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 Four. Four Calling Birds
He was in the car driving toward some unknown destination; not sure what he wanted or where to go but feeling that this was the right road to be on. He sees ahead of him a woman walking on the shoulder of the road. She uses a cane and is carrying a large bag; her step is ungainly and she looks tired as if she could fall at any time. Although he doesn't usually pick up hitchhikers or people on the side of the road he decides to do so for this struggling woman. He stops the car beside her and opens the window.
"Can I help you get to the next town?"
She looks at the man in the car and although she would normally not accept a ride from a stranger, too many killers out there picking up people, she smiles and nods her head. She walks over to the front passenger car door while he gets out and takes her bag from her. He places the bag in the back seat of the car and assists her into the passenger seat. They both look behind them when they hear the call of a bird in the distance.
"Thank you for your kindness."
"It's my pleasure ma'am. Are you going to the next town and is there someplace I can drop you off when we get there?"
"The next town will be fine and you can drop me off at the grocery store there. I do appreciate the ride. Where are you heading today?"
"No place in particular just kind of driving for the sake of driving I guess."
"Where is home?"
"I don't really have a home at this time. I am just wandering and searching."
"Like Moses in the desert when he was tossed from the kingdom of Egypt, he wandered for many years before settling in Midian."
"I never thought of myself in those terms as a prophet of some kind."
"He wasn't a prophet when he wandered, just a man searching to find the innocence of his own soul again."
"That is an interesting way of seeing the story of Moses wandering maybe I am more like him than I thought."
"Where did you lose your innocence?"
"A few years ago, a woman I had known for decades who was a good friend was murdered by a psychopath. I just lost my balance of good and evil and wondering if the work I did to stop evil was making any difference."
"Evil can never go away. It will always exist. Because how can we understand good if we have no evil to compare it to. But fighting it helps keep it to a minimum. When we stop fighting is when evil wins. Of course, what is evil to one person may not be so to another. Different cultures and even historically the morals of different eras cannot be judged by the morals of the current era." They look out to the left side of the window when a bird flies by and calls out.
"This man had killed for decades throughout the United States and I believe that he was a truly evil person."
"What happened to him?"
"He escaped and is still out there maybe even killing more people."
"You are searching for him?"
"I don't really think that I am consciously searching for him but I do keep my eyes out to see if I can find him."
"Do you think the friend of yours would be happy that you are spending your life like this?"
"Probably not, but right now I can't see anything better than searching and wandering. I realize it sounds a little petty of me but it was I need to do right now."
The two are startled in the car when they hear another bird is heard calling.
"Need; that is an interesting thing about life because what we want is not always what
"What do mean?"
"You want to find this man who hurt your friend but is it really a need for you to do so? There are times when we confuse our wants with our needs."
The couple was arriving into the town and began to look for the grocery store so that she may be let out and he would continue on his way. When they arrive at the store parking lot she gets out of the car and he gets out in order retrieving her bag from the back seat. He grabbed it not noticing the box that had fallen out when the bag fell over. They both look up at the bird on the telephone wire above them calling out to his fellow birds.
She looks at him and says, "Think more about what you need and maybe at what others might need to help you to once again find the meaning of life for yourself."
"I don't know if that is possible for me but I do hope that things work out well for you. Happy Christmas."
He gets back into the car and begins to drive away when he hears her say. "And a Happy Christmas to you Jason."
He looks back and is slightly surprised that she has gone so quickly from the parking lot.
Later that night, he stops at a motel and gets out a bag of clothes when he notices the box on the floor of the back seat of the car. He picks it up and takes it into the room with him. It is addressed to him and after shaking it and testing it he opens the box to reveal an ornament of an angel with four birds etched on its skirt, their beaks open as if they were calling out. In her right hand is a picture frame and in left hand holds a caged bird.
He places it on the table in the room.