Jakob's Christmas

         “Jakob” came a soft feminine voice that brought a warmth to the sleeping boy who heard a beautiful symphony in his head.  Again, the voice resonated like a lonely violin, “I know where your sister is.  Wake up Jakob.”  Jakob’s body listened even if he was asleep.  His body roused pulling Jakob from a deep sleep, with a constant low hum caught in the back of his mind. 

         With a groan and grumbles, the boy rubbed his eyes blinking in the low light of the room.  Now that he was awake, the symphony in his head changed to a clear female voice, “Your sister is lost Jakob, out there in the snow.  We have to get her.”  Jakob couldn’t see anything in the room and right away, and he called out, “Hello?”  Again the voice seemed to come from nowhere, “We must find Marelina, Jakob.  She’s out there in the cold all alone.  Hurry Jakob.” 

         Jakob was out of bed and started to dress and looked about the room listening for the voice again.  “Where’d it… go..”  Over the raging winds outside, the severe storm had taken root above the drafty walls, the aged and weathered stone, and the echoes of spirits caught in a maelstrom.  “Listen Jakob, the wind is so loud.  And your sister is out in it, freezing1”  A strong sense of urgency drowned out the doubts, the questions… only a single truth mattered… if he didn’t move fast enough something horrible was going to happen on Christmas Eve. 

         Jakob remembered then, bare essentials, warm clothes, boots, jacket, and he had to avoid certain people.  He was an extremely quiet kid, and everyone thought him slow.  In many ways, he knew it too except that he knew it to be true.  Jakob remembered harsh winters and lots of snow, and howling wind like a banshee of a mother he had, and the poor souls without a home to go to.  And his sister… but where, oh where did the voice come from?  He did not put on the boots yet.

         Jakob called out again, louder than before, no one by the door would hear though.  “Where are you!  Where’s my sister!”  And again, “I am Feriya, in the crystal, you remember finding me in the crypt.  Remember when you came and got me?”  Jakob remembered then…  and he remembered where he put the crystal.  He ran to the edge of his bed and crawled underneath to take out a floorboard.  He put the floorboard aside and took out an orange sphere with a glowing light inside.  This was new, it was glowing… the crystal was glowing!  So much for grown-ups saying magic wasn’t real.

         Jakob had strong feelings for his sister then, and put the crystal next to his dried boots and put them on quickly tying the laces extra tight.  His fingers hurt but he put up with it, they always hurt when he put his boots on.  He knew the house was in an uproar, because it was Christmas!  Everyone was busy putting up decorations, baking cookies, and doing whatever adults did whatever, none of them were searching for Marelina!

         He managed to dodge the servants, and ran off from the housekeeper Dolores.  She would no doubt tell mom and dad, with that high pitched wailing, and the heavy stomping feet.  Jakob learned he could outrun her… learned because he was fast and he never tripped.  He had to move, if mom caught him… if dad knew… there would be hell to pay tomorrow.  And, now there would be! 

         “Don’t worry Jakob…  they don’t know your sister’s gone yet.  We won’t get in trouble if we find Marelina.”  Jakob was scared, as he slipped his crystal into a jacket pocket and zipped it up tight.  He crouched near a window on the second floor, and opened it with a loud creaking sound that echoed through the halls.  Jakob went out anyway and raised an arm to his eyes to shield him from the kazillion pelting snowflakes. 

         “Marelina!”  He called out in his loudest voice, such things sometimes are carried on the wind the crystal said.  He walked slowly outside making large footprints in the snow, and so much snow!  He was looking for a ladder and searched along the edge of the rooftop.  He heard a voice behind him, “JAKOB!  Get yourself in here this instant!”  It was the housekeeper, and he turned over his shoulder and hurried down the ladder.  He heard his named called over the terrible gusts, he held onto the bars for dear life.  Again, the crystal reassured him, “We have to find Marelina.” 

         Jakob ran when he got off from the ladder, the cold metal made his hands hurt and he clasped them near his mouth blowing hard hot air and rubbing them together.  The crystal directed him to an old graveyard around the side of the estate, a forgotten place the rest of the family rarely visited.  Jakob could not see the small footprints in the snow but he saw a black shape in the snow, through the fury of white, and the cold, his eyes caught onto the dark shape twist and twurl about like a leaf caught in a tornado.

         Her scream brought him to her and when he held on, she whimpered and clung to him like she did with mom and dad.  She cried, and cried even after Jakob put his jacket around her.  My god, she was out in just a nightie…  the poor thing.. She must have been freezing!

         In Jakob’s loudest voice, using all the muscle in his throat he could muster, he bellowed, “I’m Home!”  Right then, several stampeding feet rushed towards the front door, hastily unlatching it and throwing it open with a sound that was felt through the castle.  “JAKOB!?  JAKOB you ….  Dare go outsi---” But his father’s voice was hushed by the sight of his daughter wrapped up in a her brother’s blue and white winter jacket with barely a whisper, and her face looked so pale.  What struck him most were her eyes, staring straight ahead, as if lost in a trance. 

         Jakob ran inside and clung to his mother, who showered him with kisses and worried words.  She was sobbing and her eyes were shut.  Through the tears and the heartbreak…  Jakob’s mother asked, “What in the devil’s gotten into you!?  You had us worried sick… the whole castle’s looking…. Why did you leave your room!?”  Jakob only pointed to his father, he responded…  “Mare… He went to find Mare… she was out there… In just a nightie!  Oh god!”  He was beside himself with anguish and fear, tearing through his eyes. 

         “How did you find her?”  Jakob’s mother asked stroking her son’s face.  “The crystal mom.  The crystal showed me how to find her…”  The crystal he was carrying in his hands, the one that glowed brightly… with the beautiful face of an angel.

-The End-