Being recently retired from teaching, one of the things I miss about being in school with students at this time of the year is my tradition of reading some of my Christmas stories.  This usually happened the last week before Christmas break.  “Wise Ones” is one of those stories and one of my favorites.

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Here’s what I know about Christmas. Mostly it’s stuff that my teacher tells me when my friend Joshua takes me to church class on Wednesday nights. Mrs. Hammermill tells us in our class all the time about Christmas. She tells us about Mary and Joseph, shepherds and angels and the wise men. Mostly she tells us that the most important thing about Christmas is that it was when Jesus was born. She tells us that he came to give us the gift of salvation. She says we should give something to Jesus, too – our hearts. It took me a long time to figure that one out and I don’t think I have it figured out yet, so I just keep going to her class and keep trying to understand what she tells us. But what I do mostly is go to work every day. I do have that figured out.

Everyday at the bus stop in front of our house, we get on the bus, Frank and Goldie and I. We call the bus The Camel because we like the big picture of the camel on the side. He’s smoking a cigarette. We don’t like the cigarette but we love the camel. So we call the bus The Camel.

The Camel comes at 7 AM! That means I have to get out of bed at 6 AM! I don’t care how often a guy has to get up at 6 AM, that’s too early. It’s so early that I’m almost walking in my sleep when I get on the bus.

“Wake up, Murray. Watch your step,” That’s what Robert, The Camel driver, has to say to me. I don’t say nothing. I just give him my token and get a seat.

My friend, Frank, says to Robert, “Top of the morning, Robert!” He heard that on a movie once and never forgot it. Robert grins. He calls Frank a comedian. Goldie doesn’t talk much, not just in the morning getting on the bus, but any time of the day.

Everyday, we all sit in the front of The Camel, the bus that we ride to work. When work is over we get on a different bus and come home. We just call that one ‘the bus’ because it doesn’t have any pictures on it.

Me and Frank and Goldie all work at the same place. Our friend Joshua said that the Armstrong Hart Memorial Hospital needed our services and that we could work there and they would give us money! We were so nervous at first, but after awhile we got used to getting on The Camel every morning and going to work there.

Every morning when we get to Armstrong Hart Memorial Hospital, Robert says, “Here’s your stop.” Robert doesn’t say, “Here’s your stop,” to anyone else, just us. When we get off The Camel he always reminds us, “Make sure you have your backpacks.” What does he think, that we’re children? We’re not y’ know! Then he’s says, “Have a good day, amigos.” I think he’s our friend.

Mrs. Hammermill says in class that when Jesus was born, shepherds were abiding in the field with their flocks. Flocks are sheep and I think I have it figured out that abiding in the fields means that they were taking care of the sheep. Then she told us that after the angels came to tell them about Jesus, they went and worshiped him. After they worshiped baby Jesus they went back to abiding and praising God. Mrs. Hammermill says being a shepherd is important work. Then she says, “The Lord is my shepherd.” So it’s another thing I try to remember from my class – the Lord … shepherds … sheep and abiding, too. But I’m not a sheep so I have some thinking to do to figure that one out yet.  We do important abiding at the hospital. That’s what my friend Joshua says, although he calls it work. I’m just trying to use words that I’ve learned from Mrs. Hammermill. Anyway, I think Josh is right.

We start by punching in. Punching in is taking the card from the card rack – only the one with your own name on it, PLEASE – and sticking it in the time clock. The clock does the punching. Except one time I punched Frank, the comedian, when he put MY card in the clock. You know, the one with the name Murray on the top, instead of the one with HIS name, Frank, on it. He never did that again.

After we punch in, we all go all over the place and do different jobs. Me and Frank work with Charley, our boss. Frank used to put pop in the pop machine in the break room, until Charley said, “What comedian put all grape pop in the bottled water part?” Grape pop is Frank’s favorite. He figured if they wanted water they could use the drinking fountain down the hall. Charley, Frank’s boss, told Frank to leave the figuring to him. Charley looked at a nurse and said, “Group home…”  Then she nodded and said, “uh-huh.” Now Frank goes to the third floor and washes all the windows every day.

Goldie? Well, I don’t know what she does, but she gets to wear a shirt with red and white stripes and it has her name on it. She’s really good at smiling and hugging. I think her job is to make people happy.

I give Charley advice. But, I mostly clean drinking fountains and sinks and toilets. Charley says that it’s important to keep things clean in a hospital so that germs won’t live there. Germs make people sick, y’ know.

One day, the people at the place where I work, at Armstrong Hart Memorial Hospital gave me a birthday party for my birthday. They gave me presents and a big black balloon that said, “Happy Birthday, Murray” on one side and a big FORTY on the other side. It was funny.  Frank laughed and said, “Happy birthday, old man.”

I told Frank, I’m not an old man,” then I called him a comedian. Goldie didn’t say much. She smiled and gave me a big hug. That made me happy.

Mrs. Hammermill tells us in our class that Christmas is Jesus’ birthday. For a long time I’ve been thinking I should get him a gift. But what kind of gift do you give to Jesus? How do I give it to him since Mrs. Hammermill says he’s in heaven? Maybe, if we gave him a birthday party… Do you think he would come?

The people at the hospital have a Christmas party for the sick kids, every year. They decorate the Sunshine Room with lots of Christmas stuff. The Sunshine Room is where the kids who are really sick and have to stay in the hospital can go, IF it’s okay with the nurse. The nurse is their boss. They go there for some sunshine, I guess, since it’s the room that has a lot of windows and is sunny, except at night and mostly during December when it gets to be winter. I think that’s why they have a big yellow sun painted on the wall across from the other wall with the rainbow. Sometimes they do puzzles or play with the toys. Sometimes they just look out the window at the pigeons on the roof across the alley.

Every Friday, after we punch out, which is what you do when you are done working and it’s time to go home, me and Frank and Goldie meet by the Sunshine Room after work. On Fridays, we visit and play with the kids in the Sunshine Room. Before we could do that the nurse said she would have to check with our case manager, whatever that is. She did and our case manager turned out to be Joshua, our friend. He said it would be fine. So, on Fridays we visit for awhile. It’s no big deal, not like the Christmas party. We just read and play and Goldie mostly just smiles and holds their hands.

Mrs. Hammermill says that at the first Christmas, Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes. That’s how you could tell he was the one that the angels talked about. I don’t think I’ve ever seen swaddling clothes on anyone. Mrs. Hammermill says they’re like strips of cloth.

The sick kids in the Sunshine Room mostly are wearing their PJ’s. Some have bandages wrapped around things or maybe casts on legs or arms. Some have blond hair like Goldie and some have no hair at all. They all look really sick to me so it makes me work harder everyday to keep things clean so the germs won’t live there.

Joshua said we can stay one half hour with the kids in the Sunshine Room. “Don’t miss the bus home!” he says. That’s enough time for me to play a couple games of checkers or for Frank, the comedian, to read a few funny jokes or for Goldie to smile at whoever’s there.

Sometimes, kids stay in the hospital a long time and we get to know them better. Sometimes, when they finally get better and go home, they’ll stop by the Sunshine Room on Friday afternoon and say good-bye to us. We’ll say, “Good-bye,” and Goldie will smile and give them a hug.

Some of our Sunshine Room friends stop coming. We ask the nurse and she says that they’re too sick to come. They have to stay in their regular hospital room. The nurse says that we can’t go there. She’s the boss. Maybe they’ll come next week. Sometimes when we ask, the nurse won’t tell us much. When we ask Joshua about it, he says, “They went to be with Jesus.” Mrs. Hammermill says in class that Jesus said, “Let the children come unto me.” I figure since me and Frankie and Goldie work with children every Friday and some of them go to be with Jesus, we should know what that means, but we don’t. I would like to be with Jesus, then he could help me figure out some things. Maybe he’s helping the sick kids figure out how to get better. It makes us happy for the sick kids that they’re with Jesus, but it’s sad for us ‘cuz we miss them.

Mrs. Hammermill has lots of good things to teach us about Christmas and shepherds and giving things to Jesus. The other day she told us that Jesus said, “In as much as you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto me.” I don’t know what that is all about, just like I can’t understand how to give things to Jesus on his birthday, like I got on mine. At the end of class sometimes Mrs. Hammermill will ask, “Murray, do you understand?”

I say, “No, I don’t.” I tell her that all of that thinking and figuring sometimes makes my head hurt. Then I tell her that I figure we have more important things to do so that’s what we do. I tell her that we keep going to work every day. We keep Armstrong Hart Memorial Hospital clean from germs. And on Friday’s, Goldie and Frank and me help the sick kids. At least, I have that part figured out real good!

Then Mrs. Hammermill said something that nobody ever told me before. She said, “Murray, you are a wise man.” I told her that I don’t feel very wise when I can’t figure stuff out. Then she said, “Think about it like this. Goldie, Frank and Murray, all of the work you do for the hospital and for the kids, those are the presents you give to Jesus.” That’s what she said to us in class one day to help us figure out things. So, I keep trying to remember what Mrs. Hammermill says every day when we get on The Camel to go to work.

This is the final installment of a story I wrote long ago. It was first published in “The Christian Home and School,” a publication of Christian Schools International.

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The Monday before Christmas, Christmas Eve

All day the Sheppard sisters had been battling traffic and crowds of last minute shoppers. Now as evening approached, the wash still needed to be done. “Why dontcha fix this?!” Nell snapped at Doris and flung a shabby sock in her direction. Nell had found a couple of large red and white Christmas stockings which the sisters had hung on the mantle every Christmas Eve. The stitching around the black Santa’s sleigh with the name “Doris” embroidered on it was coming undone as a result of its annual encounter with the Sheppards’ washing machine. It was Christmas Eve and Nell felt pressured to get the tattered stockings loaded and hung on the mantle over the dormant fireplace. The stockings were about the only bit of Christmas tradition the tired old sisters had left.

Nell had been getting grouchier as Christmas day inched closer. Today’s shopping excursion had just about put her over the edge. Doris remembered the days when Christmas shopping was accomplished by walking the block-and-a-half to Casey’s Corner Store. Of course, Casey’s had closed years ago when his son, Al, finally retired. He practically gave the building away to a group who used it for a church. But like everything else religious in Nell and Doris Sheppard’s lives, the congregation scattered and the building on the corner eventually deteriorated. It went from a place of worship… to a video store… to a derelict apartment building… to an empty lot.

Even though they were working on catching up on the laundry that they do so religiously on Monday’s, neither Nell nor Doris had forgotten about their curious neighbors. It had not gone unnoticed by them that every candle on the rag wreath, except the big white one in the center, were ‘lit’ with splotches of yellow.

“Why don’t they close their curtains, anyway?” By now, it was dark outside. Nell, bad mood and all, was back on the lookout while working on a basket of wool socks. “They’re just inviting anyone who wants, to take a peak,” she said. Then accepting their invitation, said, “Look over there, Doris.” Doris obediently looked up from re-stitching Santa’s sleigh. “There’s somethin’ glowing over there,” Nell whispered as if the Davidsons could hear her.

“Fire!” Doris put her hands over her mouth.

“Nonsense.” Nell stated flatly. “They’ve just got some candles or the fire place burning. I can see shadows…” She paused, and took a deep breath. “It looks kinda spooky over there.” Radiating through the window’s rag wreath, a curious aura of light reached across the snowy street toward the sisters. Doris suddenly envied everything about those people across the street – their friends, their fireplace and even the whatever-it-was in their window.

Nell broke in with, “Maybe they’re part of some kind of weird cult…?” Her voice trailed off.

“Stop it, Nell! You’re scaring me!” Nell was scaring herself, so she dropped the subject and went back to her socks.

That night, the Monday before Christmas, Christmas Eve, while the Sheppard sisters washed, fixed and folded their socks, they got their holiday gift. It came to them when the transformer on the electric pole in front of the next-door neighbor’s house blew up.

Like the CRACK!! of thunder in a June thunderstorm, the sound ricocheted along the canyon of houses on Hillside Avenue. When it crashed into the Sheppards’ living room they jumped simultaneously, like two kids in the backseat of a school bus zipping down a bumpy road. The socks in their hands went flying. The lights in the house flashed and went out.

Without saying a word, they sat in the blackness, hearts pounding. For the first time in an age, they didn’t know what was going on outside. For the first time in her lifetime, Nell was speechless. For the first time, Doris realized that she yearned for something to fill the lonely void inside her.

After some time, a loud pounding on the front door made them jump again.

“Ohhhh boooy!” Doris was the first to break the silence. “What’s that now?” she whispered. Slowly, Nell fumbled through the darkness toward the front door with Doris cowering behind her. Together they peeked through the curtain on the window next to the door. They spied someone bundled up standing on the front porch with a flashlight. Cautiously and against her better judgement, Nell opened the door a crack with Doris craning her neck to see around her sister.

The wide-eyed, worried looks that greeted the bundled up woman on the porch prompted her to reassure them, “Don’t be afraid. It’s me, Ruth, your neighbor, from across the street.” The sisters greeted her with silence. “Looks like the power’s going to be out for a while,” she continued with a warm disarming smile. “My husband just finished baking some bread right before the it went out and we were wondering if ….” Doris straightened up a stood next to Nell in the doorway. “… you’d like to come over and share the bread and cozy, warm fireplace with us. I’m on my way to get some of the other neighbors, too.” The sisters glanced at each other and nodded.

“Good!” Ruth said. “We’re right there across the street.” She pointed in the direction of her house – as if Doris and Nell didn’t already know. “Just look for the strips of cloth in the window.” She grinned and rolled her eyes. “It’s supposed to be an advent wreath.” We have a real one, too, with real candles. We put it on the porch – to light the way.” She turned to go, then turned back. “You can help us light the Christ candle when you get there.” Ruth winked. “It’s Christmas Eve, you know.”

“Uh-huh…,” said Nell, having no clue what the neighbor was talking about. The sisters wondered more than ever about their curious neighbors, what with rags and wreaths and bread and a Christ candle, and all. “Uh – well sure,” Nell fumbled for words. “After we take care of our socks and –“

”Forget about the socks!” Doris insisted. “We’re going now!” She grabbed their coats off the hooks by the door, jammed Nell’s into her hands and and said, “Let’s go!” And…. off they marched across the dark street looking for strips of cloth and a light to brighten up their dark world.

This is the third part of a Christmas story I wrote some time ago.

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The Second Monday Before Christmas

The Sheppard sisters corralled another week’s worth of clean laundry into baskets and plunked down in front of the window to their universe, to sort and fold the clothes. It was the second Monday before Christmas and the view outside the window now included growing piles of dirty snow heaped alongside the narrow street.

“Hey, Doris, did you see all the cars parked in front of the house yesterday? A person could hardly get through,” Nell complained, even though, their trusty old Dodge Aries was parked in the driveway off the alley behind their house. “It must’ve been quite a party!” Nell shook out an inside-out wool sock. “Can’t you put your socks right-side out?” She barked at her sister. “I mean, it’d save me a lot o’ time if they weren’t tossed in the wash every which way!” she nagged.

“Yes…, Nell…,” Doris sighed sheepishly, “I’ll try to be more careful next time.” Having appeased her sister, she bowed her head over her work and allowed Nell to continue her harangue about the unusual neighbors. “… and there’s another one of those ragged old cloth candles ‘lit’ in their window. I watched ‘em do that yesterday at their party.” Now that she wasn’t the one being criticized, Doris looked up, interested in her sister’s observation. “That makes three of them, now. Seems mighty odd to me.” In spite of Nell’s assessment, Doris was developing some curiosity about the holiday ritual that seemed to be unfolding over there. More than that, though, if Doris was honest with herself she would have to admit that she was lonely and felt the need to have contact with people … other than Nell.

It wasn’t always that way, though, sitting by the front window and living vicariously through people she knew only through her remote observations. Back in the old days when the neighborhood was a close knit group of family and friends, things were different. But, a lot had changed since the sisters were young, living in the house on Hillside Avenue.  

Down through the years the Sheppard sisters’ dubious claim to fame among neighbors and friends had been their extensive knowledge of everything and everybody. Like the tabloids sold at the grocery checkouts, they were more than willing to share with anyone who wanted, a juicy slice of neighborhood gossip. However, one by one, their pool of family and friends evaporated. Many of the old timers had moved away or just died. As time went on, the only ones left who cared about such things were — Nell and Doris. As she gazed across the street and recalled last night’s party, an unsettled feeling came over Doris. There was something compelling about what was going on over there – the Davidson’s friends, the fun they seemed to be having and even that outlandish contraption hanging in their front window.