Take Three
**Her Special Angel, Her Special Heart **
Little Cindee Perkins loved her daddy and mommy and baby brother Ryan more than anything in the whole world. But, like so many folks these days, especially around the holidays, things were so hectic that her parents didn’t have a chance to tell her how much they loved her. Then, suddenly it was too late.
The Perkins family had a special Christmas tree ornament that went on top of the tree. Cindee loved that angel and every year wanted to help put it up. She went to her father.
“Daddy, I looove you this much. Can I help put our special Angel on the top of the tree?” Cindee told her father, spreading her arms apart.
“Hmmm? Cindee, daddy’s busy paying bills right now. Go tell your mother. Thanks.”
So Cindee went to her mother and said “Mommy, I love you more than all the fishies in the ocean and all the bread in the world! Can I put my Special Angel on top of the tree?”
But mommy was busy cooking the turkey for tonite’s dinner was cooking “Mommy’s very busy dear” she said, distractedly. “Why don’t you go play with the baby.”
Cindee took her infant brother Ryan into the family room. She set him on the floor near the tree and decided she loved her parents SO much that she would help them at this busy, hectic, workaday time. So she dragged the ladder from the garage and, working stealthily, began to decorate the tree. Oh, the tinsel was put on unevenly in bunches, the ornaments hung crookedly and the lights blinked unsteadily, but it was a labor of love. The tree, resplendent in the gown of light Cindee had dressed it in was finally ready for the final touch. Ryan, looked up at the beautiful, glittering tree and cooed with delight. Carefully, carefully she unwrapped her Special Angel and looked at it with love.
Cindee’s Special Angel wa a sturdy, if crude angel made by her grandfather during the War. He hammered the tin angel as he waited in the trenches for the next wave of enemies to come over the hill. When they shipped his body home, the angel would always remind Gramma of her lost husband. It had been passed down to Cindee and she loved it dearly.
The angel’s hands were pressed together in prayer above the angel’s metallic brow, it’s wings unfolded, and glistening grey.
Cindee kissed Her Special Angel and began to climb the unsteady ladder. She was young and innocent enough that she didn’t believe that the “Do not stand above this step” warning applied to her. Suddenly, the ladder shot out from underneath her and she tumbled.
Her hands flailed as she fell slowing her fall only slightly. A tangled loop of Christmas lights caught around her young throat. She began to slowly strangle as the multicolored lights cast glittering reflections in her now-dulling eyes. Minutes passed and she was strangling slowly. A trickle of saliva flowed from her slackening jaw. We can only hope brain damage had already occured since, when the cord snapped, it sent millions of volts of electricity through her. She convulsed, once, twice, three times and finally fell from the tree.
Unfortunately, she fell atop Her Special Angel and Cindee was impaled on it’s prayerful hands. Splinters of tin went into her body, peircing her heart: cruel metallic shards.
The force of Cindee’s convulsions had cause the tree to begin to sway. Slowly, with the inevitablilty of death, the tree toppled. Ryan looked up, smiling innocently and holding his hands out as if to catch the mighty tree.
The tree crushed Cindee’s helpless infant brother Ryan like a used Christmas present box. He cried once, weakly, and was silent.
Her parents rushed in and froze, stunned by the horror of the scene. With her last ounce of breath, Cindee whispered “I guess you’ll have to put My Special Angel on the tree by yourself this year.” Her eyes closed for the last time.
Ryan slipped into a coma later that night.
The Perkins parents sobbed, wracked with guilt and cancelled all their holiday plans, regretting the time they didn’t spend with Cindee and Ryan. The tree remained half-decorated and Cindee was buried with her special Angel.
On their bleak, meaningless Christmas morn, the Perkins went down to find that the tree was completely decorated and Cindee’s special Angel was at the top! There was a note “Dear Mommie and Daddy. Jesus cared enough about me to let me put my special angel on top of the tree. I love you. Cindee” It was Cindee’s last gift.
Ryan remained in a coma, kept alive only through machines.
The Perkins realized that if Jesus was willing to go out of his way to let one little girl have her holiday wish, they should do the same. They’ve vowed that every year from now on, they’d go out and buy lots of Christmas Angels and go to orphanages, and help orphans put those angels on Christmas trees.
Ryan lies in a coma in a hospital. The doctors tried to tell the Perkins to turn off the machines but they refused, saying “Jesus can cure our Ryan! Even of brain damage and a crushed body!” He is only kept alive through an Iron Lung machine and the prayers of his parents. Their faith should be a testament to all of us.
There are two things you can do:
First, collect tabs from the top of soda cans. A multinational company has said that for every ten tabs, they’ll pay for another hour for Ryan’s life support. They’ll track this message and send a follow-up letter with instructions for where to send the tabs. In the meantime, collect all the tabs you can and store them!
Secondly, always remember that at this hectic time, it’s easy to forget about the things that matter, like love and family and ladder safety. Spend time with your family, decorate the tree together and above all, pass on this message. If you do, you may be saving thousands of families, just like Cindee’s. If you don’t, you’ll have crushing guilt every time you hear about a holiday accident. “If only I had forwarded that message!” You’ll think as you lie awake at night, your conscience an agonizing weight on your shoulders…“If only! The message might have reached those families and their children wouldn’t be dead from a Christmas related accident.”
Save yourself the grief and guilt and forward this message, and at this busy holiday time, let’s all try to be like Cindee and remember our own special Christmas angels!
Merry Christmas!
Magdalene: Dark and evil enough now? It’s still got the subtlety I want, but it’s much more evil.
screech-owl and Lowellster: thanks for both suggestions: as you can see, I incorporated both of them.
Redtail: I want them to wonder, but not be sure, that they’re being mocked. I think this is possible and this version may be at just the right level of evilness. And I like the dark forshadowing hinted at in the last sentence, but I’m willing to see if I’m outvoted.
Any last changes? This looks like it’s about ready to go out.
It’s a work of art.