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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Love stories / Romance
- Subject: Love / Romance / Dating
- Published: 12/05/2016
Marvin, the Mall and Misteltoe.
Born 1951, M, from Wilmington NC, United StatesMarvin twisted the last little sprig of Mistletoe onto the hangar. He was only 16 years old, and didn’t know how much Mistletoe it took to make the Magic happen. He had Googled the legend of Mistletoe, but all it said was that two people standing under a sprig of it, had to kiss. He even wrote down how to kiss like it said in Wiki: “ The kiss should be slow, soft, gentle, eyes should be closed, and the girl determines the length of the kiss. If you are kissing family, a peck on the cheek is fine. “
Well, Marvin had no desire to give his Mom or either of his sisters, and God Forbid , Aunt Gertrude, who would tease him until he turned beat red, a kiss on the cheek. He would race right into the house to keep that sprig of mistletoe over the door from forcing him to keep the tradition alive. What Marvin had in mind was bigger game. Girls. Girls his own age. He would kiss as many as would kiss him, but he was really looking for just one. The one. The girl of his dreams. Since every girlfriend he had ever had (so far) only existed in his dreams. Marvin had never had a date, a girlfriend, or a kiss. Today, at the Mall, he was going to end that streak.
Marvin was cute in that caught between being a young man and boy way. He was thin, but would fill out. He did not have to shave, but had a small wisp of hair on his top lip. He had the luxurious head of hair that most teenagers take for granted, but not care of- if you are a boy that is. He also had long, long, long eyelashes. He had heard his whole life from his Sisters, and Aunt Gertrude how lucky he was to have such beautiful eyelashes. Marvin would just smile and say: “You can have them.” And he meant it. Of all the things he thought about his body, his eyelashes were the farthest from his everyday thoughts. Truth be told, Marvin never really thought about his body much at all. It is part of what made him so cute. He didn’t have any pretensions at all.
Well, he had one intention this Christmas. He was not going to turn 17 on Christmas alone. It was bad enough that every present he ever got was both (to quote his Mom and Dad) :
“This is your Birthday AND your Christmas gift.” But, the simple fact that nobody could ever come to his birthday party, just because he was born on Christmas. People thought it was wonderful, but marvin knew that the only people who thought like that, did not have a Birthday on Christmas. It was a special day for everyone, but not for him.
He saw some of his friends kissing their girlfriends under the Mistletoe. Heck, Eddie, his best friend had the same girlfriend for all three High School Christmases in a row. And when he saw those two kiss, well, Marvin wasn’t normally a jealous, or envious person, but he sure wanted to be able to kiss like that. Not her, though. He never liked Eileen, and Eddie was okay with that. He was civil, as Eileen was to Marvin, but both of them knew that if things were different, Eileen and Marvin would be perfectly happy never seeing each other ever again. He had seen Bruce kiss his new girlfriend yesterday at the Mall, under the Mistletoe hung in the Gazebo. They would take your picture while kissing, and for a dollar you got a copy of it. Marvin did not have a girlfriend.
Marvin had finished his creation. He stood back to look at it. It was a crown, made from a wire coat hanger (Thank God his mom kept those old style hangars in the basement.). He could put it around his head, and just about a foot over his head, and hanging out four inches from his face, was the giant sprig of mistletoe. More like a small shrub, really. But Marvin wasn’t leaving the amount of mistletoe to chance. “Better to much, than to little,” was Marvin’s motto. At least for Mistletoe sprigs. He placed it on his head, looked in the mirror and decided he looked like a merry old Christmas Spirit. He had brushed his teeth a gazillion times, had breath mints in his pocket, and put his contacts in, leaving his glasses relegated to a deep pocket. He didn’t want his glasses to get in the way of his first kiss.
Filled with confidence, hope, and a bit of worry that he wouldn’t get dry lips from all the kissing ( Marvin had a brief thought that maybe he should have bought one of those little tubes of lip gloss, like his sisters used to keep their lips from chapping out in the cold). Oh, well, the last few girls will just have to make do. And he laughed at the thought. His Mom saw him leave the house with the stage contraption on his head, noticed the mistletoe, and was wise enough to keep both the comments and her thoughts to herself. She just smiled a smile that lit the room with delight. “Have fun , honey!” Marvin turned beat red, but smiled back, and headed out the door to the Mall. It was a short walk, and maybe he would get his first kiss on the way over to the Mall. Nope. It was snowing to hard for people to walk that far. Marvin loved the snow, and the thought the snow and ice hanging from the Mistletoe gave it a more authentic and alluring look.
It had been four hours since Marvin got to the Mall. His feet were sore, his spirits were dampened, and his will was almost gone. Four hours, and all he ever got were smiles, a few dozen selfies with girls (well, mostly women over 25) who thought it was both cute and touching, that Marvin was crusading the Mall for a kiss. He had a lot of offers from Older Moms, but they just pecked his cheek, and giggled. The Girls Marvin’s age would just point, make snide remarks, or ignore him. One bully tried to take the Crown off Marvin’s head, but was headed off by two angry Mother’s, saving both the Crown and what was left of Marvin’s dignity. He thanked them, waited until the Bully was gone, put the mistletoe back on his head, and decided to do one more loop of the Mall. If he didn’t get a kiss this time, he was walking home. Alone. No crown of mistletoe. Because Marvin had decided it was just a legend, and only a tradition if you had a girlfriend. Single guys would have better luck waving money than wearing mistletoe. (He was probably right about that too).
The little girl was only fifteen and half years old. Super shy. I mean really shy. I mean she never raised her hand in class, no matter how many answers she knew. If the teacher made her stand and talk, or present a small speech, it took every ounce of her being to even try. Many times, she didn’t succeed. Her voice would fail her. Her armpits would stain with sweat, and she would remain that beet red face until long after she sat down. She was a quiet girl. Pretty in her own way, but like Marvin, she rarely thought about her body, or figure. She did have thick nice hair, that she took good care of. Like Marvin, she was gifted with long eyelashes. So long that they brushed up against her glasses- annoying her, but stunningly cute to onlookers. She did not like attention at all. She made Shy a verb. Private a state of mind. And leave me alone, I will be fine, lonely, but fine, was her motto.
That is why she noticed the brave boy with the Mistletoe as he circuited the Mall, yet again. She had seen him go by several times. Each time she would marvel at his boldness, his strength, his confidence. Her timid mindset could not even imagine the courage it took to flaunt a chance at rejection - which in her mind, was what a sprig of mistletoe was. She liked him immediately. She could never do something like that, and had to admire the spunk it took to even take the risk. She hoped he would get a kiss.
It was almost time for her to go home. She sat sipping the last of her milkshake in the Food Court when Marvin came by on his final circuit. His shoulder’s not quite as high as they were on earlier circuits. His eyes didn’t blaze with hope anymore either. The twinkle in them, had been replaced by a shallow glimmer, one of hope forlorn. He was going through the motions, that was all. He signaled defeat with every ounce of his being. The little shy girl almost cried. She knew that feeling. Of never having someone notice you. Of being ignore, lonely and alone. She knew what is was like to dream, and have those dreams fade. It almost made her cry.
Later, years and years later she still couldn’t tell you why she got up from the table. She couldn’t tell you why she marched with such self assurance, such confidence, such direct purpose right up to Marvin and made him stop. She took both his hands in hers, and looked him right in the eyes (which had gone so wide that she could have walked right into his soul had she wanted to- so she did). They stood their like two statues, holding hands, face to face, lost in the moment. The whole Mall ceased to exist. Just two young hearts, hanging on a moment that they knew was important, but not why. Everyone in the Mall was watching. I mean everyone. People even came out from behind counters and stopped serving food. Was the weird little kid with the hangar full of mistletoe going to get his kiss?
Scrooge himself would have stopped to watch, and that is before the three Spirits visited him. It was that big of a human moment, that everyone held their breath. She didn’t notice. She didn’t turn red, sweat or stutter. She was lost in those eyes, and the quiet strength of his hands and personality. She liked him. That surprised her. In a moment, she would love him, but she didn’t know that yet. For they hadn’t kissed yet. Just two young people holding hands, face to face, soul to soul, heart to heart in a world where they were the only two people.
She finally broke the spell:
“Don’t you have to kiss me? That is Mistletoe , right?”
Her voice sounded like music, like laughter, like chocolate ice cream- it covered him in a sensory overload of well, senses. He pulled her gently towards him (because the article said to always be gentle. and somehow, his body knew it already).
“I don’t have too, but the legend says if you want to, I can.”
“Well, I want to. Do you want to kiss me?”
For a brief moment her shyness kicked back in, triggered , by all things, her boldness. She got a small red flush on her cheeks and neck, but did not back down, let go, or break eye contact with Marvin.
“Yes. But…”
“But what?”
“You are so beautiful. “
That was all it took. She reached up, and pulled him gently down- her body knew the rules too, and she hadn’t even looked up the rules. He thought she was beautiful, to pretty to kiss a boy like him. She would never forget that moment. How lucky, pretty and precious she felt. He never did anything to change her mind either.
He closed his eyes, just like the article said. He thought he would fumble, or mess up, or bump noses, I mean after all, he had closed his eyes way before he to to her lips. But an inner light, or warmth, or beacon, he was never sure which, emanated from her lips, pulling him directly to her heart, soft lips, and their first kiss. It was gentle. It was delicious. It was a butterfly kiss with substance. It was the kiss of spring, of first times, of new beginnings, of love surfacing for air, after being hidden in shyness, awkwardness, and fragile hope.
At first Marvin and the little cute girl did not hear the applause, the cheers, the happy greetings to their first kiss. When they stopped the kiss, but din’t let go of hands, or each other, they turned to look. In every direction couples were hugging and cheering. Pretty girls were texting their true loves. Young parents were leaning in to give each other a kiss, older couples were beaming laser smiles of long ago moments in time, moments that resembled the one Marvin and the little cute girl had just experienced. It was the most loving moment that Mall had ever seen. This time , the little girl did turn beet red, only to look up and see that Marvin was too. It made her bond even more. They were a couple now.
As they walked away, hand in hand, to cheers and smiles, and well wishes, the little girl reached up and took the crown off of Marvin’s head.
“You won’t need this anymore. Do you mind if I keep it?”
“What for?”
“To show our children some day.”
Marvin shivered with delight. The legend is true. True love only needs one kiss under a mistletoe. He sparkled so much inside he thought he might burst outside. They walked back to the Foodcourt to wait for her Mom and sisters to finish shopping. Years later, their kids made them wear the Crown every Christmas. Even the grandkids wanted to see them wear the crown. They never hung a wreath on their door ever, but a sprig of Mistletoe hung in every room.
by Kevin Hughes
Marvin, the Mall and Misteltoe.(Kevin Hughes)
Marvin twisted the last little sprig of Mistletoe onto the hangar. He was only 16 years old, and didn’t know how much Mistletoe it took to make the Magic happen. He had Googled the legend of Mistletoe, but all it said was that two people standing under a sprig of it, had to kiss. He even wrote down how to kiss like it said in Wiki: “ The kiss should be slow, soft, gentle, eyes should be closed, and the girl determines the length of the kiss. If you are kissing family, a peck on the cheek is fine. “
Well, Marvin had no desire to give his Mom or either of his sisters, and God Forbid , Aunt Gertrude, who would tease him until he turned beat red, a kiss on the cheek. He would race right into the house to keep that sprig of mistletoe over the door from forcing him to keep the tradition alive. What Marvin had in mind was bigger game. Girls. Girls his own age. He would kiss as many as would kiss him, but he was really looking for just one. The one. The girl of his dreams. Since every girlfriend he had ever had (so far) only existed in his dreams. Marvin had never had a date, a girlfriend, or a kiss. Today, at the Mall, he was going to end that streak.
Marvin was cute in that caught between being a young man and boy way. He was thin, but would fill out. He did not have to shave, but had a small wisp of hair on his top lip. He had the luxurious head of hair that most teenagers take for granted, but not care of- if you are a boy that is. He also had long, long, long eyelashes. He had heard his whole life from his Sisters, and Aunt Gertrude how lucky he was to have such beautiful eyelashes. Marvin would just smile and say: “You can have them.” And he meant it. Of all the things he thought about his body, his eyelashes were the farthest from his everyday thoughts. Truth be told, Marvin never really thought about his body much at all. It is part of what made him so cute. He didn’t have any pretensions at all.
Well, he had one intention this Christmas. He was not going to turn 17 on Christmas alone. It was bad enough that every present he ever got was both (to quote his Mom and Dad) :
“This is your Birthday AND your Christmas gift.” But, the simple fact that nobody could ever come to his birthday party, just because he was born on Christmas. People thought it was wonderful, but marvin knew that the only people who thought like that, did not have a Birthday on Christmas. It was a special day for everyone, but not for him.
He saw some of his friends kissing their girlfriends under the Mistletoe. Heck, Eddie, his best friend had the same girlfriend for all three High School Christmases in a row. And when he saw those two kiss, well, Marvin wasn’t normally a jealous, or envious person, but he sure wanted to be able to kiss like that. Not her, though. He never liked Eileen, and Eddie was okay with that. He was civil, as Eileen was to Marvin, but both of them knew that if things were different, Eileen and Marvin would be perfectly happy never seeing each other ever again. He had seen Bruce kiss his new girlfriend yesterday at the Mall, under the Mistletoe hung in the Gazebo. They would take your picture while kissing, and for a dollar you got a copy of it. Marvin did not have a girlfriend.
Marvin had finished his creation. He stood back to look at it. It was a crown, made from a wire coat hanger (Thank God his mom kept those old style hangars in the basement.). He could put it around his head, and just about a foot over his head, and hanging out four inches from his face, was the giant sprig of mistletoe. More like a small shrub, really. But Marvin wasn’t leaving the amount of mistletoe to chance. “Better to much, than to little,” was Marvin’s motto. At least for Mistletoe sprigs. He placed it on his head, looked in the mirror and decided he looked like a merry old Christmas Spirit. He had brushed his teeth a gazillion times, had breath mints in his pocket, and put his contacts in, leaving his glasses relegated to a deep pocket. He didn’t want his glasses to get in the way of his first kiss.
Filled with confidence, hope, and a bit of worry that he wouldn’t get dry lips from all the kissing ( Marvin had a brief thought that maybe he should have bought one of those little tubes of lip gloss, like his sisters used to keep their lips from chapping out in the cold). Oh, well, the last few girls will just have to make do. And he laughed at the thought. His Mom saw him leave the house with the stage contraption on his head, noticed the mistletoe, and was wise enough to keep both the comments and her thoughts to herself. She just smiled a smile that lit the room with delight. “Have fun , honey!” Marvin turned beat red, but smiled back, and headed out the door to the Mall. It was a short walk, and maybe he would get his first kiss on the way over to the Mall. Nope. It was snowing to hard for people to walk that far. Marvin loved the snow, and the thought the snow and ice hanging from the Mistletoe gave it a more authentic and alluring look.
It had been four hours since Marvin got to the Mall. His feet were sore, his spirits were dampened, and his will was almost gone. Four hours, and all he ever got were smiles, a few dozen selfies with girls (well, mostly women over 25) who thought it was both cute and touching, that Marvin was crusading the Mall for a kiss. He had a lot of offers from Older Moms, but they just pecked his cheek, and giggled. The Girls Marvin’s age would just point, make snide remarks, or ignore him. One bully tried to take the Crown off Marvin’s head, but was headed off by two angry Mother’s, saving both the Crown and what was left of Marvin’s dignity. He thanked them, waited until the Bully was gone, put the mistletoe back on his head, and decided to do one more loop of the Mall. If he didn’t get a kiss this time, he was walking home. Alone. No crown of mistletoe. Because Marvin had decided it was just a legend, and only a tradition if you had a girlfriend. Single guys would have better luck waving money than wearing mistletoe. (He was probably right about that too).
The little girl was only fifteen and half years old. Super shy. I mean really shy. I mean she never raised her hand in class, no matter how many answers she knew. If the teacher made her stand and talk, or present a small speech, it took every ounce of her being to even try. Many times, she didn’t succeed. Her voice would fail her. Her armpits would stain with sweat, and she would remain that beet red face until long after she sat down. She was a quiet girl. Pretty in her own way, but like Marvin, she rarely thought about her body, or figure. She did have thick nice hair, that she took good care of. Like Marvin, she was gifted with long eyelashes. So long that they brushed up against her glasses- annoying her, but stunningly cute to onlookers. She did not like attention at all. She made Shy a verb. Private a state of mind. And leave me alone, I will be fine, lonely, but fine, was her motto.
That is why she noticed the brave boy with the Mistletoe as he circuited the Mall, yet again. She had seen him go by several times. Each time she would marvel at his boldness, his strength, his confidence. Her timid mindset could not even imagine the courage it took to flaunt a chance at rejection - which in her mind, was what a sprig of mistletoe was. She liked him immediately. She could never do something like that, and had to admire the spunk it took to even take the risk. She hoped he would get a kiss.
It was almost time for her to go home. She sat sipping the last of her milkshake in the Food Court when Marvin came by on his final circuit. His shoulder’s not quite as high as they were on earlier circuits. His eyes didn’t blaze with hope anymore either. The twinkle in them, had been replaced by a shallow glimmer, one of hope forlorn. He was going through the motions, that was all. He signaled defeat with every ounce of his being. The little shy girl almost cried. She knew that feeling. Of never having someone notice you. Of being ignore, lonely and alone. She knew what is was like to dream, and have those dreams fade. It almost made her cry.
Later, years and years later she still couldn’t tell you why she got up from the table. She couldn’t tell you why she marched with such self assurance, such confidence, such direct purpose right up to Marvin and made him stop. She took both his hands in hers, and looked him right in the eyes (which had gone so wide that she could have walked right into his soul had she wanted to- so she did). They stood their like two statues, holding hands, face to face, lost in the moment. The whole Mall ceased to exist. Just two young hearts, hanging on a moment that they knew was important, but not why. Everyone in the Mall was watching. I mean everyone. People even came out from behind counters and stopped serving food. Was the weird little kid with the hangar full of mistletoe going to get his kiss?
Scrooge himself would have stopped to watch, and that is before the three Spirits visited him. It was that big of a human moment, that everyone held their breath. She didn’t notice. She didn’t turn red, sweat or stutter. She was lost in those eyes, and the quiet strength of his hands and personality. She liked him. That surprised her. In a moment, she would love him, but she didn’t know that yet. For they hadn’t kissed yet. Just two young people holding hands, face to face, soul to soul, heart to heart in a world where they were the only two people.
She finally broke the spell:
“Don’t you have to kiss me? That is Mistletoe , right?”
Her voice sounded like music, like laughter, like chocolate ice cream- it covered him in a sensory overload of well, senses. He pulled her gently towards him (because the article said to always be gentle. and somehow, his body knew it already).
“I don’t have too, but the legend says if you want to, I can.”
“Well, I want to. Do you want to kiss me?”
For a brief moment her shyness kicked back in, triggered , by all things, her boldness. She got a small red flush on her cheeks and neck, but did not back down, let go, or break eye contact with Marvin.
“Yes. But…”
“But what?”
“You are so beautiful. “
That was all it took. She reached up, and pulled him gently down- her body knew the rules too, and she hadn’t even looked up the rules. He thought she was beautiful, to pretty to kiss a boy like him. She would never forget that moment. How lucky, pretty and precious she felt. He never did anything to change her mind either.
He closed his eyes, just like the article said. He thought he would fumble, or mess up, or bump noses, I mean after all, he had closed his eyes way before he to to her lips. But an inner light, or warmth, or beacon, he was never sure which, emanated from her lips, pulling him directly to her heart, soft lips, and their first kiss. It was gentle. It was delicious. It was a butterfly kiss with substance. It was the kiss of spring, of first times, of new beginnings, of love surfacing for air, after being hidden in shyness, awkwardness, and fragile hope.
At first Marvin and the little cute girl did not hear the applause, the cheers, the happy greetings to their first kiss. When they stopped the kiss, but din’t let go of hands, or each other, they turned to look. In every direction couples were hugging and cheering. Pretty girls were texting their true loves. Young parents were leaning in to give each other a kiss, older couples were beaming laser smiles of long ago moments in time, moments that resembled the one Marvin and the little cute girl had just experienced. It was the most loving moment that Mall had ever seen. This time , the little girl did turn beet red, only to look up and see that Marvin was too. It made her bond even more. They were a couple now.
As they walked away, hand in hand, to cheers and smiles, and well wishes, the little girl reached up and took the crown off of Marvin’s head.
“You won’t need this anymore. Do you mind if I keep it?”
“What for?”
“To show our children some day.”
Marvin shivered with delight. The legend is true. True love only needs one kiss under a mistletoe. He sparkled so much inside he thought he might burst outside. They walked back to the Foodcourt to wait for her Mom and sisters to finish shopping. Years later, their kids made them wear the Crown every Christmas. Even the grandkids wanted to see them wear the crown. They never hung a wreath on their door ever, but a sprig of Mistletoe hung in every room.
by Kevin Hughes
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