picture frame made out of popsicle sticks with a little picture of him wearing a red Santa hat.
"Aw look at you!" She awed.
Toby's cheeks turned red, "what's that doing in there?"
She held up the picture like she's making it talk and said, "it's saying hang me up on the Christmas tree for everyone to see!"
"Oh my goodness," he covered his face with his hand.
Spencer laughed, "it's cute! Maybe I should put it next to the picture of you in those Santa boxers."
He chuckled and pulled out an ornament that she made, "or we can hang it next to your picture of you dressed as an elf for the school's 2nd-grade winter concert."
She squealed reaching to take the photo from him, "don't you dare!"
He held the picture up high so she couldn't reach it. Even on her toes, she still struggled to grab it.
"Toby!" She whined.
He chuckled still holding it out of arm's length.
"You're mean," she crossed her arms and pouted.
"Aw," he leaned down to kiss that pout right off of her face. "What if we both hang our pictures on the tree right next to each other so they can be nerdy together?"
"Okay," she agreed.
He kissed her a second time then placed the two picture ornaments on the tree side by side. They finally finished decorating the tree with ornaments. Now, all that needs to be done is put the star on top. Spencer held the yellow star in her hands and eyed the top of the tree.
"How do you propose we do this?" she asked.
Toby eyed the tree than her. He smiled as an idea crossed his mind. Getting a ladder would be a smart thing to do but instead, Toby wrapped his arms around Spencer and lifted her up enough so she could reach the top. She smiled as she placed the star right on the top and watched it shine. Toby lowered her right back down to the floor and hugged her from behind. She hugged his arms wrapped around her body and nuzzled back against him.
"You know for once it actually feels like we get to spend a real Christmas together," she said. "No -A. No crazy family members her to ruin it. No drama, fights or murder charges. It's just you and me." She angled her head around to look at him. "You're all I need for Christmas."
He looked her over and said," you're all I need in life ever."
Her smile grew as he lowered his head down to kiss her. Spencer turned herself around in his arms and brought her hands up to frame his face. He lowed his arms to her waist and wrapped them tightly around her as he drew her in closer. They moaned as their tongues moved together. Toby pulled away to catch his breath.
"Do you want to move this to the bedroom?" Spencer asked. "I bet there's a scrabble board in there just waiting to be played."
He smiled, "you read my mind."
Moments later, after an intense round of scrabble, Toby winning with 16 points more than Spencer, Spencer and Toby ended up laying bare underneath the sheets and blankets on their bed. As soon as Spencer had realized that Toby was about to win the game, she started flirting with him. That lead to the couple getting tangled up together between the sheets. Now, here they are all worn out, in love, and sweaty.
"I swear," Spencer said. "This right here is my favorite activity."
"Scrabble and sex?"
"Yeah," she said. "Sex with you after an intense game of scrabble, I honestly can't think of anything better."
"Maybe actually winning at scrabble then sex?" He joked.
She playfully swatted his chest, "don't ruin the moment. You are good at Scrabble, yes, but we're equally as good at it."
"If you say so, my dear."
"Oh, god," she sat up and held her stomach.
Toby sat up too, "what's wrong?"
"Nothing just all that sex made me hungry."
"Yeah, me too," he agreed.
She looked at him, "want to go find something to make in the kitchen?"
"Sure."
They threw on some sweats then moved to the kitchen to see what food they had for dinner. Spencer found some soup, sour cream, and cheese. Toby found a few potatoes in the garage. They decided to make cheesy potatoes for dinner and some cooked baby carrots. Everything took about an hour to make so it was after 9 when they sat down to eat. They ate on the couch together while making casual conversation. They took turns talking about work and their day. They talked about having Emily, Alison, and their kids coming over for Christmas. Last year, they were at their house. After finishing their dinner, Spencer got up to do the dishes.
For some reason, Toby was particularly interested in the piano they have against the wall of the living room. He walked in at sat down on the bench. He hasn't played in years and never really got that good at it but he does remember some stuff his mother taught him. He opened the piano book sitting in front of him until he found the song he wanted to play. After taking a deep breath, he placed his fingers on the keys and the sound of Silent Night played through the house. He's doing a lot better than when he was a kid but cringed whenever he'd slip and accidentally get off key. By the time he had finished the song, he hadn't noticed Spencer leaning against the entre way staring at him in complete awe.
"That sounded really good," she said.
He turned around and his cheeks turned red. He smiled shyly and said, "I'm not very good."
"Sounded okay to me."
She walks over to join him at the piano. He scoots over to let her sit.
"What else can you play?"
"Uh," he started ahead. "I think I can play Joy to The World."
"Okay, let's hear it."
He looked at her nervously. Spencer nodded in encouragement. Toby pushed his nerves aside for her and began to play Joy to The World. He did so good on it but had a little mess up on the last verse. When he finished, Spencer's smile grew and she kissed him on the cheek.
"That was beautiful."
"Thanks," he blushed again. "My mom started to teach me piano. I remembered something she taught me but it's been awhile. My lesson only went on for a few months before she started… Well, you know."
Spencer touched his hand as a sign of comfort, "you know I think it is so great that you keep so much about your mother."
"I actually really don't have that much," he said. "Some pictures and a few letters she wrote to me while she was in that place but not much after that."
"No," Spencer smiled. "You have so much more of hee," she poked his chest where his heart is. "In here."
He smiled at her and pecked her sweetly on the lips.
"If i remember correctly," he started. "You're pretty good at piano."
"Oh, yeah," it was her turn to blush. "I haven't played in years."
"Will you play something now? For me?"
She smiled when she saw the look on his face, "how could I ever say no to that face. Alright, what song do you want to hear?"
"Christmas Tree."
"A classic," she said.
Spencer flipped through the pages until she came to that song. She straightened herself up and put her hands on the piano. There was a pause before she began. Pretty soon, the beautiful sound of Christmas Tree blessed Toby's ears. When she played, Toby found himself go into a daze. He hadn't heard piano music sound that pretty in a long time. Spencer finished the song and Toby opened his eyes. He smiled.
"That was beautiful."
She smiled too, "thank you. I have forgotten what it felt like to play for fun and not for a contest."
"This may sound a little weird but, can you tutor me in piano playing?"
She raised her eyebrows, "really?"
"Yeah, I mean you are a great tutor. Without you, I wouldn't know the difference between run and ran in French."
She giggled.
"Can you please teach me?" He asked. "I just want to be able to play one song without messing up."
She smiled, "Tobes, you don't have to beg. Of course, I will help you."
He smiled and kissed her, "thank you."
She placed a finger to his lips to halt the second kiss, "but first, you need to take the trash out."
He dropped his head and sighed, "yes, dear."
The end. Comments maybe (: