Michael Subjack's Blog - Posts Tagged "twelve-days-of-christmas"
A Baker's Dozen
The first gift was a plastic Santa figurine. Cute, but unremarkable. What was interesting was the wrapping paper. Gina had wrapped enough gifts with her mom and grandmother to know that this was choice. It had a gold base and a detailed illustration of a bird sitting on a tree branch. It wasn’t until the second gift arrived that she understood what was going on: Somebody had decided to celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas with her.
She just had no clue who it was.
The second gift had consisted of two turtle dove ornaments. She fished the wrapping paper from the previous day’s gift out of the garbage and identified the bird as a partridge in a pear tree. Intrigued, she texted her friend Monica.
“Are you sending me presents?”
“No,” was Monica’s reply. “But feel free to send me some!”
Gina thought about who else it could be, but couldn’t think of anyone. It had sadly been almost a year since last her date and she had just started a new job the previous month. Although her co-workers were nice enough, she had yet to form any sort of real bond with them. She had received letters from strangers in the past, mainly asking her to join their church, but anonymous gifts? That was a new one.
On the third day, Gina was pleasantly surprised to receive a fifty dollar grocery store gift card. Presumably at least part of it was for three French hens, but Gina wasn’t big on poultry. Still, it would stock her fridge for the week, and for that she was grateful.
Over the next several days, the gifts continued to arrive. The postmarks showed that they had been mailed from various locations ranging from her town to a city in Ohio, which was two states over. One day it was a bundle of Toblerone bars and another day it was a cashmere scarf. While it was nice to receive such generous gifts in what had been a difficult year, it was also starting to feel a little unsettling. Gina was no closer to figuring out who was behind it, but her mother was confident he’d reveal himself soon.
“Himself?” Gina had asked her during one of their daily phone calls.
“It’s obviously someone that has a crush on you,” her mother replied. “Maybe somebody you dated that wants a second chance. Wasn’t the one man an attorney?”
Gina thought back to the various men she had dated and doubted that any of them wanted a second chance. It was a feeling that was more than mutual.
“Do the gifts still follow the Twelve Day of Christmas?” her mother asked.
“They do,” Gina said. “Either through the packaging or with the gifts themselves.”
“Did you get sent five rings?”
Gina hadn’t. Not exactly, anyway. In this instance, the rings had come in the form of a glittery ribbon that sat atop her fifth gift, which had been a package of holiday-themed socks. Not that Gina couldn’t use new ones, but whether you were an adult or a child, socks were a lame gift. The sixth gift, however, more than made up for it. A large box came in candy cane striped paper. When Gina opened it, she discovered it was a drill. The card taped to the box displayed a gaggle of six smiling geese and came with the following inscription, written in spikey, distinctive cursive: “Hope you can find use for this. More to come!”
Gina frowned at the latter half of the message. Something still didn’t feel right, giving it a slightly ominous tone. The good news was that she now had a Christmas gift for her father. He had given her an extensive set of tools when she moved into her first apartment and while she appreciated his practical approach to gift-giving, she had used only the hammer and screwdrivers a handful of times. As far as she knew, the drill he had provided her was still sitting in the box on a shelf in her bedroom closet. And while her father had no shortage of drills, she also knew he’d be happy with another one.
But she still had a lot of questions.
“Can you tell me anything?” she asked her mailman when he came the next day with her latest gift. This one was a large envelope and likely contained another gift card.
“There’s really nothing to tell,” he replied. “The packages don’t have a return address and they’re always postmarked with a different city. It’s kind of strange. Somebody seems to really like you, but they’re also going out of their way to stay anonymous.”
“Have you ever dealt with something like this before?” Gina asked.
The mailman said he hadn’t, at least not on this level. He proceeded to wish her happy holidays and was on his way. When Gina opened the envelope, she found another card adorned with, as expected, seven swans a-swimming. Inside was a gift card for Cracker Barrel, one of her mother’s favorite restaurants, so now she had her taken care of. Gina wondered if her admirer knew that, but as it was a chain restaurant, probably a lot of other people did, too.
Day eight was a kitschy throw pillow of the eight maids a-milking. It was as hideous as it was charming, prompting Gina to send photos to several friends, as well as her mother. On the ninth day, it was a Blu Ray of the Royal Theater’s performance of The Nutcracker. The cover depicted what Gina assumed to be the Sugar Plum Fairy. Behind her was a line of ballerinas gracefully posing on a slick-looking stage. Was it more than nine ladies dancing? Yes, but beggars could hardly be choosers.
The tenth day took Gina a few minutes to understand. Inside the box was something called Game & Watch, which she came to realize was just a small, handheld Nintendo. On the screen was Super Mario Bros., a game she remembered from her youth. She turned it on and watched as a cluster of Marios frantically ran across the screen, smashing bricks and question marks.
“Ten lords a-leaping,” Gina realized. “Pretty clever.”
Better yet, she knew her boss had a young son who was quite the gamer, so now she had something that would make a kid happy while earning herself some brownie points. This was turning out to be quite the Christmas and there were still two days left. The following day was a vinyl record of Scottish marches played on bagpipes. Gina supposed this was the best anyone could do with eleven pipers piping, so she gladly added the album to her collection, nestling it in between Sade and Taylor Swift. If nothing else, it would make for an interesting talking point someday.
The last day was the chef d'oeuvre. Gina had just gotten home from work as the mailman was arriving with a package that was adorned with smiling drummer boys.
“Twelve drummers drumming,” he said with a smile as he handed Gina the package.
“These aren’t from you, are they?” she asked half-jokingly.
She immediately regretted saying it, as the mailman’s face soured. He held up a wind-chapped hand with a wedding ring on the third finger.
“Afraid not,” he replied curtly. “And if I were to make a ploy for a woman other than my wife, I certainly wouldn’t go about it this way. Happy holidays.”
He was out the door before Gina could say anything else. She felt a little ashamed as she went into her apartment, but at least she had eliminated another possible suspect. Before tearing open the package, she noticed there was a card on the outside. She opened it up and saw it was a rather flimsy card sporting a reindeer. The sort of card you could buy in bulk at any dollar store. Having done it herself many times, Gina was quite familiar with them. The unique handwriting confirmed it was the same person and the message again managed to come off as both cheerful and a little unsettling.
“I hope you enjoyed this. Everyone deserves a little bit of happiness, particularly at Christmas because who knows what the future will bring. May you enjoy it while it lasts and once again, Merry Christmas!”
Gina didn’t particularly care for the inscription but the MacBook Pro she found inside the festive wrapping paper more than made up for it.
A week later, it was New Year’s Eve and Gina had a party to get to. The time spent with her parents was enjoyable and they had been pleasantly surprised by the gifts. She kept waiting for her mother to ask where she had gotten the money for them, but in what was another miracle, the question was never raised. Gina thought it best to keep the MacBook to herself for the time being, but she was enjoying every minute of it. Her old computer consistently crashed and had been on the way out for some time. To have a new one running at full capacity was immensely stress-relieving.
She had just returned from the grocery store with a bottle of wine when she noticed a gold envelope in her mailbox. No doubt another communiqué from her mysterious admirer. She brought the envelope in along with the rest of her mail and set the bottle of wine on the kitchen counter. She opened the envelope, expecting to see “Happy New Year” or something of that ilk. Instead, the card depicted a sad-looking little girl standing over a broken lamp. Weird, but nothing about this situation had been particularly normal. When she opened the card, she saw two words in that now-familiar handwriting:
“Behind you.”
She didn’t even have time to scream.
She just had no clue who it was.
The second gift had consisted of two turtle dove ornaments. She fished the wrapping paper from the previous day’s gift out of the garbage and identified the bird as a partridge in a pear tree. Intrigued, she texted her friend Monica.
“Are you sending me presents?”
“No,” was Monica’s reply. “But feel free to send me some!”
Gina thought about who else it could be, but couldn’t think of anyone. It had sadly been almost a year since last her date and she had just started a new job the previous month. Although her co-workers were nice enough, she had yet to form any sort of real bond with them. She had received letters from strangers in the past, mainly asking her to join their church, but anonymous gifts? That was a new one.
On the third day, Gina was pleasantly surprised to receive a fifty dollar grocery store gift card. Presumably at least part of it was for three French hens, but Gina wasn’t big on poultry. Still, it would stock her fridge for the week, and for that she was grateful.
Over the next several days, the gifts continued to arrive. The postmarks showed that they had been mailed from various locations ranging from her town to a city in Ohio, which was two states over. One day it was a bundle of Toblerone bars and another day it was a cashmere scarf. While it was nice to receive such generous gifts in what had been a difficult year, it was also starting to feel a little unsettling. Gina was no closer to figuring out who was behind it, but her mother was confident he’d reveal himself soon.
“Himself?” Gina had asked her during one of their daily phone calls.
“It’s obviously someone that has a crush on you,” her mother replied. “Maybe somebody you dated that wants a second chance. Wasn’t the one man an attorney?”
Gina thought back to the various men she had dated and doubted that any of them wanted a second chance. It was a feeling that was more than mutual.
“Do the gifts still follow the Twelve Day of Christmas?” her mother asked.
“They do,” Gina said. “Either through the packaging or with the gifts themselves.”
“Did you get sent five rings?”
Gina hadn’t. Not exactly, anyway. In this instance, the rings had come in the form of a glittery ribbon that sat atop her fifth gift, which had been a package of holiday-themed socks. Not that Gina couldn’t use new ones, but whether you were an adult or a child, socks were a lame gift. The sixth gift, however, more than made up for it. A large box came in candy cane striped paper. When Gina opened it, she discovered it was a drill. The card taped to the box displayed a gaggle of six smiling geese and came with the following inscription, written in spikey, distinctive cursive: “Hope you can find use for this. More to come!”
Gina frowned at the latter half of the message. Something still didn’t feel right, giving it a slightly ominous tone. The good news was that she now had a Christmas gift for her father. He had given her an extensive set of tools when she moved into her first apartment and while she appreciated his practical approach to gift-giving, she had used only the hammer and screwdrivers a handful of times. As far as she knew, the drill he had provided her was still sitting in the box on a shelf in her bedroom closet. And while her father had no shortage of drills, she also knew he’d be happy with another one.
But she still had a lot of questions.
“Can you tell me anything?” she asked her mailman when he came the next day with her latest gift. This one was a large envelope and likely contained another gift card.
“There’s really nothing to tell,” he replied. “The packages don’t have a return address and they’re always postmarked with a different city. It’s kind of strange. Somebody seems to really like you, but they’re also going out of their way to stay anonymous.”
“Have you ever dealt with something like this before?” Gina asked.
The mailman said he hadn’t, at least not on this level. He proceeded to wish her happy holidays and was on his way. When Gina opened the envelope, she found another card adorned with, as expected, seven swans a-swimming. Inside was a gift card for Cracker Barrel, one of her mother’s favorite restaurants, so now she had her taken care of. Gina wondered if her admirer knew that, but as it was a chain restaurant, probably a lot of other people did, too.
Day eight was a kitschy throw pillow of the eight maids a-milking. It was as hideous as it was charming, prompting Gina to send photos to several friends, as well as her mother. On the ninth day, it was a Blu Ray of the Royal Theater’s performance of The Nutcracker. The cover depicted what Gina assumed to be the Sugar Plum Fairy. Behind her was a line of ballerinas gracefully posing on a slick-looking stage. Was it more than nine ladies dancing? Yes, but beggars could hardly be choosers.
The tenth day took Gina a few minutes to understand. Inside the box was something called Game & Watch, which she came to realize was just a small, handheld Nintendo. On the screen was Super Mario Bros., a game she remembered from her youth. She turned it on and watched as a cluster of Marios frantically ran across the screen, smashing bricks and question marks.
“Ten lords a-leaping,” Gina realized. “Pretty clever.”
Better yet, she knew her boss had a young son who was quite the gamer, so now she had something that would make a kid happy while earning herself some brownie points. This was turning out to be quite the Christmas and there were still two days left. The following day was a vinyl record of Scottish marches played on bagpipes. Gina supposed this was the best anyone could do with eleven pipers piping, so she gladly added the album to her collection, nestling it in between Sade and Taylor Swift. If nothing else, it would make for an interesting talking point someday.
The last day was the chef d'oeuvre. Gina had just gotten home from work as the mailman was arriving with a package that was adorned with smiling drummer boys.
“Twelve drummers drumming,” he said with a smile as he handed Gina the package.
“These aren’t from you, are they?” she asked half-jokingly.
She immediately regretted saying it, as the mailman’s face soured. He held up a wind-chapped hand with a wedding ring on the third finger.
“Afraid not,” he replied curtly. “And if I were to make a ploy for a woman other than my wife, I certainly wouldn’t go about it this way. Happy holidays.”
He was out the door before Gina could say anything else. She felt a little ashamed as she went into her apartment, but at least she had eliminated another possible suspect. Before tearing open the package, she noticed there was a card on the outside. She opened it up and saw it was a rather flimsy card sporting a reindeer. The sort of card you could buy in bulk at any dollar store. Having done it herself many times, Gina was quite familiar with them. The unique handwriting confirmed it was the same person and the message again managed to come off as both cheerful and a little unsettling.
“I hope you enjoyed this. Everyone deserves a little bit of happiness, particularly at Christmas because who knows what the future will bring. May you enjoy it while it lasts and once again, Merry Christmas!”
Gina didn’t particularly care for the inscription but the MacBook Pro she found inside the festive wrapping paper more than made up for it.
A week later, it was New Year’s Eve and Gina had a party to get to. The time spent with her parents was enjoyable and they had been pleasantly surprised by the gifts. She kept waiting for her mother to ask where she had gotten the money for them, but in what was another miracle, the question was never raised. Gina thought it best to keep the MacBook to herself for the time being, but she was enjoying every minute of it. Her old computer consistently crashed and had been on the way out for some time. To have a new one running at full capacity was immensely stress-relieving.
She had just returned from the grocery store with a bottle of wine when she noticed a gold envelope in her mailbox. No doubt another communiqué from her mysterious admirer. She brought the envelope in along with the rest of her mail and set the bottle of wine on the kitchen counter. She opened the envelope, expecting to see “Happy New Year” or something of that ilk. Instead, the card depicted a sad-looking little girl standing over a broken lamp. Weird, but nothing about this situation had been particularly normal. When she opened the card, she saw two words in that now-familiar handwriting:
“Behind you.”
She didn’t even have time to scream.
