Four Walls for Christmas (MF)


"I think maybe we oughta go back to where Eddie said he was gonna show."

"Naw, this is where I got him last year."

"I dunno, Hon, it's really dark around here," she whispered, and reached her
arm out from under the bus stop awning to see how bad the drizzle was.  

"I'm telling ya, he'll come by here before he goes over by the bridges.  If we
wait over there, we gotta stand in line with everyone else and maybe he runs
out."

"Well, I really hope you're right," she sniffed and shook the water off her
hand.  "I just don't wanna catch cold."

He bent down and sat the large plastic bag he was carrying on the wet cement
and began tugging on the end of one sleeve of the jacket he was wearing.  "You
need the coat?"

"Nah, least not yet," she smiled and turned her head towards the pair of
headlights coming slowly down the road.  "That him?"

He got up from the bench and peered off into the darkness.  "Naw, that's a Ford
Taurus.  He drives a little beetle bug. A '70, I think."

He sat back down on the bench and together they watched as the sedan slowly
passed by, its wipers busily slapping water this way and that.  The driver
stared at them intently through the darkness as he passed and his eyes locked
for a second on the woman, then with a momentary frown of disappointment or
disgust, he jerked his head back to the road and sped by, tires spraying water
onto the curb.

"Hey, Darlin'," he smiled at her as they watched the taillights move off into
the rain, "I guess you're not exactly what he was lookin' for."

"Yeah, River's laughing," she frowned and shook her head. "He wonders what kind
of hooker he thinks he's gonna find on Christmas Eve."

"A pretty desperate one, I figure," he chuckled, and turned his head back to
look down the road.  "I guess that means you're stuck with ME."  He sighed. 
"And River," he added.

"Yeah. He says he wishes he was still alive 'cause they threw some really
bitchin' parties in Hollywood on New Year's Eve."

"Oh, and God's not a party animal, eh?" he laughed.

"He doesn't think that's funny," she stared at him and added, quite seriously.

"Sorry," he mumbled with a sigh.

 The rain picked up and the wind whipped some of it inside the little plastic
windows of the shelter as they stared in silence down the road. 

"This kinda reminds me of one night when I was working at the casino," he said,
finally.  "All the kids either didn't wanna come to work in the rain or went
out partying or whatever.  Some guys from Houston decided to all have some
Christmas party that night.  I musta parked sixty cars and made over two
hundred bucks."

She reached up and took the stocking cap off her head and shook the water out
of it.  "I think maybe I'm ready for the coat now," she said.

He got up, took off the jacket, and helped her into it.  After adjusting his
flannel shirt, he reached down into his bag and began digging around. 
"Remember, if he asks if we're together, tell him no," he said, pulling out a
pair of gloves.  "If he thinks we're together, he might only give us one."  

"But...," she started, accepting the gloves. 

"Oh, c'mon, now, Darlin', you know what I mean," he sat back down next to her
and adjusted the cap around her graying head.  

"Yeah, I guess so," she pouted, then reached out a hand and began massaging the
front of his pants. "Just don't you go around believing it."

He leaned over and put his lips to hers as her fingers climbed over his
waistband and down.  He clasped one hand behind her neck and the other snaked
inside the jacket.  He pulled her closer and turned his head slightly, rubbing
his cheek against hers.  Abruptly, she pulled back.

"Oh, geez," she breathed heavily.  "Sorry, I just..."

He sighed and reached up to run a hand over his face.  "No, I just got carried
away and forgot..."  He reached down into his bag and searched around some more
and came up with a disposable razor.

She smiled wryly.  "What, you gonna use a mud puddle?"  

"If I have to," he wiggled his brows, got up, and started scanning for standing
water nearby.

"Oh, silly boy," she grabbed one of his arms and pulled him back onto the
bench.  "I've got a better idea."  She reached down and grabbed his bag and
plopped it down on his lap. Then she reached behind the bag and unzipped him. 
He simply sat there in the darkness and smiled.

Suddenly, his face lit up.  "Sweet!"

"Getting close?" she muttered from behind the bag.

"Uh, no," he put two fingers gently on one of her ears, "two little lights on
top of two big lights, coming this way.  It's gotta be him."  Quickly, he
rubbed the top of her head and scooted a bit on the bench.  The bag fell to the
concrete with a dull thud as he struggled to stand up.

Raising her head from his lap as he rose, she blinked at the light coming
slowly towards them. A familiar tune was rushing at them ahead of the vehicle,
the beat of the bass overpowering and almost drowning those words she learned a
long, long time ago. 

"DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR?"

Her companion was now fully on his feet, waving madly towards the sputtering
little car, his sneakers making a splash as they landed full in a puddle near
the curb.  The car slowed as it approached and her eyes strained against the
light to make out the driver.

The music suddenly muted as the cherry red Volkswagen bug stopped and idled
noisily ten feet from the bus stop. "HO HO HO!" came a strangely high-pitched
voice from the open window.  "What have we here?"

She tried her best to suppress a giggle as she took in the sight of what had to
be the absolute tiniest, SKINNIEST Santa Claus she'd ever seen.  His scraggly
white Santa beard was dripping wet from the rain blowing through the open
window and he was wearing really large, black, plastic rimmed glasses. His
Santa hat kept threatening to slide off his jet black hair and only a quick
right hand now and again kept it from his lap. The red on his old Santa coat
was very well faded and the white was more gray than white. And when he smiled,
which was wide and forever, it was with many gaps between brown teeth and it
made the little girl in her wonder what happened to all the dentists up at the
North Pole. 

But only for a moment. 

"Merry Christmas!" Santa laughed high and hearty and reached into a bag on the
passenger seat.  "Are you two together or separate?"

"Separate!" he replied as he watched the jovial old man pull out two white
envelopes and hold them near the window.

"HO HO HO," Santa smirked as he studied the two.  "It's not NICE to lie to
Santa," Saint Nick waggled a finger and pointed to the man's open fly and
loosened belt.  Immediately, two hands flew down to stuff the stuff back where
it belonged. "Uh..." he started, his face red in the pale light beside the car.

"Something tells Santa that you've been a BAD boy," Santa chuckled as he moved
to put the two envelopes back into his sack.  

"No, we're TOGETHER!" she put her arms around him and smiled broadly. She moved
her hand back down to his belt and the two of them struggled briefly. Finally,
she wrapped her hands around his neck and gave him a long and wet one.

"HO HO HO," Santa laughed loud and long and reached into the back seat to pull
out a red envelope.  "Luckily for YOU, young man, that SHE'S been a GOOD girl!"

"Merry Christmas!" Santa yelled again as he handed the envelope to her and
shifted the little car back into gear. 

"Merry Christmas!" she replied, laughing, and clutched the envelope tightly to
her chest as she watched the car lurch forward, then emit several loud popping
noises from the tailpipes.  It slowed, then finally stopped fifty feet down the
road. "Damn starter!" she could hear Santa growl as he cranked over and over
again. 

She looked at him and he at her.  He rolled his eyes and smiled meekly as he
watched her gingerly open the envelope, trying her best not to rip it.

"Say!" yelled Santa, his head sticking out of the window as he looked back at
them. "I don't suppose I could ask you two to give ol' Santa a push start, eh?"

Without a word, he ran up to the back of the little bug and gave it a shove and
a few seconds later the ancient sleigh sputtered and came to life as Santa
popped the clutch.  "HO HO HO! Thanks!" the old man exclaimed over the din of
the engine.  "MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!"  And the music cranked up again as he watched
the taillights fade off into the darkness, grayish smoke trailing off behind.

"DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?"

And then it was gone.

He stared down the road after it for a few moments more before he was snapped
back to reality by a pair of hands around his waist. "So, what do you want for
Christmas?" she whispered in his ear.

"I dunno, whatever you want, I guess," he replied without turning around.
"What'd you get from Santa?"

"Well, look for yourself, silly," she said and stuck the open envelope in his
hand. Raising it up to his eyes, he turned so he was facing the lone
streetlight a block away.  Inside the envelope was a folded slip of paper with
large, handwritten block letters that read, simply:

"THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD GO I"

And a crisp, new twenty dollar bill. 

"Well," he said with a chuckle. "I guess you really WERE a good girl." He
handed the envelope back to her.  "All I got last year was a fiver."

She looked again at the envelope and then down the road.  "What a sweet man,"
she mused.  "I wonder what his story is?"

"I dunno, but Eddie tells me he's been doing this for three years now," he
replied and began walking back towards the bench. "He must have over a thousand
dollars to give out every year."

"Must be nice," she sighed as she followed him. "You never told me what you
want."

"It's your money, Darlin'," he said and sat back down. "You do what you want
with it."

She sat beside him and leaned against him in silence. She looked down at the
damp sleeve of the coat and reached down to untie a shoe.  He put an arm around
her as she took off her wet sock and massaged her foot. 

"A room," she said, finally. 

"Room?"

"I want a room. With a heater.  And a bed.  And a hot shower that works."

"You want to go back to the shelter?"

"No, I want a room of my OWN."

"Like a motel?"

"Yeah. It's Christmas Eve."

"I dunno, Darlin'", he said as he reached over and helped her massage her foot.
"The only one I know of that goes for twenty is that one on Hawkings and it's
at least two miles away."

"I don't care."

"That's a long way to walk."

"I can make it. I don't want to spend Christmas morning on the street."

He smiled and reached down, grabbed the ends of his back and twisted them into
a knot.  "If Darlin' wants a room for Christmas, Darlin' gets a room for
Christmas."

************

"You know, the only bad thing about being so far away from downtown is that
it'll take me quite a while to walk for Mr. Garnett to pick me up in the
morning." 

"Hon, you're not gonna go out tomorrow are you?"  She was breathing heavily now
as she walked.

"We gotta eat."

"But it's Christmas," she said.  "No one's gonna be out driving around and
buying papers in the morning."

"Maybe," he sighed. "But a little's better than none."

She reached out for his arm. "Oh, baby, River says he thinks you won't sell
more than 10 papers all day.  Stay here with us.  Me."

"But if I don't show tomorrow, he might give the corner to someone else.  The
government says the terrorist thing is at orange.  Maybe something will happen
to get people out buying papers.  I don't wanna take a chance."

"But what am I going to do all the way out here by myself when they kick me out
in the morning."

"Maybe the folks at the motel will be nice enough to let you stay longer. I'm
sure they don't get much business on Christmas."

"Maybe," she said with a sigh. "How much further?"

"Tired?"

"Yeah."

"Want to stop again?"  He turned around and looked at her.  "It's just two more
blocks."

"No, I'll be OK."

"How strange?" he said as they approached the parking lot and spied the Taurus.
 "I guess he found someone desperate enough after all."  

"Imagine that," she said, gasping, as she sat down on some steps. "Desperate
people on Christmas Eve." 

"Give me the twenty and I'll go get Darlin' her Christmas present," he smiled
as he sat his bag down beside her.

She opened the envelope and took one long look at the bill before handing it to
him. After he took it and walked towards the office, she continued to stare at
the paper and the envelope, finally refolding the paper carefully and gingerly
sliding it back into the envelope. Then she slipped it inside the coat and held
it tight against her chest.

"Sorry, sir, but this license is expired and I need a current form of ID," the
clerk said in halting English. "All these terrorist things and all that."

"But it's all I have," he said, holding the twenty outside the window.  

"Sorry, sir, but those are the rules."

"But it's Christmas and my girlfriend and I walked two miles to get here," he
pleaded. "She's pregnant and really wants to spend Christmas in a room." 

"Oh," the clerk threw up his hands.  "Christmas and a pregnant woman!  How many
times I have heard THAT one!"

"Oh, no, it's not like THAT," he couldn't help but smile. "She's only seven
months. It's not like she's gonna give birth in your room."

"Good thing, too," the little man scolded. "My wife is the only housekeeper who
will work tomorrow and she will not clean such a thing," the clerk said, and
laughed at his joke.

Suddenly he could here a loud, rapid voice yammering away in a language he
couldn't understand and the clerk frowned and disappeared, his face replaced by
that of a woman, her hair covered by a gray scarf.  She produced a key and slid
it through the slot in the bottom of the window.

"Room #5," she said quietly and smiled.  "Merry Christmas."

He began to slide the twenty through the key slot, but she covered the hole
with her hand and shook her head.  "Just be pleased to return the key when you
leave tomorrow," she smiled. 

"Oh, I...don't know what to say." His face began to redden.

"Just say you will not judge all people by my fool of a husband," she said,
before turning away and launching into another burst of rapid dialogue he could
not understand.

*************

"Looks like that's as warm as its gonna get," he sighed and gave the knob on
the heating unit one final twist.

If she heard him, she didn't show it. She was sitting on the edge of the bed,
running her hands over the spread, finally stopping at the rather large
cigarette hole near the foot.  Then she gave a huge yawn and laid back full and
spread her arms wide. 

"They better at least have hot water," he said as he continued his inspection
with a walk into the bathroom. 

She smiled and carefully turned back the covers and giggled as she ran her
fingers across one of the rather flat pillows.

"Hey," he exclaimed, "at least the toilet works!" He gave it a flush and stared
at the water as it swirled down the drain.

She grabbed a pillow and held it tightly against her chest as she stared at the
ceiling, then closed her eyes and took in the stale aroma of day old smoke
mixed with just a hint of sex.

"No TV, but what can you expect for twenty bucks," he chuckled as he returned
to the bed.

"Four walls," she muttered under her breath, and then she was asleep.