Home For The Holidays PG-13 Champagne Challenge #170

[cassysj]

I do not own any Moonlight characters, no copyright infringement is intended.


Christmas Eve 2015


Josef entered the building on Waverly Place. He was assaulted by the smells of Christmas. The pine tree, gingerbread cookies, fresh mistletoe and holly. The nurse took his coat, she was the grand-daughter of the woman he hired in 1955.

“Merry Christmas, Mr. Fitzgerald.”

“Merry Christmas Shanna. The car downstairs will take you to the airport. My jet is standing by to take you to London.

“Mr. Fitzgerald, you are too generous.”

“Loyalty is rewarded Shanna. I’ll see you after the first. Happy New Year.”

“Happy New Year Mr. Fitzgerald. Maybe 2016……

“Shanna, you should go. It’s supposed to start snowing you don’t want to get grounded.

Josef checked Sarah’s room, it was like a Santa’s workshop exploded. Sarah always loved Christmas and he thought that maybe the smells and sounds of Christmas would someday wake her up. He sat on her bed and told her about 2015. His personal life, his business accomplishments, world events.

“It’s been a rough year for France. Someday we’ll have that honeymoon in Paris. You just have to wake up.


He spent the next twelve hours playing Christmas Carols. At 9A he left the house on Waverly Place and went to the Park Avenue United Methodist Church for Christmas service. He had long since put religion behind him, but Sarah had spent every Christmas and Easter in that church. It made him feel closer to her if not God.

After the service he went down to Rockefeller Center and took pictures of the tree. He had every tree from 1955 to current. Sometimes he took the pictures, sometimes his friends Charles or Hope had taken the photos if he couldn’t stand being in the city but he had them all waiting for that day when Sarah woke up.


When he got home he put a new ornament on the tree, set fire to the Yule log and left holiday music on. As dawn was approaching on December 26th he got ready to play the last two songs.

“Sarah, this is a new song by an X Factor UK winner. It’s called Something I Need

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLBaaN2sqlc

He played the song and felt it was tragic to only have one lifetime with your love but he wanted Sarah to keep up with current music so it wouldn’t be such a shock when she woke up.

The last song he played was from 1947. He teased Sarah by calling her hair Apple red. After he proposed she said she wanted an Apple Blossom Wedding. He laughed at the time and said that was the most depressing song he ever heard and she giggled and said nothing bad could ever happen to their love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwHw5O4Yo_c

He kept his eyes fixed on her face. Every year he could swear he saw her eyelids flicker when he played this song. He considered taping her with a digital video camera to see if he was right but he never did in case he was wrong. When the song ended he climbed into the freezer in the guest room and went into oblivion.

[francis]

Carol, this is so sweet and sad. Thank you!

[allegrita]

Josef's so methodical in the way he keeps Sarah up to date on the music and events of each year. His hoping against hope is painful, but so sweet. If sheer determination can wake Sarah, he'll get the job done. I feel so sorry for both of them, being stuck between death and living. Josef can't allow himself to be fully be alive without her, so he chronicles everything and waits.

[darkstarrising]

Very lovely, yet sad story. Josef never gives up hope, surrounding the woman he loves with things that were special to her hoping she'd awaken.

He kept his eyes fixed on her face. Every year he could swear he saw her eyelids flicker when he played this song. He considered taping her with a digital video camera to see if he was right but he never did in case he was wrong. When the song ended he climbed into the freezer in the guest room and went into oblivion.

Of course he wouldn't tape it. If he was wrong, he'd lose hope, something he'd never want to do.

[cassysj]

Josef says he doesn't do regrets but.....Sarah is a tough one for him. He still has hope that somehow, somewhere, someway she will wake up and if she does he'll be there for her.