Christmas Ghosts

By Jenn Moffatt

Dealing with the unexpected loss of his mother isn’t how carpenter Steve Browning planned to spend his Christmas. Hoping her costume jewelry can bring some happiness to others, he takes it to the local community theater, where he runs into his first love, Troy Baxter.

Troy’s trying to help his sister put on a gender-fluid version of A Christmas Carol, but no one on the cast or crew knows which end of a hammer to hold let alone use a power tool. Then a face from the past brings a present-day miracle… one that could lead to the happy future they both thought they gave up back in high school.

A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2019 Advent Calendar "Homemade for the Holidays."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
• Release date: Dec 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644057780

Jenn Moffatt

Jenn Moffatt is a proud nerd. Raised on Star Trek, Dark Shadows, The Wild Wild West, and James Bond, she learned not to be afraid of things that go bump in the night and to have hope for the future of humanity. She grew up wanting to be a member of the Addams Family or part of the crew of the USS Enterprise—and she still does. She’s been soaked to the skin for Chinese New Year and walked in the fog in Frisco. Went to high school in Sin City, and no, she didn’t live in a casino. Lived on the slope of an active volcano, and used to snorkel between classes in college on the Big Island. Now she lives in San Diego where she gets to see the ocean and wildflowers in the desert on the same day. Jenn was born disabled, which gives her a deep understanding of what it’s like to be different, but she’s never let it hold her back. It just means she gets pretty good parking. Find Jenn: Twitter: @thatvulcanbitch Facebook: www.facebook.com/thatvulcanb1tch Instagram: @thatvulcanbitch Website: jennmoffattwrites.com

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Seven

About the Author

By Jenn Moffatt

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Christmas Ghosts

By Jenn Moffatt

Dealing with the unexpected loss of his mother isn’t how carpenter Steve Browning planned to spend his Christmas. Hoping her costume jewelry can bring some happiness to others, he takes it to the local community theater, where he runs into his first love, Troy Baxter.

Troy’s trying to help his sister put on a gender-fluid version of A Christmas Carol, but no one on the cast or crew knows which end of a hammer to hold let alone use a power tool. Then a face from the past brings a present-day miracle… one that could lead to the happy future they both thought they gave up back in high school.

One

IT WAS one of those weirdly warm days that pop up in the middle of winter, not that San Luis Obispo’s weather was frightening in general, but usually Steven Browning would be wearing at least a hoodie while he was working outside. Today he was wearing a beat-up Dr Pepper T-shirt that his mom said was too thin to make rags out of. Sure, there were a couple of holes in it here and there, and the armpit had given out when he’d tossed a final bag of trash into the back of his truck earlier, but he still loved it. That shirt had been around the world with him.

Slumping against the tailgate for a moment, he took a few heavy breaths, with his elbows resting on the edge, and ran his fingers through his sandy-blond hair. The bed was filled with boxes from every place his mom could order stuff online, mostly Amazon, but a few Walmart and Home Shopping boxes broke up the matching set. The only consistent thing was her name on the address labels, Ava Browning.

We should’ve blacked out the address on the boxes, he told his younger brother, who was trying to fit his feet between the last few boxes to Tetris them together in the bed of the truck.

I think we’ll be safe from ninjas breaking in, Peter answered over his shoulder. His green eyes were puffy from the crying jag they’d shared in the middle of their mother’s walk-in closet when they’d taken the last of her clothes from the hangers. Besides, everyone at the theater already knows where I live.

It was ten days until Christmas and less than one since their mother died in the house they shared. Steven had known something was wrong, but she never told him how bad it was. She went to doctor’s appointments often, but he just assumed it was because she was aging gracefully as she used to put it. She’d driven herself, and his stomach had been churning with guilt because he hadn’t gone with her. But she didn’t seem to need him for that. He was the Sherpa. He carried the groceries. He fixed things around the house, and he’d helped her pick out a nice little SUV so he wouldn’t need to play mechanic on his days off.

Cancer was sneaky, though. Sometimes it took years and didn’t win. Other times it would run and hide, only to return for a repeat performance that might never actually kill you. Or it could be like it’d been with Mom. A trip to the ER, a chest X-ray, and suddenly the person you needed the most in the world and needed you in return was on hospice. He’d had no warning. No preparation other than her insisting his name be on her bank accounts and the house after his dad had died half a dozen years ago in a car accident.

She’d made them promise not to give up, not to fall apart, and to accept that it was her time. But it still hurt. Pete had come up as soon as his finals were over from Cal Poly’s Pomona campus pretty much as he’d planned to for Christmas break. They were alone now. Their aunt, who’d helped them sort through her belongings while watching over her at the end, had gone home to her family states away, and Steve was the only one still living in SLO.

They’d had invites from