Read Online A Christmas Carl by Ryan Field - Free Book Online Page B

did
     
this on purpose; he didn’t want anything to remind him of Victor. Carl and Donna
     
corresponded for the first few weeks, with cards and letters. But when Carl didn’t receive
     
anything from Victor after the first month, he stopped eating, he grew reclusive, and all
     
he wanted to do was sleep. He would have contacted Victor, but he had no way of
     
knowing where he was. And he couldn’t contact Victor’s father.
     
When he finally started to feel better, he decided to put this dark part of his life
     
behind him and focus on the future. Though he didn’t wear a rainbow flag on his lapel, he
     
didn’t anymore hide the fact that he was gay. After the night he’d admitted his sexuality
     
to Donna, he’d felt stronger. He looked people in the eye and defied them to screw
     
around. He hooked up with guys for sex without feeling guilty. But the minute a man
     
started to get serious, he drifted away from him. Carl even switched his major in college
     
from business to art history. He focused on school and started collecting things. He
     
bought pottery, collectible porcelain, and crystal objects at tag sales. Then he sold them
     
for triple the price he’d paid at flea markets.
     
While he was learning how to buy and sell antiques, he discovered something
     
interesting. Money made him smile. It never let him down, it wasn’t difficult to obtain,
     
and he could always depend on it. And that’s where he focused all his energy. After those first few weeks of correspondence with Donna, he stopped opening
     
her letters. He stared at them for a few minutes, felt his stomach tighten, and then he
     
threw them away, unread. And he never responded to her; he cut off all contact with his
     
past and disappeared. Weeks without communication turned into months, and Donna’s
     
letters grew father apart, until they stopped coming altogether. In a year’s time, he
     
realized it was pointless to hold on to the past. He knew deep down that Victor was never
     
going to contact him again, and he figured Donna was better off without someone like
     
him complicating her life. He’d always just assumed she’d meet a man, get married, and
     
start a family.
     
Carl left the Ghost on 95 th Street and crossed Riverside Drive. He didn’t have to
     
worry about traffic; he ran across the street and right through the passing cars. When he
     
reached the other side, Donna was standing on the sidewalk waiting for the traffic light to
     
change. Her hair was still cut in the same pageboy style, her jeans were still too tight, and
     
she was wearing a red wool jacket with a large round Christmas tree pin on the collar.
     
The only thing different about her was the baby carriage.
     
The baby in the carriage started to cry. Donna leaned forward and said, “We’ll be
     
home in a minute, Carl. I promise, sweetie. Mommy knows you’re hungry.” Then she
     
smoothed out the baby blanket and jiggled a set of keys over the baby’s head.
     
When Carl looked up, the Ghost was standing next to him. Carl glared at the
     
ghost and said, “Donna has a baby? And the baby’s name is Carl?”
     
Then the baby’s screams became louder. He clenched his small fists and started to
     
kick. When Donna saw that the baby had kicked his cover sideways, she reached down
     
and pulled the cover from his body to reposition it correctly so he wouldn’t get a chill. While she was shaking the cover, Carl looked into the carriage. He pressed his
     
palm to his mouth and gasped. Donna’s baby only had one leg.
     
Donna placed the small cover over the baby and said, “Now just calm down, Carl.
     
I swear, sometimes you’re just like your father was. You get all worked up over nothing
     
and you don’t know how to calm down.” Then she leaned forward and kissed him on the
     
nose. She smiled and said, “But you are the sweetest little thing I’ve ever seen.”
     
“Is that my child?” Carl shouted to