Chapter 10 Christmas
Leah’s POV at 18 years old.
I was sleeping peacefully in my room until I felt a light shake on my arm trying to wake me up.
When that didn’t work, I heard Jacob’s voice gently say “Leah! Leah wake up, its Christmas morning.”
“Christmas? “I asked in a sleepy voice.
“Yes.” Jacob responded. “I counted 52 big marks on the tree that we use as a calendar and last night he came.”
“What are you talking about, Jacob?” I questioned him while stretching.
“Santa Claus, silly and I saw his reindeer. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, all of them right down there on the beach.” Come on; let’s see if he brought us anything.” Jacob said all excited.
I followed him out of our hut and towards the tree where we hung up our stockings several nights ago.
Jacob pointed out the reindeer huffs that were left in the sand as we walked to the tree. I was shocked and amazed by the sight.
“Come on, Leah, hurry! That’s where the reindeer were, see. Look at our stockings.” Jacob said in a bossy tone.
We got closer to the tree and I noticed they were full.
“There’s something in them!” I said excitedly.
We pulled them from the tree and decided to sit underneath the tree. We poured out the contents of the stockings into our hands so we could examine them.
They were little white balls.
“Oh, look what I always wanted.” Jacob said.
“What are they?” I asked.
“What do they look like? They’re marbles. See, these are your Jaspers, and these are your peewees.” Jacob said while picking out different round balls.
I didn’t know at the time but they were pearls not marbles as Jacob had thought.
I had no problem believing him at the time because he was usually right but I had a gut feeling he was pulling a joke on me.
“You did all of this. “I said.
I had to question about the supposed deer hoofs. “But what about the hoof prints?” I questioned.
Jacob laughed and showed me these homemade stilts. They were made with bamboo sticks and bags of sand on the bottom of them.
He then proceeded to get up on them to show me that they worked.
“I sure fooled you good, Leah.” Jacob said with a smirk on his face.
“Oh you!” I said while gently pushed him down.
He fell and landed in the sand.
We ended up laughing over his joke.
I was still looking at the “marbles” when Jacob felt the need to question something.
“Why are we always fighting?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” I responded.
“I think we should make that our New Year’s resolution, to stop fighting so much.” Jacob suggested.
“I’ll try, but.” I started to respond but I was cut off by Jacob.
“But, what?” Jacob interrupted.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me when I say the things I say. I just keep on having all these strange thoughts.” I said.
“What kind of thoughts?” Jacob inquisted.
“Just thoughts like funny thoughts about you and me.” I said in a hesitantly.
“Tell me.” Jacob said in a hopeful manner to get me to say more.
I wasn’t budging so I said, “I couldn’t. They’re just thoughts; they don’t mean anything.”
I decided to change the subject and question Jacob about my Christmas present.
“Where did you find these?”
“I found them in those little shells at the bottom of the sea when I went swimming earlier.” Jacob told me.
“They’re beautiful, thank you.” I thanked him.
I even gave him a quick kiss on his lips to show my appreciation and gratitude. I had to pull back real fast because when my lips touched his, I felt a shock between us and it scared me.
Jacob on the other hand was calm about the kiss and looked quite happy. It led me to believe he didn’t feel the shock and if he did, he didn’t acknowledge it.
Later that night, Jacob and I decided to dress up for Christmas.He wore a red robe along with his loincloth while I had a gauzy veil with my nightgown.
We were sitting in front of our makeshift Christmas tree which was nothing but a bunch of branches from the palm trees and a garland of shells from the ocean.
We were drinking from a coconut and decided to sing some Christmas songs but we couldn’t remember all of the words.
“Oh come all ye faithful, la la.” Oh little town of Bethlehem, la la. Dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh.” All the---.” We tried to sing.
Since we couldn’t remember the words I decided to laugh nervously to break the tension.
Jacob smiled and we clicked our coconuts together to celebrate the holiday.
The following day Jacob was spear fishing in the dingy while I played with a butterfly with blue tips on its wings on my fingers. It didn’t stay there very long and flew away.
I chased after it through the forest until I came across a strange looking cave. On the floor of the cave was a huge pool of water, it looked so inviting so I took off my long shirt and dove in the water.
I was swimming like I didn’t have a care in the world. My peaceful bliss was stopped when I decided to look into the water. It was full of blood. I thought maybe I was overreacting so I put my hands in the water. I pulled my hands out and sure enough they were covered with blood.
I screamed with that realization about the blood.
“Jacob! Help! Help! Help, Jacob, help.”
Before I could finish that last help, Jacob was at the edge of the cliff looking down at me and noticing the blood.
Jacob had a shocked look on his face and asked me, “What’s wrong?” You’re bleeding!” As if I hadn’t noticed.
I looked down again in the water and I realized that the blood was coming from between legs.
I had a feeling this was something that Jacob wouldn’t understand so I had to lie to him.
“Don’t, I’m alright.” I told him.
“But you’re bleeding!” Jacob shouted.
“Go away! Don’t look at me! Go away, just- Go away!” I shouted right back at him. To illustrate my feelings further I threw a stick at him. He got the message and left me.
I sneaked down in the water, feeling ashamed for myself and started to cry.
Later on as I regained my composure, I was sitting by the fire and throwing sticks in it when Jacob decided to check up on me.
After a few minutes of complete silence between us, Jacob decided to break the ice by asking.
“What was it Leah?” “Why were you bleeding like that?”
The truth was I didn’t know why I was bleeding between my legs. I hope that was a good enough answer for him.
“I don’t know.” I responded.
Of course Jacob wasn’t happy with that answer.
“Liar!” Jacob yelled.
“It’s true!” I yelled back. “I don’t know!”
“Leah people don’t bleed like that unless they cut themselves.” Jacob retorted. “Maybe you’re hurt real bad and you just don’t know it. Let me look” He attempted to come closer.
“No I don’t want you to look. “I told him.
“Why?” Jacob asked trying to push my buttons.
“Just because.” I stated hoping to end it.
“That’s not fair!” Jacob whined. “I don’t keep any secrets from you! I tell you everything! Everything Leah.”
He walked away from me in anger. I wanted to tell him why I was bleeding but how could I tell him something that I didn’t know myself.
The next day I was playing in the water and located a baby starfish. I had it in my hand but then I quickly got bored with it so I released it back in the water.
Jacob was working on this raft that he had been working on for quite a while. It had a bottom thanks to some wood he had found and a sail from some fabric we didn’t need from the chest.
As I watched him assemble it I couldn’t help but notice the muscles in his stomach, arms, chest, and his beautiful tanned skin. I wondered what it felt like to touch his skin. Would it feel soft underneath my touch as I envisioned?
My thoughts were interrupted when Jacob noticed that I was gawking at him.
“What are you looking at?” he asked in an annoyed tone.
“Your muscles.” I said in a breathy tone.
“What about them? You’re really acting silly lately, Leah. Always saying dumb things like that, always looking at me funny. You’re not coming down with something are you? Don’t give it to me.” Jacob said in the same annoyed manner.
Later on Jacob and I sat together to watch the sunset.
“Tell me again, where is your mother and father?” Jacob questioned.
“In heaven.” I responded.
“Where’s that?” he asked.
“You know up there.” I said while pointing to the sky. “Maybe your father is up there as well.”
Jacob shook his head and said,” Oh no he is coming on a ship to take us home.”
As the sun was about to look like it hit the water,Jacob brought up what Charlie used to say when we were younger.
“Do you hear it?” he questioned me again.
“No, do you ever hear it?” I asked him.
“Sometimes I think I do.” Jacob said.
“I think Charlie was a liar. He told us there was a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow, and that was a lie. He told us if we dug far enough we’d reach China.” I retorted.
“And Santa Claus never came. Lee, do you ever think about... him? I do. Lee, I know you don’t like to talk about it, but don’t you ever wonder what- what really happened? Jacob questioned in a hesitant tone.
He brought up the worst day of my life. I never acknowledged what happened to Charlie and I never will.
“I don’t want to know what happened!” I exclaimed.
“I do.” Jacob said.
Several hours later, we were sitting by the fire roasting the fish we planned on having for dinner.
Jacob asked while roasting his fish, “There are so many things I don’t understand, like why do the fish stop swimming and lie on top of the tide pools after a heavy rain? Why do you hear the waves in side the big shells? Why are all these funny hairs growing on me? I wish a big book with all the answers to every question in the world would drop out of the sky right now and land in my hands. I’d read it till I knew everything.”
I felt Jacob was being silly so I answered him, “oh Jake, you can’t know everything. Only God knows everything. “
I guess it wasn’t a satisfying answer for him because he was quick to say,” God. He can’t find us any better than Santa Claus.”
Later that night as we were sitting in the hut and eating, I noticed Jake was drifting off into space so I thought I would try to get his attention.
I gave him a silly grin and I got nothing. I waved my hand in his face and still go no reaction. So as a last resort I ended up putting on the top hat and grabbed the pipe. I was pretending to smoke it.
Jacob finally broke out his trance to ask, “I wonder what fish think about?” He then looked over at me wearing the top hat and still pretending to smoke the pipe. “What are you doing?” He asked me.
“Trying to make you laugh.” I said. “Come on laugh, come on!” I encouraged with a smile.
Jacob wasn’t having it.
“It’s not going to work.”
He tried to tickle me in return with a grin on his face.
I was about to giggle when he said with a serious expression, “There it is again.”
I closed the music box to get a better listen and I heard drumbeats in the background.
“Think it’s the boogey man? Maybe it’s another person. No, or he would have came over and say hello.” That’s the proper thing to do.” Jacob enquisted.
I was starting to get scared so I had to ask “What if he’s not nice? What if he wants to hurt us?”
Jacob’s response was quick and to the point, “Then I’ll spear him.”
Once again I want to thank Jess for being the greatest beta ever and to Mist for being an amazing banner maker. I once again do not own Leah or Jacob, they belong to Stephenie Meyer and The Blue Lagoon belongs to Henry De Vere Stacpoole
