4 – The First Noel
It was early morning when the two shadows got up from their beds in the Homestead and silently made their way out of the building, trying not to wake any of the other shanks. The bigger one silently opened the door and held it open for the other to slip out, then they broke into a run, towards the north wall of the giant fence that was trapping the twelve boys in the Glade. It was still an hour until sunrise, when the Runners would take up their job of mapping the Maze and depart into the grey structure, and Nick had to be back by them, since he was going to join them. But first, his duty lay elsewhere. He and Alby stopped at the wall and the dark-skinned boy produced a knife out of his pocket while Nick took up counting the slim lines carved into the thick stone walls.
"Three hundred and sixty-four", he said with hushed voice. "Three hundred and sixty-five days. I've been here a whole year!"
"Guess this makes today your birthday!" Alby answered.
"Yeah, I feel like it's bloody Christmas for me, shuckface!" Nick said, a bit more harshly than intended, and looked up at the sky. "One whole year, and it has never rained, not once." He sighed. "And it hasn't snowed either."
The dark skinned boy extended the knife towards the other.
"You do it." He insisted, nodding towards the wall. Nick took the blade with an ineloquent expression and put it against the stone wall, carving another line next to the 364 others and then made a circle around them, marking the first year in the Maze as complete.
"The first year in how many?" He asked himself, silently, but hopeless. Knowing he'd been here a whole year made the fact that they were trapped much more real and much more terrifying. What if there was really no way out?
"Shut up," he thought and angrily pushed his fear aside, when Alby spoke.
"Christmas," He said.
"What?" Nick, who was still facing the mural, turned his head towards the boy, confused.
"Christmas!" Alby repeated. "Do you remember? Before – well, this – there used to be this tradition, in winter, where everyone decorated the house and gave gifts to his family and stuff… I just thought maybe we could – maybe we should – do it here, too. To remember that our goal is to find a way out."
There was a silence after Alby finished.
"Maybe you're right", the leader said after a minute. "Maybe that's what the shanks need. A little cheer-up after what happened to Newt in the Maze. Maybe we could all use a break from this and just pretend to be back in the before again." He looked up at the dawning sky. Would it be possible to pull this off? To try and celebrate Christmas, like in the old days? He looked over to the homestead, where several Gladers had gotten up and started walking around, preparing for another day of their lives in the Glade.
"We should get back" Alby said. "They're going to take off soon."
Nick nodded, and the two boys set off, back into the middle of the Glade, and when they were close enough, Nick stopped running.
"Yo, listen up shanks!" he yelled over the chatter of the nine Gladers eating breakfast, scattered on the grass right in front of the homestead. "Since the day I arrived here I've been counting the days, as some of you might know, and today it's been exactly one year." He looked at the nine boys' faces, some of them showing disbelief, some despair, but all of them looking at him with respect.
"This is why I have decided that today and tomorrow will be special days, days of celebration. I'm sure you all remember the word and the meaning of Christmas, a feast of love and appreciation, where one gives presents to one's family and eats turkey until everyone's full. What I want is all of you to know that even though we are trapped in here, we still have a family and we still have stuff to appreciate, so I want every single one of you to help with the preparations." He paused for a little moment, then continued. "We are each other's family now, and even though some bad things have happened lately I want these two days to represent all the good things that have happened to us. The fresh water, the food and the whole Glade, all this isn't nothing. So Winston, Frypan, I want you to prepare a big feast for all of us, Gally, you and Zart will take over decorating the Homestead, and everyone else, prepare something for each other. Today is going to be the first Christmas Eve in the Glade, and I want everyone to participate!" There were delighted whispers after Nick had finished, and he could see the excitement grow in the faces of the teenagers, a glimpse of hope rising in this hopeless place.
"What about Newt?" Frypan asked, "Will he join us?"
"Alby and I are going to take care of it," the young leader answered. "Any other questions?" But no one spoke up. Nick dismissed the ten Gladers who ran off, excited about the change of schedule, the distraction from their captivity and a reason to be jolly, to joke and laugh without feeling guilty. He and Alby looked after the boys, how they dived into work, and sighed.
"Let's go then" Nick said and walked towards the Homestead, with the dark-skinned boy right behind him.
Several hours later all the preparations had finished, and the Gladers gathered again. There were branches of tan hanging everywhere, decorated with apples, mimicking the Christmas balls the people hung on their trees during the before, the picnic tables in front of the homestead were packed with fruit and nuts and a smell of turkey and cake was in the air. It was starting to get dark and Stephen and Gally were busy setting up a bonfire while the other boys slowly arrived, one by one, until everyone was present and the fire was blazing through the night. Even Newt had joined them, his arm and leg still thickly bandaged but his eyes glistening with anticipation, smiling for the first time since his accident.
Frypan opened the celebration by walking out of the kitchen, an enormous plate with stuffed turkey on it on each hand and the Gladers applauded heavily as he put them down in the middle of the small circle they'd formed around the fire. The Glade's cook then proceeded to cut the two turkeys into pieces and handing them out to the hungry boys, all waiting for their leader to tell them to start.
Nick stood as soon as he'd filled his plate with the warm food, and all the other boys fell silent.
"I'm going to keep it short; thank you all for helping to create this event, especially Frypan and Winston for conjuring this amazing meal, and have a Merry Christmas!"
With these words he sat down and the Glader boys sank their teeth in the delicious meat on their plates, and they ate and laughed until they were full. Tired, but happy, they decided they were too lazy to get to bed and would sleep outside instead, all except Newt who was still shaky, and Nick helped him back inside the Homestead, where the red-haired boy collapsed on his bunk and almost immediately fell asleep. The leader of the Gladers waited for a moment, watching the injured sleep, then he turned around and headed back outside to join the others who'd already made themselves comfortable on the grassy ground, and he found Alby and lay down next to him. Lying on his back, the dark-skinned boy faced the deep black sky over the Glade, and silently, so only Nick could hear, he whispered: "Maybe one day we will even celebrate a real Christmas."