The Watcher - A sci fi Christmas Carol - 1. Only Chapter

It’s cold. So very cold.

It’s been four days since young Drew ran away from home but it seems like an eternity.

He’s cold. He’s hungry. He’s tired. He’s got nowhere to go.

He’s cried so much in the past four days that he doesn’t think he can cry anymore. The feeling of emptiness in his stomach reminds him that he hasn’t eaten anything since he left home.

It’s not like he had wanted to run away. He hadn’t had a choice.

He thinks of home, but it’s an exercise in futility. He can’t go back, so he shouldn’t think of it. It’s not like his family was the best family in the world. But it wasn’t bad either.

If he’d been more careful. If only he’d listened to his best friend Andrew and hadn’t follow his heart. If he hadn’t told Don about his feelings for him… but it was too late now.

Don had told Coach Gareth about him. And Coach Gareth had told Mr. Evans, the school’s principal. And everything went downhill.

Drew couldn’t go back home. His mother had made it very clear that she’d killed him. She’d said she’d rather see him dead than having a fag for a son. And she proved she wasn’t lying when she hit him. She hit him so bad his right arm was now hurting like hell. And his freckled face… he was sure he had a huge bruise on his right cheek.

So he ran away.

And so he’s here.

He’s been thinking about begging, but he just can’t bring himself to it. He’ll have to, eventually. He has nowhere to go. No family. No friends. And he’s only fourteen years old.

He exhales vapor. He feels dizzy. Maybe cause he hasn’t eaten? The only thing that comes to mind is food.

A woman passes by, two kids behind her, laughing. They’re happy. It’s Christmas after all. They’re all carrying presents. Mom’s telling them about Christmas dinner.

Tears cloud his eyes. He feels them roll down his cheeks and they burn.

He feels another wave of dizziness.

And he passes out.

***********************

‘Sometimes it’s so hard to understand humans in this day and age…’ he thinks as he looks at the image displayed in his liquid monitor, that of a lonely young boy, hungry and cold.

Ever since he became a watcher he’s witnessed so many things through his window that he doesn’t think anything amazes him anymore. But it does.

Maybe he’s soft, like his partners tell him. Or maybe he’s not gotten used to being just an observer. He can’t, he just can’t just stand there and watch the human suffering.

***********************

Stephen’s apartment is small, but cozy. He’s sitting in front of his artificial chimney, drinking from a hot cup of Christmas punch.

He’s turned fifty this year. Across from him, Barkley rests, his fur finally healed after so much love and care from the man who took it out from the street and gave him a home.

Persephone, curled next to Barkley, suddenly opens her eyes and looks in Stephen’s direction. She too was rescued from the streets not a year ago, on Christmas Eve. She was small and thin beyond belief back then. And now she is a spoiled house cat like many around the world.

Stephen smiles as he looks at Barkley and Persephone, his only friends, his only family. He suddenly realizes he doesn’t feel alone, even when he has no family left. His only family member, his mother, passed away three years ago.

The one thing he regrets, he thinks as he sips from his punch, is never having kids. But his job had always come first.

‘If I had taken life at a more relaxed pace…’

But he doesn’t want to go there again.

Relationships hadn’t really been his thing either. He had never been good looking and that had probably made him insecure. Sure! Lots of one night stands and irrelevant sex with strangers.

He wonders why he’s thinking about his life just now. Because it’s Christmas, perhaps? Or maybe he’s just getting old.

Or maybe both.

Yes, it must be that he’s getting old.

With those thoughts in his mind he falls asleep. Persephone jumps from her spot and curls at his feet.

***********************

A blinding light brings Stephen awake. As he opens his eyes, there’s a man standing before him. Or maybe it’s not a man. He’s tall, just very tall and his skin is milky.

“Hello, Stephen.” The being says.

His voice is soothing, with an almost musical quality to it. Stephen tries to move, but discovers that he can’t.

“Am I dead?” Stephen asks.

“Far from it…”

“Who… what are you?”

The tall being smiles. He extends his arms and light pours from behind him. All of this is so Scrooge-like, that Stephen can’t help but ask.

“Are you… the Ghost of Christmas present… or something?”

The being laughs a musical laugh and looks at the man with gentle eyes.

“I guess you could call me that if it makes you understand my nature in an easier way.”

“Why are you here?”

“There’s something I want to show you. Would you come with me?”

Having said so, the being extends his hand palm up waiting for Stephen to take it. Stephen hesitates. Is this creature an angel? Is it a ghost?

“What are you?” he asks again.

“Come with me…” the being says for an answer.

Stephen takes the creature’s hand and before he knows it, his home is gone. They’re sitting on thin air and there’s light all around them.

A portal opens beneath them and a dark alley appears before Stephen’s eyes. The being steps down holding Stephen’s hand.

The boy is unconscious, but he’s shivering anyway. Stephen kneels down next to the boy.

“Who is he?” he asks.

“A boy who has no one,” the watcher says.

Stephen takes the boy in his arms.

“He’s so cold!”

“And hungry,” the Watcher says, “and all alone in the world…”

Stephen doesn’t think twice. He stands up carrying the boy and turns to look at his visitor, but he’s gone. He walks outside the alley, suddenly recognizing the corner where he stands, three or four blocks from home.

He continues to walk, just thinking about bringing the boy inside the warmth of his home. Nothing is more important now than to keep him warm.

When he crosses the threshold to his little apartment, both Barkley and Persephone turn to look at him askance. He walks all the way to the bedroom and places the boy down on the bed.

He moves the spreads aside and, after removing the boy’s shoes, he covers him to the neck. He relaxes a little when the color starts coming back to the boy’s face. Only then Stephen goes back to the kitchen to heat the punch and what remains he has from the frozen turkey he bought at the super market.

He comes back to the bedroom holding a cup of hot punch and sits down on the bed looking at the boy’s freckled face, a lock of his dark blonde hair falling over his left eye.

“Come on, boy, come on…” he says.

Young Drew opens his eyes blinking rapidly and stares back at Stephen.

“Dad?” he asks, “Why do you look so worried, daddy?”

Tears fall from Stephen’s eyes when the boy calls him dad. He knows the Watcher has worked some kind of magic in the boy's mind, or soul. He wonders why the being has done it, but he doesn not find the answer.

“Daddy?” Drew asks again.

Stephen opens his arms and hugs the boy close to his chest.

“I love you, Drew,” he says.

He always knew that when he became a father, this is exactly what he would feel. Drew’s bright blue eyes look at him.

“I love you too, daddy.”

***********************

The Watcher’s smile is wide as he looks the scene unfolding before his eyes.

“Dar?” the other one asks.

“Yes?”

His smile betrays his actions.

“You did it again, didn’t you?”

Dar nods and smiles again.

“I’ll never understand your compulsion towards helping these uncivilized creatures …”

“I know,” Dar says peeking once more through his window. Both father and son are still holding each other.

And Dar is still smiling.