I'm Home For Christmas (standard:drama, 452 words)
Author: Nicole	Added: Jan 19 2001	Views/Reads: 3697/5	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A young widow travels to the home of her estranged parents for Christmas.

I Am Home For Christmas 

Jenna waited before merging in with the other traffic. She had waked up
one morning and decided to spend Christmas with her parents whom she 
had not seen in ten years. She had found out before Thanksgiving of her 
freshman year in college that she was carrying her boyfriend's baby. 
Since she refused to announce her pregnancy to anyone, especially her 
socially prominent parents, she simply made herself disappear.  She had 
Monica and married a Latino contractor who put her through college. Her 
small family was the center of her existence and life and she loved 
them fiercely. Todd and Monica were coming home from the grocery store 
when the drunk driver ran the stop sign and hit their car. She could 
still remember the trooper's grave face and his dripping uniform as he 
uttered the ominous words. He informed her that her husband and 
daughter were involved in a serious car accident and were at the 
Methodist Community Hospital. She pulled over and consulted her road 
map. Todd had encouraged her to reconcile with her parents and she 
stubbornly refused. Now, she wanted a sympathetic shoulder to cry on. 
She pulled onto the highway. Monica died at the scene. Todd's life 
slipped though the surgeon's fingers after four hours of intensive 
surgery. She drove for two more hours. At a rest stop thirty minutes 
from her house she changed into a white business suit, curled her hair, 
and refreshed her make up. 

Home was a brick house outlined in white lights that twinkled in the
night. She followed several other cars down the drive and tramped over 
frosty grass to the front door.  Her mother played the perfect hostess 
as she greeted her guests with a plastic smile and air kisses. Jenna 
received her kiss and followed the flow of guests to the living room. 
It hadn't changed from the last Christmas she spent there. The 
Christmas tree stood in all its splendor in front of the window. 
Christmas songs played softly over the intercom and people with cups of 
punch milled around making conversation. She accepted a cup of eggnog 
and surveyed the room for people she knew. Her father stood talking 
with a group of large and powerful men like himself. Regina, stood and 
chatted with guests as she made her way round to the little groups. 
Sourly, Jenna noted that there would be no sympathetic shoulder to cry 
on. She would be expected to join Regina and Mother with their social 
activities while Father remained enveloped in his world. She sipped her 
drink and hummed along with the song, I'll Be Home for Christmas. She 
wished this Christmas would be in her dreams. 


Tweet