Chapter 8:
"For some reason, when he came home that day, he really got into the Christmas spirit for the first time."
Young Grinch goes through the trash cans and finds what looks like a cyndinor object that widens out, and there's a platform. "Perfect!" he grins. Several silverware drops from a drawer in loud sounds. "Whoopsie!" He plays innocent with a wicked smile.
Remembering something, the young Grinch rapidly looks through one of his caretakers' stuff. One box opens, and he pulls out a necklace with different gemstones. "What a lovely family heirloom!" he comments, smiling, knowing precisely what to do with it.
He smashes the gemstones out with a hammer, having a great time. One by one, a gemstone is placed on the wings part of the gift.
A fire is lit on a pot with pliers in his hand. "The fires of love!" he grins wickedly, having a piece over the fire. "This will be perfect on the top of her tree," he screws two pieces together. "Oh, Martha! Oh, Christmas!"
Martha's gift from the Grinch is a beautifully handmade, metal angel topper for the tree. Everything is going great for him until he sees himself in the mirror.
"I want you all to look your best tomorrow."
"You don't have a chance with her. You're eight years old, and you have a beard!"
Their voices run through his head. His hand moved against his face, feeling the beard. In his heart, he wants to be the only boy for her, and the thought of it peer pressured him to do the unthinkable. A razor is picked up and turns on.
"One Christmas changed our lives forever," Martha explains.
"Mommy! Can we go to the store pretty please?" an excited, smiling little Mercy Grace asked her mother after school.
"Oh may, what do you need at the store?" Martha's surprised at her quiet daughter's outburst.
"I have a gift exchange tomorrow, and I want to give someone a gift," she says, blushing at the thought of Kyle Ray.
"She reminded me so much of her father," Martha says. "Whenever we go out shopping, Mercy Grace will always want to go to the Arts and Crafts store."
The little girl gets everything to make something special for the little boy. Martha watches with a smile at her daughter's creative mind.
"Oh, I sure hope this will make his Christmas tree even better!" Mercy Grace smiles big, using the hot glue gun.
Soon later, two homemade Christmas ornaments are made. Each is the same with an oval green background and red, beautiful lace in the borders are glued onto the background - making it an illusion of an antique mirror. She makes a finishing touch of a "K" on one of them, and another one has an "M." Originally, the little girl was going to put an "R" and a "G," but it didn't have enough room for them.
"Who's the special person in your class, Mercy Grace?" Martha asked about the "K."
She immediately blushes and answers shyly, "Kyle Ray Maywho."
Martha smiles. She knows the little boy and approves of him, even though his uncle is the Mayor of Whoville.
Her mother helps Mercy Grace by placing them in a small green box and wrapped it with a red ribbon. A small name tag has the writing of "To: Kyle Ray From: Mercy Grace" in the little girl's handwriting.
The next morning, everyone in the classroom is giving each other presents. Kyle Ray stays behind them because he's looking for Mercy Grace. In his hand holds a green envelope.
"Kyle Ray?" a very soft, female voice speaks up behind him.
Hem smiles, turning around for the owner of the voice. It's Mercy Grace, looking cute and beautiful as ever. "Mercy Grace," he says.
"M-Merry Christmas," she stutters a little as she shyly smiles, giving him his gift.
"Merry Christmas, Mercy Grace," he smiles again, giving her a gift.
Her smile grows more, accepting it. He accepts his gift.
"Should we open them now or when we get home?" she asked him.
"I don't mind opening them now," he smiles, suggesting.
Mercy Grace smiles again, nodding her head.
Kyle Ray takes her by the arm towards the back corner. She blushes at his touch on her arm. His firm yet gentle touch.
Her green envelope has a Christmas card. A cute card with birds in dark red and red feathers facing one another. Between their beaks is a small red heart, and on top of the card says, "With Love At Christmas" in beautiful cursive.
Inside of the card has a message, saying, "When I wake in the morning, I think of you. When I go to bed, I think of you. You're always in my mind, Simply because you are one of a kind." Kyle's writing of "Merry Christmas, Mercy Grace, Like, Kyle Ray."
She blushes madly at the like part. "He likes me! He really likes me!" the little girl speaks to herself, smiling big secretly.
"Oh wow, Mercy Grace!" Kyle Ray smiles big, picking the "M" ornament by its red ribbon. "These are beautiful. I am definitely putting these on my tree tonight."
Seeing the nine-year-old boy's big smile makes Mercy Grace smile more.
Everything was going fantastic until after school. He's walking her home, and at some point, he decided to hold her black-gloved hand. She looks down to see what it is. The blushing smile on her face shows that the eight-year-old girl likes him too.
"Has everyone given their gifts?" the teacher asked Martha's class.
"I haven't," the Grinch announced.
Everyone looks over to where he is - behind the coat rack.
He soon reveals himself, but a paper bag with eyes is over his head, and in his arms holds the homemade gift. "Merry Christmas, Martha May," he shows the gift.
"Why do you have a bag on your head?" Ms. Ru Who asked, smiling, chuckling a bit.
"Properly because he's embarrassed by that hideous gift," jokes Augustus, making most of the students laugh.
"Mr. Grinch, please take the bag off," his teacher says to him softly when he sits down.
He holds the ends of the bag.
"Yes, you. Take it off."
His textbook stands up so his face will be covered when he takes it off.
"Put the book down."
It processed with his foot covering his face.
"And your foot."
Processed. The Grinch had quite a few cuts on his cheeks.
"Look at that hack job!" Augustus bullied him, making most of the students laugh.
Something snapped inside the Grinch and Martha May. Fury, but he lashes out before she could defend him.
"Stupid present!" he stood up to throw the angel into the pile of presents, shocking everyone. "Stupid tree! I hate Christmas!" the young Grinch roars, lifting the classroom's tree over his head.
"The anger," Mayor Maywho adds in.
"The fury!" his assistant joins in.
"The muscles!" Martha breaths.
Everyone runs, fearing for their lives. Martha May was still in shock and wanted so badly to run over to the Grinch to tell him everything she has always felt and calm him down. He looks at her, possibly shrugging an apology before running away.
"It was a horrible day when they were so cruel to him," Martha says, sadly. "Just like what happened to our beautiful daughter. And I could hardly bear it."
Little Martha May kneels down on the floor to hold a couple of pieces of the most beautiful gift she has ever had.
"No! No!" Kyle's uncle comes in a fury at the scene before him. "That's it!" he grabs the small girl roughly.
"Uncle Augustus! What are you doing?!" Kyle screams at him, seriously worried at the struggling Grinch/Who girl.
"Taking this spawn where it belongs," he glares out at his nephew opening the garbage shoot.
"Uncle Augustus! Don't!" Kyle tries to grab Mercy Grace out of the tight grip but gets thrown to the snowy grounds.
Mercy Grace is thrown into the shoot and travels to the mountain by the push of a button.
"If you tell Martha or the police about this, I will have you starving the streets," Mayor Maywho glares deadly at his nephew.
Cindy Lou gasps, shocked as Kyle Ray nods sadly.
"Mommy!!" Little Mercy Grace screams out as she slides towards the mountain.
She's terrified of what just happened and what's happening. The little girl soon finds herself sliding up high out of the shoot and landing a large pile of garbage.
"Who goes there?!" screamed an unfamiliar male voice, startling her.
Looking up, Mercy Grace's light brown eyes meet a pair of yellow eyes. Something inside them both tells them the beings in front of them who they have been looking for.
"D-Daddy?" she asked, leaning forward.
"Mercy Grace?" he asked, walking over to her.
After a few moments of silence, the Grinch became worried. "Who threw you out?" he asked in a deep voice, about ready to kill.
"M-Mayor May-Maywho," the little girl answers, still shaken up.
"That snake," he mumbles under his breath. "Come on, daughter, let's get you inside for warmth."
She nods her head, beginning to follow him.
Just like when she was a child, Martha has a single tear run down her cheek.
That was eight years ago. Each and every night, the now sixteen-year-old Mercy Grace stands outside and looks down to the lifeless Whoville. Tears run down her cold cheeks. She misses her mommy and Kyle Ray very much. The memories of them, especially the boy, never leave her.
"Somewhere out there," she sings, moving her hand forward down to the Whoville, "beneath the pale moonlight, someone's thinking of me and loving me tonight."
"Somewhere out there," Kyle Ray is laying on his windowsill, looking out to the mountain. "Someone's saying a prayer that we'll find one another in that big somewhere out there. And even though I know how very far apart we are," he lowers his head in depression, "it helps to think we might be wishing be wishing on the same bright star."
A star in the sky shines bright.
"And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby, it helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky," Mercy Grace sings, feeling the tears fall.
"Somewhere out there, if love can see us through, then we'll be together, somewhere out there, out where dreams come true," they both sing together, closing their eyes, thinking about their shared dreams together.
Getting married, having a family, and just living the life that they always dreamed of together.