Christmas Past

Eight-year-old Ramona sat in a hospital bed on Christmas morning watching the snow falling from the window. Her broken ankle was wrapped and sticking out from under the blanket. Someone knocked at her door, to she responded with a “come in,” but she kept watching the snow. Her parents entered with a Christmas present, followed by a younger Nurse Linda.

“Ramona.” She turned at her parent’s voice, brightening up a little as they sat at the edge of her bed.

“Merry Christmas, sweetheart,” they wished her as they nudged a present towards her. Taking it into both hands, the small girl unwrapped the package and opened the box to find a stuffed bear with a pink ribbon around its neck. She squeezed the bear close before leaning forward to hug her parents.

“Now you’ll have someone to watch over you. Not that Nurse Linda and Dr. Anthony aren’t doing an excellent job of it,” stated her father.

“Ramona, if you want, some of the other children are opening the gifts Santa brought them. Would you like to join them? There’s one for you,” said Linda.

“No, thank you,” she murmured, her voice muffled by her face in the new teddy bear. She shook her head no, so the adults understood. The three adults shared a look before Linda nodded and left the room.

“How about we get some Christmas breakfast and bring it up here to celebrate?” asked her father, placing a reassuring hand on his girl’s leg. Ramona looked up from the teddy bear and nodded.

“With eggs, please,” she requested, making her parents smile.

“With lots of eggs, sweetheart,” assured her mother as her parents stood up, both planting kisses on her forehead. She watched them until they were no longer in sight and then turned to her teddy bear.

“Not the best Christmas.” She looked down to her leg. “But it could be worse. Oh, what’s that, Teddy? Your leg hurts too? Let me bandage you up.”

She looked around, finding the scarf she had worn while skating when she had broken her ankle.

Ramona leaned over, trying to reach the chair the scarf lay on, only the chair was too far out of reach. She scooched to the edge of the bed and tried again to reach for the scarf, only to feel herself begin to fall out of bed. She reached out to grab onto something before she could fall and was stopped by someone holding her head and arms to keep her from falling.

“Careful, you almost fell,” the voice warned as it helped her up. She looked over to see a young boy about her age, walking around the bed to retrieve an unopened present he had dropped.

“Thank you,” she whispered before hiding her head in the teddy bear.

“No worries, I’m glad I caught you. That would have been bad.” He came back around to her side, moving the chair closer to sit next to her.

“Why were you falling out of bed anyway?”

Rather than say anything, she pointed. The boy, confused by this, turned to see her winter jacket and scarf.

“Are you cold? This should help.” He offered her the present in his hand.

“Isn’t that your present?” she asked.

“No, I’m supposed to give this to one of the kids. You take it.”

He set the bulging package on her bed before sitting down again, scooting closer to watch.

She looked between the boy and the package before moving the bear beside her and opening the gift. Her eyes began to well up in tears as she looked at the present.

Inside the packaging was a folded fleece blanket that had dancing bears patterned on it.

“Here.” The boy stood up and took away the wrapping paper before taking the blanket and placing it around her.

“Now, you’ll be much warmer,” he assured her.

Ramona tugged the blanket around her, so it wrapped her and the bear.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

The boy smiled, one of his teeth growing in his crooked smile.

“Miles! Where are you,” a girl’s voice called out. The boy immediately jumped in his spot at the sound.

“I have to go, but Merry Christmas!” He dashed out of the room. Ramona was able to see him meeting with a girl a few years older than her. The older girl looked into Ramona’s hospital room as he joined her, giving Ramona a slight smile before dragging the boy off.

When her parents came back with breakfast, they found Ramona and the teddy bear wrapped up in the blanket, asleep.