The Forgotten Christmas Letter (#opennovellacontest)

Chapter One (#opennovellacontest)

Callie shot up in bed panting. It was the same recurring dream except she couldn't figure out if she was running to something or running from something or someone. Then she gave a shaky laugh. Running to something, for today was the day she was moving out of her townhouse and into a new house on the outskirts of the city.

It was a big move, farther away from work and family but it was time for a change. Out with the old and on with the new: old job, old boyfriend, Steve the sleeze, new job position so she could work from home and with the prospect of meeting someone new. Exactly what she needed. A new beginning, a new chapter in her life.

So why the dream, why the anxiety like she was leaving something more behind? Change was hard, that's all it was. She lay back down but couldn't get back to sleep, so she heaved an irritated sigh and got up to resume packing.

There was only one more thing to check, as she spied a pole in the now emptied spare bedroom closet that was used to hook on to the ceiling panel to pull down the steps to the attic. Not that she stored anything in there, it was only a small crawl space but she had to make sure nothing remained behind. So she climbed up the ladder to shine a flashlight. Just as she thought, cobwebs and insulation. Except there in the beam from her flashlight was a shoebox. She frowned. She didn't remember putting that up here. She took it down, sneezed as she blew off dust off the box and sat on the top of the staircase to ruffle through it, laughing.

Good grief, all it contained were old cheesy love letters from Steve the sleeze. Why in the world would she have put them up in the attic instead of burning them? She shook her head at her own folly ready to toss the box in the bin when another letter down at the bottom of the box caught her eye. It was in a different handwriting addressed to her. The return name wasn't Steve, it was someone named Nick Halladay.

She let Steve's letters fall out of her hand not caring where they scattered like fallen leaves and picked up the letter, holding it in both hands as if entranced.

Nick, Nick, she chanted to herself but no memory of who he might be came to mind. She turned the letter over. It was thick and had been carefully opened, the flap unsealed, so she turned the flap up, pulled out the many paged letter and began to read.

Her face paled. This man had known her, intimately, very intimately. His words of love made her cheeks burn and her skin heat up as if he were right there doing all those wonderful things to her, all in whispered words of love, hoping beyond hope she would write and come back to him.

She put a hand to her mouth as tears pricked her eyes. Oh, dear lord, she must have loved this man, but why couldn't she remember him? Who was he?

She checked the date. It was two years ago, the time she went on a long three month holiday around Christmas time. She remembered coming back from that holiday feeling energized and refreshed but for the life of her she couldn't remember a single detail of what actually happened in those three months! She began to panic as cold sweat dotted her brow. What had happened?

"Hey, Callie! You around here?" A voice yelled from downstairs making her jump and clutch the letter to her chest in a protective manner. It was her twin sister, Celeste, who had entered the front door.

Callie had forgotten she was coming over to help her move, and chortled. At least this forgetfulness was a natural one as she was so taken with reading the letter. "Up here," she called back and heard her sister's footsteps climb up to the third level where she sat on the top step.

"Whatcha doin?" Her sister asked as soon as she came into view.

All Callie could do was stare back, noting how her sister's long hair was tied back out of the way, and dressed simply in overalls that had seen better days. Perfect moving clothes, just like she was dressed and really, why note such details? Maybe because she had forgotten the most important three month detail of her life!