Ryan handed Shantel the crinkled piece of paper in Homeroom and sat at his desk quietly. She slipped it in her jeans pocket. Then she reached over him and dropped a note on his desk. He read it:
Ryan,
My grandmother is taking
me and my sisters to the
Holy Festival of Lights
tonight. Want to go?
Shantel
---
Ryan walked up the patio steps and Sigourney opened the door.
"Hi, Ryan," she said. "You can wait in the living room. We're almost ready."
Ryan sat on red and green pillows on the couch near a tall, faux, green, Christmas tree with red ornaments, sleighs and reindeer dolls.
A string of red lights circled around it all the way to a star ornament on top that lighted up. A red, tree skirt with white, fur trim covered the bottom.
Statues of Mary, Joseph and the three wise men surrounded baby Jesus in a manger decorated with white lights on a table beside the tree.
Shantel walked downstairs wearing a red blouse and blue jeans and placed a wrapped gift with green paper and a red bow on it under the tree.
"Hi. That's yours," she said. "But you can't open it until Christmas Eve. My grandmother's having a party if you can make it. You can bring your dad."
"I'm sure we can make it," said Ryan.
Ms. Wentworth came out of her room from around the corner. "Hi, Ryan." She went to the bottom of the stairs. "Skyler, we'll be in the car," she called.
Shantel grabbed her coat in the hallway and threw it on, going outside. Ryan followed.
---
Sigourney sat in the front seat while Skyler locked the house door. She hopped in the back with Shantel and Ryan.
Ms. Wentworth drove down a winding road with woods on both sides and a few houses in-between. She parked in a large lot where Christmas lights in all colors shined on all the trees, statues and buildings there. They shined brighter as the sky darkened.
Ms. Wentworth left the car and took Sigourney's arm. 'It's chilly, sweetie."
Skyler walked in the middle and Ryan held Shantel's hand.
Holy Christmas songs played from an outdoor speaker coming from the top of a life-sized manger in the center of the festival with a replica of baby Jesus in a straw bed surrounded by statues of lambs, sheep, cows and a donkey.
Several families entered a large church in the distance that connected to a building with a pitched roof and glass doors.
A statue of an archangel with armour, holding a sword and a shield, greeted everyone at the entrance of the festival trail.
Trees and shrubs grew on each side of the trail, leading to a statue of Saint Mary Magdalene.
They walked on, reaching the statue of Saint Joseph and further to one of Saint Peter.
Ms. Wentworth and Sigourney stopped at the statue of the Holy Mother and blessed themselves.
They headed to the statue of Jesus and whispered something quietly to themselves.
A statue of an angel, blowing a trumpet ended the trail.
Ms. Wentworth bought a candle at an outdoor stand in the center of the plaza beside a small, white building with tall windows.
YOU ARE READING
Sing Today Die Tomorrow
Mystery / ThrillerSomething wants him to die. Something else wants him to misbehave and another something wants him to hear lies. And he just turned thirteen. Ryan Ross doesn't understand what on earth is haunting him until a mysterious stranger leads him to a secret...
