#5 - shirt stains

CHRISTMAS
krisməs/
noun
1.the annual Christian festival celebrating Christ's birth, held on December 25 in the Western Church.

In Winthrop Christmas was quickly approaching and Maya felt the opposite of festive. While all around her small town, people used the upcoming holiday as an excuse to ignore the strange event that occurred at the dinner party, it only reminded Maya of her own personal tragedy. Christmas's of previous years were spent making an extravagant gingerbread house with her mother, and bundling up in knitted scarves and caps in order to watch the Winthrop Christmas Tree light up in front of their apartment building. However, this year, she was on her couch, huddled under 5 quilts because her heating was out. Her teeth chattered as she flipped through channels on the television. Fixer Upper, Spongebob Squarepants (it always seemed to be on), some Animal Planet show, and a channel that played "A Christmas Story" on repeat until Christmas Day. She skipped past all of those until finally deciding to leave her house, which she rarely did nowadays. Maya had left her house a total of two times since her mother died, once to go to the god awful dinner party held in Winthrop's basement, and the last time was to get a cup of apple cider from C's Coffee N' Bagels (they had the best cider, it was sweet and the cinnamon always tickled your tongue). Maya headed to her bedroom and selected a pair of black skinny jeans and her mothers university sweatshirt (it was hunter green and had "Virginia" plastered on the front). When Maya opened her heavy front door, a small red snow globe with a bright yellow duck wearing a Christmas hat inside was in front of her. She gingerly picked it up, and studied it, her eyes suddenly brimming with tears. Withdrawing back into her apartment and sliding down the wall to sit on the floor, she clutched the snow globe to her chest. Maya felt like her sanity had dwindled over the past few weeks, as she was convinced her mother was in fact, not dead. Someone had been leaving heartfelt gifts at her doorstep for 23 days, and they could all be traced back to her mother. The first day, it was a locket that had a picture of her mother in it, the second it was the perfume her mother wore, and so on. Now, a snow globe with a duck, her mother's favorite animal. How was Maya supposed to move on with pieces of her mom showing up everyday ?
After composing herself, she stepped outside of her apartment again. She descended down four floors in order to reach the lobby, and she exited the building. Winthrop always boomed with activity during the holidays. Eggnog stands and ornament shops lining the streets, and lights casting a glow over the town. She had just ordered a cup of eggnog and was lifting the cup to her mouth when an over excited child bumped into her, sending eggnog running down her chin and onto her mom's sweatshirt. She screamed at the child,

"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING YOU INCONSIDERATE CHILD!",

Before dashing to Debra's Mat. The bell tinkled overhead and in a hurry she shoved two quarters into the washing machine before taking off her sweatshirt and thrusting it into the washer. She sobbed as she watched the green fabric go round and round, goosebumps spreading over her skin as her white camisole didn't cover her arms. A cheer erupted from outside as the Christmas Tree lit up.