This is why the typist wakes up at 1 PM on a day she should be sleeping!
(The lateness of this post should not reflect upon the lateness of the muse because she is much more a stickler for time than I am)
In the middle of the night Anika brought in the packages that she had been keeping over in a neighbor's chicken coop, hidden under a thick tarp on some plywood in that small building so that Neph couldn't find them and peek.
Oni and Logan's gifts were placed there, lots and lots of smaller bags in a larger box. This box came with an envelope, and in the envelope was a hand-written, hand-decorated Christmas cards, and thirteen hand-made certificates. The first certificate was for the that very box, offering her services as gardener to plant the bags of bulbs around their home.
The other twelve certificates went with another box, this one containing a stack of cookbooks that Anika had prowled used bookstores throughout the city for, over and over again. Each book was from a different country, each corresponding certificate was for one candle-lit dinner for two, with the main course being any recipe in each of the books. Chef Anika would gladly create a special creation for just the two of them once a month, so that they could sit down to a quiet, romantic meal as husband and wife.
***
Eyota's present she found, feather by feather on her many rides out to the desert or on the trails leading away from the deserted highways and biways over the past several months. Carefully cleaning each one, she found only the most unique, the most beautiful to give the man. Each feather came with a small note, describing when Anika had found it, and where, and what she felt when she looked at them. Dissertation? Poetry? A little of both perhaps?
***
Neph got a crystal and copper wind chime, the crystals draping down nearly eighteen inches. All the pewter pieces that Anika once owned or could find had been sanded down and placed in her med bag for future medical use. But the crystals, the prisms that had made up part of each figurine that Anika would buy? Those Anika had wrapped with copper wire, attached to the next in a circle and made to capture the light and throw it into a thousand or more sparkly rainbows to brighten up her young friends' room.
***
Ashley got another book of twelve certificates, these involved detailing. Car detailing, to be precise. Anika would clean his car, inside and out with her precision and attention to detail, and have it cleaned, gassed up, and ready to go anywhere the man wanted. There was even one special certificate that promised chauffeur service as well. Within certain limitations, of course.
***
Han got a book of certificates for nights off at the Year of the Rat, a map of Southern California, and a set of keys that matched her own. Keys to her beloved motorcycle. If anyone needed some time off to get away from the grind, it was the one she had worked hand in hand with for months, the man kind enough not to let her pay rent. And one of her dearest friends, to boot. His sister got earrings and a bracelet of twisted, braided silk and copper wire, the prisms twinkling merrily as they had been braided into the jewelry.
***
Frejya was one person that Anika had a hard time trying to figure out what to get. Try as had as she might, Anika just couldn't figure out what to make or buy the statuesque Black Fury. In the end, she had gone to the library, and the internet. And from there she had carefully, in her best and most careful penmanship, wrote down and reproduced every poem to a warrior woman that she could find. Any nordic saga extolling the virtues of valkyries, the Ode to Boudica, the ancient Sarmation and Greek epic tales of the Amazons. It took hours, days. And in the end was one more piece of paper, and that one was a letter from Anika to Frejya herself, telling her how much the young med student appreciated her, who she was, and what she was doing. It would either go over well, or like the proverbial lead balloon, and Anika was doing math equations in her head the entire time that she waited for it to be opened.
***
Anya? Got two pairs of hiking boots, and jeans that fit her. She also got gloves, gloves that - strangely enough - matched several pairs of Anika's. Soft and silky, or made of thin leather, they came in several colors, and a number of different styles. They made dealing with the world, and it's inhabitants, so much easier and less worrisome in the end. At least Anika hoped Anya would find them that way. It's how it worked for the med-student at least.
***
For Mike? She got a baseball hat with the Houston Oilers logo, and a pair of bike gloves, thick and warm. He also got a 'Mike sized' sleeping bag, made from three regular sized sleeping bags that she had ripped the zippers out of and re-sewn together in a flurry of downy bird feathers. It was big enough for one huge man to sleep comfortably, or for two people to sleep curled up together under the stars. And the design that she had sewn onto the front the sleeping bag? Was a large stylized wave in blue, dark blue and black. He also got a book of detailing certificates, but in his case it was for his motorcycle and not some car.
***
And if she had been the type to get Adrien a gift? It would have been to send back the buds of the roses, cut free from their thorny stems. Just the flowers themselves, floating in a wide flat silver vase full of water.
In the middle of the night Anika brought in the packages that she had been keeping over in a neighbor's chicken coop, hidden under a thick tarp on some plywood in that small building so that Neph couldn't find them and peek.
Oni and Logan's gifts were placed there, lots and lots of smaller bags in a larger box. This box came with an envelope, and in the envelope was a hand-written, hand-decorated Christmas cards, and thirteen hand-made certificates. The first certificate was for the that very box, offering her services as gardener to plant the bags of bulbs around their home.
The other twelve certificates went with another box, this one containing a stack of cookbooks that Anika had prowled used bookstores throughout the city for, over and over again. Each book was from a different country, each corresponding certificate was for one candle-lit dinner for two, with the main course being any recipe in each of the books. Chef Anika would gladly create a special creation for just the two of them once a month, so that they could sit down to a quiet, romantic meal as husband and wife.
***
Eyota's present she found, feather by feather on her many rides out to the desert or on the trails leading away from the deserted highways and biways over the past several months. Carefully cleaning each one, she found only the most unique, the most beautiful to give the man. Each feather came with a small note, describing when Anika had found it, and where, and what she felt when she looked at them. Dissertation? Poetry? A little of both perhaps?
***
Neph got a crystal and copper wind chime, the crystals draping down nearly eighteen inches. All the pewter pieces that Anika once owned or could find had been sanded down and placed in her med bag for future medical use. But the crystals, the prisms that had made up part of each figurine that Anika would buy? Those Anika had wrapped with copper wire, attached to the next in a circle and made to capture the light and throw it into a thousand or more sparkly rainbows to brighten up her young friends' room.
***
Ashley got another book of twelve certificates, these involved detailing. Car detailing, to be precise. Anika would clean his car, inside and out with her precision and attention to detail, and have it cleaned, gassed up, and ready to go anywhere the man wanted. There was even one special certificate that promised chauffeur service as well. Within certain limitations, of course.
***
Han got a book of certificates for nights off at the Year of the Rat, a map of Southern California, and a set of keys that matched her own. Keys to her beloved motorcycle. If anyone needed some time off to get away from the grind, it was the one she had worked hand in hand with for months, the man kind enough not to let her pay rent. And one of her dearest friends, to boot. His sister got earrings and a bracelet of twisted, braided silk and copper wire, the prisms twinkling merrily as they had been braided into the jewelry.
***
Frejya was one person that Anika had a hard time trying to figure out what to get. Try as had as she might, Anika just couldn't figure out what to make or buy the statuesque Black Fury. In the end, she had gone to the library, and the internet. And from there she had carefully, in her best and most careful penmanship, wrote down and reproduced every poem to a warrior woman that she could find. Any nordic saga extolling the virtues of valkyries, the Ode to Boudica, the ancient Sarmation and Greek epic tales of the Amazons. It took hours, days. And in the end was one more piece of paper, and that one was a letter from Anika to Frejya herself, telling her how much the young med student appreciated her, who she was, and what she was doing. It would either go over well, or like the proverbial lead balloon, and Anika was doing math equations in her head the entire time that she waited for it to be opened.
***
Anya? Got two pairs of hiking boots, and jeans that fit her. She also got gloves, gloves that - strangely enough - matched several pairs of Anika's. Soft and silky, or made of thin leather, they came in several colors, and a number of different styles. They made dealing with the world, and it's inhabitants, so much easier and less worrisome in the end. At least Anika hoped Anya would find them that way. It's how it worked for the med-student at least.
***
For Mike? She got a baseball hat with the Houston Oilers logo, and a pair of bike gloves, thick and warm. He also got a 'Mike sized' sleeping bag, made from three regular sized sleeping bags that she had ripped the zippers out of and re-sewn together in a flurry of downy bird feathers. It was big enough for one huge man to sleep comfortably, or for two people to sleep curled up together under the stars. And the design that she had sewn onto the front the sleeping bag? Was a large stylized wave in blue, dark blue and black. He also got a book of detailing certificates, but in his case it was for his motorcycle and not some car.
***
And if she had been the type to get Adrien a gift? It would have been to send back the buds of the roses, cut free from their thorny stems. Just the flowers themselves, floating in a wide flat silver vase full of water.