Quote:
The holidays are close to ending and it’s time to start packing away your decorations. In a stroke of bad luck, you drop an ornament (or other small bauble) and it shatters. Inside was a strange, glistening dust that you accidentally inhale. You are immediately met with a strong hallucination of a previous holiday memory. It only lasts for a few moments, but it feels like you are back in the memory, reliving it. It seems so real but when it ends, you are back in the present with no trace of the dust left in sight. Which holiday memory did you relive, and how do you react to being torn from it?
It was that time of year again, when Christmas and the New Year were behind them. Lulu always kept her decorations up as long as possible, she truly loved the Holiday season and the memories they brought along with them. Sure, some of them could be sad at times, but so many of them were just as wonderful. The longer she could hold onto the blissful feeling of the Holidays, the better. It was sad to have to pack things back up in boxes and wait a whole year to bring them back out again.
She started with the random decorations around her house first. Stashing away her stockings, pulling down the mistletoe, unplushing lights and other baubles. For some reason, she always left the tree for last. Many of the decorations that adorned it were once she made as a child or mementoes from vacations in her past. Her family always bought a Christmas ornament when they went on vacation. It was a fun way to tie in all they yearly adventures on their Christmas tree.
There was one that she was particularly found of, from a trip to the beach when she was around eight years old. A time when, even though her family life was still complicated, things were mostly wonderful. Her father and mother were a happy couple. Raising a daughter that, while not their own, was everything they could want in their child. It was a typical round ornament, decorated with shells, and had the date for their trip written across it. She pulled it up to trace her finger over one of the shells when suddenly the hook that was holding the ornament slipped out of place. She bent down in an attempt to catch it before it broke on her hardwood floor, but her butter fingers were no use. It shattered on the ground and a stranger dust poofed into the air. She gasped when it shatter and the strange substance was inhaled into her lungs.
It happened in an instant, without her even really registering the change. Suddenly she was a little girl again, running down the hall of the home she had grown up in. "Mommy! Daddy! I heard jingle bells!" It must have been early in the morning, a small amount of light was just starting to leak through the blinds as she ran past windows in the hall. Their house was so big and she always hated how far apart her room was from her parents'. Still, her voice rang out loud in the hall and she ran as fast she she could into her parents room, jumping and landing right between her parents in their bed.
Little did she know they were away and instantly tapped her under the blankets. She screamed and giggled with excitement as her parents pretended to trap her so they could sleep in later on Christmas morning. But with enough protests Lulu was able to convince them to let her see what Santa had brought in the night.
As Lulu ran back down the hall, her parent's were far behind. Other family members, and staff, woke up as well. Suddenly the house burst to life with the smell of breakfast and coffee. She couldn't be bothered with all that grown up stuff though, as she threw herself down in front of the Christmas tree. There were so many presents and so many with her name on them. She waited patiently for her father to settle in though and begin to hand them out.
The last present was her favorite and it wasn't a toy from Santa or her parents. Instead it was a bunny shaped locket that had a picture of her Mom and Dad on each side. It was the first time she was gifted such a delicate piece of jewelry, something she'd actually need to care for. She flung herself into her mother's arms first, snuggling into them and kissing her on her cheek. Her Dad was next on her list. Suddenly she finally realised just how hungry she was, but as she ran into the kitchen the vision faded around her and instead all she saw was the broken ornament on her floor.
She gasped, as if she had been holding her breathe during the vivid flashback. It had felt so real, her mother had felt so real. The tears welled up in her eyes and she pulled her hands up in and attempt to keep them from spilling over. Soon it would be the ten year anniversary of her mother's death. It was hard enough that she wasn't here for the Holidays. To be tossed back in time like that was almost cruel.
Although, if she wanted to put a positive spin on it, no she really needed to, she got to relive a moment with her. One so precious, of the locket that hung from her neck even now.
