Spider-Man Fic: The Sligo Wrens
This is a 335 word Spider-Man drabble for the Advent Calendar at 1_million_words-ENJOY!
Richard Parker was not the kind of person who loved music.
He didn’t hate it, but he didn’t have an absolute favorite band or a song that he adored so deeply that he had to turn the volume up on the radio to listen to it every time it was played.
That all changed when he met Mary Fitzpatrick who had an all-consuming passion for music, especially songs of the Irish variety.
She was massively proud of her collection of vinyl records that she played on an actual record player and Richard soon learned the names of all of her beloved bands: The Dubliners, Blackthorn, The Pogues, and The Saw Doctors. “Don’t make me choose, Richard, I’m fond of them al!!”
And the Friday after Thanksgiving meant that Mary pulled out all of her Christmas records-Ben had openly laughed when he caught his brother humming “Christmas in Killarney”-but this soon turned out to be a blessing because Mary’s Irish music became the sound track to Peter’s childhood.
After his parent’s deaths, Peter treasured his mom’s records and he never felt like it was truly Christmas until he heard The Chieftains album “The Bells of Dublin.”
He looked around their apartment, shaking his head in amusement at May’s insistence on decorating their tree with his homemade ornaments, the old fashioned fairy lights Ben always favored strung around haphazardly while May’s multicolored tinsel tied everything together.
Peter smiled wistfully at the first strains of the “St. Stephen’s Day Murders” and he could hear MJ’s delighted laugh as well as Tony’s muffled snort at her dry commentary: “Now that’s a Christmas carol I can get behind.”
He grinned but later on, in the quiet darkness of the Christmas Eve night, Peter whispered, partly to himself and partly to the angels, “I’m still listening to your records Mom and I hope you, Dad and Ben know how much I love and miss you.”
He paused to surreptitiously wipe the tears from his eyes. “ Merry Christmas, Mom.”
Richard Parker was not the kind of person who loved music.
He didn’t hate it, but he didn’t have an absolute favorite band or a song that he adored so deeply that he had to turn the volume up on the radio to listen to it every time it was played.
That all changed when he met Mary Fitzpatrick who had an all-consuming passion for music, especially songs of the Irish variety.
She was massively proud of her collection of vinyl records that she played on an actual record player and Richard soon learned the names of all of her beloved bands: The Dubliners, Blackthorn, The Pogues, and The Saw Doctors. “Don’t make me choose, Richard, I’m fond of them al!!”
And the Friday after Thanksgiving meant that Mary pulled out all of her Christmas records-Ben had openly laughed when he caught his brother humming “Christmas in Killarney”-but this soon turned out to be a blessing because Mary’s Irish music became the sound track to Peter’s childhood.
After his parent’s deaths, Peter treasured his mom’s records and he never felt like it was truly Christmas until he heard The Chieftains album “The Bells of Dublin.”
He looked around their apartment, shaking his head in amusement at May’s insistence on decorating their tree with his homemade ornaments, the old fashioned fairy lights Ben always favored strung around haphazardly while May’s multicolored tinsel tied everything together.
Peter smiled wistfully at the first strains of the “St. Stephen’s Day Murders” and he could hear MJ’s delighted laugh as well as Tony’s muffled snort at her dry commentary: “Now that’s a Christmas carol I can get behind.”
He grinned but later on, in the quiet darkness of the Christmas Eve night, Peter whispered, partly to himself and partly to the angels, “I’m still listening to your records Mom and I hope you, Dad and Ben know how much I love and miss you.”
He paused to surreptitiously wipe the tears from his eyes. “ Merry Christmas, Mom.”