Short Story about Love and Christmas

Through Everything, Love.

It was a clear Christmas Eve, a warm breeze rustling through the trees as the car drove smoothly round the bend. The night sky was radiant with stars shining like diamond drops suspended from blue silk. The soft sound of Christmas carols echoed from the dark blue station wagon as it coasted along the road. A dark brown haired young man with electrifying blue eyes, sat comfortably in the drivers seat. Presents perfectly gift wrapped sat on the back seat of the car to be placed under the Christmas tree that night. As a cloud slowly whispered its way across the night sky, it began to drizzle. Riley flicked at his windscreen wipers, and looked down at his left hand resting on the steering wheel. He smiled to himself at the gold ring that bound his ring finger. Kate, he thought. His beautiful wife, the way her long golden brown hair fell in curls loosely around her face, and her dazzling emerald eyes. It was their first Christmas together, and he couldn’t think of time that he had been happier. He couldn’t wait to surprise her tomorrow with her present, which was sitting in prime position on the floor behind him. Nestled safely in the bottom of a box secured and surrounded with cushions and blankets, the 10 week old brown cocker spaniel puppy lay fast asleep. Its soft, silky fur looked like it would dissolve at the touch of a finger. Its long ears were draped across the blanket, and its tiny eyes and nose were peeping out through the folds of its fur. Its delicate features were the closest thing to perfect beauty that can be found on earth.

The country surrounding the north east coast of Australia was beautiful, especially in the summer. Palm trees and sugar cane farms alongside the smooth ro...

... middle of paper ...

...ght here for you.” Kate leaned forward, and looked deep into Riley’s eyes. “Now listen to me, I have something to tell you but you have to stay calm. When the car tipped on its side you shattered your right leg. It will require a lot of surgery and physiotherapy and it will never fully recover.”

His eyes turned into pain, not physical pain, but the emotional pain that he would never be fully fit, to take care of his wife, to build them a home, to play sports as he loved, to do many aspects of work.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered.

“It’s ok,” Kate answered with tears brimming her eyes. “For better for worse, through health and sickness. I’ll never leave you. We’re in this together ok, you and me.”

With that, they closed their eyes, and embraced tightly, as if nothing could tear them apart, not the forces of nature, not the hand of god, because that is what love is.