Twelve Days of Christmas
I wasn't going to but changed my mind and have written a Christmas story. I hope you like it. I would love to hear your opinions and look to working further on the story.
I do not own or have connection with the "Criminal Minds" program or its characters.
Chapter One. A Partridge in a Pear Tree
He was at the mall trying to find the right gifts when someone bumped into him and caused him to drop his packages.
"Shit, I hate shopping and having to deal with the people here. Bah humbug to Christmas."
A woman was sitting at a bench and had watched the interaction. She struggled and got up to help him pick up his purchases when she heard his statement.
"You don't really mean that."
"Mean what?"
"Bah humbug."
"No, I don't really mean that but sometimes I just wish it was over and I don't have to deal with it again for a whole year."
"You could do what I do and shop all year round. I usually shop through mail-order catalogs and on-line at different websites. I find it good to do that. I don't have to deal with the people. Of course, you don't normally get things on sale but buying all year you can get it on sale when it is on sale then and not just at Christmas time sales."
"Sounds complicated."
She laughs at the remark as they finish putting his things back in to his bags. She then sits down again and he joins her at the bench.
"Who are you shopping for today?" She asks him.
"I have a group of co-workers that I want to get something for."
"I don't buy my co-workers gifts."
"Don't you exchange gifts?'
"Don't get me wrong. I do give them gifts. I just don't buy them."
"What do you give?"
"I bake them a gift."
He looked at her with a wry look on his face and says, "Fruitcakes?"
She laughs again. "I could but no. Usually it is fudge, sugar cookies, thumbprints, peanut butter kiss cookies and other kinds of cookies. I also bake small loaves of different kinds of bread. I try to please many tastes because everyone has different likes and dislikes."
"It sounds like it doesn't last too long for them."
"Well, I also give an ornament of some type. I pick them up throughout the year and try to find one that kind of represents the person in how I see them. Nothing big but something they can put up again each year. I give different things throughout the year."
"Sounds interesting. What kind of ornament would you give me just from the little you know of me and how we have met?
She looks at him in slight puzzlement as she takes in his well-fitting medium wash indigo blue jeans, the plaid shirt and his coat with the Cabela logo on it. He has on a sensible pair of leather work shoes and notices his well-worn hands with the calluses on the index finger and thumbs. His well-trimmed beard and short crop hair were sprinkled with gray hair. He had a pair of aviator sunglasses in his left front pocket. She takes a whiff of him and smells the muskiness of a man who likes the outdoors. There is a faint touch of dog and something unfamiliar to her but quite distinctive. She looks at his clear dark eyes which had a touch of tiredness around them and the small amount of wrinkles around them. They give the look of an older man who has seen tragedy and pain in his life. There is no ring on his finger and he does not wear a chain or anything around his neck. He has a leather banded watch around his left wrist which was fairly expensive but not ostentatiously noticeable.
"Well, since I don't your hobbies or anything like that, I can only go by your appearance. You look casual but I would say that your job is still office or having to do with a great deal of writing. The calluses on your index finger and thumb indicate that. You have a whiff of dog on your coat which is a hunters coat so I would say that you are a hunter. If you use your dog in hunting it would probably be duck or other fowl type of animal that you would shoot which is probably what that unfamiliar odor is. It is very distinctive and could be gunpowder. Because you appear to be an outdoorsman I would probably get an ornament that represents the outdoors, such as a hunting dog or flying birds or possibly something cutesy with bears dressed in holiday clothes."
He chuckles when he thinks about the bears and says "you are good in profiling. I do hunt ducks and I have a dog. What do you do for a living?"
"I am a bookkeeper for a non-profit organization. I wouldn't think of myself as a profiler, just an observer of people and what they do and wear and say."
"That's what a profiler does."
"Is that what you do, profile?"
"I work for a government agency as a profiler."
"Government, do you enjoy it?"
"It has its moments."
"That's similar to any type of job."
"I really should finish up my shopping. It was nice to meet you."
"And you. Have a happy Christmas." She reaches down into one of the bags at her feet and takes out a box. "I would like you to have this in remembrance to not see Christmas as a bah humbug."
"I couldn't take that."
"Please I really would like you to have it. I bought it for you."
"How can you have bought it for me when we just met?"
She smiles enigmatically and handed him the box. He looks at her shining bright eyes and felt that he had to take the box from her.
"Thank you and Happy Christmas to you."
Rossi turns and goes down the mall's corridors and soon forgot about the woman on the bench as he finished up his shopping.
Later that night when he had taken the gifts out of the boxes and set to wrap them for his co-workers, he sees that box from her. He opens it and sees something that quite surprises him.
It was an ornament that had a partridge in a pear tree etched on the skirt of an angel holding a pen in her right hand and her left hand patting the head of a dog.