Morrigan's Hallmark Christmas

Morrigan stood up, stretched, blew a loose strand of hair up away from her face, and frowned. She liked the idea of a huge, well-lit, well-decorated tree, but the string of lights was still as hopelessly tangled as it had been a half-hour ago when she had fished it out of the cardboard box.

The tree was pretty spectacular, she thought, even though it was standing there unadorned, and mocking her. Imagine! She was used to being the one doing the mocking of the naked figures in her presence.

Still, it was probably a good thing that she had agreed to let her neighbor Steve Harris talk her into a real tree. Because if this tree was artificial, she probably would have started disassembling it by now. She smiled and shook her head, though, as she remembered how he had insisted. Standing there in his red-and-gray flannel shirt and his 32-inch-waist Levi's, ax over his shoulder, tilting his head so that his cute bangs fell over one eye, inviting her to jump into the cab of his blue 1952 Chevy pick-up truck and drive out into the country to capture an eight-foot Douglas fir in the wild.

She decided to take a break from the decorating and walk down the street for a cup of coffee. A gentle snow was falling, as it had every hour for the past week, without melting or accumulating. Weird, she thought, as she watched shoppers walk briskly out of the brightly-restored storefronts, each of them a mix of Neoclassical, Georgian, Federal, Second Empire, and Queen Anne styles.

She heard the honk of a horn, and turned to see Todd Juergens, her other neighbor, his elbow on the doorframe of his bright red 1954 Ford pick-up truck. She waved as he stopped in the middle of Main Street. Cars came to a stop behind him, the drivers all smiling cheerfully as Morrigan stepped out into the street to chat.

"Hello, Todd," she said, then, "Hello, Buddy," to the black lab seated beside him in the cab of the truck.

"Miss Morrigan, how are you today?" he asked.

"I'm fine, Todd. Just struggling to get my Christmas decorations up."

"Aw, well ... I'll tell you what ... if you still need help this evening, let me know, and I'd be happy to come help. Right now, I've got to run out to the orphanage and take the kids to the shooting range for their holiday party."

Morrigan looked at the young man blankly as he ran his hand through his feathered mahogany hair. For a small town, Morrigan thought, they sure had some good barbers here. "Thanks, Todd," she finally replied. "I'll let you know."

Morrigan walked on up the street and turned into the diner. The bell on the door jangled as she stepped in and stomped the snow off her boots.

"Hey there, Morrigan," called out Candace from the kitchen. Morrigan returned her greeting and took a seat at the counter.

Candace came out, carrying a carafe of coffee, and poured it into the cup she set down in front of Morrigan, then smoothed her perfect pink waitress uniform and smacked her chewing gum. "So, city girl, what's it going to be?"

"Oh, I'm not here for lunch," Morrigan replied. "Just a cup of coffee."

"I'm not talking about the lunch menu," Candace said in her cute southern drawl, which Morrigan found curious, since they were in upstate New York. "I'm talking about, Steve or Todd?"

"I'm sorry?" Morrigan laughed.

"Sweetie, it's obvious to everyone in town that both of those boys have the hots for you. Now, it's your job to pick one!"

Morrigan cocked her head. "My job?"

"Yes!" Candace insisted. "Every year, some pretty professional woman moves here from the big city, and has a hard time adjusting, and then right about Christmas time, she comes to realize that all of her problems are the result of her big-city ways, and our small-town values are the cure for what ails her, and she falls in love with some cute local boy with a gruff exterior but a heart of gold. Now, doesn't that sound familiar?"

Morrigan just smiled, and tried not to laugh. Although Candace did have a point. Ever since she had moved here from the big city to take over running the local health clinic/animal shelter, she had realized that her sense of responsibility was running about 500 RPMs faster than her co-workers' ability to keep up. All the people around her, especially the men, seemed pleasant and supportive, but it also felt like they just didn't understand her. Well, maybe she should take Candace's advice and let one of these local men ... set the pace for a while. Or, at least, she could give it a try.

Morrigan sat back and sipped her cinnamon-flavored hot chocolate. The tree was spectacular; just lovely, sparkling in the dimly-lit living room with the snow falling beyond the picture window behind it

Of course, it had a Celtic maiden as a tree-topper instead of a star. But the rest of the tree was just laden with shiny multi-colored balls, shimmering garland and tinsel, and twinkling lights. And she hadn't had to lift a finger to decorate it.

Something else was sparkling and twinkling, too. It was the reflection of the tree lights, flashing in the polished chrome of the metal cock cage around Todd's genitals, as he knelt on the floor before her. He was otherwise completely naked, as was Steve, who was standing opposite Todd, with his hands crossed behind his back. His penis glistened slightly in the firelight, though -- slack now, but still moist from Todd's first-ever act of fellatio, performed for Morrigan's amusement just a moment ago.

Small-town values, she smirked. Candace had said she should pick a man and let him take the lead for a while. Well...

Naaahh.