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The red-breasted cardinals were chirping, the sun was shining, and the snow was falling, it was the perfect winter day. That is, for everyone but a girl by the name of Hildegard Mary Noore. She has been having the most dreadful morning ever, she was woken up by a pillow to the head and all her socks were missing. Though there were two things that brought her solace, the first was that the postman was coming today and she was expecting a letter from her ill friend Magdalene, second was that in nearly a week it would be Christmas break and she was excited to see her father again.
But first she had to head down for breakfast. As she went down she wondered about how Magdalene was doing. As she sat down at the breakfast table she looked around, there was the usual morning chatter, and bustling to get food, she waved at a couple friends and professors but mainly she stayed on her own. She was eating her breakfast when the postman arrived. So making sure no one would take her seat, she ran up to him and took her mail. Apparently she had two letters, one of which was obviously from Magdalene, the other though she was not so sure about, but it did look very formal. For now she just opened her friend's letter and ignored the other. After she finished the letter she went to open it, and was suddenly struck with a sense of foreboding. But she opened it anyway and what she read made her gasp.
Now if you were to ask any student from the Strutrerry boarding school for girls about Hildegard, they would most likely tell you that their head girl was kind and had a quick wit. Neither of these qualities could be seen in her with the reaction she had towards this letter. The letter said as follows:
Dear Ms. Noore,
We are sorry to inform you that your father, Mr. Delnis Noore has passed due to sudden illness. We are although pleased to inform you that we have found also found you a suitable caretaker, in your late fathers mother, Mrs. Selbania Noore. You will go to her estate for the holidays. Enclosed you will find train tickets to and from your grandmother's manor.
Signed Damascus Scrier.
So it could be seen that Hildegard Noore, not even two hours into the school day, broke out into tears.
The rest of the week passed slowly for Hildegard. She was in a constant state of grief and denial. But alas the day finally came where she would have to travel to her grandmother's estate. There was actually something very peculiar about Hildegards and her grandmother's relationship, in all of the kindness in Hildegard's heart she had none for her grandmother. The dislike was in fact mutual. But even with her heavy dislike for her grandmother, she still boarded the train to her grandmother’s. The train ride went off without a hitch, that is for the passengers inside the train, outside was a whole nother matter. It was a massive ice storm outside, sure to bring blockades and delays everywhere.
Almost an entire day later the train finally arrived, and there standing on the platform stood Selbania Noore. She was wearing a long bright-pink pleated skirt and a short mantel.
“Grandmother.” Hildegard greeted Selbania coldly.
“Hildegard, what a pleasure to see you again!” She said back with the same amount of ice in her tone.
With a clap of her hands, Selbania ordered her servants to take Hildegard's luggage . As the two sat in the carriage there was enough tension that you could cut through it with a knife. When they arrived at the manor Hildegard got settled very quickly.
For the next couple of days Hildegard and Selbania both actively avoided each other, only seeing one another for dinner. One night while walking back to her chambers from the washroom, she heard muffled crying from her grandmother’s room. Feeling tired, Hildegard went to check on the noise, and what she found stunned her. It was her grandmother sobbing into her pillow, she had no idea what to do, but the kindness of her heart pushed her to comfort Selbania. As she sat by her grandmother’s side, Hildegard was surprised to hear what came out of her mouth;
“Delnis...Delnis! No, My sweet, sweet boy! Don’t die on me!”
While speaking, Silbania latched onto Hildegard. Hearing what her grandmother had uttered, Hildegard broke out into silent tears. She said three words in return;
“I’m here... Grandmama”
Hildegard ended up falling asleep at her grandmother’s side.
Over the next two days the two ladies were closer than ever before. Sitting in the winter garden together, drinking tea together, embroidering together as well as many other things. Most commonly you could find the two sitting together in front of the fireplace knitting. It was during one of these sessions that the next big event of their relationship happens. They sat knitting together when a thought came upon Hildegard, and so she voiced it to her grandmother;
“Grandmama,what are we doing for Christmas?”
“What do you mean by that child?” Silbania responded.
“Well, I was wondering when we would set up the Christmas tree and decor?” She answered.
“Oh! You mean that stupid childish festival? I never celebrated that anyway.” Selbania said, not bothering to hide the sharp edge in her tone.
“But,” Hildegard said “You must celebrate it, at least this year! It was fathers most favourite time of the year!”
“Well,” Selbania said “Your father could be rather dumb to.”
“What do you mean father was dumb somtimes! He was amazing and brilliant.” Hildegard yelled, “You know what, I’m leaving!”
So Hildegard ran off leaving her grandmother to chase after her, and chase her she did, but due to how young and spry Hildagard was and how old and frail Selbania was. Sebania eventually lost Hildegard.
“Hildegard!” She screamed, “Hildegard, come back! Don’t leave me as well!”
But it was of no use. A thick layer of snow was falling. However Selbania held onto hope and continued to look for her only granddaughter. Selbania only found one piece of evidence as to where Hildegard had run to. It was her hat, which had caught on a tree branch. Trudging through the snow also gave Sebania a chance to think about herself and how she acted towards Hildegard. She came to the conclusion that she had been unnecessarily mean to her granddaughter. So she continued her search, with the goal to make amends with her granddaughter. Unfortunately for her, the time she had spent thinking let the snow storm turn into an ice storm. Selbania was on the verge of giving up and turning back, but she saw a yellow light flickering in the distance. Energy renewed, Selbania continued walking through the 2 foot tall snow. What she found surprised her, it was a town. But the closest town to her manor was about 5 miles away, and she hadn’t been walking long enough to have reached it.
So she entered the small town. It was very small and quaint. The houses were mainly built using dark wood and bricks. There were many lamp posts along the streets, as well as the occasional christmas tree. But the most peculiar part was that there were neither dogs barking nor children laughing, only quiet. As she looked closer though, she realized that everyone was inside their houses with their families, laughing, eating, playing games. Maybe, Selbania wondered, maybe she had been thinking about Christmas in the wrong way.
While continuing to wander the streets Selbania looked though some of the houses of the windows as if she were going window shopping. Occasionally stopping, just to continue in the same direction. At one point Selbania stopped and looked up for a few seconds, and saw that there was someone else outside. After a closer inspection she realized who it was.
“Hildegard!” She yelled,
Running speedily towards her granddaughter. When she reached her she enveloped her into a hug, just to start scolding her.
“Why did you run away like that! You almost gave me a heart attack!” she said.
Only to look up and see the family of the house they were in front of through the window. They were sitting around their Christmas tree playing a card game.
“You know,” Selbania said quietly, “Maybe I was wrong about this whole Christmas thing.”
“Yes,” Hildegard responded, “You were, I mean isn’t Christmas truly about family in the end?”
“You know what?” Selbania said, “I think so too. How about we just had home and I’ll get someone to bring in a Christmas tree, we’ll decorate it and then play card games?”
“Yeah,” Hildegard responded, sniffing, “That sounds nice.”
So they turned to leave. After they stepped through the gates, the two ladies never turned around, but if they had, the two of them would have not seen the village anymore.