Precious Miracles

Chapter 9

That evening, after Christmas dinner with the family, Sméagol and I sneaked away for some time alone.

"Where are we going, Precious?" Sméagol asked.

"You'll see," I said as we strolled alongside the road, until we came to an area that was enclosed by a tall wooden fence.

"What is this place?" Gollum asked.

"Should we be here at all?" Sméagol added.

"Oh, yeah," I said. "It's open to the public. It's just fenced off to keep from spoiling the surprise."

"Surprise?!" Sméagol exclaimed eagerly. "Oh, we love surprises, doesn't we, Precious?!"

I laughed. "Well, wait until you see this." I opened the fence door, and we were bombarded with an array of beautiful, colorful light. "See?" I said.

Sméagol looked around in complete wonderment! "Oh, my, Precious!" he sighed as he took in the shimmering, glimmering beauty all around!

There were Christmas trees everywhere, covered in bright, colorful lights, sparkling ornaments, and glittering tinsels. All around the trees were statues of Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, even a non-binary Claus, reindeer, snowmen, Christmas elves, sugarplum fairies, sleds, mistletoe, and all sorts of Christmas decorations, all brightly illuminated.

"What do you think?" I asked.

"Oh, my, it's..." Sméagol struggled to find words. "It's so... so beautiful!"

"Yes," Gollum agreed, "so very, very beautiful it is, Precious! So lovely it is!"

"Emily and I would come here every Christmas. When we were little, her parents would bring us. Then, when we got older, we started coming by ourselves. For a few minutes, I forgot about all my troubles. They didn't exist anymore. I was in a Christmas Wonderland. I was safe from the world, safe from reality. While I was here, this was reality for me, and it was so, so special and amazing and so... peaceful."

"What did you do here together?" asked Gollum.

"We would just sit and look at all the lights and the decorations while we talked. We'd play Christmas music on the big TV while we hung out here. Then, right before we left, we would pick out a present from under one of the trees."

"So very nice it sounds," Sméagol said with a smile.

"It was nice." I sighed reflectively. "It was one of my favorite Christmas traditions. Just for a little while, I got to spend CHristmas with just Emily. It was just the two of us in holiday heaven. There was no outside world. It didn't exist."

"Awwww..." Sméagol wrapped his arm around me. "We knows you miss her, Precious."

"Yeah, I do... a lot." Then, I changed the subject. "Hey, do you wanna listen to some Christmas music?"

"Oh, yes! Yes, yes, yes!"

I chuckled as I sauntered over towards the television, grabbed the remote, and turned it on. As soon as the screen lit up, I saw a shot of this very Christmas Wonderland in the background with a message on the screen that read "An original song dedicated to my very best friend, Alliepoo." Then, I saw Emily entering the frame in her angel onesie as beautiful soft music began to play. As soon as she began to sing, my mouth dropped open. I looked over at Sméagol in awe. "This... this is the song you sang to me in the dream."

"Yes, we... we remembers, Precious," Sméagol stuttered, as he was rendered nearly speechless.

"But... but... how did...?" I turned back to watch the screen, and seeing Emily's face again, watching and hearing her sing, and seeing and hearing the love radiating from her entire body and her angelic voice, it was all too much to handle, but not in a bad way. The floodgates burst open as I began wailing and screaming with tears shooting from my eyes, and my body gave out on me as I fell to the ground.