Shorts: A Collection of Short Fiction

Santa's Bell

The child reached her chubby hand out to Santa. Her wheelchair made sitting on his lap impossible, but he took her hand as she told him her Christmas wish. She didn't want toys this year, she wanted something more important.

For her classmates to stop teasing her.

It had gotten bad. Her mom and dad thought about sending her to a new school. She would rather die than have to explain again about the night her daddy got drunk and drove them into the side of the bank building on their way to get doughnuts, leaving her paralyzed.

It wouldn't matter. There were cruel kids in every school. Everyone knew that.

Santa looked at her with kind eyes. He reached in his red furry coat and pulled out an object. He placed it in her hand and squeezed her fingers around it.

"Use this wisely. It only has enough magic to use once. You'll know when the time is right."

The girl promised and returned to her mother. "Let's get out of here."

She hid the item in her coat pocket until later when alone in her bedroom.

It looked like a bicycle bell. It was round and shiny silver with a little button on the top. She itched to press it down. Would it chime? What would happen? She knew she could only press it once, so she tucked it away.

Just having the little bell made her feel powerful. The kids' jeers and name calling didn't hurt so bad from then on.

Years later, convinced that Santa's gift had been hope, she pressed the button.

She would never know if it rang or not. At that moment, pain shot through her skull as her eardrums burst, leaving her deaf for the rest of her life.