Life on Christmas Eve by Nathan Nipper

Author:Nathan Nipper [Nipper, Nathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642939217
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Published: 2021-09-23T14:09:55+00:00

During the typical early afternoon lull in café traffic, Julie walked a few blocks north to a small, old house with a neatly kept wraparound porch. A small sign in the front yard announced the house as home of the Cedar Springs Historical Society.

Inside the house, Julie found one volunteer on duty—a seventy-year-old woman named Louise Butler who was an acquaintance of Julie’s from church. Louise greeted Julie warmly, offering her a cup of hot tea, which Julie gratefully accepted. After very slowly pouring Julie a cup and adding a half teaspoon of sugar, they made small talk for a few minutes until a conversational opening finally enabled Julie to explain the reason for her spontaneous visit. She showed Louise the Christmas card and the envelope with the 1986 postmark, explaining how it had apparently been lost in the mail for over thirty years.

Louise carried the Christmas card to an antique desk, where she retrieved a magnifying glass from a drawer. Louise carefully examined the card and envelope with the magnifying glass like an archaeologist. Julie wondered if Louise really had that level of Antiques Road Show-like expertise. Regardless, she appreciated Louise’s effort to indulge Julie’s curiosity.

After a couple minutes of thorough examination, Louise said, “Hmm…well the postmark seems authentic, though it’s hard to tell for sure since they’re layered on top of each other like that. The earliest one sure looks like it says ‘1986’ though. If this is a forgery, someone went to an awful lot of trouble.”

Julie nodded in agreement, though she could not help but feel a little disappointed. She knew she was somewhat grasping at straws with her visit to the Historical Society, but she was so curious about the odd card she figured it was worth a try.

“I know the Reed Card Company in Asheville has been printing Christmas cards with this bridge photograph for years,” continued Louise. She lowered the magnifying glass and stared at the card’s bridge photo for another moment, then squinted her eyes and pursed her lips in apparent deep thought.

“What is it?” asked Julie.

“You know…I don’t think the bridge has always been decorated with white lights at Christmas.”

Julie raised her eyebrows. She had not considered that wrinkle. Her family’s famous lights display only covered Main Street and the courthouse square. Since the steel truss bridge was on the eastern edge of downtown past where the Shelly lights ended, the city of Cedar Springs took charge of any Christmas décor on the bridge and its immediate surroundings.

Louise shuffled across the room to another antique, a wooden file cabinet, pulled out a creaky drawer, and rummaged through decrepit folders, yellowed papers, and decaying photographs.

“In fact,” continued Louise, “I don’t think the city started using white lights until around the mid-nineties.”

Julie marveled at the capacity of people to remember such mundane, random things. Well, people besides Aunt Bonnie anyway.

Louise finally pulled a photo from a folder near the back of the drawer and held it up for Julie to see. It was

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