Each was visited by the angel and told to find the child. The three wise men walked and talked to those they passed by. They visited the local inn to learn it was all filled up. Before they left, the innkeeper mentioned a couple that was pregnant in the stable. The wise men asked questions about the couple. He in turn said, “I felt bad about not having a room, but I felt worse to send them off in the dark.” So he made the choice for the stable, while trying to get help for Mary. The three wise men thanked the keeper and headed for the stable. As the last one was leaving, a soldier spotted them. The soldier went to stop them; the innkeeper stepped in. He told the soldier, “These three men have traveled far, and I chose to let them stay in the stables. If you like, you can join them for the night?” The soldier responded with a no and told the innkeeper what he was looking for. The innkeeper offered to let the soldier to check out the place. He waited a minute and then decided to move along. The soldier kept is eye on the stables. As he thought about turning back, a fellow soldier ran up to him. He told him that a baby was born at a nearby town, and it was looking like the one King Herod was looking for. They rode off. The one wise man had watched what had happen and drew a sigh of relief.
The next scene was that of the three wise men around Mary and Joseph. They each offered their own gift. They also told their story, of why they came and the news of King Herod looking for them. The wise men got ready to head back on their routes. Each offered to help Mary and the baby to escape from the soldiers that will be coming. The scene ended with the trio of men helping lead Mary, Joseph, and Jesus out of the stable. Then the scene cut, and the lights went out. When the light came on, the group of actors and stagehands all were standing on the stage. Priest Carter came out and spoke, “This moment, this birth is what changed the world. This moment when baby Jesus could have been spotted, it was the power of God to protect them all. For this Christmas is the birth and birthday of the one who saved us all.”
He went on to basically do a quick service, and then it was all done. People started to make their way out of the church. I waited with Dad until the crowd became little. My eyes kept looking around, maybe a chance to see Jana again. I couldn’t shake the sight of her out of my head. I did get a visit from Eric. He made a joke about after this performance, he’s taking his act to Broadway. We joked around a bit, in a way to waste time. Then we said our good-byes. I walked to the car with Dad. We talked about church and the play. He couldn’t help smiling from me being back in the church, even for one night. I heard him, but I was not really listening to a word he said. It is funny that sometimes we do that to people. It rattled in my head later on when he was talking to Linda about it. I guess the idea of church wasn’t so bad now, but still the question is who is God and why should I care. It was something I spent the night thinking about.
When Monday hit, it was the beginning of Christmas break. I had already made plans for the free time. Some of it was going to be used for Christmas shopping and other days to be just relaxing at home. Later on that Monday, I took in a bike ride around town. I took to some trails that I knew would cut my travel time down. I got onto one trail and raced down toward a ramp. I had jumped this ramp many times over the years. This time, it was a different. I hit the ramp at full speed, only to have the wood break.
When that happened, I flipped off the bike and landed on my head. I also felt my neck take a twist that scarred me allot. I caught my breath, while feeling all the pain from my head to down my back. When I moved my arms and moved around, I at least felt that nothing broke. Being alone in the woods can be far scarier when you’re hurting. I took me time to get back up. I dusted my pants off. I then checked the bike, finding nothing wrong with it. But the flip scared me enough to walk myself home. I kind of knew I could ride the bike, but I guess the flip caught my nerves to worry about another accident. Almost home, I tried and got on my bike. I was fine riding the rest home. But I thought about the close call I just had. If I landed any way more harder or different, I might not have walked away from it.
The next day, I woke up and thanked God for being alive. I got dressed and headed out the door. The plan was to meet up with Eric for some shopping. He wanted to get something special for Tammy. They had grown quite serious as a couple. I was heading for the shops around Main Street and East Bay Avenue. Barnegat, being small, didn’t have a mall but had plenty of small shops. I always made a trip down for a the sports card shop. Jack, the owner, is a nice guy who knew a lot about sports. He was a former marine who served in WWII. He lost his right hand in combat. He told me that he saw a grenade nearby and tried to toss it from his company, but it took his hand with it. I always sounds true, and I never question his stories.
I was surprised that he knew some of the New York Yankees, like Whitey Ford, Roger Maris, and Yogie Berra. He also met some football players and one basketball player. He had several cards that were autographed for him. He never sold the Roger Maris card from 1961. Since I was meeting Eric, I looked around for him and to get my mom her gift. But I couldn’t help myself and took a detour into the Jack’s shop. I had a good collection of cards, with most of them in the recent years. I remember looking for the rookies and all-stars. There was something about looking at Jack’s cards; it was a step in history. My favorite card was a 1983 Howard Johnson rookie card. Jack had it, only one that he had too. I could get it, but it was something I hoped my future wife would get for Christmas for me, kind of a special thing that shows how much love we had. As I was staring at it, I got the tap on the shoulder. I turned around to see it was Eric. “You ready, buddy?” he asked. I nodded yes and said good-bye to Jack. Since coming from the Parkway, Jack’s was the first store. We went right into the next door over. It was a girl’s place, filled with plates, cups, and stuff for a tea party. It had jewelry from rings to necklaces and watches.
Strange as it sounds, I didn’t know the name of the place. I had to check it out and found it was interesting to be called Annie’s Tea party. I walked around, trying to think what was Eric looking for. I should have guessed it, as he was hovering over the jewelry section. Couple of moments of him looking and talking to himself, he pointed out the necklace he was staring at. The clerk pulled out a gold necklace with a heart shape design. He looked at very closely. The clerk mentioned since it was so close to Christmas, that it was on sale. Eric then asked my opinion of it. I said, “Do you love her that much?” Eric said that he knew he wanted to be with Tammy and have a future with her. I could see it in his eyes that was in love. I said to go for it. The clerk looked at Eric before getting the okay to ring it up. The necklace was about forty bucks, but the sale dropped it down to $25. Rather a one-stop shop for us both, I saw a little music box for my mom.
We were all done, and Eric said, “Let’s go to the Hurricane house.” We made our way down the street, crossed over Route 9, and headed on it. It was a normally busy for a holiday eve. We sat down and got drinks. Then the question came, “Mike, do you think Tammy loves me like I love her?” Eric asked.
My responds was, “Dude, you just bought her something special. If you don’t know if she loves you like that, then maybe you should get something else.”
Eric thought about it. He then joked, “Man, I was playing you. Of course Tammy loves me.” He went on further to tell me that they both said it already to each other. Then he asked the other real question, “When are you going to ask Jana out on a date?” I told him that it was not like that. Eric smiled and then said, “Okay, I got you. You never thought Jana in that way, but, dude, your eyes are glued to her, but okay.”
Eric also knew that last year I had a bad breakup with a girl name Becky. We dated for like two months, but she turned me down in front of the school. I had surprised Becky by not kissing her on the first date or the second date. I guess Linda and my dad taught me to be old fashion. I never kissed on the first dates and usually waited to know the person before we lip locked. Becky saw that as weak and had no problem telling her friends, who then spread the word. That led to her talking about it openly while in school and got some people to look at me differently. It was strange when that happened, the football team even joined in the fun of teasing me about it. I never quite got over that time. So when Eric brought up Jana, I responded by trying not to be interested in Jana. But I knew she was different. Eric broke the silence to say, “Hey, man, I understand