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A Sinclair Addams Christmas
Twas the day before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring not even a Raven!
“Caw” squeaked the raven as Enid walks past her daughters’ room checking her messages. There are a lot of messages from Wednesday. She quickly checks them, mostly she is complaining about the book signing with sad emojis. And her editor with many dagger emojis.
“What’s on your phone mom?” Monday asks her.
“A message from Momma, she will be back tonight.”
###
Enid tugs the boxes free from the untidy heap that they are hidden under, she coughs from the cloud of dust that moving the boxes has kicked up. She had a peek under the lids to make sure that she had the right ones.
She stands back to look for the Christmas trees that they have stored up here in the attic. She spots them in a corner and pulls them closer to her.
They have not bothered with decorations for many years as they usually go to visit Gomez and Morticia, whose mansion is always lavishly, if darkly, decorated at this time of year.
However, this time she wanted to spend Christmas at home with Wednesday and the girls. It will be their first Christmas at home as a family. She can’t wait to show the decorations to the twins and help them put them up.
The only damper on this year’s proceedings is that Wednesday has had to go away for some publishing event. ‘Why do they have to have them at Christmas?’ Enid grumbles to herself, dragging the boxed Christmas trees towards her.
Carefully she maneuvers the boxes out of the attic and down the steps to the landing.
At the bottom of the steps Monday is waiting, watching her, fascinated with the boxes she is carrying. The twins are not allowed up in the attic.
“What’s that mommy?”
“These are Christmas decorations and Christmas trees. I thought we could decorate them to cheer up Momma when she comes home.” She explains before ascending the steps again to fetch another box.
“Can I help mommy?” Monday asks.
“Yes, but wait until I take the boxes downstairs, they are a bit heavy.”
“I’m strong.”
“Yes, you are sweetheart, but the boxes are very heavy, give me a moment.”
Soon Enid is closing the collapsible steps back into the attic and shutting the hatch.
“Where is your sister?”
“She’s looking at something on her iPad.”
“OK, I’ll get her down once we have the boxes downstairs.” Enid squats down and picks up the two boxes of decorations. And with her daughter following her she heads carefully down the stairs.
With all the boxes lined up on the floor, Enid looks pleased with her initial efforts and looks for a place to position the trees.
Monday hops up and down eager to start on the decorations.
Enid goes to the foot of the stairs and calls up to her other daughter. “Niamh, come down here and help your sister.”
“But mom” comes the small voice from the upstairs bedroom.
“Naimh Addams, don’t ‘but mom’ me, get down here and help your sister.”
She listens for the elevator and waits for Naimh to show up.
###
The whine of motors and the cawing of Naimh’s raven tell Enid that her daughter is approaching.
“What is it mom?” Naimh asks, looking up at her mother from her wheelchair with a frown on her face.
Enid smiles at her “Can you help your sister with the decorations and then we’ll make cookies?”
Naimh looks through the door to the room where Monday is rooting through boxes and pulling out brightly colored Christmas decorations. Enid steps to one side as her little girl powers her wheelchair to join her sister.
Naimh opens a box and begins pulling out black decorations looking at them with a confused look on her face.
“Black?” she looks at Enid.
“Yes, they’re Momma’s.”
The little girls pause to think. “We didn’t have these ones last year” Naimh asks.
“No, we used the others, but I saw them, and they reminded me of Momma so I thought I would get them out.” She smiles at the box of black decorations.
The twins look at one another silently before Monday asks. “Will Momma be back for Christmas? We don’t want her to miss out.”
Enid reassures the girls. “I’m she will be back later today so she will not miss out and you can talk to your grandmother tomorrow on the crystal ball. So, I thought we would decorate two trees, a colorful one and a black one for Momma.
“Yes” the two girls squeal and begin to pull more decorations out of the boxes.
“OK, let me set up the trees, then we can begin.
Enid sets up the trees and pulls out their branches until she is happy with their appearance. The girls are impatient to begin and rush up to the trees and begin attaching their decorations.
Enid is using a small set of steps to reach the top of the tree when she sees movement out of the corner of her eye. She turns to see Monday balanced precariously on top of Naimh’s wheelchair.
“Monday Morticia Sinclair get down from there it’s not safe.” Monday looks down at her feet balanced on the arms of Niamh’s wheelchair. Enid picks her up and sets her on the carpet.
“I’ll do the high bits, just do what you can reach.” She tells the twins.
“But I wanted to put the angel on top.” Pouts Monday.
“You can, but I’ll have to lift you up. You can do one and Naimh can do the other.”
“Thanks Mom.” She holds up the tinsel rainbow colored angel. Enid reaches down and picks her up so that she can place the angel on top of the tree. Then with Monday back on her feet she picks Naimh out of her chair and holds her up so that she can place the black angel on top of the black tree.
Naimh asks “Why do we have black decorations? they don’t have them in the stores.”
Enid smiles as she remembers. “They are from our first Christmas together in our first apartment. Your grandparents wanted us to go to them, but Momma was determined that we should have our own Christmas, just the two of us.”
“Weren’t you lonely?” Naimh asks her.
“No, we were excited to be planning a Christmas like grownups, we also went out with our friends. We were not lonely.
I was studying and working part time and Momma was working on her next book. It would be the first one she published. She was excited about that.”
Enid indicates the black tree. “We had a small tree for that first Christmas, and I had to use spray paint to make the decorations black for Momma.”
The girls giggle “really mom?”
“Yes, I stood in the yard with the decorations hanging on pieces of string and I painted them black. I also painted half of the small tree so that part of it was also black. Our neighbors gave me some funny looks. but it was our tree and our decorations and they made for a happy Christmas.
###
With the trees decorated, Enid prepares lunch for the twins and Raven, Naimh’s support animal. The raven is easy to please and picks from his own bowl as it sits on the table next to Naimh.
“Can we make cookies now?” Monday asks.
“Yes, let’s clear away the lunch things and we can start.”
Monday and Naimh clap their hands in anticipation.
###
Cookie making is eventful and flour goes everywhere mostly over Enid. She huffs at the mess as she watches the girls form the dough into balls ready to be pressed onto the baking sheet.
Enid tries to spoon more dough in front of the girls so that they can make more cookies. Raven keeps poking his beak into the dough looking for peanuts.
Raven caws as Enid threatens him holding a wooden spoon covered in cookie dough as the bird tries to pretend that he has not been picking nuts out of the dough.
“Don’t push me bird or we’ll be having raven pie for dinner.” She growls at the raven.
“Mom!” exclaims Naimh.
“Sorry sweetheart but I’m very on edge today with Momma bein away.” She Looks at the bird. “I’m sorry Raven.” She apologizes.
“Momma will be back soon.” Monday reassures her.
Raven caws at her shaking his head and snaps his beak before he hops further away from her.
###
While the cookies cool off Enid leads the girls into the main room and flops down on the couch. Monday hops up next to her. Niamh locks the brakes and lowers the side of her chair so that she can lever herself onto the couch next to Enid. Raven hops silently onto the back of the couch to be near Naimh.
“Can you tell us a story; How did you and Momma meet?” Monday asks.
“It was when we were at high school.”
“Like our school?” Monday asks.
“No not like your school, it was a very different school” she smiles as she recalls her life at Nevermore. “and we were older than you are now.”
“Tell us” Niamh presses.
“OK it was a long time ago.” Enid begins.
“Were there dinosaurs?” Both girls giggle.
“Less off that, cheeky monkey or there will be no story.” Enid tries to scold them.
“Sorry mom.” They say looking serious for a moment.
“I had been told that I would be getting a new roommate, and I would have to show them round the school. I was really excited as I wanted a new roommate, Living alone wasn’t fun, I had just finished posting about my excitement when the door opened and in trooped Momma, Grandpa Gomez, Grandma Morticia and Lurch. Ms. Weems, the head teacher introduced them and said that I was going to show Wednesday around the school.
When she was ready, I took Wednesday for the tour of the school. I was glad of the distraction as Grandpa Gomez was a bit frightening and your grandmother was beguiling.”
“Beguiling?” Naimh asks.
“Very pretty” explains Enid, smiling as she watches her girls nod in agreement.
“After a few days she had settled in, and we had some of the same classes. Everything was going smoothly until…”
“Until what mom?” prompts Naimh.
Until I came to the room one evening, your Momma had put a line of tape down the middle of the room and the room was split in two. Her side was very dull without any colors and mine was bright and happy.
The girls look up at her their “well duh” is unspoken. Then they look at one another with a calculating expression on their faces.
“And no, you can’t do that to your room.” Enid pulls them closer to her sides.
“Like the picture” Monday points to the picture hanging on the wall of their wedding day. Wednesday is wearing a black dress and Enid is in a white dress with as many colored accents as white fabric.
Enid smiles as she remembers that day and she knew that despite her expression in the photograph Wednesday had been happy.
“The story mom.” Niamh prompts.
“Yes, it was a shock to find that Momma had divided up our room.” Enid continues.
“Wait you had your own room at school, why?” Monday asks.
“Yes, we had a room because we lived there. It was a long way from where I lived and far from your grandparent’s mansion.” She explains.
Naimh screws up her face. “You lived at school!! Ugh!”
Enid chuckles. “It was not that bad, I met Momma there, I made lots of friends Like Eugene, Bianca and Yoko.”
“We Like Eugene, he’s funny.” Monday grins at her but Naimh prompts. “The story mom.”
“Where was I. I had just met Momma and your grandparents.”
“You’ve done that bit mom.” complains Naimh.
Enid continues. “OK. I came back to my room one day. I remember being upset after arguing with your grandmother.”
“You argued with abuela Morticia? But she’s so nice.” Niamh is shocked.
“Yes, she is nice, but I was arguing with your other grandmother.”
The twins look at one another without saying anything, Enid looks down at them and smiles, she finds it fascinating how they communicate like that. She wonders which of them will speak.
“We don’t have another grandmother.” Monday says eventually frowning at her mother.
“You do, but you have never met her.”
“Why not?” asks Naimh.
“It’s complicated and not a story for Christmas. Now do you want to hear about how I met Momma?
“Yes, please Mom.” They chorus.
“Very well. I came back into our room feeling very sad after my argument. I looked around but could not see Momma. I could hear music playing, not the sort of music I liked but still it sounded nice. I followed it out onto the balcony and found Wednesday, Momma playing her cello.
I sat down to listen and watch her play. Thing was on top of the music stand waving his index finger like a conductor’s baton.”
Naimh giggles.
Sitting out there listening to her play was peaceful and cheered me up, The music and Momma playing was what I needed. It transported me away from school and my problems.
When she finished, I made her jump when I said quietly. “That was wonderful Roomie.” She had not noticed me sitting there and was so surprised she almost dropped her bow.
“Can you play something for me?” I asked softly, not looking up at her.
Momma’s first reaction was to say. “I am not a performing chimp.”
This draws giggles from the girls as they recognize their mother.
So, I said “Please play something, anything. Anything you want. Something classical like that last piece.”
“That was the Rolling Stones. I don’t think they count as classical music.” Momma said before adding. “Yet.”
“Whatever. It was wonderful when you played it, please play something else. Please.” I almost begged Wednesday.
“What’s classical music?” Naimh asks and before Enid can respond Monday leans towards her sister and says “Old.”
Enid smiles down at the two of them before continuing. “Thing flipped through the pages of sheet music until he found the piece he wanted and tapped the page with his finger. Momma scowled at Thing.
“I wanted to play ‘Paranoid’ even though it is more recent than ‘Paint it Black’ I suspect that you will still consider it classical. But it seems that the traitorous Thing has other plans.”
She frowned at the music in front of her as if she did not recognize it. Thing tapped the page again impatiently and Wednesday waved her bow at the hand, Thing dodged her attempt to swat him from the stand and tapped at the music again.
Momma shrugged and picked up her bow and began playing.
Thing gave her a thumbs up before hopping off the music stand and scurrying over to me and climbing up onto my shoulder.
Momma was playing one of my favorite songs, I didn’t know that she had the music for it. It was wonderful hearing her play it.
When she finished, I whispered, “thank you” and then clapped. I looked up at her as she turned to face me. I knew at that moment she was the most special person in the world.”
Enid smiles as she remembers that day sitting on the balcony at Nevermore listening to Wednesday play. When she looks down, she sees that the girls are asleep.
She flops her head back against the couch and wishes that Wednesday was here.
###
Wednesday arrives home later than expected, the traffic had been heavy and the weather exceptionally bad. But at least the ordeal of meeting her publisher and her editor was over. She shuddered at the prospect of the extended promotional tour they planning to inflict on her next year.
Despite the hour the lights are still on in the house, but as she drops her bags, she realizes that the house is silent. When she investigates, she finds Enid and the girls are asleep on the couch.
Even Raven is asleep on the back of the couch, his head tucked under his wing. Although he stirs suddenly and looks up at her, then shakes his head as if he had not been sleeping.
She smiles at her girls looking so peaceful as they slept on the couch, Wednesday feels the frustration of her encounters with her editor fade away.
“Happy Christmas” she whispers.