Snowflakes & Cinnamon Buns by Claire Castle

Author:Claire Castle [Castle, Claire]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-11-13T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

OUR CHRISTMAS EVE tradition for the past few years was that I would stay over at Levi’s and go home to my mom’s early Christmas morning, and he’d go to his family's farm at the same time. We sat close together under a blanket huddled in front of the fire now. It was nice and cozy.

I remembered one Christmas, many years ago, before cell phones and texting, Levi and I were in school. He was at the farm and I was home with my mom. In the middle of the day on Christmas Day, there was a phone call, which was strange for Christmas Day. My mom picked it up and said a few words. Her face had gone a bit pale. She hung the phone up on the wall and looked at me very seriously. “Ah son, go get your clothes on.”

I was in my pajamas. I rarely questioned her but I’d wondered what was going on.

“Levi, your friend… he’s in the hospital, he’s asking for you.”

I raced to my room to get ready. As I dressed I’d thought, no, nothing bad can happen to my best friend. “Mom, will he be ok?”

“I don’t know, son, but let’s get over there to see him.”

I was probably too old or cool for it, but I hugged my mom and cried into her thigh. She didn’t push me away, she just hugged me tighter. At the hospital, I paced back and forth while we waited for news. At first, Levi’s parents were inside with him and the staff wouldn’t tell my mom anything because she wasn’t family. I remember thinking I was as close as family and that should count for something.

I looked up at my mom, not fully understanding, and said, “When can we find out?”

He had suffered an acute bout of food poisoning and they said he would recover completely. It had been a daunting experience though. Levi said he was so happy that I was there for him.

“Doofus, like I’d be anywhere else,” I said as I rubbed his hand.

There had been many Christmases since then, and I would always be there for him if he needed me. I gave him a record player and some vinyl he loved. He was very happy with it. He pushed his hand through his hair, as if he was nervous or something. That was weird. We were never nervous with each other. "Let me go get your gift," he said as he jumped up. He handed me a beautifully wrapped red box with white ribbon and a white snowflake tag. It was almost too pretty to open.

“This wrapping is up to my standards,” I joked.

Levi didn’t even crack a smile.

Hmm, interesting. I lifted the lid off the beautiful red box and it was a first edition of, “The Hardy Boys: The Sinister Sign Post.” My favorite book. In fact, we both loved the Hardy Boys. We wanted to be them when we grew up. "Wha-? How-?" I didn't know what to say, I was gobsmacked, for lack of a better word.

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