Nurturing Wonder

Three, THREE short stories today, to close out the year with a bang. Be sure to check out the other two posts. I’ll post later this week on plans for 2011, but for now:

A Christmas Wish

Ella snuggled into her bed, so tired that her eyes had stopped focusing on her book and forced her to go to bed. She thought fondly of the friends she would be seeing tomorrow. Having a quiet Christmas at home with a good book was nice, but she was also looking forward to exchanging presents and seeing her friends’ children excitedly tear the wrapping paper off of their packages.

Wrapping paper…

She moaned, rubbing her face into her pillow. “I forgot to wrap the presents,” she groaned, knowing that she should get up and do it now, but reluctant to move out of her nice warm bed. “I wish my presents were already wrapped.”

She gasped, an instant after the words left her mouth, and shot out of her bed to run downstairs and check on the presents. They were all still sitting on the side table, still unwrapped. She let out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. He must not have been listening.” Full of adrenaline, she set about wrapping the presents in preparation for tomorrow.

The genii smirked, watching from one of the decorations on the tree. “Merry Christmas,” he said, too softly for her to hear.