A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.
~Jean de La Fontaine
The Christmas season arrived, and as always, my mother asked, “What would you like for Christmas?”
“A kitty, a puppy, and a pony,” I responded without hesitation. One could say I “placed my order.”
My mom explained we didn’t need another dog, as we already had one. Of course, I responded, “We do not have a puppy.” She had no protest against the kitty, although she may have said something about the cost of vaccinations. As for the pony, it was a downright “no.”
“Ponies are a lot of work,” she said. “Not to mention they cost a small fortune.”
A few days later, on a particularly cold December day, our friends called, begging us to take a kitten. Apparently, the mother had been killed. Once the kitten was in my mother’s arms, she instantly gave in to those darling, green eyes hidden among black fur. He was cold and wet, and my mother’s heart went out to him. She hand-fed him and tucked him inside her sweater until he was warm. Our friends named him Nicodemus, and there was no going back. I got my kitty.
A few weeks passed. Mom was coming home one evening when she spotted a stray mother dog and two puppies running in the road. She got out and tried to catch them, but only managed to catch one puppy. When she got the puppy in the back of the van, it snarled and snapped. I think the puppy thought it was much larger than it was. At last, Mom came home and brought the puppy in the house. The puppy was very scared, shaking and barking aggressively. It was rather snappish, so after lots of consideration, we named it Gingersnap. And there was my puppy.
At this point, I suppose my mom became a little afraid of a pony showing up. As a precaution, she bought a small pony figurine to give me on Christmas morning.
It seemed like forever until Christmas arrived. Finally, it did. I raced downstairs alongside my siblings and peered out the window. To my dismay, there was no pony. When I opened my stocking, I found the small pony figurine. Filled with disappointment, I looked into my mother’s eyes. “I wanted a real pony,” I said. It seemed as though my mother didn’t understand.
“I would get one if I could, but ponies are expensive and require a lot of work,” my mother responded sensibly. My heart sank.
A few days after Christmas, Mom was talking to the insurance man. I bet they had a normal conversation discussing each other’s Christmases. However, seemingly out of nowhere, the man said, “I had the strangest thing happen to me! This pony showed up in my back yard and won’t leave. Do you want it?” My mother about died laughing. Then she firmly said “no” and immediately hung up the phone.
— Rachel Katherine —
