Lucifer Devil Jr.'s Christmas Surprise... And Other Short Stories

The Book of Wonders

They say you should be careful what you wish for, but her curiosity got the better of Mary Snow when she came across an old book in her Uncle Fred's library on December 25, 1919. Mary was seven years old, and it was the first Christmas that she celebrated with her entire family or rather with all the family members that were left after the Great War. It was one of the happiest days of her life, a day of carefree fun with her cousins Mathilda and James at her uncle's house, which was not really a house but an old manor.

The kids were all over the place. "Come get me!" James shouted at one point, inviting the others to play hide and seek with him. He was ten and rather tall for his age, so it was not hard for Mary to follow him into his father's library.

The library was a gloomy place with many books and apparently completely empty. It was strange, but somehow James had managed to disappear even though she was certain that he had run into this very room. Mary didn't really know what to make of it. Perhaps there was a secret room behind one of the bookshelves? Before they had come here, her mother had made her swear that she wouldn't touch one of her uncle's books.

"Why not?" Mary had asked.

"His books are your uncle's most prized possessions. He loves them more than he loves any living human being... Come to think of it, you'd better stay out of that library in the first place", her mother had said mysteriously.

But now that she had entered the library, she realised why her uncle liked it here: The room was so peaceful and quiet, like some sort of refuge from the modern world. And there were so many books here that it seemed that her uncle had amassed all the knowledge of the world in one room, at the center of which stood a huge desk.

One would have expected to find pictures of her uncle's family there or some letters he had written. But the only object on the desk was a book, an ancient, leather-bound volume entitled "The Book of Wonders."

It was strange that such a book should be here right now. Did it have something to do with her cousin's disappearance or was she crazy to even consider that possibility?

Nonetheless, Mary was curious. Despite the promise she had made to her mother, she touched the book.

Then, something strange happened. The book began to speak to her. "State your wish," the voice of a very old man said. At least that's what Mary thought - but as there was no one else in the room but her, it seemed to be a perfectly reasonable conclusion that the book had a voice.

To be absolutely certain that she was not imagining things and that her cousin was not playing a prank on her, she took her hand away from the book before putting it back on it again. The result was the same the second time around. She heard the old man's voice again. "State your wish."

Fighting the natural impulse to run away because the book scared her, Mary decided to try it. After all, a book like that that promised to fulfil all your wishes couldn't possibly be real, could it? Even she, a seven-year-old child, knew that. That's why she said, "I want every day of the year to be December 25!"

The old man's voice promptly replied ominously, "Then so be it!"

At first, nothing happened.

The world remained the same as it had always been.

Nonetheless, Mary knew she was in a room of the house she shouldn't be in, and she got out of it at once in order to do some damage control in case that something would happen.

On the other hand, it wasn't very likely. Perhaps this has been one of her cousin's pranks.

After a while, James reappeared. "Where have you been? I have been waiting for you to find me in the library for an hour!" he said accusingly.

"Yeah? About that - I'm not in the mood for your stupid games!" Mary replied.

"I don't understand why you are so angry all of a sudden!"

"Oh, you don't? You are really something, you know that?"

"Why are the two of you always fighting? Let's go outside and build a snowman," Mary's other cousin Mathilda, who was ten and the oldest of the children, suggested.

They built the biggest snowman Mary had ever seen. It took them three hours to do it, too, which is why the fact that the snowman was gone was the first thing Mary found odd when she woke up on the next day. She couldn't understand why the snow was still there though.

Was it possible that the snowman had come to life and walked away during the night?

Mary decided to investigate the matter.

Her cousins were fighting with each other during breakfast in the exact same manner and about the exact same thing as they had the day before. Mathilda wanted to spend the day outside, whereas James wanted to stay inside because he thought it was warmer in the house.

"What do you think, Mary?" Mathilda asked her at one point - just as she had done the day before.

"We could go outside and build another snowman," Mary said.

"Why do you say we should build another snowman? We haven't built one yet," Mathilda remarked.

"But we did yesterday after we played hide and seek,"
Mary said.

James looked at his cousin as if he thought she had gone crazy. "No, we didn't."

"Yes, we did! Why are you lying!"

"You only arrived here yesterday," Mathilda stated matter-of-factly.

"No, I arrived the day before yesterday - on December 24!"

"But, Mary, that was yesterday. Today is December 25," Mathilda replied and looked at her cousin as if she, too, thought that Mary was a little crazy.

"Oops," was all that Mary could say when she realised that her wish had been fulfilled: From now on, every day would be December 25.