Disclaimer: The characters and situations of the TV program Big Valley are the creations of Four Star/Republic Pictures and have been used without permission. No copyright infringement is intended by the author.

The Christmas Bell-by Buckaroo

When I saw the movie The Polar Express I really loved the idea of the bell and thought I’d write my take on it.

Lifting the bell from its place amongst the other ornaments, he held it to his ear as he rattled it. Even though it rang loudly its magical sound fell on deaf ears as those in the room continued with their holiday decorating, oblivious to the unheard jingle.

Holding it up, Heath asked, “This bell don’t work. You still want me to put it up?” His first Christmas with his new family, he was unsure of himself and this decorating thing. He’d grown up without the trappings of Christmas and over the years he found it easier to ignore the holiday season rather than be disappointed by the meager attempts at celebrating. His mother had tried, but he found out early that seeing and believing were two different things. While he’d heard rumors and stories about St. Nicholas, it seemed the mysterious stranger didn’t visit the poor, no matter how much he wished for it.

Jarrod peeked around the tree and seeing his brother holding the bell brought a warm smile to his face. Over the years the old sleigh bell tied with a red ribbon had never lost it shine and he saddened a bit as he recalled the last time he’d heard its glorious sound. He was nine that year. It was the same year he discovered that the St. Nicholas wasn’t all he appeared to be. Some of the older boys in school had convinced him that the legend of St. Nick was not as he envisioned it. After much denial and a thorough search of the house, his youthful bliss was shattered when he realized that it was his parents that provided him and his siblings with such a bountiful Christmas and not the man of poem. His newfound knowledge was too much to keep to himself and he thought his younger brother Nick should know the truth as well.

In hindsight he should have known better, but at nine years old wisdom is often fleeting and he eagerly explained to Nick the truth behind his patron Saint. When Nick went crying to his mother and father for the truth, Jarrod realized his error immediately. He bore his punishment silently and never questioned why St. Nicholas visited his siblings that year and he only received a single present from his parents. Looking at the bell in Heath’s hand, Jarrod recalled how Father had always told them it was a special Christmas bell and only those that believed in the magic of Christmas could hear it’s wondrous sound. Jarrod always thought it was just a tale Father told until he reached out to tap the bell that year and found he could no longer hear its ring.

**********

Nick looked up to see Heath shaking the bell, hoping to hear it ring. He shook his head and recalled the year it ceased ringing for him. Like his older brother, he remembered Father’s story about the bell and how he’d gotten it from a peddler who insisted it belonged to St. Nick himself. He was as gullible as any six-year-old and hung on his Father’s every word, until Jarrod spoiled all his expectations that year. His parents did their best to reassure him, but the damage was done, he began to have doubts about the validity of the legend. He enjoyed Christmas that year despite his misgivings, but seeing his older brother opening his one and only present sent a clear message to the six-year-old. If he wanted presents from St. Nicholas he was going to have to keep his misgivings to himself. The next two years he hid the fact that the magic was gone, pretending to hear the bell that had stopped ringing when Jarrod revealed the truth.

********

Audra’s eyes shone with tears at her recollection of the year the bell went silent. That was the year she discovered the orphanage. She’d been heartbroken to find out that there were children that didn’t have a mother or father to love them. Sheltered from such things, it was a hard truth for a seven year old. She’d prayed and prayed and prayed for the children and wished them all new parents for Christmas, innocently thinking God wouldn’t deny them loving families. When the holiday season came and went without regard to the misfortunate children, she’d reluctantly stopped believing in miracles. Christmas was never quite the same after that year and not a year went by that she didn’t miss the sound of the Christmas bell.

**********

Heath looked around the room at the distant faces on his siblings and asked loudly, “Did ya all hear me?”

Stepping forward Jarrod took the bell from Heath and shook it, just as he did every year and every year it remained silent. Glancing at Heath, he smiled, “Father used to tell us that this bell was a special bell. That only those that believed in the magic of Christmas could hear it.” He looked at the bell in his hand and taking the red ribbon in his hand, hung it on the tree. Turning towards his newest brother he asked curiously, “Do you remember when you stopped believing, Heath?”

Frowning, Heath asked, “Stopped believing in what?”

“In St. Nicholas. You know... the story of St. Nick coming down the chimney, delivering toys.”

Heath huffed, “Didn’t pay ta believe.”

Nick’s brow furrowed, “What do ya mean?”

Victoria listened to the exchange and Audra piped up innocently, “Didn’t you ever have a Christmas where the excitement was so much you couldn’t sleep the night before?”

“Can’t say that I have.” He looked around at the expectant faces and found it hard to believe they were so naïve to think that he might not have had a Christmas with all the opulence they’d grown accustomed to. “Ya’ll forget where I come from. We didn’t have no fancy Christmas. Most years we was lucky if we had enough food on the table. I ain’t saying that ta be mean or nothin’ but Christmas ain’t such a big deal when yer poor folk. Momma would read me the story of Jesus every year and then she would pull out an old newspaper clipping and read me the poem The Visit of St. Nicholas. She always made sure I knew it was just a story tho, didn’t want to get my hopes up I suppose.” He shook his head and said sadly, “I reckon I was about six when I finally figured out that there ain’t no magic in Christmas.”

Holding on to an ornament he taken from the box, Heath sat down and continued talking, almost without thought to the stunned faces around him. “That was the same year I spotted that knife in the hardware store.” His face seemed to light up as he remembered and the family began to settle around him as he told his story. “I ain’t never seen nothin’ as purty as that knife and rememberin’ the story of St. Nick, I prayed and prayed that he’d bring me that knife.” Momma tried to tell that there weren’t no such thing as St. Nick and I was wastin’ my time but I wanted that knife so bad I just couldn’t think of nothin’ else.” Fiddling with the ornament in his hand, Heath continued, grinning from ear to ear, “Imagine my surprise when Christmas morning I found a little box with my name on it and nestled down inside was that knife. I was the happiest boy alive that day and I spent the next two days cuttin’ up everything in sight.”

Heath suddenly masked his emotion and the family listened as his tone changed, “I only had it three days ‘fore I lost it. I was workin’ in the mine and I had to leap over a deep hole ta get ta the other side. It musta been close ta fallin’ out cause when I landed I heard the unmistakable sound of something clattering to the bottom of that dark pit. I reached down to feel my pocket and I knew instantly that I’d lost my most treasured possession. I couldn’t even go down that hole ta get it cause a couple men had already died from the gas way down inside it. When I went to the hotel that night to walk Momma home, she knew right away somethin’ was wrong.” He shook his head, “Didn’t matter none anyways. Couple weeks later that whole tunnel collapsed and all I thought of was my knife buried under tons of rock. When I told Momma what happened, Uncle Matt and Aunt Martha started in on Momma. Telling her I was no good and how she wasted all that hard work fer a no account good fer nothin’ kid. I figured out right away that it was her that done got me the knife and not St. Nick. That was the last year I ever asked for anything for Christmas. I didn’t figure I deserved ta have me no presents after that. Christmas wasn’t fer the likes of me and I stopped believin’ in all that went with it.”

Victoria’s heart ached for Heath and she spoke up, “Christmas isn’t about just getting presents. The magic isn’t in the gifts but in the emotion behind the giving. It’s about having faith in something and believing that the impossible is possible. Your father bought that bell our first Christmas together and he told me the same story he told the children. He had each of them convinced they could hear it until they were old enough to know better. It wasn’t important that I couldn’t hear it. What was important was the fact that each of them had faith in the spirit of Christmas and believed what he told them.”

All three of them, Jarrod, Nick and Audra spoke at once, “But Mother...I really could hear the bell.”

Smiling at them, Victoria chuckled, “Your father could be very convincing.”

Jarrod shook his head adamantly, “I remember the year it stopped ringing. I learned St. Nick wasn’t real.”

“Me too. It was the year he got in so much trouble for telling me that St. Nick wasn’t real,” said Nick. He and Jarrod both laughed out loud at the memory.

Audra added her own story, “I stopped hearing it the year I started thinking about all those children at the orphanage and how sad it was that they didn’t have homes at Christmas time.”

Heath sat silently as they revealed more about the bell and their own experiences. It made for a nice story, but it was too unbelievable to put much stock in. It was just a bell and it didn’t matter none whether they believed it rang at one time or not. Looking at them, he interrupted their musings as he stood to leave, “What it means is none of ya really have all that much faith in Christmas and all that goes with it if ya can’t hear the bell no more.”

The room was silent as they contemplated the truth of his words. It was Victoria that finally broke the silence, “Your father once said that we all lose the magic when we lose the innocence of youth and start thinking instead of just believing. He liked to point out that someday you’d be faced with something that requires a leap of faith and if you believe in the magic of the moment and let your faith guide you, only then will you hear the bell again. If you do, then you’ll carry it’s magic for the rest of your days.”

“Don’t mean no offense Mother, but I have a hard time putting faith in an old sleigh bell.”

“It’s not the bell that requires your faith, it’s usually the impossible.”

**************

Christmas day was filled with the joy of family and they had finished with the gifts. Enjoying their newest pleasures, Audra glanced back at the empty tree and saw a small package under it. "Nick, there is one left." She pointed to it and Nick reached way under the tree to pull out this last gift.

Turning it over in his hands, he read the tag. "I didn't see this one." Nick was perplexed but handed it to Heath, "This one is for you. It don't say who it's from." Nick looked at his Mother, then Jarrod and Audra they all shrugged in genuine ignorance to the origination of the small package.

Heath had been a bit overwhelmed by the generosity of his family and despite his past experiences with the holiday, he found himself enjoying this first Christmas with them. It was heartwarming to see the happiness in his face as he opened presents and they waited to see his latest reaction. Lifting the lid of the box he spied the gift. His face paled and he sat down heavily, his eyes misting over as he reached in and removed his prize.

Jarrod asked worriedly, “What is it Heath?”

Heath looked up with tears in his eyes, “It’s my knife.”

Victoria looked at her children and smiled, “That was a very nice gesture by whomever.”

Heath shook his head, “No. You don’t understand. This is MY knife.” Taking it from the box with a shaky hand, he turned it over for them to see. “On the back is my name. I was so proud of it, I carved my name in the handle.”

Gathering around, they looked at the little knife that Heath held out and could see quite clearly his name. Nick was the first to speak, “Now how can that be? You said yerself it was buried.” They all looked at Heath with wide eyes speculating on the meaning of the gift he held in his hands.

Staring in disbelief, Heath stuttered, “I... don’t...know, Nick.” They couldn’t deny Heath’s sincerity nor the emotions that washed over him as he held a gift his Momma once worked so hard for. It was a moment that none were likely to ever forget and they shook their heads in awe.

As Audra moved closer, she accidentally brushed the tree and a loud and wondrous sound filled the room. Five pairs of eyes turned in unison and stared at the old sleigh bell. Reaching out, Heath tapped it again and when it rang out again he startled. Each one in turn couldn’t resist ringing the bell and smiles followed every sound the bell made. They had all taken that leap of faith, wanting to believe in the impossible and the jingle they thought to never hear again filled them with the magic of Christmas.

The End

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