Christmas at Joes

6. Christmas

    Nicki explained that she had been a registered nurse, but she had abandoned the profession following the Covid pandemic. The suffering and tragedy had just been too hard on her. She had seen the pandemic through, but afterwards she decided she couldn't take it anymore. It also coincided with her breakup that she had to get away from. Joe was a family friend and had offered her the job here to give her a chance to think about whether or not she really wanted to leave nursing. Joe knew about her experience when he asked the question. He was just seeing if anyone else could help in case she didn't want to.

The expectant couple joined the party, and everyone got back to enjoying the food and music and making fun of each other and the coincidence of Joseph and Mary showing up at our bar on Christmas Eve. Lupin pointed out there was a shortage of both angels and wise men and what were we going to do for a manger.

Shortly after midnight and 2700 words of my story, the labor pains started. Nicki's training kicked in and she immediately started telling everyone what to do. Only now instead of resenting her bossy commands, we were all grateful for them. The labor lasted several hours. It seemed like years and I'm sure it seemed longer to Mary, but Nicki handled everything perfectly. She kept Mary calm and breathing properly. She assured everyone that everything was going well and would be fine. She even kept Joe, actually both Joes from fainting.

The baby was born at sunrise and with that birth came a transformation in Nicki's personality.

Needless to say, we were all exhausted and we had exhausted all of the kitchen towels in the process. To say things were a bit messy is an understatement. We had nothing to swaddle the baby in. Nicki got her fur jacket and used it. No dry cleaners would be able to salvage that jacket now. So much for the matching earmuffs. Nicki kissed me anyway. I could tell the experience had changed her. She had decided to go back to nursing. This meant I could go back to my generous pours. I would miss her supervision, but there are Nursing jobs up here so maybe there'd still be an opportunity for me to do some nipping at her nose.

The baby was a girl. They named her Carol after Nicki whose real name was Carol Nicole. And that concludes the story of another Christmas Carol.

With twenty-five words left "I'm offering this simple phrase

To kids from one to ninety-two

Although it's been said many times,

Manyways: "Merry Christmas to you."