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Stories include: 1st Day, The Tree - Anders swore he'd cut down his own tree this year, even if it killed him. 2nd Day, The Doves - Kelly's abusive husband couldn't tolerate the birds crapping on his car. 3rd Day, The Hens - Eris's mother-in-law offers to make her and Jessup a Christmas Eve meal to remember. 4th Day, The Birds - Mackie assures Gennie that the dead birds the cat was bringing her were meant to be a present. 5th Day, The Rings - Ricky tells his parents a bad Santa came to visit him and demanded the boy give him five gold rings. 6th Day, The Geese - They say geese can be mean-spirited. Daisy discovers why. 7th Day, The Swans - Alice found an old Victrola in her grandparents' attic. It was the music it played that horrified her. 8th Day, The Milk - Dara and her sister wonder why everything has the same expiration date. 9th Day, The Ladies - Careen couldn't figure out why her daughter no longer wanted the "nine dancing ladies" dolls for Christmas. 10th Day, The Leapers - Vina's daughter asks for more salt to finish the ten circles she's pouring in her bedroom. 11th Day, The Pipers - Macy noticed that one of the pipers on display is missing...but not for long. 12th Day, The Drums - Jayne gets to the point where she can no longer stand the relentless pounding in her skull. |
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EXCERPTS:
(From 2nd Day) Walking over to the poor thing, she knelt to
watch it slowly succumb to its injuries. “This isn’t a pigeon,” she
repeated. “It’s a turtle dove. See?” She indicated its head. “See
the marks on its neck?” “I don’t care what it has on its neck. As
long as it’s dead, I’m good.” Kelly glanced overhead. Her husband noticed. “What are you looking for?” “Its mate. They mate for life. Somewhere…” “That must’ve been the other bird I saw it
with.” He strode over to the chain-link fence that separated the
parking area from the back of the apartment complex. “I bet it’s up
in one these trees.” Raising the rifle, he peered down the barrel,
hoping to spot the other dove, when his coat sleeve caught on the
top of the fence. He cursed loudly and jerked to free himself. Kelly heard a ripping sound. It was followed
by another ear-melting string of profanity. “My brand-new jacket! I paid good money for
this!” She wanted to tell him it would be all
right, and maybe it could be fixed with a needle and thread, but
when he was this incensed, she knew better than to try and placate
him. Instead, she pointed to a nearby tree. “There it is. I think
that’s its mate. Oh, poor thing!” She was aware of Mac pumping the
BB gun again and rose to face him. “No! You’re not shooting that
bird!” “Watch me.” He raised the gun but this time
she grabbed it by the barrel and jerked it out of his hands. He
stared at her in disbelief. “Why the hell did you do that for?” “You’re not shooting any more turtle doves!” “They’re pigeons!” “Whatever! You’re not shooting any more of
those poor things!” “They’re shitting on my car!” “I’ll buy you a damn tarp for Christmas!
I’ll personally come down every day and clean off any mess they
make. But you are not killing any more turtle doves!” “Pigeons!” “Whatever!”  It was sometime later when her son
and husband were allowed to see her. She noticed the redness around
Ricky’s eyes and knew he’d been crying. Jeremy’s face was still
white with shock. “They think you did it,” she
whispered to him. “I didn’t!” he insisted. “I know you didn’t.” “It was the bad Santa,” Ricky told
her. She stared at him. “What?” “H-he told me the rings you got him
weren’t real, so he took…he took two rings from you.” Joan blinked as she tried to make
sense of what the boy was telling her. Jeremy examined the wounded hand.
“Ricky told me that the bad Santa told him that he got two gold
rings, but we still owed him three more. And he’d be back to collect
them.”
Was it possible? “No,” she said aloud, hoping that
her denial might manifest itself into reality. But what
if it was
possible? A mean
little demon argued inside her. She didn’t want to check but she had
to. She had to prove to herself that she wasn’t making it all up.
That I’m not dreaming. This time she made her way slowly
down the back stairs and into the kitchen. Although she thought
she’d prepared herself for the truth, it was still a harsh blow to
find her mother, father, Aunt Becky, and Uncle Hill sitting at the
dinette having coffee. No cake, since Grandma isn’t here to
fix it beforehand. Her father spotted her first and he
smiled. “Decided to come down and join us?” “There’s something very weird going
on,” Alice announced solemnly. “And it frightens me.” Her mother gestured to her to come
closer. A worried look filled her face. “What’s wrong, honey?” Again, Alice pointed upstairs. “I
found an old Victrola in the attic. I also found some records.” “You’ve already told us that,” the
woman said. “We told you you could take them home with us when we
left here.” Alice pressed on. “I was playing a
record called ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas.’ It got to the seven
swans a-swimming part, but instead of seven, it said six. Six swans
a-swimming. So I came downstairs to tell you that I thought the
choir had made a mistake when they recorded it. Mom, Dad, Aunt
Becky, Uncle Hill, when we first got here, Gramps and Grandma Swan
were here.” Seeing
the disbelief on their faces, she pressed on. “After it said six
swans a-swimming, I came downstairs, but Gramps was gone. There was
just you guys and me and Grandma Swan. I went back upstairs and
played the record again, and this time it said
five
swans a-swimming. And when I came
down here, there’s only…” She made a circle with her finger to
indicate all of them. “There’s only five of us now. Grandma is
gone.” Her throat closed up, and she forced
herself to swallow as tears began to fill her eyes. “If I go back
upstairs to play the record again, what if it says four? Or three?
Who’ll be gone the next time I come check on you?”
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