This is the conclusion of "A Christmas Janice", this year's Christmas story, and my gift to you.
IMPORTANT: If you haven't read parts I and II yet, read those first.
Click to go to Part I
Part III
“Here's a good spot,” Carl said.
They pulled off on an exit and drove to the end of the curving ramp. It was another lonely road. Not a light was in sight, including the car that had been chasing them.
Carl got out of the car and removed Meg's maroon Samsonite. He placed it carefully off the road under a grove of furs.
“Okay Megan, you've got to get out of the car. I need you to wait here. You can sit down on your luggage and use this blanket for shelter.”
“What? no.”
“Trust me, this might be dangerous.”
“But Carl, what about you.”
“Megan, there's a another life to worry about here. You have to trust me and get out. I won't be far away. C'mon, we don't have much time. Please trust me.”
Meg got out of the car and stood by the road in the snow. The car pulled onto the road and made a U-turn. Their eyes met when he passed slowly by. He drove out the ramp going the wrong way.
At the middle of the curve he stopped the car and turned off the ignition and headlights. He hopped over the seat, crouched in the back, and waited.
---
Charlie Eagle Claw stared at the barrel of the hand gun the woman held on him.
“Oh shit... Jesus, lady put that thing away, I'm only tryin' to help.”
“Which man?” The girl repeated.
“What? Which who?”
“Which man sent you? who? Carl or Sebastian?”
“I, I, I don't know... He never did give his name, he was kinda out of it when he found us. He had a brown jacket on, kind of a quiet dude.”
“You could have known that anyway. Sebastian would have told you.”
“Who the hell is Sebastian?” Charlie said.
“J-just don't move mister. No body's taking me or my baby!”
“Lady, it's a blizzard, ain't nobody goin' nowhere...”
“If Carl sent you, where is he?”
“I wish I knew. He ran ahead back there. I haven't seen him since.”
Just then a contraction hit. Meg cried out. She put all her concentration into keeping the gun steady on the large dark man trying to get into the car while her insides were being turned inside-out.
“Hey, uh, can I give you some advice lady?”
Meg just screamed in response. Charlie reached over and took the gun calmly from her hand.
“If your going to going to shoot a dude, you need to take the safety off... Here.”
He rocked the safety switch on the forty-five, Placed it back in her hand and pointed it back at himself.
“Now,” he said, “it looks to me like you're about to have a baby in the back seat of a car, in the middle of a blizzard. It's up to you: you can shoot me now, OR shoot me after I help you deliver your baby, or maybe be smart and just don't shoot me at all.”
She tried to process this through the pain.
“Listen, I used to sorta be a paramedic so it's not a real big deal. So what's it gunna be lady, shoot the dude or have a baby?”
“Just get in and shut the door, it’s freezing!”
The young woman threw the gun back on the rear dash and pulled the blanket off her knees revealing her bare privates. The seat was shiny with a clear fluid. Something stringy and red was hanging out of her.
“Oh Jesus,” Charlie said shielding his eyes.
“I thought you said you were some kind of pair of medics, that it was no big deal.”
“I, I took a CPR course once... I was bluffing... you had a gun and shit.”
“I still have it mister. Now pull yourself together if you’re going to help.”
“Okay, okay, it just kinda brutal, you know... down there.” Charlie pointed sheepishly at her groin.
“Tell me about it.” she said with gritted teeth.
Charlie put the flashlight down on the seat. Meg placed her ankles atop the front and back seat backs displaying her entire baby-having region to Charlie.
“Oh shit... Okay... okay, it's cool, it's cool you just gotta breath.”
“I am breathing.” Meg said.
“Oh right, yeah; you breath too, ooh, like they tell you in those classes.”
“My boyfriend wouldn't let me go to any of those classes,” Meg said between breaths. “He's pretty anti-women's lib.”
“Retro! ...ooh, ooh, and push, aren't you supposed to push?”
“I don't know. I'm not having any contractions right n.... Oh God, now I am.”
“Okay.. so like, push and, like breath and shit.”
---
Carl's heart raced. His eyes peered over the seat from the back. There were several ways his plan could go quite wrong.
A glow began to grow behind the fur trees from out on the Interstate. Headlights appeared. He readied himself. He saw the red glow of brake lights.
It was working... so far.
The beam of the headlights turned and headed down the ramp. He saw the oncoming car approach the curve he was parked on. As soon as the headlights flashed in his face he leaped forward and pulled the headlight lever of his own car. Just as quickly, he got in back and braced for impact.
Carl heard the other car sliding out of control. Then it came.
CRASH!
Carl slammed into the seat. He could feel his car spin to the left. The headlights passed by. Soon after, a muffled metallic crunch could be heard down the embankment. Carl jumped from his car. It had a bent bumper, dented front fender and a busted headlight. Otherwise it seemed fine. He grabbed the tire iron from the trunk and followed the errant tire tracks down the steep embankment where the Ford Fairlane was lying squarely on the driver side door. The hot engine was hissing and creaking.
Before long he heard movement from within the car. The passenger side door slowly creaked open a ways then collapsed.
He got an idea. He climbed back up the steep embankment enough so that he was a little higher than the upright side of the car. When the door opened again he waited till the man's body was in the threshold . He ran and jumped out from the embankment. He landed on the open door. It slammed hard against the struggling figure trying to exit the car. The figure grunted and fell back into the car. Another grunt and a thud was heard as the first man landed on top of the second.
Carl heard cursing from inside the car. He ran around to the rear of the car and waited. What now?
He looked at the Nevada license plate and laughed.
“No wonder you jokers couldn't keep up in the snow.” he said quietly.
Three gunshots rang out in the quiet of the snow. Carl cringed and cowered at the back of the vehicle. They couldn't even see him. They weren't shooting at him, he reassured himself. Maybe they were trying to shoot their way out or just scare him away.
He had to admit, it was having an effect.
He heard dull pounding from inside the car followed by the crunch of safety glass. Carl ran around to the downhill side of the car. Hidden by the the car roof, he gripped his tire iron and stood at the ready.
A foot was still kicking at the windshield, clearing glass from the edges. He timed the kicks and swung the iron down hard on the foot. He heard a terrible crack. Screams of pain followed.
Two more angry shots rang from the inside of the car.
“You sonofabitch!” yelled a voice inside the car.
Carl saw the gun emerge and point back in his general direction.
He instantly came down on the gun with the iron. The man cried out again and dropped the gun. Carl picked it up ran around to the uphill side of the car. He the gun was heavy and hot in his hand.
Carl had never been in a fight in his entire life. He was filled with adrenaline and testosterone. It was like a drug. He'd never felt so angry, dangerous and powerful.
He let out a yell and pounded the car repeatedly with the tire iron. He couldn't stop yelling or beating the iron against the car. He stood outside himself looking down on his rage. He was horrified and transfixed.
“Come on tough guys. You want some more? Huh? Who's the scardy cat now huh. Not me I can tell ya. Come on out of there and let me finish you off. Come on, come on... COME ON!!!”
Carl grabbed the undercarriage of the car. He began rocking it back and forth further and further.
“COME OUT YOU BASTARDS! I'll teach you to mess with me.”
The car began to tip on it's own, Carl scrambled up the hill in case it came down in his direction. It heaved down hill instead till it hit some trees. Carl ran down to the car with the tire iron held high and screaming like a banshee. He was about to continue beating on the car when he heard something he hadn't counted on.
Crying.
Carl froze. He was completely unprepared for this.
“Hey,” he said... He grappled for words. “Are you... okay?”
“Are we okay? ARE WE OKAY?” sobbed a muffled voice from inside the car. “No, we're not motherfucking 'okay'! I'm bleeding, my hand's probably broke, my ankle too, my buddy--my best friend in the world--is fucking lying on top of me, unconscious, maybe dead, I don't know. I'm in so much pain I can barely think... No man, we are definitely not fucking okay.”
Carl stood frozen in place, his tire iron still raised. He was speechless.
“You wanna do us a favor tough guy?” The voice sniffled and coughed. “Leave us alone. Go have your big gorilla victory banquet somewhere else. I just wanna go home man, I wanna see my wife and my mom and my nephews and I just wanna go home.”
The voice descended into unintelligible babble and sobs.
Carl felt horrible. He looked at the piece of steel in his hands. He threw it into the darkness as far as he could.
For once in life had had stood up and protected someone who really needed it, but he was sure now he would hear the echos of that pathetic voice crying from inside the car for the rest of his life.
Carl took the gun out of his pocket and stared at it. He wanted to throw it away too but thought better of it. No matter how badly he felt, he still had to protect Megan and her baby. His conscience would have to repent another day.
“What the hell was all that?” Meg said. “Was that a gun?”
“Yeah it was. I took it from them.”
“Carl I didn’t know that you…”
“Yeah, neither did I.”
“Carl? Are you crying.”
“I’ll be okay. And I think at least those guys won’t bother you again.”
“I wish you could take care of these contractions the same way,.Oh God! Aaaah!”
---
Janice stared at the wall of drawers in the morgue. She knew damn well they weren't files.
The stranger was looking at the one on the end.
“Let's talk about this huh?... What did I do that was so wrong?” Janice cried. “So I didn't go to my mother's funeral; I just, I just couldn't take it. So I avoid my sister like the plague; I can't relate to her, we're too different. I just can't take being hurt. I had to be careful... with my heart... Charlie's just crazy, he doesn't love me. How could anyone... how could anyone.”
The stranger stood unmoving. It was one of a few that had tags. Janice made her way forward to the tag. If it said... she wouldn't have to look inside.
Jane Doe 1748
“See,” her voice wavered, “I don't know who that is. That could be anyone.”
The stranger stared without blinking.
“I can't,” she wailed, even though her hand gripped the large handle.
“I can't,” Janice sobbed.
She pulled hard on the handle.
The heavy drawer made a 'schlock' sound and started to move heavily outward.
“Oh God,” she whimpered. A sheeted figure emerged from the wall.
The body jerked when the drawer met the end of its travel.
Janice turned to the stranger.
“This could be anyone.”
The stranger looked down at the body.
“Is this the only way? I mean, what's the point unless it can be changed? Why would you be so cruel to show me this crap if I can't do nothing about it? You're not that mean, right? Please tell me this just one way. Please tell me this isn't hell... Please tell me... something.
The stranger looked at the body.
Janice's own tears landed on the white sheet. She slowly pulled it back.
---
“The next exit.” said Carl. “Maybe we can find a house or a shelter.”
“This is going to happen soon Carl. I've been trying, but I can't make it stop.”
“Soon, Megan, soon.”
Carl was surprised at the sound of calm in his own voice. He was no longer nervous, no longer scared.
Megan was in the middle of her next contraction when they reached the next exit, #191.
There was nothing but snow and trees.
“This will have to do,” he said.
They pulled off on a side road at the end of the ramp.
“Observatory Road, Do you think there's anyone looking at Venus right now?”
“Wha...? No I don't think so.” Meg managed to say.
“Sit tight Megan, We'll find something.”
They drove through virgin snow looking left and right for a house, a barn, anything. The car began to cough and sputter.
“Oh God.” Megan said.
Carl took her hand and smiled. “Out of gas.”
The car rolled up under a large bridge and came to a halt. A train horn sounded not very far away. They could see the glow of its headlamp and the rumble of the cars under the same bridge on the other side of the river bed.
Megan began to cry. Carl took her hand in his and looked her in the eye.
“This is what's going to happen. I am going to go for help...”
“No!.”
“Shhhh...,” his finger gently pressed her lips. “I am going to go for help and you are going to get in the back seat.”
Charlie removed his coat, took off his sweater, shirt and undershirt. He put his coat back on over his bare chest.
“Use these things to keep the baby warm. if it comes,” Carl said. “use the blanket for yourself and to clean up the baby. I'm going to follow those train tracks.”
“But what about you? That coat's not enough, you'll freeze!”
“Better me than the baby, agreed?”
Megan nodded tearfully.
Carl took the handgun out of his pocket and handed it to her.
“Oh my God!” she said.
“Just in case.”
“I don't even know how...”
“I don't know either Megan, to be honest it's the first one I've even handled. I think it'll make an impression all by itself though.”
Megan picked up the gun gingerly.
“I can't do this Carl.”
“I know this is hard, but you can do it; you have to. This is your baby and there's nothing you couldn't do for it, right.”
“Right,” Megan said. She wiped her cheeks.
“You're a brave girl and you will be okay.” Carl said brushing a sweaty lock of hair from her forehead.
“Carl?” she said softly.
“Yes Megan.”
“I love you... I have for a while now. You are always so sweet to me, you always make me laugh, and then you came and saved my life, twice so far. No one ever did anything like that for me.”
Carl felt his spirit soar.
“I love you too Megan, ever since I first saw you. I wanted to tell you a hundred times, but you were... spoken for, practically married.”
“Oh Carl, you're too good.”
She took his face and drew him into a long tender kiss. She put his hand on her belly.
“I wish it were yours Carl.”
“It's yours, that's all that matters. I'll love it like it was my own. I already do.”
Their eyes locked. She took off one of her peace sign earrings and pressed it into Carl's hand.
“For luck,” she said.
He gave her hand a squeeze and got out of the car without another word. She watched him disappear into the snow.
It didn't take long.
---
“What the hell is that?” Charlie said. “It looks like... It looks like a wet hairy volleyball tryin' to come out of you.”
“Oh God. It's the baby, it's the baby. Ooooh! I can't do this I can't do it. It's too big. Oooh God!”
“Yeah it's the baby, I can see it moving. This sucker wants out man.”
“Nooo, I can't, I can't,” Meg cried.
“Listen lady, you can't give up. You just gotta, I don't know... persevere,” said Charlie. “Hey, this is your baby, what wouldn't a mom do for her baby right.”
“You know mister,” Meg said between her breaths, “you remind me a little of someone.”
“Really? You know another seven foot injun?”
---
Janice looked at the body on the slab. Her body racked with sobs as she slowly pulled back the sheet. Her eyes widened in horror as she saw her own face, still and gray.
The face didn't look peaceful in death, a twisted torment of woes. The woman on the slab looked eighty, but was probably in her early sixties.
Janice turned to the stranger. He spoke with a voice that seemed to be in her ears, but soft as a whisper.
“I’m sorry Janice, truly, for all you didn’t have, for all that haunts you. For all the questions you don’t have an answer to.”
She turned back to look at the body but she realized she was looking up from the slab into her own live eyes.
Unable to move, she watched helplessly as her other self closed the drawer. She screamed silently as darkness and terror closed around her.
The drawer clicked shut.
Darkness. Silence. Like a velvet void. She had no form, no shape.
There was only the echos of a single memory. Her mother was putting her to bed.
“Why do Maggy and I have different Daddys,”
“It's a long story darlin'.”
“But I want to know.”
“Your Daddy... He was a hero. He saved my life, and he saved yours.”
“But what was he like.”
“He was kind and gentle, and quiet, but brave, and strong and he was funny, he made me laugh sometimes. His name was Carl.”
“But what happened to him?”
“When I was giving birth to you, he went to get help.”
“Then what happened.”
“Help came.”
Janice floated in the darkness. The sound of her mother's voice faded till even her imagination was black and empty.
Nothing.
Then, slowly, something.
A heartbeat, rapid.
Then, voices.
Distant, no... close, very close, but muffled.
Screaming, yelling, not in anger or fear.
A red glow grew.
Featureless.
Voices.
Something new.
Pain.
Janice wanted to cry out. She wanted to scream in a way she'd never imagined, yet she could not.
How odd. Cold, very cold but just in one place. The top of her head.
Tightness. She tried to move but was constrained from every direction.
Her desire to scream out was growing.
She felt panic overtake her. She tried to kick and crawl away with all her strength.
The muffled voices seemed to respond to her efforts as if she were turning on and off lights in another room.
The tightness grew, squeezing from all directions.
Her head; the pain; the muffled screaming.
Then release. She felt part of her freed from the pressure. Her lower half, still trapped.
Light; blind stabbing light. It hurt.
Pain.
Cold, all around her head and shoulders. Cold like she had never felt cold before.
The noise. Everything was so loud and brittle. Her ears hurt.
Her brain was overloaded from the sensations coming from everywhere at once.
More pressure around her body.
The yelling.
The pressure grew and grew, tighter, crushing her.
Then, gone.
She was free.
The piercing cold was everywhere.
She drew in deeply to scream, now the cold was inside her as well, burning.
She heard her own scream. It was louder than anything she'd ever heard. It enveloped her. It hurt her head and her throat and her insides, but she couldn't stop. It felt like a mighty, ear-piercing yawn. The screaming didn't make the pain go away but it made it okay somehow.
She felt warmth wrap around her body. Everything that touched her burned. Her skin was on fire but the warmth was very welcome.
Slowly, the cold went away, the stinging on her skin faded and finally her own screaming abated.
The voices, still booming to her ears, had grown calm and soft. They were soothing to hear, especially the higher one.
She couldn't understand what was being said. Somehow though she knew they were speaking kindly to her.
There was something new. A warmth that flowed through her whole body, inside, outside, all around her.
No, not new. It was forgotten, lost...
Love.
---
Janice woke suddenly.
There was a string between her bottom lip and the puddle of drool on the bar. It was light outside, the real kind. She walked to the door. Stretching her sore limbs as she went.
She opened the door and stepped outside. The winter chill jarred her more awake.
It felt... good.
Her head hurt, she was hung over, but somehow it felt good too.
She was alive. Alive! Everything felt good.
The winds had died down before the snow had stopped. The fir trees had a thick frosting laden on their branches. A clear blue sky shone above.
She took in deep breaths of the crisp cold air. Perhaps it was just the bright sun on the snow, but a single tear fell from her eye.
So incredibly beautiful! Not just the trees and the snow and the golden morning light, but the steam from her breath, the goose bumps on her arms.
Even the dumpy little bar looked wonderful to her.
She heard a snow plow laboring along on the highway. Janice ran to the road, her arms folded until she saw the plow appear around the bend. She waved furiously.
The huge diesel wound to down it's gears and came to a halt with a pop and hiss.
Janice crossed in front of the broad plow blade and stepped up on the running board on the driver's side. The window opened but the driver backed away when Janice's face popped up.
“Now listen Janice, before you get started: “I really sorry about your mail box and I try to avoid 'em but it just happens sometimes and...”
“What day is it?”
'Pardon?”
“What day is today?”
“You know, the twenty-fifth... It's Christmas. Christmas Day.”
Janice grabbed the hat off the driver with one hand. Pulled his head towards her with the other and gave him a big loud kiss high on his forehead.
“Christmas. Good, good. Thank you!”
The driver looked stunned but could help but smile.
“Sure Janice.”
“You do one hell of a job... Danny,” she read on his coveralls. “and I've never thanked you for it. Thanks!”
“Well, uh.”
“Hey, wow! I just decided, just this moment: I'm going to have a Christmas party, here at the bar, tonight. Stop by and I'll buy you a drink, okay? Bring your family, tell all your friends.”
“Yeah... okay,” said the driver. He was slowly regaining his senses.”Okay, I think maybe I will stop by.”
“Great! Hey, hang on...”
Janice grabbed the hundred dollars Harv had given her from the hip pocket of her jeans.
“Do you know the volunteer Fire department that does those Christmas turkey dinners?” she said.
“Yeah.”
“Take this and get as much food as you can with it; bring it here tonight, can you do that?”
“Yay, sure!”
“Great, see ya then.”
When Janice went back to the bar. Just as the cold did, the warmth felt wonderful. She smiled for no particular reason that she could think of.
Her phone was still on the floor from the night before. It was ringing.
“Hello?... Charlie! Thank God... What? REALLY?... Jeez. No worries, I'll be right over... Whatdya mean? There's no catch... Which station? Okay, see ya soon... Wait, I have to make a couple stops first. Will you be okay for another couple hours?... Alright, just don't drop the soap till I get there big guy.”
Janice hung up the phone and laughed. She laughed hard and danced around the bar.
“I love this stupid place!” she sang out loud.
“Janice?” Margaret said when she opened the door. “I have to say, you're the last person I expected to see.”
“I know Maggy... Margaret. I've been kind of a bitch for the last... thirty years, and maybe I'll be a bitch again here and there, but I want you to know that I'm sorry and that I'm really glad you're my sister.”
Janice gave her a warm hug. Stunned for just a moment, Margaret slowly returned the embrace.
“...I'm glad too Janice.”
“I know you are. You were always the one making the effort. I was always the one running away.”
Two small faces, a girl's and a boy's appeared in the doorway on either side of their mother.
“Hi Clara. Hi Robert. Do you remember me? Aunt Janice?”
“Yeesss,” chorused the two shyly.
The name wasn't doing her any favors.
“I have presents for you.”
“You do?”
“What is it?”
They lightened up considerably.
“Here!”
“Fast Times at Ridgemont High?” said Robert quizzically.
“Thelma and Louise?” said Clara.
“Hmm, I don't know those. Are you sure those movies are okay for a nine-year-old girl and an eleven-year-old boy?” said Margaret.
“They will love them till the day they die, guaranteed!”
“What do you say to your Aunt Janice.”
“Thank you.” sang the kids.
“Here's a bottle of Champagne, for you Margaret.”
“Well that's sweet, but we don't really drink...”
“All things in moderation dear little sister... including moderation,” Janice said.
Margaret's eyes sparkled at the champagne. “We did have some of this at our wedding...”
“Not the greatest gifts, but I had to get what was on hand this morning, nothing open you know,” Janice said. “Well, I'd better ski-daddle, I know you're off to Ed's folks and I have someone to bust outta jail.”
Margaret laughed at what she thought was surely a joke.
“Seriously, I have to bail out my friend Charlie.” Janice gave her sister another quick hug. “Merry Christmas! Hey, if you guys aren't doing anything, and it's okay, I'd like to come over for New Year's Eve.”
“Yeah, that would be great actually.”
“Okay, see you then.”
Janice passed Ed who was loading the car with wrapped packages and casserole dishes.
“Hey Ed, Merry Christmas from the dragon lady.”
He looked puzzled and horrified. She handed him a DVD.
“Uh, hi Janice...” He looked at the DVD. “Hmm, 'Patton' nice.”
“Um, Ed except it's not really Patton. It's from my bosses collection he keeps in his desk... Watch it alone.” Janice clicked her cheeks a couple of times.
When the door opened from the police lockup and Charlie Eagle Claw walked out, Janice ran to him and gave him the biggest hug of his life.
“Wha? What the hell? Haha. I thought I was the one glad to see you?”
“Charlie, you will never be more glad to see me, than I am to see you right now.”
“You been drinkin' girl?”
“Aaactually, yes, but that's entirely besides the point and I'm completely sober now.”
“And you paid my bail? No questions.”
“Yup, though I am a bit curious.”
They reached Janice's small car in the Police station parking lot. Charlie managed to fold himself into the front seat.
“Janice, last night was the weirdest night of my life... and that was before I got arrested.”
“What happened to the guy you left with, the guy with the brown coat?”
“I have no idea. We got stuck, he jumped out of the car to run ahead and I never saw him again.”
“Why'd they arrest you?”
“This Morning, when it was light I flagged down a cop on the freeway, he went down to the car where the woman and the baby were, then came back up told me I was a lying sociopath, something about that all happened thirty-five years ago and my joke wasn't funny. I told him he was an asshole and out came the cuffs.”
“He didn't believe you? What happened to the woman and her baby?”
“I looked for myself, there was no car down there. Even my own foot prints walking climbing up to the freeway were gone. “
“Gone?”
“Completely gone, and it wasn't even snowing then.” Charlie said. He sounded as serious as she'd ever heard him.” Janice I don't even know if it was real, maybe I am crazy. I had to do some fancy talking just to avoid a seventy-two hour psych eval.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, 'wow', I mean it seems crazier that I would deliver a baby than...”
“You WHAT?”
“Oh, did I skip that part?”
“Yuh-huh!”
“Oh, sorry. Right, o, I find the dude's car, the lady in back’s in labor. That's why Carl was so tweaked when he remembered. When I got to the car... She was... ya know... and I kinda... ya know... delivered it.”
“Hold on Charlie... The stranger's name was Carl?”
“Yeah, I think so, that's what the lady said.”
“What was her name?”
“Um… what was it? Something like Peggy, Peg.”
“Meg?”
“Yeah, that was it. How’d you know?”
“Holy crap... no way, no friggin' way!”
“Yeah I know, like I was saying I think maybe I made up the whole thing.”
Janice turned white.
“You didn't imagine it, unless we're both nuts... I mean, it makes sense, but it can't be; it's totally impossible.”
“What? What!” Charlie said.
“Charlie where was this? Where exactly did you deliver this baby?”
“Under the bridge on the Observatory Road, in the back of a car”
“Across from the tracks?”
“Yeah, that's the place.”
“Charlie,” Janice took a breath, I was born in a car, under that bridge, December 24th, nineteen-seventy-five. My father’s name was Carl, that was my father; at least that's what my mother always said. He died of exposure when he went to get help. I don’t know how, but I think that help ended up being you Charlie.”
“Whoa, total mind blower!”
Janice took the money Carl had given her out of her pocket. She hadn't noticed before but there was something folded in the five. She took it out and held it up.”
“Where'd you get that?' Charlie said. It looks just like...”
“Yeah it does.”
Janice slowly fished a necklace out of her top. Dangling from it was a peace sign exactly like the earring.
“Charlie, I made this from my mother's earring she was wearing it when she had me, when she and my father were on the run.”
“So it was real!”
“Yeah, which means that baby was me! You saw me being born!”
“Saw? I a whole lot more than saw Janice,” Charlie said. “Say cutey, you still have a birthmark? A little round one on your right butt cheek?”
“Oh-My-God! You've seen me naked? I don't know if there's enough therapy in the world to help me deal with this.”
“Oh Janice darlin', I've been picturing you naked for years.”
“You're just lucky I'm in such a great mood Charlie.”
They reached Janice's apartment. Charlie rose tall out of the tiny vehicle. The snow balanced on the fence poles in front of her building in fat round little hills. They looked at each other over the top of the car.
“So you want I should walk home from here?” Charlie said.
“I dunno, you want hang out? Watch some Christmas movies.”
“You? You have Christmas movies?”
“Don't tell,” said Janice.
“Yeah, okay, that sounds alright,” Charlie said.
She took his hand as they trudged through the snow to her front door.
“You know,” Janice said, “the thing that would really bug me, is if you gave her... my mom, my name. Cause that's just the kind of thing you would hold over my head for the rest of our lives.”
“Rest of our lives huh? You my girlfriend now?”
Janice stood on her tip toes and put her arms around his solid frame. She looked up into his eyes.
“Yeah, I guess I am. I don't fall easy, but when I do...”
She kissed him.
“Finally! Now I can die a happy man,” he said. “And don't worry, 'Janice' is obviously my favorite name in the world, but, I didn't name you as a baby.”
“Thank God,” she said.
They stepped inside and the door closed.
“I only made it as a suggestion,” said Charlie.
-Merry Christmas! Thanks for reading the Secret Radio Tree House.
