Christmas Cookies
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DescriptionA story of a holiday home with cookies.
MessagePart of the Holiday House collection.
ImageMonomoy Writes
On the outskirts of town lies a lone home that a lone man occupies. Rumors flew around the grocery stores that said the man hadn’t left his house in 30 years. Rumors spread around the playgrounds say he’s a wizard who cast a veil around his home that makes it invisible to the naked eye. Rumors stretched out to the hospitals that claim the man is an evil surgeon who tortures victims on his table. Rumors escalated to the police that he was a murderer who walked free on a technicality. Rumors spoken by the farmers said that he once starved this town by releasing jackrabbits and even gophers into the fields.However this Christmas, things changed. The townsfolk woke up one day to the lone home covered in Christmas decorations.Various rumors had spread all around town by dinnertime, most say they saw the man. Some said they saw him put decorations up with arms as long as 10 feet. Others said he had disgusting warts covering his face. Even more, said that he had a hunchback that was taller than his own head. On Christmas Eve, presents appeared under the community tree, addressed from the “man on the hill.” Even more rumors started. The children claimed the presents had evil rodents in them that would wreak havoc on the town. Even the parents were skeptical, and warned their children not to go near the presents on Christmas Day.In the blink of an eye, Christmas morning came around. Many joined the town square for Christmas activities. What surprised the townspeople was that the lone man came out from his house and into town, holding a plate of delicious Christmas cookies. The lone man was an older man, particularly short, and had large chubby cheeks. He was wearing a festive vest with a snowman on it and green and red mittens. “Christmas cookies, Christmas Cookies!” The man yelled out. “Get them while they’re hot! One each though, I’m no baker.” All of the townsfolk exchanged uneasy and worried glances. Whispers trickled through the crowd, and the man grew visibly nervous. After 30 seconds or so, a young boy emerged from his mother's grasp and approached the man. “Can I—err—may I have a cookie mister?” The little boy exclaimed. The man grew a smile of relief. “Of course you can, young man!” He responded. So the boy took a cookie and bit it, chewed it, and swallowed it. Some of the townspeople looked scared for the boy. “Mmm! Thank you!” The boy hugged the man at his waist, and walked back over to his mother.“Would any of you like a cookie?” The man asked the large crowd. The first three went for one, which grew to six, then eleven, and so on. Later that afternoon, that boy’s mother approached the man once more.“Hey, if you don’t mind me asking, why is it that you never come down into town?" she asked. The man looked down and sighed. “Well, many yucky rumors from our former years stuck with us into our social lives and wouldn’t let go, and I was always bitter about it.” The man looked down at the floor, in disappointment. “However, Maggie was always a kind soul, and agreed we would try and stay out of trouble in town. But a few years ago she got terribly sick, and over time got worse and worse.” The man started to sob to himself. “She lost her happy, merry self, no matter how hard I dug to find it.” “She passed late last April,” he continued. “And on her deathbed, she asked: 'Honey, stop being so cranky and make amends with those people down there for Christ’s sake… It’s not good for you to hang on to bad thoughts like this. Just look at how I ended up.' What she said really knocked some sense into me. I depraved her from years—no decades—of a happy and healthy community for what, a grudge?” The man laughed out of self-pity. "It tore me up for months, but finally what she said to me started to make sense not so long ago. I can’t change the past, but I can still move forward and change the future. With both of our hearts in mind, I want to spend the rest of my days connecting with all of you people, and find out just what I’ve been missing all of these years.”
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