The Magic Pillow

The next day was Christmas Eve and when I woke up it was already snowing. The snow seemed to be coming down in giant white sheets. I checked the weather online to see if we could make our travels to see our families. Unfortunately, some of the highways were already starting to close so I knew that we would probably end up staying home for the holiday. I also decided not to go into work as I had originally planned and I knew I would have to suffer the consequences with Max later on.

As I was just starting to sip my coffee, Ben started barking like crazy and ran towards the door. I was still in my pajamas so I was a bit hesitant to open the door. I walked around to our spare bedroom and peeked out a small window on the side of the house and noticed that it was an express delivery service. I quickly ran over to the door to greet the deliver man.

“Good Morning” the man uttered as he quickly pulled out a pen to get my signature.

“Are you Miss Jenna Lane?

“Yes I am.” I said as I must have looked puzzled at the driver. I couldn’t remember ordering anything online so I had no idea what the package was for or where it came from.

“This must be a very special package.” The driver said as he shook his head to the side.

“Why do you say that?” I asked.

“Well, we’ve been holding this package for nearly 8 months with special instructions to deliver this to you today.”

“Sign here.” he said as he turned around and trudged his way through the snow to make his way back to his truck.

I quickly took the box into the kitchen where I cut open the box to see what was inside. I pulled paper while Kyle and Ben watched. “It’s…It’s from Aunt Sarah” I said with a puzzled look on my face as I read the letter which was tucked inside of the box.

The letter said “Dear Jenna, before your Aunt Sarah died, she asked that this be delivered to you on Christmas Eve. Sweet Dreams.”

I wondered what could be inside the box wrapped with velvet green paper and a silk bow. My mind was racing wondering what my aunt could have left for me. As I gently pulled the paper off the box, Kyle exclaimed “could you hurry up?”

I glared at Kyle as I pulled off the wrapping paper and started opening the box. When I lifted off the lid I saw dark blue velvet and tassels.

“It’s a pillow. What a strange gift!” Kyle shouted as his voice filled with laughter.

I noticed all of the intricacies’ of the pillow. On the back of the pillow there was a pocket with a zipper and the zipper clasp was engraved with the words “sweet dreams”. The ends of the tassels were tapered to allow for small emerald stones that were attached to each tassel. The gold stitching around the edges of the pillow were in the shape of tiny little waves and were the perfect accent to the dark blue velvet. It was a decorative pillow but the perfect size to fit the shape of a head. I became quiet and quickly took the pillow back to our bedroom and laid the pillow on the bed.

I walked back to the kitchen and started making lunch for us as we watched out the window to see the snow falling in what seemed like bucket loads. There were already several inches on the ground and we watched the weather anxiously hoping the main part of the storm would pass us by. That afternoon the snow fell and piled up to 10 inches.

“Why don’t you turn on some music” I said as I poured a glass of wine. “Our Christmas Eve dinner will be ready soon.” I cooked up a feast even though it was just us and Ben.

As we sat down at the table things felt so different. Kyle and I had been so distant for so long that I almost felt as though we were two strangers. We engaged in some small talk but nothing beyond that. Was this really the way a marriage was supposed to be?

Growing up I always pictured myself in a deep meaningful relationship and now it is the complete opposite.

“This lasagna is great” Kyle said as he took his fork and scraped his plate for the last bite.

“Thank you” I said as I took several more sips of my wine.

“You know, this really is relaxing” Kyle said as he finished chewing his last bite. “All that rushing around for Christmas can really get stressful and right now I feel very relaxed” Kyle stated. “Do you want to open our gifts tonight or should we wait until tomorrow morning?”

“Could we open a few tonight and then open a few tomorrow?” I said as I tried to get the uncomfortable feeling out of head. I just didn’t want this feeling to be between us anymore but I was unsure as to how we could over come it.

“That’s a great idea and I’ve already lined up some Christmas movies for the rest of the evening as well” Kyle said with excitement.

“Who knows, maybe you are going to get another pillow” He said jokingly. I glared at Kyle with my green eyes signaling that I was not happy with his remarks.

“I’m sure that the pillow was very special to Aunt Sarah and I’m sure there is some special meaning behind it”

“But still, the woman was wealthy and all she can leave you is some old pillow?” Kyle said with disbelief as he shook his head from side to side.

“That’s enough.” I firmly stated as we both cleared the table and headed for the tree.

“Open this one.” Kyle suggested as he brought the gift over to me.

I quickly unwrapped the gift and it almost seemed as though nothing was in the box until I reached towards the bottom and found two airline tickets to Australia inside. I felt numb as I looked at them. This time alone together at Christmas felt awkward enough but now I would have to go on a trip with him. As I thought for a moment I decided that this could be exactly what we need.

“Thank you Kyle but we can’t afford these tickets.”

“Relax, I turned in some frequent flyer miles from all of my recent business trips and thought it was time for us to go somewhere special. Besides, if we want to have children soon I doubt that we could take a trip like this so we should enjoy ourselves while we can.”

“Ok, but I doubt that Max will let me off of work long enough to go and who knows he may hire someone else to take my place by the time I get back”.

“He’s a first class jerk and you are probably better off finding a job somewhere else.” Kyle said with a serious look on his face.

I felt nervous inside wondering how I would talk to Max about taking the time off. After all, I had only taken off work 5 days for the whole year and he was angry about it. I quickly grabbed my glass of wine and increased my sipping frequency.

After we had finished unwrapping our gifts we went to bed but I just couldn’t sleep. I knew that my job no longer gave me fulfillment and I always had that feeling inside that I was meant to do something much greater. I just wasn’t sure how to move on and make the changes that I needed in my life. Questions just bombarded my mind and I felt like my brain was going to explode.

I grabbed the pillow from my Aunt Sarah and went to the couch. I looked at the pillow and still couldn’t believe that I had received it today after Sarah had passed away nearly seven months ago. I grabbed the pillow and placed it under my head and quickly fell asleep.