Snowflakes in the Fire

Jack Donohue was a busy man. He hadn’t seen his mother for years. Building up a business was time-consuming. In October his wife Bethany had lost her mother; it made Jack think. This year he wanted to go to see his own mother at Christmas. He’d forgotten how old she was; he thought she might be around eighty-seven, but he wasn’t sure. As far as he knew she would still be in the old farmhouse they had shared when he was a child. It was off the beaten track. In fact he wondered if he could get the car there. There had been a lot of snowfalls just lately. Tomorrow it was Christmas Eve. He would try to get there come hell or high water.

* * *

Bethany waved Jack off from the warmth of their semi-detached in Carisbrooke Crescent. It was a ten mile journey out to Crooks Hill Farm. It was for the first time he began to wonder just how his mother coped. Did Social Services go out to see her. He wondered. When he got to the farm it looked deserted and cold. Huge snowdrifts were piled up on the side of the road. He wondered if anybody ever visited at all.

* * *

He tapped on the old farmhouse door. My God, he thought, this old place needs a lick of paint. He waited and waited; nothing happened. He thought he would poke around the back. He looked through the old decaying windows, then he tried the back door. It was open. As he entered the house a black and white collie dog rushed up to him. It started to lick him in a very friendly way. “Mum,” he started to call, “it’s Jack I’ve come to see you.” There was no reply.

* * *

Jack then entered the old kitchen. It was icy cold. There seemed to be no heating. Then he saw his poor old mother seemingly asleep in the rocking chair. But there was no fire going; it was freezing in here. She was wrapped in a blanket. He wondered if he was too late. He shook her, worried in case she would not wake.

* * *

“Oh, Oh,” she murmered.
“Mum, what are you doing? It is icy in here.”
“Oh Jack, you have come to see me.”
“Yes Mum, we’ll have to get a fire going. You can’t sit here like this, it being Christmas and all.”
Jack then went to look for some logs. There weren’t any in the store. He looked in the kitchen cupboards. They were empty but for a small tin of soup.
“Mum, I had no idea you were living like this. You can’t stay here.”
“No,” she said. “Things are getting worse. I can’t walk around like I used to. I didn’t get to the shops in the snow.”
“But what about Christmas ?”
“Oh Christmas, it’s just another day.”
“Well that’s where you’re wrong Mum. You’ll have to come with me. Have Christmas with me and Bethany. You will at least be warm and have plenty to eat.”

* * *

And as Jack looked deep into the hearth he could see snowflakes in the fire grate. If his heart had gone cold he must now do something about it. He helped the old lady into his car and thanked God he had come. It was never too late for Christmas.

* * *