A Camp Edson Christmas (2 page)

“Presents? Who said anything about presents?”
Faith looked genuinely puzzled. “I’m just making cards for Miss
Anna and Mrs. Meg and Mr. Michael and Miss Dee and you, too, Miss
Christina. You all look so upset, and I just want you to know I’m
just happy to be here.”

Hot tears of shame mixed with the icy rain on
Christina’s cheeks. How could she have wasted even one thought on
herself, knowing home—and her Christmas—would be waiting for her
after the ice melted? Where would Faith go when it was all over?
Christina scooped the child in an embrace and together they slid
down the path to the lodge, where Dee had just run out of excuses
to explain their absence any longer.

Soon, Michael had a fire roaring in the
fireplace, and Anna had hot chocolate cooking in a pot over the
open flame. Meg had made eight little cots into cozy beds and Dee
began to sing
Silent Night
in hauntingly beautiful
tones.

Shivering beneath several thick towels,
Christina began to thaw from the inside out. She had been so
selfish this week, so judgmental. Almost as though giving up a
couple measly days of her Christmas break made her some sort of
hero, she thought with regret.

Christina must have drifted off to sleep,
because she awoke to sun streaming through the icy picture window
and the sound of gift wrap being torn hastily from packages.

“It’s a Chrismas miracle!” Anna exclaimed
again.

Christina squinted, trying to believe her
eyes as package after package revealed coats and shoes that fit the
recipient. She rubbed her eyes in disbelief as Faith tore into a
box of crayons, scissors and glue, and Jimmy ripped open a book
full of word puzzles.

“What? How? When?” Christina stumbled, and
then, just like the scene in the old black and white classic
Miracle on 34
^th
Street
, when a
single cane propped in the corner of the house tips the family off
to the identity of their benefactor, Christina spotted the worn
broom with the stubby bristles leaning against the picture
window.

“Where’s Mr. Engal?” she gasped. Eyes darted
around the room. “When did you see him last?” “Did you see him?”
“Did you?”

“I told you the church sent their very best,”
Anna triumphed. “All this time, pushing that broom, he was making
observations,” she insisted.

But where is he now
? Christina
wondered, feeling guiltier than ever, and suddenly wanting nothing
more than to see the man she’d written off as a kook and
ignored.

“He must have gone home to his family,” Meg
guessed. “But I’m going to call the pastor of his church to send
our thanks.” Meg headed into the kitchen and Christina turned her
attention to Jimmy, who was already engrossed in the puzzle
book.

“What are you working on?” she asked.

“Anagrams,” Jimmy answered. “You know, where
you rearrange the letters of a word to make new words.” Christina’s
thoughts rewound to the tattered letters in the craft cabin. Mr.
Engal was way more observant than she’d ever be.

Meg returned to the lounge, a disturbed
expression clouding her face.

“What’s going on?” Michael asked.

“The pastor said he was very sorry, but he
never sent his janitor to us, after all. Said he got sick and they
forgot to call.”

“Then who was our janitor?” Dee asked in
alarm. Ripples of shock and speculation traveled across the
room.

Christina glanced over at Jimmy, nose deep in
his puzzle book.
Still not in tune with his surroundings
,
Christina thought. She looked at the list of words he’d rearranged,
gasping in sudden realization. In the space next to the word
“angel,” Jimmy’s single anagram revealed the answer to their
question, and just how much she almost missed. The childish scrawl
simply read:
Engal
.

###

Cynthia Davis lives in southeastern Virginia
with her family and pets. She enjoys planting in the spring,
baseball in the summer and pumpkins in the fall—but loves Christmas
best of all.
A Camp Edson Christmas
features characters from
her Young Adult novels
The Chrysalis
and
Drink the Rain
(available in print
and ebook).
Snapshots
, her third
Camp Edson book, is unfolding chapter-by-chapter with reader input.
Find her on
facebook
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twitter
.