December 26 is not only a day for Santa Claus to catch his breath but a public holiday known as Boxing Day in the United Kingdom and other British Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
Once upon a time, a good many years ago, there was a traveller, and he set out on a journey. It was a magical journey and was to seem very long when he began it, and very short when he got halfway through.
Like characters in a passionate love story, they thought about each other a lot now that their walks had become frequent. So frequent in just a week that sometimes, “leaving was harder than sharing a bed with Kobbie†Emma would think aloud on her notepad and cancel it out immediately.
It wasn’t until a few days after she and her husband had dropped the mute girl in front of that very luxurious looking house that Lizzy happened on her again. She did not like the way fate was running them into each other and wished to heaven she could pass unnoticed.
By the time the rickety car started again, there was a new passenger. Since she’d blatantly refused to be taken back inside, the only other opportunity they imagined would make things right would be to give her a ride.
The only sound that could be heard from the room was the screams of a woman. In fact, her screams could be heard above the midwife’s encouragement to ‘push!! Puussshhh.†Her pain was manifested in three different languages- all of which she spoke fluently on any other day except today.
“Next!†one of the nurses behind the table bellowed to no particular patient. Her second “next!!†sounded angrier than the first and she adjusted her spectacles on the rims of her nose in anticipation of whoever would rise. A thin woman with a very fat belly stood up this time and walked the distance to the table in a manner that would make anybody’s patience ran out.
Inside the wardrobe was dark. The kind of darkness that felt like home because the light outside was not very warm. In fact it was no light at all – just dim electricity and a gun pointed at her husband as one of the hooded men screamed his guts at him.Â
Two friends -- one a fat man and the other a thin man -- met at the Nikolaevsky station. The fat man had just dined in the station and his greasy lips shone like ripe cherries.
