Ednor Scardens (Charm City Chronicles), Volume One

Chapter 38 - The Gifts

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT – The Gifts

Lee climbed into the car, irritated with his too-smart sister. Anita punched his shoulder playfully and grinned.

"You know you wanted to go back, anyway."

He looked at her sourly but said nothing. The area surrounding the Johns Hopkins University campus was a mixed bag. Within a small radius were lovely homes, some not so nice, assorted student housing, apartments, an art museum, several funky little shops, restaurants and food joints to satisfy the large student body.

We pulled up to a storefront with a hand-painted sign that said 'Karma Konnection'. It was an odd place with a young, long-haired proprietor who prided himself on keeping his finger on the pulse of the youth market. He stocked lots of incense, some strange books on topics that I'd never heard of, and assorted tie-dyed clothing. Most of his sentences ended with 'man' or 'baby'. As I looked around, I didn't think there was going to be anything there to help me, until I saw a small, glass-topped display case that held an assortment of unisex wristlets made of various colored round beads. The little card in the case said they were called Karma bracelets. The different colors and designs were supposed to stand for what you wished for yourself or the person who wore them. The long-haired man had one on, and I liked the way it looked, even on his wrist. I visualized it on Michael and knew this was what I wanted, even though I wasn't totally sure that he would like it as much as I did. Each wristlet had a little tag on it showing what it represented. There was success, peace, friendship, and other stuff along those lines. Then I saw one that was supposed to bring love and strength. That was the one I wanted. The beads were dark brown with a slight red undertone, mixed with some green beads that reminded me of Nan's eyes. I paid for the wristlet and the man gave me a little drawstring pouch as well as a box to put them in. Anita bought some kind of incense and a holder. I showed her the bracelet and she thought it would make a cool gift. We were about to leave, when I saw another Karma bracelet on display that was the exact violet-blue shade as Michael's eyes. It stood for love and happiness. I really didn't want to spend more money, but I had to have that one for myself.

School was out, on holiday break for nearly two weeks, but I was really busy at work as people shopped frantically. Michael was great about picking me up from work, always there waiting. There was barely any other time to spend with him until Christmas Eve.

Midnight mass on Christmas Eve was a long-standing tradition, even for Catholics who didn't attend much the rest of the year. Every church was packed that night. Mom and Nan used to go to Midnight mass before I was born, but had switched years ago to mass on Christmas Day.

Michael and I didn't even consider going to the service at Holy Sacrament, deciding instead to attend at St. Ignatius chapel. Most of the upperclassmen at St. Ig's went to the school's chapel for Midnight mass. It was as much a social event as it was a religious celebration, and the only reason my mom would ever allow me to be out so late.

Anyone who wanted a seat at the service had to be there before eleven-thirty. The choir sang Christmas hymns until mass began. It was a 'high' mass which just meant it was more formal and would take a lot longer than a regular mass – usually until one-thirty in the morning. In addition, some of the junior and senior boys' moms served a big breakfast afterward. So it was with special permission that I did not have to be home until three o'clock in the morning, as long as I called home when we arrived at the breakfast.

Michael and I would both spend Christmas day with our families, so Christmas Eve was our time. He arrived at my house around ten o'clock that evening and we had some Christmas cookies with mom and Nan. Michael was obsessed with my grandmother's sugar cookies, and would resort to inordinate amounts of flattery to get them. She put a bunch of them in a cookie tin for him as a gift, and you'd have thought she'd given him a million dollars. My own grandmother had trumped my present.