Free Briana's Gift by Lurlene McDaniel

injection barrels, a surgical mask, empty test tubes and pill bottles.
    Christmas is everywhere. Except at our house. Mom asks me, “Do you mind if we don’t decorate this year?”
    We have an old artificial tree that’s hard to assemble, but I do it every year. Then Mom and I throw on some lights, ornaments and tinsel. Last year I tried squirting on artificial snow, but the stuff gave me an allergy attack. “I’ll go to Melody’s if I want to look at a tree,” I tell Mom, disappointed. She looks relieved.
    I place a few candy dishes around the living room and fill them with Christmas candy from Wal-Mart. I also put my pots of Christmas cactuses on a red velvet placemat on the coffee table. Amazingly, the plants are still alive, and full of buds. I’m feeling pretty good about my efforts, but when Stu and Melody drop by, Stu says, “Whoa! No Christmas this year? I’m Jewish and we decorate more than this.”
    “Mom’s not in the mood,” I say, my feelings hurt. “And where is it written that we have to decorate for Christmas anyway? Who cares?”
    Melody asks, “Where will you stack your presents?”
    Doesn’t she get it? Mom and I aren’t doing Christmas this year.
    “I know.” Melody doesn’t wait for me to answer. “You can put them in front of the fireplace. On the brick. That would be pretty.”
    “Won’t Santa trip over them when he comes down the chimney?” Stu jokes. “Do you want Santa to sue you?”
    “The fat boy’s on his own,” I snap back.
    “We can help you decorate if you want,” Melody offers.
    “What part of ‘not this year’ do you two not understand?”
    They glance at each other; then Stu sends me a sidelong look. “Sorry. I didn’t mean for it to sound like a critique. I was just trying to make you smile.”
    Not much amuses me these days, but I shrug, implying that I’m okay and all’s forgiven.
    “I brought a DVD to watch,” Melody says, changing the subject. She scoops a thin box from her purse. “A holiday comedy,” she says. “Want to watch it with us?”
    “Sure,” I lie. I’m feeling contrite about getting angry at them. “I’ll get some popcorn going.”
    Stu reaches into a sack he’s carried inside. “Popcorn and sodas are on me. This is a full-service cinema experience. You get to sit. We know the way to your microwave.”
    They head for the kitchen and I settle on the sofa, my feelings in flux. They’re trying to make us a threesome again, as tight and carefree as we were in the old days. Except that everything is different now. Not just with what has happened to Bree, but for what’s happening between the three of us. My feelings for Stu have not gone away like I’d hoped. And my friendship with Melody isn’t the same anymore either. I feel caught in some mysterious current that’s moving me along a stream I can’t control. I’m a leaf adrift on a winter current that will not let me go.
             
    The holiday break and our final concert are only days away. The band is in the auditorium and in the middle of a huge dress rehearsal with the elementary kids from first through fifth grades. The kids are all talking at once and teachers are trying to restore order when Melody nudges me and asks, “Isn’t that your mother in the back?”
    Sure enough, Mom is hurrying down a side aisle toward the stage. I go cold. She never comes to school to see me unless…I set my flute on my chair and rush down the steps of the stage to meet her. I almost trip over a pack of second graders being herded into place. “What’s wrong?” I see by her expression that
something
is wrong.
    “Get your things. The hospital called. Ready or not, Bree’s baby is coming.”

“ W hat happened?” I ask once we’re in the car. My whole body is shaking.
    “Dr. Kendrow called and said the baby’s heartbeat was slowing and so they were taking Bree up to Maternity for an immediate C-section.”
    I rapidly count the number of weeks until January fourteenth,