"The Christmas Kittens. A Winter Tale in 3 Parts" Part 1

The Christmas Kittens. 

A Winter Tale in 3 Parts. 

Part 1.

Maryanne Riebling quickly glanced back to her five year old daughter to confirm her booster seat was fastened before cautiously proceeding as the light signaled green. 

Behind them lay incomprehensible carnage, literally, starting around the time Jinsue’s daddy Lev had succumbed to the plague that had transformed their colorful urban enclave into an actual morgue city, a landscape of the cruelly dead, box trucks marked “Refrigerated, for fruit” that actually contained the now seemingly countless victims of the plague. So many. There wasn’t room for so many dead, lost to the catastrophic tragedy that had transformed everything. 

Now, continuing to navigate Jinsue to her grandfather’s home, Maryanne enthusiastically continued her and her daughter’s sing-along.

The idyllic tableau of the sing-along, this strawberry blonde haired, nearly forty aged single mother, ponytail swaying as she bopped her head to the upbeat music, her smiling daughter giggling as she sang along with her mom in unison, emphasized their emphatic hopefulness as a trail of melody wafted in their wake, on a late bucolic December morning. 

The city that was getting further and further away from them as Maryanne drove calmly along the two way, grass lined road, lay in shambles.

It had not been just the plague, which had taken Jinsue’s daddy very quickly, it was the scale of the sadness and anger that had affected, it seemed, everybody. The morgues had run out of space and the refrigerated fruit trucks had been stealthily deployed, lest the numerous dead literally litter the streets. Maryanne experienced a fleeting memory of her daughter’s now deceased daddy as she calculated two, perhaps three hours before she would arrive to her childhood home in Rhode Island. 

Maryanne had never disclosed to Lev that their brief romance had left her with child; they had had a very good time and Maryanne had ghosted him long before she had learned her daughter was coming. And, in fairness, Lev hadn’t made much of an effort to stay in contact with Maryanne either; months turned into years without contact and then one day watching the news on television Maryanne had been quite startled over breakfast to learn that Lev had died. She had looked over to Jinsue, obliviously eating her cereal when Lev’s image flashed onscreen during the newscast: a doctor of some renown, felled by the plague that at that time had taken hundreds, not yet millions, of lives.

In telegraphing its cruel path, the plague took the doctors and other healthcare workers first. 

Maryanne cast her eyes downward as she remembered the evening they had met. 

Maryanne, still in her costume, had been making her way home from a Halloween party in the courtyard of one of her neighbor’s beautiful, historic homes. She was a few blocks from the party, almost a quarter of the way home, when she'd removed her mask. Just after Maryanne turned the corner she had nearly collided with a handsome stranger about her age. He was in street clothes and clutched a clipboard which held a patient’s chart. He had been speaking into his cellphone and Maryanne had heard him when he crisply said “I will call you back.” That’s when his piercing gaze had descended upon her: “Please accept my apology, I was too distracted.” 

He was really handsome, though not in the way her last boyfriend had been and Maryanne thought, “Great, finally a decent looking guy and here I am in a ridiculous Halloween costume! At least I am not wearing a mask.” Out loud she said: “It’s totally okay, happy Halloween, good night.”

Sensing an opportunity the doctor sprang into action. “Please, let me make it up to you, how about a drink later?”

Maryanne, who had now come to a complete stop, stood, in her ridiculous Halloween costume, and looked at the incredibly handsome stranger with increasing skepticism. He continued, “I’m Dr. Gizmo Leandro Tigre, by the way. I work over there.” He nodded toward the health sciences center in the new building across the street, and Maryanne’s skepticism abated. “My friends call me Lev.”

"Well, okay, since you’re a doctor, I guess it’s okay? However, I just can’t tonight.” She tried to mask her sense of awkwardness and amusement.

“This weekend? We sponsor a seasonal renaissance faire. Come with me? On Sunday at 1:30? You can meet me right here, on Sunday at 1:30. You don’t have to be in costume, however if you want to go in costume, what you are wearing right now is perfect… Yes? I’m usually just not that careless.” Lev smiled kindly.

Maryanne had thought that if he’d ever reached out to her she might tell him she and he had a daughter, however up until that moment at breakfast she had avoided the issue and it hadn’t really come up, much. Her friends had never met him and she had been functionally estranged from her family until recently. 

She was not actually estranged from them. They financially supported her; Maryanne had just stopped coming home for the holidays years ago, and they had never visited her home in the city, and eventually the only communication they had was the ongoing financial arrangement. Maryanne was now going home for the first time in sixteen years. 

After Lev died she had concluded to try harder with her family, now also dwindling. She wanted Jinsue to have at least one man in her life who loved her unconditionally and Kineth had never been truly terrible to her. 

Maryanne had left home when she had started college and had never returned. She had lived in four different cities in the past eighteen years, made few permanent friends and had mostly dedicated herself to her career as a leisure and hospitality researcher. 

Lev had certainly been brilliant and undoubtedly fun, however Maryanne questioned if she could have abided his pompous nature for a lifetime. She had also felt uncomfortably dissonant imagining a conversation between Lev and her own father, Kineth. Lev had possessed the steely determination of one who had been in charge of many lives, and in this way, he and Kineth were alike. 

Although the structure in which Maryanne had spent her first years was more castle than house, the Rieblings had lived simply. No one lived with her father at Rieb Damps any longer, not even a health aide. As a kid Maryanne had hated never having privacy from her parent’s employees; this had hastened her departure and then delayed her returns. Right about now though, she was looking forward to her father’s companionship and the weathered stone almost-castle. Maryanne wondered what Lev would have thought of it. 

Kineth had sounded happy that Maryanne was coming home and he had not asked any overly personal questions about Jinsue, which had been a great source of relief for Maryanne. 

“If you don’t have anything lined up, stay on through Christmas, New Year’s” her father had suggested, “It could be nice to have a child at the house again, especially over the holidays.”

Maryanne had listened carefully, reflecting on Kineth’s cautious, sober tone. That was the first time she had ever felt truly bad about not telling Lev about Jinsue. 

Mother and daughter stopped for a late lunch at a rest stop about forty minutes from her childhood home before taking on the last part of the trip. Maryanne ordered an extra plate of food to bring home to Rieb Damps. 

Although their stay was of an indeterminate length, Maryanne had packed light. 

***

They had just finished setting up the Christmas tree when Kineth had suggested going out for a walk. “We’ll have s’mores when we get back.”

Rieb Damps had only one neighbor along the wetlands of the New England coast. It was a theme park and Maryanne remembered it from childhood. It had closed around the time she had moved away. There was cyclone fencing demarcating the property line between Rieb Damps and the theme park, running the entire length of the one side and the back of the estate.

Maryanne had long loved playing and lingering at the patch of plum blossoms on her side of the property line. She had used to hoist herself up in those trees and from there could see not just over to one of the theme park rides, a smallish roller coaster with a giant lion’s head at the entrance to the ride, she could also see all the way to the now abandoned haunted house attraction, further along, almost at the beach. 

Even now, abandoned for years, she loved the sight of the theme park. It had become overgrown and ghostly and as Maryanne stood there with her father and Jinsue she thought of how much time had passed since she had distracted herself there for hours, with her friends from high school. 

“MOMMY, IT’S KITTENS.” Jinsue shrieked with delight. 

Maryanne’s father smiled quietly at his daughter as he addressed his granddaughter. “Let’s collect some branches for the fire so we can toast some s’mores, Jinsue.”

Maryanne quietly wondered if it was too cold for the kittens. Were they abandoned theme park kittens? Did they live on the beach? So many questions. 

Abutting the theme park’s cyclone fencing on the Damps side was an eight foot tall stone and steel fence. It was stone from the ground up, and then at around the six foot point, black steel. Every ten feet or so along the fence, embedded into the stone was a marble bench, about two feet wide. When they’d erected the fence, they had skipped installing around thirteen feet of length, so as to not disturb the plum blossom patch. This was the only place along the property line from where one could see into the theme park from Rieb Damps just by looking through the gaps in the cyclone fencing.  

“Mommy can I have a kitten, please!” Jinsue had her little fingers curled around the cyclone fencing, as she crouched under the plum blossom patch. Maryanne again glanced at her father serenely seated on one of the marble benches closest to the plum blossom patch. He motioned to a small pet shelter he had positioned within the plum blossom patch. Maryanne noticed it there for the first time. “Dad, do the kittens live in the plum blossom patch?” 

“They sleep here at night. They were born a few weeks ago, and have started to come and go. I’ve been feeding them with the gardener’s help, for the last two weeks, after their mother never came back. He thinks he can find homes for them. They are usually all here in the early morning. Jinsue, we are going to come back here very early tomorrow morning and you are going to pick one to be your pet.” 

Maryanne blinked back tears. How had she let so much time go without seeing him? 

That night, after s’mores by the outdoor den fireplace, there had been a very noisy storm. Maryanne had thought she heard a ghostly howling and had struggled to sleep. 

Early the next morning, coffees in hand, and a hot chocolate for Jinsue, they’d strolled back to the plum blossom patch and Jinsue had excitedly chosen a gray and white striped kitten with sparkling gray eyes, just as the gardener had placed the rest in carrying cases for transport. 

“Do you already have homes for them?” Maryanne had asked him.

“The missus! She’s taking them over to our neighbors, their son is a vet; he has an entire rescue operation in place. Bye bye!”

That night it stormed again and Maryanne dreamed that she was lost in an abandoned theme park and that a giant, glowing, seaweed festooned goblin was chasing her. Jinsue’s screaming woke Maryanne.

“Mommy, it’s a seagoblin! It’s chasing me!”

🙀 "The Christmas Kittens. A Winter Tale in 3 Parts" is fiction. Part 2 November 28th 2025 🙀

🥳

 

Counting Down to 20 #3

 

Counting Down to 20 # 2

 

Counting Down to 20 # 1

 

🥧 Celebrating Pi Day 𝝅

 Wishing all well and celebrating Pi day 2025, loyal readers! On deck for 2026:

A/M 20th Anniversary Edition, 

celebrating 20 years since the 1st edition. 

︵‿︵‿*20*‿︵‿︵

🎉 Welcoming 2025 🎉

Wishing you, dear readers, a wonderful year as we ring in 2025 🎉 thank you so much for joining us on this sometimes quixotic, hopefully memorable digital journey!

This year is very special for the blog because we are celebrating its 20th birthday*🎂

Fun piece of trivia: July 19, 2005 is the exact birthday, when we officially began development (Thanks POP/IMAP)! 

Still our most popular post, please enjoy "A Brief History of Nino's Block"! 

https://stanza28.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-brief-history-of-ninos-block.html

And Renwick is catching up to it 🦮. You can find Renwick here:

https://stanza28.blogspot.com/2021/08/renwick-exorcist-i.html

Coming up later this year:

"The Christmas Kittens: A Winter Tale in 3 Parts" and some other fun surprises as well. 

Find and enjoy the stanza28™ Fausse Arcade at:

https://stanza28.creator-spring.com/ and finally, thank you past contributors; it's future time 😉.  

*For the nostalgic, here is a link to our first blog post: https://stanza28.blogspot.com/2006/09/blog-post.html

The Making of a GOAT Scarf

 

Prereqs:

A cashmere sweater for upcycling ( I used a purple jumper, presumably from a purple Kashmiri GOAT).

A silk dress for upcycling ( I used a sleeveless dress, about an inch below the knee length).

Needle, thread & iron.

Step 1. 

Lay the sweater flat, cut the sweater across the chest in a straight line, just below the armholes. Take the bottom piece and cut open either the right or left side, whatever your preference, and iron flat (The remaining piece, use as a shrug).

Step 2. 

Lay the dress flat, pin the sweater piece lengthwise along the front of the dress and cut an equally wide & long length of the dress (add an inch on each side for a seam allowance). Iron silk remnant flat.

Step 3. 

Pin the two fabrics together good sides in, sew the edges together, leave about 4 inches at the bottom open. Iron flat. Turn inside out by hand. Finish by handstiching the remaining 4 inches. 

Enjoy your GOAT scarf :) 

The Blackout at Fegefeuer's Emporium III

 

Fegefeuer’s Blackout

A trembling and shaking began to overcome Fegefeuer’s Emporium. There was a loud rumbling thunderous sound as Fegefeuer’s eyes widened and perspiration collected on his brow, and then shock.

At first Fegefeuer had though it was a rare Las Vegas earthquake, however the sight he now beheld said different.

The rumbling continued, and the smoke Fegefuere had so assiduously arranged for had begun to billow away from an emerging center of activity, not far from the first aisle of the Emporium. Fegefeuer could not believe what he was seeing, and he struggled to retain his composure. 

In the center of what had been the first aisle, the ground was opening and light and stone were emerging, and dirt spewed out, like a darkened volcano. The fog continued to clear and a hill began to emerge and grow out of the chasm that had erupted. It was more than a crack in the floor of the first aisle; the first aisle was gone, the carpeting was gone and a craggy hill was rapidly emerging and growing into a two story, then three story, hill.

The fog continued to clear. Fegefeuer was terrified. Still attempting to compose himself, he outstretched his hand before him.

The hill continued to emerge from the ground and pierced and then collapsed the roof of the Emporium. Streams of intense sunlight crashed the tableau. A grinding sound continued, and then louder, and louder still, and finally the desert sky was suddenly visible above Fegefeuer, who looked up in trembling horror. 

Everything then became dark, as the streaming light disappeared and Fegefeuer caught his breath and clutched his hand to his chest in the unexpected moonlit desert evening.

What is happening? His mind's eye fluttered.

Below the Emporium was Fegefeuer’s cellar, where seven rows of desks and computer equipment sat, accommodating Fegefeuer’s other pursuit. When Fegefeuer wasn’t selling pool noodles he was composing and debugging lines upon lines of computer code under Las Vegas Boulevard.

His patient and analytical mind was not comprehending the vision before him. Where was the cellar? What had happened to the roof of the Emporium? How had this glittering, nearly black hill come to extrude from where the first aisle of his Emporium had been, just a few seconds ago? He clutched his chest again, wondering if he was having a stroke or a heart attack and astonished as to why he had no idea how to answer this question.

It was dark and Fegefeuer heard what sounded like shattering glass, only much louder, and he took a few steps backwards, disbelief quickly evolving into unmitigated panic.

All of the smoke gone, he looked up the glittering hill possibly six or seven stories tall, now towering before him, the parking lot nowhere to be seen, and Fegefeuere walked towards the hill, still clutching his chest and still beheld by terror and panic.

The next moment Fegefeuer was able to clearly recall went like this: he was flat on his back, in the cellar of the Emporium. He slowly looked up and saw the stairs that led to the end of the first aisle of the Emporium, which was again visible, one level above him. The lights were all out and it was stiflingly and uncharacteristically warm in the cellar. Seven rows of desks and computer equipment sat silently, with no humming, and emitting no flashing lights whatsoever. Haltingly, Fegefeuer forced himself off the linoleum cellar floor. He strained to reorient himself. Through sheer force of will, he reached for the water dispenser in the cellar. He poured a cup of it over his head, then another, and another. 

There was no longer a glittering stone hill towering before him, and the illuminated dessert sky no longer shone above, it was replaced again by the nondescript ceiling of the cellar. The lights and everything else in the cellar were still all shut off. Fegefeuer, haltingly, made his way up the stairs and incredulously looked all the way across the Emporium.

The smoke from the fog machine continued to scent the air, and it was still dark, and this brought a sense of certitude to Fegefeuer’s perception.

He had made his way up the stairs in the dark easily, from memory, and also because glow in the dark paint illuminated the path on the stairs and the exits. Now, behind the register, Fegefeuer retrieved and extinguished his flashlight, and began to more carefully survey his surroundings.

Nothing looked amiss, however it was warmer, much warmer than usual in the Emporium. Everything was turned off; the overhead lights, the air conditioning. The entertainment system, which provided atmospheric moody music was similarly silenced. Slowly, as Fegefeuer continued to regain his sense of composure, he noted and listened intently to growingly clear sounds of Strip traffic just outside.

Had the heat caused him to faint and hallucinate? As his mind continued to rapidly consider the possibilities, a whirring sound caught his attention; everything suddenly blinked back on; the lights, the air conditioning, the sound system.

Still confused, however, also exhaling in sincerely held relief, Fegefeuer made his way to the front door of the Emporium, and locked it, almost simultaneously flipping the old fashioned door sign to indicate the Emporium was closed. Fegefeuer turned back around and walked back towards the cash register, quickly considering that he needed a few moments to collect his thoughts, to decide if he needed an ambulance, to consider if everything might shut off again, and what he would do if it did... he was mentally scanning all of these possible eventualities when Fegefeuer noticed, across from the register, atop the burled walnut wall unit; the terrarium sat, EMPTY. 

The red, white and black milksnake Fegefeuer had named after himself had left its enclosure. Fegefeuer the Snake had exited the Emporium.

Part 2

Vencesla at the SPA

In the dimly lit spa waiting room, Vencesla was informed that her spa appointment had to be rescheduled. The hotel casino was experiencing a blackout, and they had been instructed to evacuate.

A full half hour later Vencesla sat in a pool lounger behind her hotel, awaiting permission to return to her room. The spa level was near the ground floor, so it had only been several small flights of stairs and hallway before Vencesla had been escorted to the rear courtyard of her lush accommodations. She absently watched some adults as they yelled “Marco!" “Polo!” in the dusking afternoon sun. There had been some splashing commotion afterward and she shifted her attention to her well laid plans; her spa appointment cancelled, and it seemed there was still some unrest at the resort. A man approached Vencesla, taking a seat in the lounger next to hers.

“Didn’t I see you at the “Will Call” earlier?
“Yes, I’m Vencesla.”
"Hello, I’m Keegan. I think our show tonight will probably be rescheduled due to this blackout.”

“Are you a Bunny Dolores fan?” Vencesla inquired, absolutely enchanted with this soft spoken gentleman who had struck up a conversation.

“Say, Vencesla, would you like to join me and my sister and her fiancé for dinner this evening? The show’s definitely cancelled. My sister is here on vacation with her fiancé. I was just in the pool with them, they have been engaged for a while, with no date set, and just before, he just started having chest pains while we were playing “Marco Polo.” We were passing the time until they give the all clear to return to their room. They decided to get married tonight. I sure could use an additional witness. We are getting a car to a place down the strip and then dinner in a little while. Would you like that? Two Bunny Dolores fans witnessing an impromptu wedding?”

“I would like that, thank you. Right now, or...?" 

Overhead, the public address system was informing the resort guests they could return to their rooms.

“Can you meet the party at the Concierge at 6PM? We will all leave from there.” Keegan gave Vencesla a confident smile.

After Fegefeuer’s Blackout 

Fegefeuer, in the aftermath of his blackout had decided against a hospital. He concluded instead to steady his nerves with a semi long drive north.

He felt almost as if he was being pulled there. He drove away from the Emporium, the sign on the door reading “Closed Due to Blackout.” He thought about Fegefeuer the Milksnake and wondered how the terrarium had shattered in the dark of what he had experienced earlier. He drove, past Charleston Peak, and continued north.

The Alien in the Desert

North of the glittering city, Hortense arrived at the alien cemetery. Hortense was more at peace now, the unease from earlier was subsiding as an earth automobile stopped, and a human emerged, a few hundred feet from where Hortense watched. 

Precious & Alfonse in the Hotel Lobby III

“You have a date for our impromptu wedding.” Precious repeated back to her brother, skeptically, but not unhappily.

“Wait til you see her, sis! It’s fate she should join us, our show was cancelled tonight because of the blackout.”

“Well, the car is going to be here any minute. What time did you tell her to meet us?”

“There she is!” Precious followed her younger sibling’s enthusiastic gaze to an approaching petite woman, who was smiling calmly as she approached them. 

“Thanks to my little brother, I have a Bridesmaid! So happy to meet you, Vencesla!”

“Congratulations!”

Alfonse smiled quietly as the festively attired party walked away from the Concierge, a happy group. Moments later they arrived at the valet, and briefly thereafter, in the waning sun of the American desert, the party arrived at a walk in wedding chapel. 

Later, in a secluded booth at a steak house of grand repute the jovial, impromptu group toasted to Precious and Alfonse. They had been served champagne by the staff, who had been extremely accommodating about the recent nuptials. Their car awaited in the parking lot, and Precious was feeling a sense of relaxation as she took her husband’s hand and they made their way from the booth and back to the parking lot. 

Alfonse, who had been subdued all night, suddenly slumped, his head rotating from one side to the other before he fell to the ground.

Precious cried out for her brother. Keegan had been walking behind his older sister, happily chatting with the lovely Vencesla and he and Vencesla had locked eyes, in panic, when Alfonse had crumpled to the ground. 

The Alien in the Desert II

Hortense outstretched its upper appendage, sensing Fegefeuer as he approached in the darkness. Fegefuer gasped as his senses fully appreciated that this was no usual encounter in the desert. As Hortense' appendage continued to unfurl towards Fegefuer, their bodies touched and a sudden white bright flash of glittering light encapsulated them both, and, just as quickly disappeared. Hortense was gone, dematerialized. Fegefuer was gone, dematerialized. 

Fegefuer's car sat, abandoned in the desert, and in the distance, a milksnake crawled into the night. 

Precious, Her Brother, Vencesla in the ER

He wagered at a slot machine across the parking lot from the ER, where his sister, Precious, waited. Vencesla sat by him quietly, praying silently.

"I want you to visit me next month, Keegan. Stay at my home, I will show you the city and everything in it."

He smiled at Vencesla, appreciative for this gesture at a moment when so much was in flux. 

"I accept, Vencesla, I will stay at your home, we will go out and see the sights!" He touched her hand, and quietly shifted his gaze to the Emergency Room entrance across the parking lot. Precious was emerging from the double glass doors. She had awoken this morning on vacation, single. She had been informed that she was now a widow, and the only next of kin to her recently deceased husband's children.

Keegan and Vencesla walked across the parking lot and embraced Precious. Keegan held his sister close and no one said anything. 

(Editor's note: The Blackout at Fegefeuer's Emporium is fiction.)

The Blackout at Fegefeuer's Emporium I

The Blackout at Fegefeuer's Emporium II (Available December 20, 2023)

The Blackout at Fegefeuer's Emporium III (Available January 20, 2024)