A Sparkling Haven in Small Town Heaven

I was groggy when the train that had been rumbling along the tracks through the snowy darkness of the mountains, came to an abrupt stop. Actually truth be told, I was drunk. In desperation to flee the disapproving glare of the woman next to me, I disembarked quickly not realizing until it was too late, that I had made a grave mistake. This wasn’t my stop. And I suddenly found myself standing alone on the platform in the middle of nowhere, as snow swirled in the velvet sky, catching in my hair and sending cold rivulets of moisture trickling down my spine.

That’s one way to sober up Johnny, I told myself peering into the inky blackness.

Before I could figure out what to do next, booming thunder cracked through the air, and in the blinding glare of a lightning bolt, I saw snow and sleet showering a canopy of evergreens. I’d read about thunder snow but never seen it before in all my thirty-six years.

“Hey mister!”

Two boys around the age of twelve came running toward me and the next thing I knew, I was led through the pine-scented forest to a quaint little town unbelievably adorned with thousands of twinkling lights wrapped around every cottage, hotel, and light post. Like Christmas had just thrown up there.

By the blissful warmth of the hotel dining room fireplace with a glass of wine in my hand, I found myself sitting and conversing with the two strange kids like they were my best friends. Jaylen and Alex, they said their names were, and I felt so soothed in their presence, it almost made me forget, just for those few precious minutes, about… him… that other twelve year old boy back home… the one with the sapphire-blue eyes and lopsided grin that I had killed just days before.

“It’s too bad you got lost on your way to your friend’s cabin,” Alex breathed.

“Should’ve stayed on the train if you wanted to reach your destination,” he drawled impishly.

“But Jaylen and I are glad you didn’t. That you got off here instead to see our amazing little town; don’t you think it’s cool that we get awesome weather, like thunder snow, every day?”

Like ghostly whispers, memories came back, of me numbing the pain, chasing away the shadows of my torment, first with shots of vodka, then whiskey, then the dregs at the bottom of an old bottle of spiced rum. I ignored the voice mails on my answering machine from my colleagues at the hospital, urging me to man the hell up, deal with my failure… get over it… although of course… they used different words… platitudes and gentle clichés.

Danny’s heart surgery was meant to be a slam dunk as far as surgeries were concerned and, during my career, I had performed over three hundred of them. Cardiology was my sub-specialty and aortic valve repairs were something I was so skilled at, patients from all over the country sought me out. I never lost a patient until I lost Danny. Due to complications, he didn’t make it. And the fact that he was a twelve-year-old kid whose personality made sparkling sunshine on clear blue water look drab, was a devastating blow that shattered me like smashed icicles on concrete.

“Don’t worry Dr. Monahan”, Jaylen said, “the weather here isn’t dangerous; nothing is.”

It took sheer mental strength to concentrate on the thoughts beginning to gnaw at me. Like why were these kids outside in the middle of a stormy night helping a stranger through the woods? Why were we sitting in a hotel dining room that should be closed at this hour? And where were their parents? But my brain could hardly process any of it. I felt hypnotized, in some sort of trance, a sensation completely different from the effects of the alcohol in my blood.

Jaylen’s dark brown eyes sank into mine and, as I studied his movements, his mannerisms, a kind of déjà vu doused me. Like the proverbial deer in the headlights, I froze and gaped at the way he shoveled apple pie into his mouth, sprinkling crumbs everywhere. I was spellbound by the way he aimed that dazzling smile right at me like I was the only person in his life that mattered. But the real shock hit when he removed his coat to reveal a t-shirt sporting a beautiful snow leopard. In the months leading up to his surgery, I had become somewhat of a father figure to Danny. Growing up in foster care, he needed a friend, and from the moment we met, he latched onto me. We went swimming at the local wave pool, ate ice cream at Vanilla-Creamery, and explored the zoo where Danny’s favorites were the big cats: the leopards, tigers and lions.

Snapping out of my reverie, I turned towards an odd spine-chilling sound: metal coat hangers in the closet colliding into each other. Like someone had pushed them. Only there was no one there. The hangers were dancing and jingling all by themselves.

A second later, I caught hints of blue pooling behind Jaylen’s brown pupils and while this should have freaked me out, I remained calm.

“Danny?” I whispered. But before I could even hope for an answer, a gust of wind whipped through the entranceway, coating the chocolate-colored floor with snow. Footprints, like those of a child, appeared in the powder-white flakes.

“It’s ok, just our mischievous friend Caleb.” Jaylen said in a singsong voice part melody, part laughter.

“And yes, doc, it’s me Danny … now … Jaylen. When I crossed over into the light, this enchanted town offered an eternity of happiness I’ve never felt before. Like you said earlier, Christmas puked everywhere… and isn’t there always magic in Christmas? Now that you know I’m… in a better place… you must go back to saving lives.”

“And I should stop to buy Christmas lights along the way,” I said with a bittersweet smile.