Feel the Spirit by Laura E. Masters

Feel the Spirit
By Laura E. Masters

The heavy door to his room stood open as it so often did. She tucked her small body up against the wall and peeked around the door to see what he was doing. He sat across from her on his bed, his legs folded Indian style, a pile of metal fittings and wires from the ship in a pile in front of him. They were cast-offs that wouldn't be used to repair things. She watched him for some time as he wired bits and pieces together. He was so absorbed in what he was doing that he didn't realize she was watching him--until she sneezed.

Tank looked up from his work and grinned. "Are you hiding?" She shook her head rapidly. "C'mon in then, Imp."

She scampered into the room and climbed up onto the bed beside him. "What are you doing?"

"Making Christmas presents. It's Christmas time."

"Christmas time?"

He laughed and ruffled her hair. "Yes, Christmas time."

"I thought only *their* families did that."

"No. Some of us have Christmas, too."

"Why?"

His fingers stilled as he considered that. He remembered having Christmas all his life. It was something his family did. Presents got interesting sometimes and decorations were easier to make back in Zion, but there was always a way. That's what his mother and father referred to as "the Christmas spirit."

"It's a human thing to do. It's something that reminds us how lucky we are to have each other. It's a time to thank the people you love for standing beside you and fighting for hope, for each other."

"But how do you *know* it's really Christmas time?" Like everyone else that had been unplugged, she knew that once they left the world of the machines, the precision of time was lost. No one even knew what year it was. How could they know what day it really was?

"Can't you feel it?" he asked.

She concentrated on feeling Christmas. She screwed her face up in frustration. "I feel cold."

He laughed and set down his washers to pull his blanket around her shoulders. "There you go. That should help."

"So what's that supposed to be?"

He held up a finished collection of rusted metal that was wired together. "A Christmas tree. See the lights?" Some bits of red colored glass were adhered to the metal. She nodded, awed by his creation.

She dumped the objects from where they were cradled in her tunic onto the bed. She had managed to locate a scrap of metal sheet that was oddly shaped and small enough not to be missed. Small pieces of broken glass, clear, red, green, and orange rained down on top of the metal, making a tinkling sound. She set the cup that held the goop that served as adhesive on the bed.

First she separated all the bits of colored glass into piles. She wasn't sure how much she'd need, so she'd grabbed as much as she could find. Once it was in piles, she stuck her finger in the cup and then smeared goop on the back of a piece of glass. Turning it over, she pressed it down, hard, onto the metal.

She didn't know how long it took her. She didn't stop until a jeweled looking Christmas tree appeared on the sheet of metal before her. Her fingers and palms were covered with small nicks from working with the glass. A smile that seemed to glow crept across her face.

There wasn't any bright tissue in which to wrap the gift. She remembered another place and another time, less real than now, and the brightly colored packages in store windows. Then she remembered that she was human. She remembered that what she had now was more real than what she only dreamed of then. She remembered that *they* never really *had* presents wrapped in bright tissue paper.

The cloth that she wrapped around it was soft and threadbare with a few grease spots here and there. She clutched the gift to her chest and hurried down one level, through the corridor, and around the corner to where his room was. She set her package on the ground in front of the door and tapped rapidly before scampering back around the corner.

Tank opened the door and looked both ways down the corridor. The hall seemed empty. He noticed the lumpy object at his feet and picked it up. He remembered leaving the rag by the chair he'd been working on the day before. It dangled loosely around the iron sheet it covered.

He pulled back the edges of the cloth. The dim light radiating from his room caught the edge of the glass and made it sparkle. Someone else had gone scrounging for Christmas gifts. He smiled.

"Merry Christmas, Imp." He took one last glance down the corridor and disappeared into his room, closing the door gently behind him.

Imp, still hiding around the corner, giggled with happiness. Her heart felt like it was warm and bubbling and that made her very excited. Her angelic mouth formed an "O" and a breath of wonder escaped her. She'd felt Christmas.