Crystal Clear

By Anna Ragusa Clark

This is a compilation of fi ctional short stories and narrative poems about everyday life with a little twist from the authors agile imagination.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 31, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503553811

Anna Ragusa Clark

I was born and raised in Orange, Texas by parents of Sicilian decent. I just celebrated my fiftieth wedding anniversary with my two children, their spouses and soon to be seventh grandchild. I am a Registered Nurse with a bachelor of science degree and have dedicated most of my life working with the sick and injured. I love the career that I chose, and am proud to be a Registered Nurse. But, to be a nurse is to live in the real and serious world. For some time I have felt the need to escape into a world less demanding and full of fantasy. Choosing to write has given me the avenue that I have been looking for. In writing, I can invent characters that aren’t real and create situations that arouse the imagination. It’s my chance to live as a child and young mother once again. Anna Ragusa Clark

Book preview

AVA’S CHRISTMAS FANTASY

Ava lived in her private world. She experienced many fantasies before she was five. She would go to bed living one fantasy and wake up creating another. Her most memorable fantasy was the one she created at Christmas.

Ava experienced her fantasy on Christmas because she was bored and as most children, it was hard for her to understand or focus on any one thing for any length of time. Her imagination and short attention span kept her from hearing anything that was said. She used her imagination to her advantage and created fantasies that pleased herself. Christmas was one of those situations. Ava didn’t understand the true meaning of Christmas or the Nativity of Jesus. She used what she could see to create her Fantasy Christmas.

Ava’s parents attended church on Sundays. Ava was bored before they arrived at the church. After arriving, she would gaze in different directions, until she found something that interested her or she would take a nap. Either way, Ava never heard anything that was being said and if she heard it, she didn’t remember. Ava had counted all the lights in the church. She could tell you what was in the paintings on every window. She would move her head in different directions to catch sight of the sun shining through the windows. She sometimes sang with the choir.

Ava’s favorite time of the year was Christmas. Church wasn’t as boring during the advent season. Ava had more things to see, rearrange, add to or take away from. The Advent Wreath and Nativity Set were two of her favorite things.

The Advent Wreath was different from the wreath on Ava’s door. It had pink and purple ribbons and candles that were set on fire. Ava’s mom tried to tell her about the Advent wreath, but all Ava remembered was that the candles had to be lit before Christmas would come. Every week Ava would count the candles that needed to be lit with fire. She hoped that someone would light all of the candles at one time. She knew that when the candles were all lit, it would be Christmas.

During the Advent season, Ava’s parents sat up front so Ava could see the Nativity set. Ava loved the nativity set. It was larger than the one that her mom put under their Christmas tree. Although she loved the nativity set, she didn’t like the barn. It was an old barn that didn’t have windows or doors. Ava knew that Mary and Joseph were in the barn with baby Jesus and she didn’t want them to get cold. Ava wanted her dad to build windows and a door for the old barn: since he didn’t, Ava decided to put her dollar in the basket so the church could buy a new barn. After seeing her dad put his money in the basket, Ava kept hers.

Ava tired of looking at the barn and lay down on the half empty pew and took a nap. When she awoke from her short nap, she rubbed her eyes, to adjust to the bright lights. Ava was just as bored when she awoke as when she had laid down. She looked around the church and not seeing anything of interest, she refocused on the barn. It wasn’t long before Ava noticed that someone had put a lighted star outside the barn and there was no light on the inside for Baby Jesus. Ava didn’t understand that the barn didn’t need a light, because Jesus was the light. She pulled on her mother’s dress telling her that she wanted her dad to move the lighted star to the inside of the barn. Ava’s mom told her that the star couldn’t be moved, because the light from the star guided people to the barn, where Jesus laid… Ava thought to herself, Who would want to be looking for the barn, especially on Christmas when Santa was coming.

Disappointed because her dad couldn’t move the star inside the barn; her mind drifted towards the people in the church. It wasn’t long before Ava looked back at the barn. Searching through the barn with her eyes, Ava caught sight of the hay. The hay was stacked in the back of the barn and all over the barn, even in Jesus’s bed. Ava thought, Jesus liked lying in the hay. Ava’s mind drifted to her dad’s trailer. She would like to put some hay on the trailer and like Jesus, she could lay on it. She could have more fun riding in the hay on the trailer than coming to church. She thought her dad could take her and her friends on a hay ride. Ava was going to ask her dad to buy some hay and if he wouldn’t. She would ask Santa. Ava couldn’t wait to go home and write Santa another letter.

Bored with being in church, Ava started kicking the pew. The kicking was stopped by her mother, who placed her hand over Ava’s legs. Ava looked around the church, looking for something of interest. She noticed all the vacant spaces in the pews and wished that everyone would lie down and take a nap. With this idea,

Ava looked back to the barn were Mary and Joseph were kneeling. Mary and Joseph looked tired. Ava thought that Mary and Joseph needed a nap, but the barn was crowded and there was no place for them to sleep.

Ava had an idea; she would make room for Mary and Joseph to lie down. She would take the animals out of the barn. Ava looked at the sheep. The sheep were the smallest and the cutest, of the animals, so they could stay in the barn. Ava’s mind drifted: she thought that she would like a sheep to play with. She would ask Santa for a sheep when she wrote him for the hay. Ava looked back at the animals. She focused on the cow. She thought that the cow would have to stay, because baby Jesus might cry for milk. Ava looked at the camel and thought that the camel couldn’t be in the barn; because it was too big. Ava wanted to take the camel out of the barn, but a man wearing a funny looking hat was holding a strap that went around the camel’s neck. The poor camel couldn’t get loose, so Ava decided to let the camel stay.

Ava’s thoughts were disturbed, by the people in her church, who kept standing and kneeling. Ava noticed some men in the barn who were behind baby Jesus. One was standing and the other was kneeling. Ava could see that these men were wearing old clothing. She asked her mom if the men were poor. Ava’s mom told her that the men were called shepherds. Her mom said that the shepherds were watching their sheep, in the fields, when angels invited them to Jesus’s birthday. Ava wanted to go to Jesus’s birthday; she was tired of being in church.

Pouting because she had to stay in church, Ava looked back at the barn. It was still crowded. She looked at the three men that were wearing funny hats. The men were kneeling in front of Jesus. One of them was the man holding the camel by the strap, so the camel couldn’t get out of the barn. Ava asked her mom why the men wore the funny hats. Her mom said that the men were kings from other countries. They were called the Three Wise Men. Her mom told her that the wise men had followed the light from the star to find Jesus and gave Jesus His first birthday presents.

Ignoring what her mother said, about Jesus getting presents, Ava changed the subject and focused on the angels that she spotted over the barn. Her mom told her that the angels came from heaven to sing happy birthday to Jesus. The songs that Ava heard weren’t birthday songs, they were Christmas songs. That was alright, because Ava loved the songs. Ava looked at the angels who were over the barn and imagined that they were singing, and when Ava sang, the angels sang. Ava watched the angels as they moved their lips.

Ava knew Mary and Joseph. She knew that Jesus was the baby, in the barn and that everyone knew Jesus: that’s why they went to the barn. Ava’s mom said although Jesus was the smallest one in the barn, He was the greatest. She said that Jesus was a King, who was God. When Ava’s mom said this, Ava felt confused, because Jesus didn’t look like a King. The baby that Ava saw in the barn looked poor. This baby didn’t have any clothes, crib or a crown.

Like other children, Ava didn’t understand everything about Christmas and the Nativity. Her lack of understanding was limited because of her young age, short attention span and the boredom that she felt. Her mind drifted into an imaginary world. She created a fantasy that she could understand. She wasn’t ready to separate reality from fantasy. But down deep, she always knew that something great was going on. The nativity was too big for her to understand. Ava just needed to grow, until her mind was big enough, to take it all in.

A WISH AND A PRAYER

Joseph had been kept in total darkness and feared for his life. He remembered screaming as he fell. Before he hit the ground, he screamed out a prayer Oh God.

It was a hot dry day: Joseph was at the job site putting in his eight hours of work. The sun was beaming down on Joseph as he worked, in what he called bad conditions. Although it was only 87 degrees, he felt like, he was in a hell zone. Joseph wiped the sweat from his brow, as it ran down his face,