What Slumbers Inside

Chapter 2

Rachel glanced at Sunshine like a bug that just landed on her sleeve, there was a bit of an eye roll as she moved her seat a few inches away without leaving the desk before looking out the window in an attempt to ignore her. Sunny sighed and dropped her supplies on the desktop and sat. Resting her arms on top, she tried not to plop her head on her books. Instead, she just wished herself away from this place.

"Right! So, we were just sharing what we did for the holidays. I believe we were just getting to Violet," Miss Mabel said. That's all it took for everyone to lose interest in Sunny. She was grateful. "You were starting to tell us about Colorado." A girl dressed in a short plaid skirt, white blouse, and navy-blue sweater vest stood up. Violet's family did well for themselves and enjoyed taking their children on long vacations and encouraged them to share with others. Most of the kids here had families with comfortable lifestyles, but hers was by far the most comfortable.

"The trip was a lot of fun. We flew out to Aspen." Sunny had never heard of the town, but she had an idea of what it might be like, it was one of the places her father had been stationed for a time, he spoke about it occasionally, and had photos. "We skied, drank gallons of hot chocolate, and had snowball fights." She imagined it was cold and winter place with lots of hills and mountains like the Alps since it was supposed to be in the Rockies and full of people skiing. "Then we flew to San Francisco to see my grandmother." Sunny had heard of that place. She could imagine the trolley cars, steep hills, parks, and loaves of sourdough bread her mother had told her about. "She took us shopping in Chinatown. So, I bought gifts for all my classmates!"

Reaching under her desk, she grabbed a large paper bag and opened it. Walking around from desk to desk she handed colorful silk coin purses to the girls and painted wooden horses for the boys. As she drew near Sunshine, she slowed up a little and carefully handed the silk coin purse to Rachel, which was accepted with glee. "I'm sorry," her voice was quiet. "I didn't know that you were going to be with us. I don't have anything for you." Her apology was so honest, Sunshine couldn't help but smile from nervousness despite the feeling of disappointment.

"It's okay." Sunshine accepted her excuse with a shrug. "How could you have known?" Violet smiled back.

"Still, welcome to the class." Sunny thanked her and watched Rachel trying to figure out how to open the ball clasp while the other students compared the designs and colors of their gifts. After about a minute their teacher began to move the conversation on asking each child to share. One by one they shared stories about time with family and gifts. One even shared how they accidentally caught their aunt on fire during New Year fireworks with a sparkler. Finally, it came down to Sunny. A bit of a hush fell down on everyone as they started to listen.

"We didn't do anything. My dad's still in Germany. We hadn't planned on being here for Christmas." It had become a tradition that her father would take her to the Weihnachtsmarkt, a German Christmas market, so she could shop for the family. They would drink hot mulled wine, eat gingerbread cookies, bring home a fresh ball of mistletoe bigger than her head tied up with red ribbon, and bags of gifts. She had been looking forward to it again, knowing it might be the last one before another change of duty station. But, she spent the time comforting a grieving grandmother and listening to her mother argue with her father on the phone. There was no feeling good this year. "I didn't feel like opening my gifts this year."

"That's depressing," Rachel spoke up. Looking at Sunny with a disgusted look, she sighed. "So, you don't know if you got anything you wanted. Who does that? Really..."

"Enough, Rachel," Miss Mabel spoke up. She asked Sunny to take a seat and watched the girl in silence for a moment. "It'll be okay, Sunny." Sunshine just nodded, carefully observing her folded hands on top of the desk.