Chapter 4
THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS
It was the day before Christmas and the morning after a huge blizzard. The sun was shining and the snow was sparkling white. Everyone on Ossipee Road was outside shovelling or playing in the huge snow drifts.
Griselda, who had come the day before to spend the last night of Hannukah with her friends, had ended up staying the night. The blizzard was so great that she could not fly home in it.
So, while Marcia shovelled the sidewalk and Josh dug out the cars, Griselda and Melanie pulled Arielle and Evan in their sleds. The broom helped out by sweeping the porch and the stairs.
"Something tells me you'll be having a white Christmas this year," Josh called out to his neighbor, Phil, across the street, who was shovelling with his daughter Julie.
"Something tells me I'm going to have a backache this Christmas," Phil called back, as he heaved another shovelful.
"I hope you've finished all your Christmas shopping," Marcia shouted to Alice, who had just come out to join her family.
"I haven't," Alice called back. "I don't know how I'm going to get out to do it. I'll have to take the dog sled."
"We get snow like this all the time in Sweden," Katja from next door was saying. "But my Erik and Maia aren't used to it the way I was growing up."
"I'd like to be back in Italy, right now," said Gina, who lived on the other side. "We never had this much snow." Her sons Alex and Marco didn't seem to mind. They were pelting each other with snowballs.
"Hey, Stan," called Alice to a young man shovelling his car down the street. "How's Gail holding out? Is she going to make it through the holiday?"
"I don't know," Stan answered. "The baby's not due for another two weeks but it could come any time now."
Everyone plowed and shovelled until their fingers and ears were numb with cold and it was time for lunch. After lunch Melanie went across the street to build a snowman with Julie. Griselda offered to build a one with Arielle in her front yard.
When they got outside, they discovered that they weren't the only ones with this idea. Next door, Katja was helping Erik and Maia build a snowman, just like the ones she used to make in Sweden. On the other side, Marco and Alex had stopped throwing snowballs at each other and were making one too.
When the snowmen were finished, everyone went inside to get fruits and vegetables to make the faces and clothes to dress them in.
Griselda and Arielle decided to dress theirs as a snow witch. They gave her a carrot nose, a hat and a cape they found in the dress up box, and a broom.
Alex and Marco made their snowman a baseball player with a baseball cap and a bat and a lemon for a nose.
Julie and Melanie made a snow clown, with a Halloween wig on it's head and a tomato for a nose.
Katja gave her snowman a crown with candles in it and announced that it was Santa Lucia, the Swedish saint which appears on Christmas. She lit the candles and everyone stood around to admire it, in the darkening afternoon.
"Julie's family is going to be decorating their Christmas tree tonight after dinner," Melanie told Arielle and Griselda. "And we're all invited to come over and help."
Griselda joined her friends at Julie's house that Christmas Eve. Alice served hot cider and cocoa. Phil made popcorn. While the Christmas carols played on the radio, everyone decorated the tree with tinsel, lights, ornaments and candy canes.
Julie, Melanie, and Griselda sat in a corner and made ornaments out of felt. "This one's a Christmas bat," Griselda announced as she placed her ornament on the tree alongside Julie's angel and Melanie's star.
When the tree was decorated, Alice turned the room lights off and the tree lights on. The tree sparkled and glowed warmly against the dark shadows in the room. Everyone gazed in awe at its beauty.
"It's gorgeous," Griselda said. "And you did it without any magic."
It was hard to tear away from such magnificance, but soon it was time to go.
"I'm hungry. I need a goodbye snack," Arielle announced.
How about a candy cane," Phil suggested, and he offered one to everyone else too.
"No thank you," Griselda said nobly. "I can't eat candy."
"You can't eat candy?" Arielle repeated in amazement. She felt so bad for her she almost began to cry. "Why not?"
"Well, last Halloween I got greedy and ate too much candy," Griselda explained. "In fact I ate nothing but candy for breakfast, lunch and supper until I became very sick. Now the doctor and the dentist both say I can never eat candy again."
"Candy for breakfast, lunch, and supper," Arielle said almost reverently. "I wish I could do that some day."
"Well, none of us did that last Halloween," Melanie remarked. "Someone snuck into all the houses on this street and stole the children's candy." And everyone agreed that a terrible thing had been done.
Since she had become a friendly witch, Griselda had often felt guilty about the way she had stolen the children's candy. Now she felt very ashamed. She didn't dare admit that she was the one who had committed the terrible crime, but she knew it was time for her to do something to make it up to the children.
By the time the family was leaving for home, it had started to snow again. "I hope nobody's planning to travel tomorrow," Marcia remarked. "I think we're all going to be stuck at home for a while."
"It's not as bad as last night," Griselda remarked. "The sky is better than the roads. I can fly home."
But her friends wouldn't hear of her flying in such weather and Griselda was happy to spend another night with them. This would give her a chance to do something she had been thinking about all evening. She waited until everyone went to sleep, and then crept into the kitchen. She had secret plans for a big project.
First she began to gather all the materials and ingredients she would need. She found an overgrown plant growing in the living room and cut twenty stems from it. She stuck the stems in twenty paper cups filled with sugar water.
She got out sugar, chocolate, nuts, and raisins from the kitchen cupboard.
She got twenty old plastic flower pots and a old bag of potting soil from the basement.
Then she chopped the chocolate into small flakes and mixed it with the potting soil. It seemed a shame to waste good chocolate like that, but it would be worth it if everything worked out right.
Next Griselda took the plastic flower pots and filled them first with nuts and raisins, and then with the chocolate - potting soil mixture.
Next she checked the plant cuttings in the paper cups. Good, they had begun to develop roots. Very carefully, she placed the plant cuttings in the flower pots and watered them with the sugar water. Then she placed the potted plants under a plant light and napped for an hour while the magic did its work.
When Griselda woke up and checked the plants, she was pleased with what she saw. The plants had already doubled in size and each had
grown one small delicate flower bud. Griselda examined the buds very carefully. Inside each was a firm, juicy, chocolate candy.
Griselda shivered with delight when she saw that her spell for Candy Plants had worked. "Griselda, you're a genius," she thought to herself. "You should submit this spell to the Journal of Modern Witchcraft."
By now it was 3:00 am and Griselda still had wasn't finished. She decorated the Candy Plants with strings of popcorn and cranberries, to make them look a little like Christmas trees. She wrote little cards to go with each plant and wrapped them in foil and wrapping paper to protect them from the cold. Then she hurried outside to deliver her presents.
It was bitter cold outside and the snow was falling heavily. It was hard to walk and hard to see, but Griselda managed to retrace her steps of nearly two months ago and revisit every house where she had stolen candy. This time when she snuck in, she looked for the children's Christmas stockings and placed a Candy Plant in each one.
Whe Griselda finished her last delivery the snow had nearly stopped and a faint glimmer of gray from behind some of the houses showed that it was nearly morning. Griselda was cold and tired and icicles were dripping from her hat and nose. She was thinking about how she would make herself some hot cocoa and go to bed, when she heard some noise coming from Stan and Gail's house.
She looked up to see Stan bounding out of the house with his jacket unzipped. He had a snow shovel in his hand, and he was heading for his car. Gail was sitting in the living room looking at her watch.
"What's wrong?" Griselda asked.
"Gail's about to have the baby," Stan replied. "I have to take her to the hospital right away. But look. Even though I shovelled before I went to bed last night, the car is covered with snow and the driveway is blocked by this pile left by the snow plow. I don't think we're going to make it in time." He looked very worried.
"Maybe I can help," Griselda offerred. "I can fly Gail to the hospital on the back of my broomstick. I can get her there in no time."
Stan looked at her in disbelief. "No thanks," he said trying to be polite. "I think we'd rather have the baby at home."
"Well then, I'll help you with the snow," Griselda offerred. She knew just what to do in a situation like this. There was no time to use a disappearing spell on the snow and there was no point to changing it into something else. She snapped her fingers a few times in the direction of the other houses. Immediately, about half a dozen snow shovels that had been left on the front porches flew over to her and began digging out Stan and Gail's car.
Stan was too shocked to say anything but he jumped back to get out of the way. He was about to thank Griselda when he noticed the road. Although it had been plowed, probably about two or three hours earlier, it was still so covered with snow that he knew he couldn't drive on it.
Griselda noticed this too.
"The main road looks O.K." she said. All we have to do is clear Ossipee Road from here to the end of the block. But it's a lot of work even for all these snow shovels." She thought a moment and then snapped her fingers a few more times, this time in the direction of the snowmen.
It took a moment for the snowmen to come to life. They made a ripping, rumbling sound as they tore themselves from the cold snow beneath them. Then they rolled themselves out into the middle of the street and began to work clearing the snow.
The clown was rolling a big snowball down the street balancing on it with his feet, as if it were a big circus ball.
The witch cleared the snow with her broom, riding on it as if it were a snow blower.
The baseball player threw the snowballs in the air and batted them all the way to the street corner with his bat.
And Santa Lucia, shining with light from top to bottom, melted snow wherever she went.
Soon the road was clear enough to drive on.
Stan didn't have time to wonder about the magic he had just seen. He thanked Griselda quickly and hurried into the house to help Gail out into the car. Griselda waved as they drove away.
"Good luck," she called out after them. Then she turned to the snowmen, appreciatively. "Good work, Gang," she said.
The snowmen returned to their proper places in their front yards. Griselda went inside and collapsed into bed. She didn't even bother with the cocoa.
It was noon before Griselda woke up. Arielle was waiting outside her door for the first sound of her stirring.
"Is this from you, Griselda," she asked holding up the Candy Plant. "I've never had a Christmas tree before. Read me the card."
Griselda read it to her. It said:
This is a Candy Plant. Place it in sunlight and water it every day with sugar water. When the bud opens up there will be a
piece of candy inside. If you eat the candy a new one will grow back in a week.
Merry Christmas.
Signed
The Christmas Witch
"The Candy Plant will last forever if you take good care of it," Griselda explained. "But at a rate of one candy a week, you'll never get sick the way I did."
Melanie came out with her candy plant. "Can we eat one now?" she asked.
"Yes, they're ripe," Griselda told her.
Melanie and Arielle each broke off the little bud from their plants, opened them up, and popped the candies into their mouths. They were delicious.
"I'm going to take real good care of my candy plant," Arielle said. "I'm going to keep it next to my bed." And she took the candy plant into her room.
"Too bad you can't have any candy," Melanie said to Griselda.
"Yes, it's too bad," Griselda said uncomfortably.
"I was wondering," Melanie continued. "Were you the one who took our candy last Halloween? Is that how you got so sick you can't eat any more?"
Griselda hung her head in shame. "I'm sorry" she said. I used to do things like that. It was before I had any friends. I'm not like that now."
"I know you're not," Melanie said. "And you've made it up to all the kids with the candy plants. I won't tell anyone."
Just then the doorbell rang.
"Griselda, someone's here to see you," Josh called a moment later.
Griselda came downstairs. It was Stan. He looked tired but happy.
"We had a little girl," he announced. "She was born ten minutes after we got to the hospital. Both she and Gail are doing fine."
The whole family gathered round to hear the news.
"We named her Natalie Griselda," Stan continued. "Natalie means 'Christmas Child' you know. And we're very grateful to you Griselda for helping us get to the hospital in time. We never would have made it without your help."
"Well thanks again, and Merry Christmas."
"Natalie Griselda," Griselda beamed with pride after Stan had left. "I've never had a baby named after me before. Well, I'll have to remember to make another Candy Plant in a few years. I bet Natalie Griselda will want one."