From All of Us to All of You

It’s out! Well, it’s been out for a while, but today is the first time you can buy it as a stand-alone outside of the Boughs of Evergreen: A Holiday Anthology. So if you’re up for a short holiday read… All the proceeds go to The Trevor Project.

From All of Us to All of You takes place in Sweden. It starts with the celebrations of Saint Lucia Day which is a festival of light.

This time of year it’s pretty dark in the cold north, so we Scandinavians dress up in white dresses, put candles in our hair, and sing the Santa Lucia Song. It might sound strange, but it’s really beautiful.

Simon is in the church to see his niece perform in the Lucia procession together with his colleague Monica. Monica has told Simon that she’ll bring her son for Simon to meet, and Simon completely misunderstands her intentions.

¤¤¤

“Well, dear,” she said, turning to me, “this is my son Hannes. Hannes this is Simon.” We shook hands like good little gentlemen and added a polite nod. “Good, now you two talk, while I go and get us some more glögg.”

“Eh—” I began as she walked away.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted out. “She means well, she really does, but…you know.”

“Yeah, I’m not your type.”

“What?” Hannes looked alarmed.

“The blind-date thing, I’m not what you’re looking for.”

“Blind date?”

I pointed discreetly back and forth between us. “It’s okay, no hard feelings. It wasn’t like I asked her to set us up,” I said with a smile, even though it hurt a little to see him that taken aback by the thought of dating me.

“I’m not…she didn’t…it’s not…I’m not gay! It’s not a date…She just wants me to make some friends. Last week she arranged for me to help a young lady change over to snow tires in hopes of us getting along.”

Shit! I wished the ground would open and swallow me whole. I tried to pretend I hadn’t misinterpreted this whole situation.