“The Christmas Kittens. A Winter Tale in 3 Parts” Part 3

 The Christmas Kittens. A Winter Tale in 3 Parts

Part 3

They were seated at breakfast and Jinsue, though she did not call him by any name, confidently addressed her grandfather. Kineth made an exaggerated quizzical gesture with his face, which he followed up with a smile, “I didn’t realize you were having guests last night, Jinsue! Christmas supper is at five tonight, the caterer is coming at three, and we aren’t otherwise expecting anyone. You can invite your seagoblin, we could still use a little help with the meal.” 

***

Rieb Damps’ exterior holiday lights emitted a hazy glow that was visible from the north-south, tree lined, two lane road that led to the heavy gates of the Damps. Most of the tree branches were bare in the wintry fog. The tree line was at about the height of a three story building and every few hundred feet there was a street lamp, illuminating the cold, dry afternoon. A short ride south on the same curved road led to town, and a bit further along led to the town’s oldest cemetery.  Shepherds, vintners, merchants and war heroes had been laid to rest there long ago, not far from the town founders. A weathered plaque adjacent to a family crypt announced Maryanne and Kineth’s forefathers as the town’s founders and earliest residents.

Bebe and Richard Novena, youthful newlyweds, had been caroling the town with their traveling improvisational dancing troupe for the last couple of days. This afternoon they had splintered off from the group to carol the cemetery, which they understood to be historic. 

Visiting the cemetery had been part of why they had joined the dancing troupe on this journey, away from their modest home a couple of hours north of the town by rail, however, Bebe and Richard had not able to persuade the others to carol the cemetery, and the majority of the troupe would be attending a small party at a chowder restaurant back at the town. 

“Bebe, look at this inscription, it says it’s the oldest cemetery from this era to survive and still be in private hands… they keep it open a few hours a week as a courtesy, it’s not part of the town or anything. Sensational! Let’s go carol their house, Bebe, as a way to say thanks. I know where it is.”  

Although at first Bebe had been concerned that Richard was wading into the wrong about invading the privacy of those spending the holidays at Rieb Damps, she also felt like she would like to try and get a look at the Damps, and thus she allowed herself to be persuaded by her more adventurous, and usually impeccably careful husband. Bebe thought of the other carolers, their agenda apparently set in stone in a manner she had felt was completely antithetical to an improvisational troupe, and decided to follow her husband’s lead. “Let’s do it!” she laughed, as she poured him and her a cup of cider and toasted their recent nuptials in the serene memorial park. 

Over at the Damps, Kineth had left the gates open to accommodate the soon to arrive caterer and also, it was his custom to do so on Christmas, as well as a couple of other times a year.   

The caterer had retained an assistant to help with the meal at Rieb Damps, and, as the assistant had been driving the caterer’s pick up truck as it had turned onto the road that led to the Damps, the caterer had been looking out the passenger side window, and that’s why she was able to see Bebe and Richard caroling at the front entrance of the Damps. Their costumes were first rate and their voices were melodic, powerful and beautiful, however, the caterer had wondered if they could even hear it inside the home, so, after some reflection, she made up her mind to tell Kineth about it.

“There’s carolers, Sir, at the front entrance, they look like a nice sort, I think I’ve seen her on the television before, they’re just caroling the road at the entrance to the Damps, sir, can you even hear them from here?”

Following some additional conversation, the caterer had dispatched her assistant back to the north-south road to invite the carolers in for Christmas Supper.

“Did you hear that, Jinsue? I see your Seagoblin and raise you Christmas Carolers!”

In the great room, Jinsue giggled. Next to the ornamented, glistening blue fir, she held in her arms her new kitten and made her big announcement. “The kitten’s a he and his name is “Slim Shady”.”

Maryanne had wanted to share with Kineth an anecdote about her history with Lev, over supper, and upon learning they’d be sharing Christmas supper with the complete strangers the caterer had encountered, decided to not wait until supper to share her story. 

“... so there we were, at this renaissance faire that his work sponsored, in complete costume, and I was telling him all about being a leisure researcher, and about how people go on vacations for experiences, because it’s what they remember even years later, when suddenly this guy dressed as a horse, collapsed! And Lev sprang into action, and he saved his life. Because I spent some time with him after that, I realized he could be really pompous about certain things, however, when he saved that guy’s life, he was so nonchalant, so humble; that’s the person I want to remember, always. Maybe I should have given him a second chance… and then it was too late… Lev died from the plague before they were even sure what it was…”

Jinsue, dressed for Christmas, had been listening dreamily as her mother told Grandfather about Daddy. That’s the most Maryanne had ever said about him in front of Jinsue. She clutched Slim Shady and threw herself on the sofa just as the caterer’s assistant announced the arrival of Bebe and Richard Novena.

Since their costumes were intended to be worn outdoors, they were quite heavy, and Maryanne asked the carolers if they wanted to change before dinner. Bebe looked at her husband in astonishment and appreciative admiration. Bebe would never have had the nerve to drive up to a strangers house and sing, at their doorstep, practically. And now, here they were, being feted by the town’s most elite family; the reason they were all here. Bebe thought of her counterparts at a chowder restaurant and felt quite satisfied, almost smug. 

Richard played the piano for them after they had changed, and the Novenas continued to sing, right until they all sat down for Christmas supper, which proceeded much more smoothly than Maryanne could have ever anticipated. Kineth had a gift for entertaining people and putting them at ease, and this skill he had, which he did not show to everyone, was fully observable as Richard excitedly shared about their recent wedding, and the places the improvisational troupe planned to visit in the coming year. Richard kept thinking about how many times, in so many different places, he had attended an opera or an exhibition at a cultural institution and read the same simple phrase, “Brought to you by Kineth Riebling Enterprises” and Richard felt so awed and happy that his wife had agreed to his plan. 

They had all finished their supper, however, their plates were still in front of them, when Kineth suggested they walk over to the plum blossom patch before dessert. 

“Perhaps you could indulge us on our walk by sharing the story of how you met Richard, Bebe.”

They walked.

“Well, that’s so funny that you asked! I was working a traveling renaissance faire a few years ago, and Richard was there too, dressed as a horse. I was trying to find the right person to introduce me to Richard because I already knew who he was and thought he was really handsome and funny and talented, however we didn’t have any suitable friends in common. I wasn’t in costume; I had been helping backstage with the music and lost track of him that day. A few days later it got around that Richard had collapsed and almost died at the faire. He’d had his life saved by a doctor attending the faire on a first date with his girlfriend! Well, I called and introduced myself to the doctor, a Dr. Gizmo Leandro Tigre. We had a friend in common who had also been there that day helping me with the sound. We made plans to go to dinner, so he could properly introduce me to Richard, about a month later. I tried to get the doctor to invite his girlfriend, however he was quite circumspect about that, very private; we couldn’t even get him to tell us her name, and she was in costume that day, so we didn’t really have any idea what she looked like… so that’s it, we all had dinner, and he went back to his life and we began ours, and it all went so quickly… When everything started becoming quite monstrous with the plague we were overseas, visiting family, and decided to stay there for a while. It wasn’t until we started planning our wedding last year that we learned that the doctor had died! Last month we dedicated our small wedding ceremony to him. The friend we’d had in common wasn’t there either, the plague claimed him too… I’ll show you the program with the dedication, I have one in my handbag.”

Jinsue walked, clutching Slim Shady; she leaned against Kineth, who had grown quite silent in his tuxedo. Maryanne was looking at her father, searchingly, when they arrived at the plum blossom patch, adjacent to the abandoned beachfront theme park.

Suddenly, overhead, a glow began to descend, a whirling funnel cloud of a wind, tinged in smoky light; a seagoblin howl. Misty, it began to encircle the group. The whirling apparition emitted a terrifying crashing howling sound and an already spooked Jinsue screamed. 

“The seagoblin, it’s back!”

The hairs on Slim Shady’s neck stood and the tiny kitten leaped away from Jinsue as the apparition overhead grew brighter and louder. 

Now lagging several feet behind the Rieblings, the carolers stood terrified; they held each other in stunned silence. The excitement they’d recently happily exuded was replaced by terror, and regret. Why had they come here? Had some evil thing possessed them in that cemetery earlier, would they ever leave Rieb Damps? No one knew where they were except the caterer! 

It thundered, and then there was lightning. The sky was ghastly- completely illuminated in mordant hues of green, and choking smoke and the piercing sounds of a screaming wind that had to be more than weather. The giant lion’s head of the abandoned roller coaster at the theme park seemed to mock them in the terrifying moment. 

Kineth stood up, completely straight, he placed his arms protectively around his daughter and his screaming granddaughter, and as he looked up, the violent sounds took on a slower, more melodic rhythm. 

Another apparition appeared in the sky, glossier, and the wind calmed. The glossy apparition seemed to take shape as it completely surrounded what Jinsue perceived to be a giant seagoblin in the skies above Rieb Damps. It exuded an indigo light and swallowed the screaming sounds of thunder and choking smoke. 

The carolers began to relax. Instinctively, they began to sing. The skies calmed overhead. Maryanne thought she saw the silhouette of a giant purple cat in the sky as the winds calmed and quieted. They were completely enveloped in this light and it was tinged with a bit of warmth and whatever it was, it pushed the seagoblin back out to the New England coast.

Jinsue was completely calm now. Her gaze went from the suddenly serene skies above her, to the apparently undisturbed plum blossom patch. At the foot of the patch was Slim Shady and very close next to him another tiny kitten, seemingly from the same litter, overlooked by the gardener, white. The kittens were untroubled. 

Kineth picked them both up, he looked around to see that everybody was okay. They all started walking back towards the manse. 

Back in the dining room, each in their own way recalibrating after such seemingly inexplicable events, they prepared for dessert. After a pensive dessert, throughout which Maryanne said almost nothing, the Novenas pleasantly and quietly departed. 

***

Thoughtfully closing the front door after the Novenas, Maryanne tells Kineth that she and Jinsue will stay and they will name the second kitten after Lev.  

***

A couple of hours later, Bebe and Richard Novena repose at the lounge of their hotel, they are reflectively playing the piano and trying to make sense of the events of dinner when members of their traveling improvisational dancing troupe arrive back from their party at the chowder restaurant. 

The End

🙀 "The Christmas Kittens. A Winter Tale in 3 Parts" is fiction. Part 1 October 28th 2025 🙀

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

"The Christmas Kittens. A Winter Tale in 3 Parts" Part 2

The Christmas Kittens. A Winter Tale in 3 Parts

Part 2

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!”

Maryanne was staying in her bedroom from childhood. There was a very old fireplace in it and on three of the four walls, about eight feet up, a little more than half of the way up, wallpapered newer walls covered the original walls, which were stone. The pattern on the wallpaper matched the very heavy curtains over the glass door sliders which led out to Maryanne’s slate patio.  Down the hall there were some rooms that would be perfect for Jinsue, Maryanne had thought. Maryanne’s elderly aunt had lived in them and they had reposed empty and silent since Viola had died, when Maryanne had been twelve or thirteen. For now however, Jinsue was also sleeping in Maryanne’s old bedroom, because Maryanne was concerned about overwhelming her daughter with too much change.

The enormous stone home, built by Maryanne’s ancestors, featured nearly identical slate patios adjacent to all of the bedrooms. All of the bedrooms opened unto the back of the home and thus, most had at least a partial view of the ocean. Although Maryanne had not visited in many years, there wasn’t any sense of neglect to be detected within her quarters. There were other parts of the house that did feel more their age: the screening rooms where Maryanne’s mother and Kineth had wined and dined their variegated guests; a brick handyman’s “closet” larger than an urban apartment; the consecrated chapel in the cavernous, sunlit cellar. Maryanne had suspensefully watched Jinsue as she had taken it all in when they had first arrived at the Damps.

When Maryanne awoke to Jinsue screaming she had fleetingly forgotten where they were. For a moment, more than a moment, for a few scary seconds, Maryanne thought they were both being chased by a seagoblin, through the abandoned haunted house at the beachside theme park next door. 

Maryanne reflexively sprang out of bed. Her hand followed the texture of the old familiar wallpaper until she was switching on the big chandelier. She then hugged Jinsue, “It was only a dream, my love, everything is okay.”

With that, Maryanne put her and Jinsue’s slippers on, as well as the wooly robes she had packed for each. She cracked open the patio sliders, activating nearby exterior floodlights. They cast a warm glow on Maryanne’s patio on that cold night. Maryanne carried Jinsue out to the patio on her hip. She pointed: “Look at the beach. Can you see that, Jinsue? That’s real. The seagoblin was fake, just a dream.”

Maryanne and Jinsue listened to the soothing sound of the waves breaking on the nearby shore. Maryanne hugged Jinsue, now in her lap, as they sat on the tufted upholstery of the iron patio chair lounger. And then… there was a ghostly sound, an eerie seagoblin sound, distorted and distant, which startled Jinsue. She hugged her mommy even more tightly. 

Maryanne had never, even for a moment, felt afraid at Rieb Damps. That sound was probably just something in the distance, distorted by the night wind, it was definitely not a seagoblin, and Maryanne didn’t want to teach Jinsue to be afraid, not at home in the city and definitely not at Rieb Damps. However, it was very cold; it was late December in Rhode Island, so Maryanne, still hugging her kind, sweet, obedient daughter, took her back inside to the warmth of her childhood bedroom, and soon they were both again deeply asleep. Throughout the entire episode, at the foot of the fireplace, the as of yet unnamed kitten had not stirred from its profound and breathy sleep.

“Did you hear the seagoblin last night?” 

They were seated at breakfast and Jinsue, though she did not call him by any name, confidently addressed her grandfather. Kineth made an exaggerated quizzical gesture with his face, which he followed up with a smile, “I didn’t realize you were having guests last night, Jinsue! Christmas supper is at five tonight, the caterer is coming at three, and we aren’t otherwise expecting anyone. You can invite your seagoblin, we could still use a little help with the meal.”

[To be continued...]

🙀 "The Christmas Kittens. A Winter Tale in 3 Parts" is fiction. Part 1 October 28th 2025 🙀

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

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

"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 🙀

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