Month: December 2017

Kelly hummed along to Michael Buble’s, White Christmas as she strung tinsel on the tree with her daughter, Samantha, beside her. The whole house smelled of pine from the tree that the family had brought and setup an hour ago. With all the decorations it was beginning to feel like the Christmas she used to have with her own family before her mother had passed. She felt a warm feeling as she thought back on the memories, and knowing that her mother was watching over them. Samantha was only 6, and would be 7 in January. She was too young to remember Kelly’s mother fully, but she knew the memory, and knew the sadness of her loss. Samantha pulled a small silver orb from the box, and smiled as she placed it on the tree. The glittering ball was her favourite, as well as being a present from her grandmother before she passed.

“Is Santa coming tomorrow?” She asked in a soft, happy, tone. Kelly smiled.

“Not tomorrow,” She replied, “But soon. Only a week more to go. We probably should have put up the tree earlier, shouldn’t we?”

Samantha nodded and smiled.

“But you know you have to be a extra good girl until then,” Kelly said to her softly, “Santa Clause is coming,”
As if by queue, Barry Manilow’s, Santa Clause is Coming to Town began to play. Kelly looked behind to the kitchen and saw her husband, David, remove his fingers from the controls as he went back to the papers he was working on. Kelly gave him a smile before turning back to Samantha.

“You better watch out, You better not cry” She started singing along to the song playing as her daughter joined in.

“You better not pout, I’m telling you why”

A third voice joined in from David as they sung, “Santa Claus is coming to town in relative harmony together,”
The three of them continued along with the whole song, David even getting up from his chair to pickup Samantha, and dance around with her in on one arm while he took his wife in the other. The three of them smiled, and then laughed as the song ended. David put Samantha back down on the floor by the tree, and knelt down rummaging through the decorations box.

“Don’t you have to finish your research?” Kelly asked sitting down beside them. David was a respected Archaeologist in the academic community, he’d published a dozen papers in his time and assisted with many research digs throughout the world. What he was working on this morning was the latest one, this time helping his best friend with his research.

“It can wait an hour while we setup the tree, right?” He said looking down at his daughter as if he was he was awaiting her decision. Samantha grinned and nodded.

The three of them took the rest of the hour to finish the tree, with David making silly faces and actions with the decorations as they went which made the two girls smile and laugh. It spread the time out, but they were having fun. It came down to only the tree topper left.

“So, are we going with Star, or Angel, this year?” David asked holding the two options up for decision.

“Angel!” Samantha called out “She’s pretty, and magical to watch over the tree,”

“Looks like the Angel wins this year then,” David said with a grin, “Sorry, star. Maybe next year,”
He placed the star back into the box, and passed the angel to Samantha before picking her up She grasped the figure with both hands tightly as her father lifted her to the top of the tree, and sat the Angel atop the tree on the top most branches.

“And we’re done,” David said, “Look at that beautiful tree. It’s almost as beautiful as my two girls here,”
Kelly stepped in beside her husband, and daughter, putting an arm around David’s back as she hugged him. The three of them smiled as they looked over the tree, and the picture of Kelly’s mother sitting on the mantelpiece behind.

“Grandma’s happy,” Samantha said pointing at the picture which almost brought a tear to Kelly’s face as she smiled at her daughter.

“She’s probably also wondering why you’re not getting ready for bed,” David said tickling his daughters belly with his index finger. Samantha giggled and David placed her on the carpet, “Go get in your pajamas, and we’ll be up in a minute,”

Samantha rushed off up the stairs to her room, and David pulled Kelly in to him planting a kiss on her lips and holding there for a moment before letting go.

“I love our Christmas’s,” He told his wife who smiled, and kissed him back.

“Me too,”

“Although, I do wonder now if we should be teaching Samantha that song,”

“What’s wrong with Santa Clause is Coming to Town?”

“Nothing really,” David said moving over to the table of papers, “Just some new archaeological data we’ve been studying through from colleagues,”

“Saying what? Something about Christmas?”
David fumbled through some papers looking for the one he wanted, and pulling it out of the half messy stack, “Just some of the references sound similar, and when I think about how the original nursery rhymes were generally supposed to be darker, it makes me wonder if it is related. Here, check this page out from a tomb located in a remote South American town,”

David passed Kelly the paper, who took it and read through, reading allowed the only piece that seemed translated, “Better not shout, Better not cry,” The rest of the page inferred to something coming at night, but nothing more specific. The paper she was holding appeared to be a rubbing off something stone. The black scratch marks across the sheet gave it away. At the bottom was, what looked like, a human face distorted and deformed. Kelly assumed a error with the rubbing that had been done, perhaps something on the stone had stopped a clear presentation, or it had been damaged.

She handed it back, “Well, it’s similar,” She replied as David took the paper from her, “But is that all there is translated? It’s not much to go on,”

“There’s a little more,” David told her as he took a seat at the table, “But nothing specific or confirmed,”

“Who’s tomb is it?”

David shrugged, “Don’t know yet, that’s the main mystery. There’s no evidence of anyone one being actually buried there, just a cave of information. It’s almost like an ancient time capsule, buried there for later generations”

“And no clues as to who made it?”

David shook his head, “None. Some of the references tied to that translation speak of beings that enter your house in the night on a particular night, but we’re still translating. Even that small piece was difficult. Everything seems to be in a strange combination of Sumerian, and Ancient Hieratic, with a speckle of Ancient Greek thrown in. It’s confusing everyone so it’s slow going. You can take a look tomorrow if you want to give the translation a go,”

“That is a strange combination of language,” Kelly said confused, “And also a couple that aren’t generally used together. Possibly a derivation, or a root common language for all of them? If so, that leads to being an even more interesting find because if there’s a common language linking that many cultures it’s a sign that we could be more linked than previously thought. This could be a fascinating project to work through,”

“If everything pans out at least,” David replied, “We still have to prove legitimacy and the carbon dating on the artifacts is being done in the lab as we speak,”

“Still,” Kelly said, “Even the possibility is an exciting idea. A link between multiple human cultures? Who could pass that up?”

“I’ve got most of the information here, check it out and read through with what you think,” David told her gesturing to the papers on the table that sat alongside large open books, “Only got the information this morning, so I haven’t had that much of a chance to go through too much. We could go through together,”

Kelly’s stock and trade before she had taken time off to raise her daughter was specialist in Ancient languages, most specifically Latin, and Greek. She still did some consulting work on occasion for colleagues she knew, but she also kept up with all the periodicals being released over the years. David never knew how she managed to do everything, but that’s just one reason he loved her, her drive.

“I’ll check it out tomorrow then,” She replied, as she nodded her head towards the stairs, “But we should probably put our daughter to bed, seeing as it’s gone a bit quiet now,”
The pair smiled, and head upstairs to the bedrooms. As they peered in the door, they saw Samantha lying in her bed asleep and both smiled as they pulled the door closed, leaving only a sliver of gap before walking back into the hallway.

“Let’s call it a night, shall we?” David said, “We can pick everything up in the morning. You get ready, I’ll check the house is locked up,”
Kelly walked towards their bedroom, as David stepped quickly down the stairs and checked through all the doors and windows making sure they were secure before heading back up. Kelly was in the bathroom adjoining their room brushing her teeth when he got back upstairs. He pulled out his pajamas and changed, throwing his day clothes into the laundry hamper across the room beside the drawers. Kelly walked out after finishing and David moved to the bathroom to brush his own teeth while Kelly climbed into bed and turned the lamb on beside her.

David finished by running a damp cloth across his face, and exited the bathroom, moving around to his side of the bed. He hit the main light switch by the door as he went around leaving only the lamp light illuminating the room.

He climbed into his side of the bed. Kelly leaned over and kissed him, a short peck on the lips.

He kissed her back, “No reading tonight?” He asked because that was there usual thing to do at the end of the day. They would read a chapter together in bed, of different books, and then discuss each chapter in the morning, giving their thoughts on the story as well as characters of each book. They’d done this as long as either of them could remember when they started dating 12 years ago. David couldn’t even remember how they had decided to start, but it actually worked out pretty well for understanding both books at the same time. If the book was well known, like Lord of the Rings, or the Harry Potter novels, then they would read the same one. But mostly it was two different.

“Not tonight,” Kelly stated lying against the pillow on her side, “Goodnight,” She said.

“Goodnight,” David replied lying down facing her as they drifted off to sleep.

The two of them fell asleep fast as the nights energy had worn them down. A creaking came from the downstairs door about midnight, a shadowy figure reached out his long, clammy, shriveled fingers and brought them up in front of his face, clasping them together. A hunched figure behind scrabbled up behind him, and broke through the hinge of the door; surprisingly quietly given the force of the break. The tall figure, with deformed face and a toothy grin pushed through the door, and floated rather than walked through. The hunched figure, wearing an open straight jacket, scurried along behind him scuttling through the lounge, and kitchen before coming back around to the front entrance stairwell.

The slim deformed figure began to float his way up the stairs to the bedrooms, the stuck grin on his face smiling as he approached a closed door. He reached out his long fingers, and turned the knob. It opened, and he floated through. The hunched figure behind him scurried through the door behind him and the door fell slowly back, closing with a click as a child’s voice began to quietly sing, Can’t even shout, Can’t even cry…