Eve

Eve



Snowflakes were scattered everywhere on the floor. There were some on the couch and even on the plates of cold macaroni and cheese. The kids had left in a hustled crash out the door when their mom came to pick them up. Rachel had been cutting out paper snowflakes to place on the little tree by the tv. The kids had found a tree that reminded them of the one in the Charlie Brown special, a sad, lonely, tiny tree. Just like the gang from Peanuts, they had decorated it and made it feel at home for these last few days of its life. Jake, Curt's son, had popped popcorn to string on the tree, but it had been eaten while he played a new Nintendo game.



They were gone now, had been since noon. Curt finished wrapping presents to the music of Aimee Mann, perhaps the best choice for Curt's feelings at the moment. This was his first "divorced" Christmas and the first Christmas Eve alone in his lifetime. A well-deserved rum and Coke rested on the arm of the sofa while Curt flipped through ESPN The Magazine. This failed to hold his interest and took a sip, then a gulp, of his drink. Seventeen years of Christmas Eves with Abby, eight with Jake, and six with Rachel, and now nothing. Not exactly the kind of freedom he had been seeking From Abby, but freedom has it's price, he thought. On the other side of his apartment wall, his neighbors were having a few friends over. He had been invited, but being the 5th or 7th wheel on Christmas Eve seemed a little too pathetic.



Curt got up from the couch with his glass and went to the freezer for more ice. On the way into the kitchen, he noticed a folded piece of pink construction paper on the floor. Picking it up, some liquid spilled on the paper. He brushed it off and opened the paper. In multiple colors was a nativity scene featuring various family members as animals around the manger. labeled were Grandpa Nichols as a cow, Grandma Barb as an angel, Aunt Soozie was a duck, and mommy was a cat. Daddy was a dog.