Soup, Saltines, and Glitter
Magic is never complicated. You just have to know where to look for it.
When he was fifteen years old, Nathan made a heartbroken wish to a Santa he didn’t believe in.
Ten years later, he bumps into Kriss on a street corner far away from that teenager’s life. At first, Kriss seems like the answer to that long ago letter, but they soon discover magic isn’t as simple as sprinkling glitter over the cracks.
It will take something much deeper keep Kriss and Nathan together.
All they have to do is believe. That, and remember that magic isn’t all bells and glitter. Sometimes, it takes time, patience, and forgiveness to mend a family and heal hearts enough to love like new.
This story was first published in 2011 as Not Your Ordinary Christas Elf. This version is the same story, updated and expanded for a new decade.
Just around the corner
Curls of ice crystals found their way under the collar of the down parka like so much glitter sprinkled over the world. The faint tinkle of bells and the urge to follow them, despite not being dressed for the growing wind, were too compelling to ignore. It always got worse around the holidays, this need to find…something. Though what the endless search would lead to was still murky, like an image behind the glass of a snow globe with too much snow.
“Ten years…” Words muttered through stiff, cold lips, and that sound—those bells—just around the corner…
A Red Toque and a Green Sharpie Note
Nathan aimed a savage kick at the glittering drift of white across his path. Clammy wind picked up the disturbed flakes and spattered them into his face. The rest settled into the stillness of the deserted Christmas Eve dusk.
READ MORE“Not even a real good snow,” he muttered.
Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland, should have had more snow by now. It was the Canadian north and deserved better than this dusting of barely-there sadness. There had been a time, when he’d first moved here, that the snow had been a lot to handle. Now that he’d been here a few years, he was used to it, and this year, he missed it. He wanted a white Christmas to make up for spending yet another one alone.
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