FICTION: A CHRISTMAS BIRTHDAY WISH

This story starts about 25 years ago in a coal-mining town in central Kentucky. It is a story about a coal mining family, Jason and Donna Cooper and their little son, Josh.

It is the first of December and Josh is looking forward to the 25th. Not only will it be Christmas, but also on that day Josh will be 8 years old.

He had been looking forward to this birthday for the last 2 years because he had been promised a big shiny red bicycle on his eighth birthday.

What Josh didn't know was that at night, behind the closed door of his parent's room, Jason and Donna had been talking about the possibility of the mine shutting down.

They had been talking about his for the last two weeks and now it looked as if it was really going to happen.

Their only other source of income was what little Donna brought home from doing laundry for Mrs. Ross, and they were worrying over how they were going to pay the rent on their little house and buy food.

The red bicycle was lost to them in their thoughts as they worried about how their family would survive.

Mrs. Ross was an elderly lady. She had lost her husband in a coal mining accident several years before.

She was all-alone because her only child, a son Billy, had died of phenomena when he was just 10 years old.

As predicted, on the 12th of December the men got their notice that on the 15th the mine would close.

That night at dinner Jason and Donna told Josh that his father would be out of work and that they would have to forget Christmas and his birthday this year.

They said that maybe next year things would be better and they could get him his bicycle.

Little Josh looked at his parents with tears in his eyes, but he knew they had always done their best to provide for him and even though he was heart broken over the loss of his bicycle, he smiled and said, "that's okay, I understand."

Trying to ease the pain his mother knew he was feeling, she said, "Josh, in the morning let's walk through the woods and pick out our Christmas tree."

As they walked they sang Christmas carols and talked about the real meaning of Christmas.

They compared their life to the lives of Joseph, Mary and the little baby Jesus.

They at least had a home and a stove to keep them warm and Josh had a bed to sleep in.

The only bed Jesus had to lay in was a manger in a shed where the animals were kept.

They talked of the mine closing and knew that there were families that would suffer more than them.

Some of the men loosing their jobs had large families with 4 or 5 children.

Josh knew, compared to many more kids, he was still pretty lucky, but thoughts of the red bicycle still lingered in the back of his mind.

Finally Donna and Josh came upon a small tree. It sat surrounded by several larger, more perfectly shaped trees, but as soon as Josh saw it, he knew that this tree was his tree.

He took out a big red bandana and tied it to a branch on the tree so that when his father came in from work that evening and went out with an ax to cut it down, he would have no trouble finding the tree Josh had decided on.

The next morning as Jason went off to work; his last day, Josh and Donna got out a box of decorations they had used for years.

There was a few different colored balls, a few bows and several little white angels cut out of paper.

They also found a big red candle that they sat on a table by the tree.

When Josh thought they had all the decorations in place, his mother said, "wait, I have one more thing to add."

She went into her bedroom and opened the closet door. Reaching on the shelf she took down another small box and carried it into the living room.

She carefully took out a small nativity scene and put it on the table by the candle.

"Josh," she said, "this was my great-grandmother's. It has been handed down in my family for years and last year, after your grandmother died, it came to me. We have to be very careful with it because it is old and very fragile."

Josh looked at all the decorations on the tree and on the table and smiled at his mother. "Everything looks real nice Mom," he said, but she could still see the pain he was trying so hard to hide.

On the Friday before Christmas, Donna took the laundry to Mrs. Ross. As she was putting things away she started crying.

Mrs. Ross heard her and went to see what was causing her tears.

Going into the kitchen she told Donna, "let's make a pot of tea. Maybe it would help to talk about whatever is bothering you."

Sitting at the table Donna told Mrs. Ross about Jason loosing his job and about the bicycle Josh had been looking forward to for so long.

It did help to talk about her problems even though it seemed that Mrs. Ross had not been listening.

After she had rinsed out the teacups and left for home, Mrs. Ross got up and went to the window.

From there she could see the tiny cemetery on the hill where her husband and son were buried.

It seemed she could hear little Billy talking to her. "Mom, remember what you and Dad got me for my birthday all those years ago? Someone can use it now."

On Christmas Eve, long after everyone had gone to bed in the Cooper house, Mrs. Ross went down into the basement of her home.

Sitting in a corner, covered in dust, was a red bicycle. It was old, but like new because Billy had never gotten to ride it.

Mrs. Ross sat on a box and looked at the bike with tears rolling down her face. She remembered when Billy had gotten it.

How happy he had been and how anxious he was to get well so he could ride it.

Sadly that was not to be and his shiny red bicycle was taken to the basement where it had sat forgotten all these years.

Rubbing the tears from her eyes, Mrs. Ross got up and wiped the dust from the bike.

It was not quite as shiny as it once had been, but she knew one certain little boy would think it was the most beautiful bike in the world.

On Christmas morning Jason, Donna and Josh were sitting at the table eating breakfast.

Jason asked he son, "Josh, after we eat would you please carry in some fire wood?" "Sure Dad," he told his father.

Putting on his coat, Josh went out the back door. What a beautiful sight greeted him. Sometime in the night it had snowed.

The trees and the ground were covered in a blanket of white.

As Josh was standing there thinking how pretty everything looked he saw tracks coming out of the woods. His eyes followed the tracks as they headed for his house and around toward the front.

Slowly he began to follow them. He knew what they looked like, but he didn't dare let himself believe it could be real.

As he came around to the front of the house, he saw that the tracks went up the steps and onto the porch.

There it sat! It was real! The most beautiful red bicycle he had ever seen.

Running up the steps, Josh ran his hands over the bicycle, just to make sure.

Throwing open the front door he ran up to his parents. "Thank you, oh, thank you!"

Jason and Donna looked at Josh and at each other. Turning again to Josh they asked him why he was so excited.

Taking each of them by the hand, Josh led them out the front door.

They could not believe it when they saw the bicycle.

Josh did not believe them when they said they had no idea of how the bike had gotten there, but they were as excited as Josh that it had appeared.

Giving the bike a closer inspection, Jason found a little note tied to the handlebars.

As he put his arm around Donna, he handed the note to Josh.

With a puzzled look, Josh read the note aloud. "To Josh, Merry Christmas and a very, very happy birthday. Enjoy this bike for both of us. Your friend, Billy."