Timothy realized that his most trusted operatives were deceiving him. Did the white hats secure that missing laptop after the blackout? Could he cross the border or would they be waiting for him?
It’s not easy to filter truth from disinformation. Too many were going out of their way to advise him that he was not the target.
Bill said that he’d be “back with the zip file”, but that was last Saturday. Timothy searched online, but Bill disappeared from there as well. All Bill’s posts vanished. Even records of the events they attended together vanished.
By the time Timothy figured out what was going on it must have been too late.
The only thing that remained was the word “sorry” gouged with large, rough letters into the plaster of his apartment wall that the maintenance staff seemed anxious to cover up as we entered the room pretending to look for a place to rent.
Far be it from Joseph to doubt the angel even when he felt overwhelmed.
There wasn’t a guest room available but they could stay in the courtyard where animals were kept along with the other travelers the inn could not accommodate with rooms. While Joseph prepared a place for Mary and him to sleep her labor began. She gave birth under the stars wrapping her child in cloths and laying him in a manger.
Shortly after the birth shepherds found the child. They told everyone about an angel, the sign of a baby in a manger, and how the horizon filled with a heavenly host giving praise.
Denise offers the challenge word “horizon” to use in this week’s Six Sentence Story.
For a better understanding of what actually happened, see Matthew 1 and Luke 2. I owe the idea of a “courtyard” to David Pawson who described what the inn may have looked like in a lecture, The Church and Christmas – The Truth About Christmas Part 2 (starting about 20:00).
I am offering this as part of the Holiday Blogging Party that Crystal Grimes is hosting.
A very short story of mine, “Fresh Snow”, appeared in Whispers and Echoes. I am grateful to the editor for accepting it.
As Greg approached the store a woman sitting by the streetlight asked him for a dollar and he gave her one.
Inside the store Greg bought a single Christmas card for Bill who called him the day before from a distant part of the country complaining that no one wanted anything to do with him anymore. Greg knew long ago that the toxicity of alcohol had been triggering Bill’s eruptions of deluded omnipotence and he was even beginning to become aware of the devious sources manipulating his own personality. Without any expectation that what he was about to do would do any good Greg picked a card that expressed a humble message of joy and he decided to call Bill back on Christmas Eve to see how he was doing.
After paying for the card Greg saw a dollar bill in the change he received and gave it to the woman on the sidewalk. She tucked this additional treasure away with the others.
Given his diet Greg knew he shouldn’t eat much of anything on the menu. As a compromise he ordered a huge bowl of nachos with sour cream, guacamole and “the works”, whatever that was, and shared it with everyone at the table. It went well with their burgers and beers and Greg had plenty himself.
“Hmmm,” Greg thought, “Those nachos taste good.” He wondered if he should break his diet and risk ordering a burger and beer.
He thought and thought and thought and thought and decided not to since by that time everyone else had thankfully finished theirs.
The open beams joined the walls showing the ceiling and the loft where they slept. These beams pressed low enough that Ben could reach up and touch them in their cabin in the Maine woods.
This morning like those beams his spirit pressed in on him, but Ben had no time for moody temptations. Toward evening as he removed his boots and outer coverings he felt a breeze of consolation. He knew that consolation would come if he were faithful which he was.
Rushing to him he lifted his three-year old son and smiled watching his wife add decorations to their small Christmas tree.
Jim opened the certified package from his friend, Steve, whom he had not seen in fifty years. There was a letter and a copy of The Imitation of Christ that Jim gave Steve decades ago. Steve saw the book while sorting through boxes and decided to return it after finding Jim’s address.
A few months before receiving the package Jim wondered how his life veered off course getting lost in a moral dessert. How did he get from being a teenager who could attend Mass with joy to become an old man who barely had a clue?
Jim cautiously opened the worn book and began reading smelling the fresh air of an oasis amidst its aging pages.
The wax from a single candle dripped onto the cupcake. Jim let the candle flatten burning itself out in silence. After removing the wax he stood in front of his wife Mary’s grave and ate the cake.
Jim didn’t expect to be here given his own health conditions, but he promised Mary he’d come back yearly as long as he could with a cake and candles marking her “birthday into Heaven”.
Jim’s final cake had seven candles on it. It was made by friends from their small church who pushed Jim in his wheelchair to the gravesite and then celebrated Mary’s birthday with him.
Joan was worried when she heard them clip phrases from her testimony before broadcasting it through their propaganda machines. That they got away with those distortions made her think the coup couldn’t be stopped.
However, Joan’s whistleblowing was the key to evidence that was now being confirmed. She couldn’t see what was happening, but then she didn’t need to. She only had to do her part which she did, and did well.
The republic successfully took it from there.
Linked to Six Sentence Story where Denise offers the prompt word “clip” to be used somewhere in a story of six sentences.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 