Christmas Eve in a Peculiar Village
(It's complicated!)
By: Jeanne HP
Far far away in the near village of Gnarlyville, it was the day or so before Christmas. The villagers were as usual, cranky and irritable. They were a strange looking lot - they had a young appearance but had aging grey hair, pot bellies and mushroom ears. Each of them stood tall in a stumped sort of way. Their tiny feet they could have used as surfboards.
Things were just not right in their wide little world. Bernab, the jail keeper was cheerfully the most ill-tempered of all. How he beamed while he locked the cell door on someone who maybe crossed a street when they should have crossed an avenue.
Oh yes, and then there was Eldora. She lived in the first house on the block at the end of the street. Eldora never got up on the right side of the bed. Of course, there was no right side. Left or right, it didn’t matter - she was dependably crabby and disagreeable. The fact is, all of Gnarlyville displayed the same ill-natured even-tempered personalities.
Every Christmas Eve the whole village showed up at the Town Circle. It was something they always did - as displeasing as it was. Gripes and grumblings could be heard emanating from the sprinkling of people making up the crowd. “Get off my foot!” “Close your trap!” A moan here, a wail there. It was the same every year .
That year, it happened in one life changing moment, as Bernab was standing next to Eldora, (who he loved to not like), that a very disquieting. calming thing happened. A shining clouded fog began to blanket the village and all the people in it. It quietly wrapped itself around some of everything and everybody. They all ceased being belligerent with one another as concern for their own well-being became firstly in their minds. No sound was heard coming from the real illusion, but something similar to a thought or a feeling came over each of them - a peaceful calming, a desire for friendship, a hope for all the forever tomorrows.
The villagers never did figure out what that eerie fog was or where it came from, but since that Christmas Eve, it became a much happier and contented village, and nowhere near as mean or nonsensical. Smiles would appear now and then on those old frozen faces, and even a good word or two would be passed one to the other - "Hello, - you're looking spendid.". Their grey hair, pot bellies and little oversized feet disappeared. Though they remained tall in that stumped sort of way and still sported their mushroom ears, none of that seemed to matter any more. Magic happened on that Christmas Eve far far away in the near village of Gnarlyville.
The Mystifying End
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