SNOW IS NEVER FALLING IN GUATEMALA.
I heard a phone rang and rushed back, inside of the house. Man’s voice was pleasant and I was happy that he spoke slowly. Easier for me to understand – we have just arrived to America and English sill remained mystery to me at times:
- My name is so and so, I am a professor of linguistics at Dallas University. We are studding the origin of Russian Language at the moment, and I was wondering, if you could allow my students and me to visit your family for a short time?
I understood him well and, without any hesitation, said “Yes”, at same time trying to calculate, if I have enough money to buy treats for my guests. Eventually, I decided to go with traditional Russian pierogi’s, and when that day came, made plenty of them: with meet, cabbage and onions.
I had everything prepared for a visit of professor and his students: house was clean, tea was hot and pirogues looked and smelled wonderful.
When I saw school bus pulled in front of my house, I walked out to the porch to greet my guests. To my amazement, there was at least 20 students, and all of them had something in their hands – lots of food, even huge turkey, and… Christmas gifts for my kids, wrapped in a beautiful colorful paper.
I stepped aside, letting them pass and thinking: “I hope, I made enough pirogues! I would be so embarrassed, if they will go home hungry”.
We had a good time! They asked me a lot of questions, and I answered all of them, we had tea, they loved food and my kids were drooling over presents, but tried to behave well.
And then it was Christmas. Very first one in our new country! We had a beautiful tree, decorated with handmade ornaments, but it was a real tree, and it smelled good. Reminded me home, Russia. One thing was missing though – snow.
We had food. And we had lots of beautifully wrapped presents near the tree. No one of the kids wanted to go sleep in their beds. Everybody wanted to sleep in the living room, guarding the tree and gifts, as if those could escape somehow somewhere. Air was thick with anticipation. And morning, finally, arrived!
House filled out with a laughter, sounds of torn paper and happy kids voices. And I was happy too, thinking warmly of nice students and their professor. Without them, I may would have enough money to buy food for a holiday dinner, and, may be, pair of new socks for each of my three kids.
Those were unforgettable moments, and gifts were a talk of the house – no one of my neighbor’s kids had Nintendo video game set yet, but we did now. And 10 games as well. And I had to remind to my children, that they should not be egotistical and that they must share with other kids.
Year was passing by quickly. Life was busy, and I finally had a steady job – in Wall Mart, as a sale associate, making $ 5 dollars per hour. No one of us was hungry, undressed, and we had a roof above our heads. We even managed to save money for a car – old Ford “Pinto”. Pretty ugly color blue, I must admit, but, at least, it was running well.
Somewhere close to Thanksgiving, I started to get worry about upcoming Christmas. No way could I have outbid that previous year, and how can you explain to a kids, that Santa could not bring them as many gifts. And I had an idea: I began buying presents ahead of a time, little by little, and was hiding them in my bedroom closet, on the top shelf.
I already stashed quite a few, when, one evening I came home and found kids sitting on my bed, looking at not wrapped yet gifts.
- Look, mom, what Santa was hiding in your closet! He brought them earlier this year!
-
They eyes were wide open and beaming with happiness.
- “Oh stupid kids, that’s not Santa, that’s me! I was saving my lunch money to buy gifts, so you can have a great Christmas again!” – I was thinking to myself. Of cause, I would never say it out loud – They looked so excited!
Few days before Christmas I went shopping for a presents. I was devastated. I was staying behind the racks with a sale merchandise in Wal-Mart, counting my dollars. I did not have enough money to buy gifts for all three. Even though most things were marked down 75% off, yet, I did not have enough.
- What will I tell them? That Santa running behind this year? That, may be, he will arrive later, or bring them lots of gifts next time?
That was just a rhetorical questions, I simply had no idea, what to do. I was so sad.
- Why are you crying? – I heard voice behind me. – That was Alba, my associate. She emigrated with her family from Guatemala few years back.
- Nothing. – I said, quickly whipping out my tears. She looked at little money, that I was trying to stick back to a pocket, then she turned head to a sale rack, and understood everything. She was a mother herself, and also had three kids. She gave me a big hug, and pat me on the shoulder.
With a heavy heart I was returning home day before Christmas. I prepared speech for kids. I decided, that I will be honest with them, and explain, that Santa did not make enough money to buy gifts, but he managed to bring a big bag of tangerines, and box of “ little Debby” cakes for each of them, and.. Well, some new socks and pajama pants too.
Snow was falling softly from the sky – rare event in Texas, and I thought about Alba’s words: “Snow was never falling in Guatemala. At least we will have a White Christmas, and that’s already gift by itself, isn’t it?”
When I got close to my home, I saw a big black garbage bag on the porch.
“Who put it there?” – I thought. –“How rude!”
But when I got closer and lifted the bag, I recognized a sound of wrapping paper inside of it. Bag was filled up with many small gifts. There also was a card taped to it. I opened it up and read: “Have a Very Merry White Christmas.”