Illustration by James Hagan
Nothing makes a sterling Christmas come true like a “Sterling” intervention out of the blue.
Such serendipity seemed as remote as the North Pole for Renee. A blizzard of troubles was putting her Yuletide joy on ice. The university sophomore found her financial pressures were crushing her like an alpine avalanche.
A sudden downsizing cost Renee her sales associate job at the Macy’s in Willowbrook Mall. That setback alone brought an arctic freeze to her holiday season. Her employment hopes looked as bleak as a snowfield in Siberia — so was the balance of her bank account.
But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Renee’s parents’ recent divorce had put her family’s lives on ice. Their breakup sent their daughter’s financial assistance sliding down a slippery slope. The deadbeat dad decided to leave his now ex-wife and Renee fiscally out in the cold.
Renee’s inability to afford spring semester tuition and her dorm hit home. She was about to contact Cole Hall about her messy-as-coleslaw crisis. After all, the sophomore was hardly tickled about her pickle. Her dilemma was driving her nuts like a never-ending shuttle bus loop.
Renee’s prospects for a merry Noel appeared as fruitless as finding a banana plantation on Baffin Island. The woebegone woman wondered if her Christmas was all washed up. Renee did not have a wooden nickel to spare. But she was about to receive pennies from heaven, knock on wood.
Later than night, Renee was alone in the third-floor Blanton Hall dorm. Her roommate Penny had already left for Binghamton, NY to join her family for the holidays. Renee understandably had trouble sleeping, since her plight preoccupied her mind. She could not help but stare outside her north-facing window.
About 15 minutes later, a singular sighting had the undergraduate doing a double take at triple speed.
“What in the world is that?” she queried to herself.
Vivid red sheet lightning was flickering over the northern horizon. Renee thought she was witnessing a rare appearance of the northern lights over north Jersey. But the next apparition caused that conclusion to careen down south.
Renee spotted a fleet of cherry-colored clouds. They were charging toward the campus like a cumulus clipper. The mysterious mass appeared to be descending towards Blanton Hall. The intelligence which shepherded these clouds had Renee’s sanity smarting.
More alarmingly, the strange swarm beelined towards her dorm window on the double. The startled student went to triple red alert.
Renee could not believe the eccentric phenomenon that was taking center stage. She thought to herself, “Is this Close Encounters Of The Third Kind for real? Am I about to be abducted by aliens?” The waylaid woman pulled down the blinds, ran to her bed and dashed under her bedsheets.
Bright ruddy light reached Renee’s dorm window and cascaded through the blinds. A sea of scarlet flooded her room. The sophomore cocooned up in a last-ditch attempt to resist an apparent extraterrestrial intrusion. But her desperation melted in heartbeat, upon hearing a charmingly disarming ring.
Renee heard jingling bells! That’s right! She heard jingling bells! And she heard the exclamation “Ho! Ho! Ho!’ That’s right! She heard, “Ho! Ho! Ho!” The overwhelmed undergraduate sighed with relief. Although nonplussed, Renee knew the situation was no alien incident. Not even the cheesiest sci-fi episode would go crackers to this extent.
Renee peeked over her blanket to see a Santa Claus with a beaming smile. He proclaimed “Merry Christmas!” three times and opened a big bright red bag. The amazed woman began to backtrack under her bedcovers. She abruptly reversed course after jolly Saint Nick did his trick with a quip.
“Don’t just walk away, Renee. You’ll see my generosity follow you back home.”
Santa pulled out a red Christmas symbol-covered folder. He handed it to Renee as she stared in disbelief.
“Go ahead. This is for you. Please, open it,” he said invitingly.
The svelte student undid the red ribbon, before gently opening the booklet. What she discovered made her eyes light up like a Christmas tree.
“Oh my God!” she shrieked.
Inside were a dozen $100 gift cards from big box retailers, ranging from Amazon to Target. There was also the Christmas money envelope, which Renee took and unsealed. She gasped when she saw its contents: 10 $100 bills.
The overjoyed woman looked up at Santa and replied with a tearful “Thank you.”
Santa grinned with joy.
“That’s just the icing on the cake, Renee. You’ll definitely want to check your Red Hawk dollar and checking account balances tomorrow. You’ll notice some really huge gifts.”
Renee looked up at Santa in pleasant shock.
“But how? Why? How do you know my name and everything? How did you manage to bring me these great presents?”
The North Pole celebrity looked Renee straight in the eye.
“By magic. The most wonderful magic there is, ” Santa said, as he pointed his index finger up. “The magic of Christmas!”
For Renee, Santa’s valuable visit heralded what would be her best Holiday season ever.
