Paperweights (Tiny Holiday Stories from the Worlds of H.D. Knightley)

Story Three: Violet, Lala, Edmund, and Benjamin

(Spoiler Alert)

Benjamin and Edmund are the two main characters of the New Adult magical realism romance, Violet's Mountain.  Violet is the mysterious young woman who lives on the mountain, Lala is her younger cousin.  The brothers save their lives and they all become a family. Right now it is published exclusively on Amazon: Mybook.to/VM

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Edmund woke and nestled in under Violet's arm, resting his head on the soft place between her breast and shoulder. Violet asked, "You awake?"

"Uh huh," Edmund wrapped tighter around her body. "You?"

"I've been awake for awhile. Merry Christmas Eddie." He looked up and she stroked her fingers down the side of his cheek. "I'm glad you're here to celebrate it with me."

Edmund said, "Merry Christmas. I'm glad to be here too." He kissed her on her chest and nestled back in.

"I need to warn you though, that it's..." Her voice trailed off. Edmund looked up startled, his brow furrowed. "It's just that Lala, Christmas is really hard on her, she's a roller coaster and we just, you have to be ready to deal with it. Her heart is so broken that—"

Eddie raised up on an elbow. "This is Lala we're talking about? She seems as light and carefree as ever."

"But she's not, that's the thing, she covers it and keeps it hidden, unlike me with my broken heart on display."

"I thought we had fixed that heart of yours."

Violet looked deep into Edmund's eyes and said, "Yes, love, I meant that in the past-tense." Edmund kissed Violet softly and there was a knock on their door.

From the hallway Lala said, "Violet, Violet, Violet, it's Christmas, are you up? Edmund? Wake up, it's Christmas! I think I might die of excitement. Wake up."

Edmund jumped stealthily from the bed and without a sound turned the doorknob. Yanking the door open, he exclaimed, "Merry Christmas Lala!"

She shrieked surprised, but quickly recovered. "Presents. There are presents under the tree, it's almost 6 a.m., and you have to get up!"

Violet pulled a hoodie on over her pajama pants, grinned as she brushed by Edmund, both of them following Lala to the living room.

Benjamin strolled in. "You woke them? I told you to let them sleep, you're relentless."

"Benjamin, look at these presents, some are foiled wrapped, gold ribbons on this one, look at that one, what is that, can you tell what that shape is? No, you have to unwrap it, the mysterious nature of the thing could drive you crazy."

Violet laughed, "I'm up in the dark because my mental health depends on it." She grinned at Edmund and they both dropped at the same time onto the couch in front of the Christmas tree.

Lala remained standing and bellowed, "Uncle Bruce! Presents!" Benjamin dropped into an easy chair. Bruce walked in a second later, wearing bright red long underwear. His grey beard was braided and decorated with tiny shiny colorful Christmas ornaments. Everyone giggled. 

He said, "I see you like my elf-ish attire. My dear, Lala, it is about time you summoned me, I put this on hours ago. I wanted to make a big entrance and had almost given up." He plopped into the opposite chair.

Lala said, "As you can see, We have presents. Wrapped. And it's almost light out. It's time to open them." She began plucking presents out of the small pile and placing them on everyone's laps until each person had a small pile around and on them. And then she looked at the still large pile and clapped her hands merrily. "Look at all of mine. Have you ever seen so many?"