Christmas Story Challenge: Jeff Hickmott

My Christmas story challenge was to write a festive-themed tale in 1000 words or less, using as many English words with Greek or Latin origins as possible. As it turns out, this is not too tricky, since about half of all the words in use in the English language have their roots in Latin or Greek. The tricky part is identifying them all!

I wrote a story and so did my good friend and fellow Unbelievable Michael Noble. Here's mine. (spoiler alert: It's just a tad more than 1000 words. Oops!)

You Can Plan On Me

Lucia smiled as she dusted the mantelpiece and replaced all the usual ornaments with the miscellany of snowglobes, tree-shaped glittery objects and miniature lamps with stars and angels on them that she had been collecting for years. To say she loved the holiday season would be an understatement. Her house was transformed from Halloween onwards into an Alpine chalet, despite the fact that she lived in a small village in England. Luckily it was one of those picturesque hamlets with thatched cottages, beautiful scenery, rolling hills. Welcoming, peaceful, with quaint inns and antique lampposts. When there was snow, the village became one of winter wonder. This was just perfect. Christmas was Lucia's favourite thing in the world.

She placed the last ornament onto the mantel, reached for her nearby mug of steaming hot cocoa and took a sip. That was the last thing she remembered.

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

Through bleary eyes she could just make out two faces beside her bed. One was her friend and employer Annabelle Smart, an attractive blonde woman in her middle 50's. The other was a rather young-looking doctor with serious eyebrows, holding a medical chart.

"Your friend saved your life, Ms. Tomas. She called the ambulance. They had to break your front door. You're very lucky."

"Where am I?" Lucia asked, not unreasonably. "What happened?"

"You're in hospital, Ms. Tomas. You had a seizure. You're suffering from acute renal failure."

Annabelle spoke up. "You need a new kidney. I've already put myself down to test for a match."

The curtains swished apart and Lucia's friend Kimberly walked in. "I've already volunteered to be tested," she said breathlessly. "I came as soon as I heard."

Lucia was struggling to take it all in, and she was feeling sleepy. As she drifted off, the doctor, whose name she could now see was something unpronounceable, said "We need to test as many people as we can to find a good match. You've probably been feeling unwell for some time, so we'll let you get some rest - it's a lot to take on board all at once."

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

The next thing Lucia was aware of was the sound of a beeping monitor, voices drifting through her mind, random words and phrases such as 'clamp', 'suture', and 'right now'. Again the voices dissipated and once more, she found herself waking up in her hospital bed, surrounded by doctors, Annabelle, and Kimberly. They were all smiling.

"Congratulations, Ms. Tomas, " said the doctor whose name that she could now make out as Dr. Chichicastenango. "We found two good matches almost immediately, from your friends here. Mrs. Smart and Ms. Humble almost had to fight over who was going to give you a kidney. I told them they could give one each." Looking around, she could see that Kimberly and Annabelle were wearing hospital gowns and wristbands.

"And that's not all, Luce," said Kimberly. "Annabelle and I made a huge discovery while you were in a coma." She smiled over at Annabelle, who returned the smile, and through tears and sniffs, uttered the words that would literally change Lucia's life.

"I'm your mum, Luce."

"And I'm your sister!" cried Kimberly. "It's.. it's a miracle!"

They all hugged, and the doctors all applauded. They explained to Lucia that Annabelle had had twin girls when she was much younger, and because she was an unmarried girl of just sixteen, her family made her put them up for adoption when they were just weeks old. Kimberly and Lucia were separated and discovered they were adopted when they were in their teens. Annabelle had tried to find them later in life but the trail had gone cold. Somehow, they'd all ended up in the same village, and somehow, they'd all become friends. It truly was a Christmas miracle. It somehow made Lucia's Christmas even more poignant and important. Her life had been saved, by her two best friends, who had turned out to be her sister and mother. She was dumbstruck by the Lifetime Channel-ness of it all.

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

After a few days, Lucia was well enough to be discharged. She was taken home by Belle and Kim, and after helping to straighten out the living room  and call the local locksmith, they left her with the promise to come by every day, and to celebrate Christmas together.

She sat down in her armchair with a cup of mint tea, and pondered over the events of the last four weeks. Despite her hospital stay, she felt wonderful. She'd gained some new family she didn't even know she had, and was still home for the Holidays.

Outside, a steady sleet began, and she could feel the temperature already dropping. She decided to get the fire started and curl up on the sofa in front of it. Sadly, though, this would mean having to get up and fetch some wood from the lean-to outside the back door. She hauled herself out of her chair and opened the back door. Once armed with a few small logs, she turned on her heel and started back into the house.

Suddenly a large hairy creature jumped out in front of Lucia with an ursine snarl, and she immediately dropped the wood she was carrying. It was human in form, with cloven hooves, clawed hands, enormous horns and fangs, with a long tongue lolling from its mouth.

"Merry Christmas, Lucia!" it growled.

A sudden pain shot through her chest as she reeled back against the fridge door, slipping to the floor. Gasping, she grabbed the handle of the fridge door in an attempt to move out of the creature's way. The fridge shook, and a box of mason jars she kept for jam-making rained down on top of her. The creature edged closer, breathing heavily and leering all the while. She felt the searing pain extend down her right arm. The world faded to black, and fell silent.

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

She removed the VR headset and disappointedly glanced over at her companion, who had already removed hers. "Got you again," her friend said. "I love playing the Krampus."




Latin words:
miscellany
village
antique
picturesque
perfect
mantelpiece
companion
re-
ornament
creature
hospital
miracle
silent
rolling
collecting
objects
transformed
despite
fact
peaceful
lampposts
favourite
remembered
faces
attractive
doctor
serious
medical
chart
ambulance
seizure
acute
renal
tested
adopted
dissipated
unpronounceable
people
possible
monitor
sound
voices
phrases (Greek)
suture
congratulations
immediately
gowns
discovery
coma (Greek)
literally
change
applauded
explained
family
separated
trail
important
discharged
local
promise
celebrate
armchair
mint
pondered
family
temperature
human
form
enormous
sudden
ursine