A Christmas Surprise

by Karen Morgia

It was so cold outside, the warm air inside the apartmentcrystallized and formed magical geometric rainbows almost as soon asit came in contact with the Glass of the French doors leading to theterrace. The snow lay deep upon the terrace floor, making the doorsimpossible to open. Even if Vincent did show up tonightCatherine would be unable to let him in.

"Damn!" She turned away from the fairytale sight of sparklinglights flickering across the city and sighed deeply. "Blasted storm!"she muttered angrily.

She turned and wistfully glanced over at the small Christmas treestanding in the corner. Its lights blinked merrily, but Catherinedidn’t feel particularly merry. Her eyes came to rest upon thegold foil-wrapped package with its large green bow, lying beneath thetree. She had so wanted to see the expression on his face when heopened it.

Vincent was supposed to come to the apartment tonight, to collecthis Christmas present, but now she realized he would not be able tocome. With the weather so bad there was no way he could scale thebuilding, and she couldn’t go Below, because Joe was bringingover some files for her to work on over the weekend. She had sent amessage via her bathroom pipes, that she would not be able to comeBelow. It had only added another dimension to an already drearyweek.

Catherine had been sick with a bad head cold for the past fourdays. Since her work was piling up, Joe suggested he drop by with afew files for her to catch up on at home. Like a fool she had agreed.Now she could kick herself for having made that decision. If shehadn’t, she would have been able to go Below to be with Vincent,instead of stuck in an apartment seventeen stories above.

She couldn’t meet Vincent Below; he couldn’t come Above.She was miserable.

Feeling sorry for herself, Catherine turned away from the gailyblinking tree and went into the kitchen for a cup of tea. She felt sodown she hadn’t even turned on the evening Philharmonic concert,instead, she had turned the radio to a station playing Christmasmusic. Somehow, it didn’t help her moodiness, but the volume waslow so she wasn’t even aware of it.

The whole apartment was so quiet, even with the soft musicplaying, that Catherine was aware of every sound coming from thehallway outside her door. Her musing was interrupted by the elevatorbell clanging for attention.

"Finally!", she thought excitedly, "that’s got tobe Joe." She practically ran to the front door and peeked downthe hallway through the peephole.

Coming down the hall toward her door, she spied two men; one,medium height, brown hair, brushing annoyingly at the snow on hishead and shoulders&endash;Joe. The other man was entirely different.Tall, dressed in a Santa costume, complete with white hair and fullwhite beard, he stood quietly observing his companion. Over hisshoulder he carried a large red bag that appeared to be quitefull.

Joe was talking so excitedly, that his words could be heardthrough the front door.

:Jenny Aaronson hired you, didn’t she? It would be just likeher to pull something like this on Cathy. You’re supposed to besome kind of Christmas surprise? What are you…one of those malestrippers or something?"

The tall man said nothing, but threw an exasperated, if fearful,glance at h is companion, and reached out a gloved hand to knock onthe door.

Even with the disguise, Catherine would have recognized those blueeyes anywhere. She hurriedly unlocked the door and opened it for hervisitors.

"Joe!" she greeted, smiling, but her gaze fastened upon the tallSanta. "Thank you for bringing the files," she said, taking the stackform his arms. "I’ll see you after the holidays." She grabbed‘Santa’s’ hand, pulled him into the apartment andclosed the door; leaving poor Joe standing in the hall with his mouthhanging open. He shrugged, shook his head, and made his way backtoward the elevator.

"Are you out of your mind?" Catherine demanded, her heart onlyjust moving back down from her throat to her chest, where itbelonged. "What are you doing here?"

"Well," Santa began, taking off his hat with its fake wig andpulling off the fake beard, "when the children realized that you andI would be unable to meet tonight, they came up with a solution. Yourmessage earlier said you would not be able to come Below and theweather was too bad for me to come to you, so…they concoctedthis masquerade in order for us to be together." Vincent smiledlovingly as he took off the rest of his Santa costume and stoodbefore her in his holiday finest. "The costume was Jamie’s idea.I am your Christmas present from the children, Catherine. The bagcontains your gifts from those Below. We…," he hesitatedslightly, then continued, "I…did not want you to spend ChristmasEve alone." He lowered his beautiful gaze at the embarrassingadmission.

Catherine’s eyes glistened with tears of joy at the verysight of him.

He looked up and beheld the look of delight on her face, thenspread wide his arms to welcome her into his loving embrace.

She nearly leapt into his arms, wrapped her arms high around hisneck and burrowed her nose into his name, nuzzling against his neck.Maybe this won’t be such a bad night, after all, shethought. "Christmas has always been my favorite holiday," shewhispered, kissing him along his jaw line. "Now I know why…Ilove surprises," she giggled, happily.

Submitted/published in Chamber Cameos, Dec 1991