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    A Modern Midlife Christmas Carol
    A Modern Midlife Christmas Carol
    A Modern Midlife Christmas Carol
    Ebook156 pages2 hours

    A Modern Midlife Christmas Carol

    By Alana Oxford

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Midlife is rough. For Eliza, it means dealing with perimenopause, trying to launch her unwilling teens, staying connected to her husband, helping her elderly mother, and performing well at work.

    When another Christmas rolls around, Eliza finds herself approaching her breaking point. Only, no one around her seems to notice.

    After an incident at her in-law's on Christmas Eve, Eliza is visited by three spirits. The things they reveal give her a lot to consider, but the decision she makes is ultimately up to you, the reader.

    With different endings to choose from, you decide which message impacts Eliza the most and whether she'll reconnect with her past, reclaim her present, or forge a new future.

    LanguageEnglish
    Publisher8N Publishing
    Release dateOct 15, 2024
    ISBN9798987977484
    A Modern Midlife Christmas Carol
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      Book preview

      A Modern Midlife Christmas Carol - Alana Oxford

      1

      THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

      Christmas cheer was dead, to begin with. 

      Its death knell tolled as Jacob walked into the bathroom. Scratch that. More like strutted into the bathroom with a goofy grin on his face. 

      Eliza was soaking in the tub, enjoying one of the few luxuries afforded to her in regular life. Her mother had called her three times that day, each time with a different problem she wanted Eliza to solve for her. First it was a crisis about her mother’s lax snow removal service, then to lament the styling capabilities of the hairdresser she was never happy with but refused to stop going to, and finally to tell Eliza to accompany her to an eye appointment the following week. She was in her eighties, after all. She could pass at any moment so Eliza needed to get this taken care of ASAP. Naturally, the best time to do it was before Christmas when things were winding down for the year. Besides, the medical scheduler made the appointment and her mother had to take it, otherwise nothing would get done for months and months. 

      That was more than enough for one day, but Eliza had also picked up her son and daughter from high school after her shift at the bookstore. In the car, she’d asked them to get dinner started so she could take a bath to shake off the stress of the day. The kids had grunted in a way that acknowledged their mother had spoken to them, but not necessarily that they agreed. They hadn’t argued, so Eliza’s busy brain ticked that off as something taken care of and moved on to the next item of business. 

      Everyone in the house knew that if Eliza was in the bath, she should be left alone for at least half an hour, unless there was a real emergency she needed to deal with. She’d only been in the water for ten minutes when Jacob burst in, startling her. 

      She sat up from her nest of steaming, lavender scented bubbles. 

      What’s wrong? she asked, instantly going from tentative relaxation to minor panic. 

      Nothing’s wrong, Jacob beamed. We’ve just been invited to Edward and Dymond’s for the week of Christmas! 

      Eliza’s panic rose. Her mind’s eye called up an image of her brother-in-law Edward’s smug face. Equally unsettling was the heavily made up face of his very young second wife, Dymond. These were not people she wanted to contemplate while in the safe haven of her tub. 

      Edward and Dymond? They never invite us over for anything. Besides, we already have plans to make dinner at my mom’s for Christmas.

      Jacob knew the plan. Eliza couldn’t wrap her head around the reason he would burst in and tell her such irrelevant things. 

      Jacob shook his head, big silly smile still on his face. 

      We’ll do dinner with her another time. I told Edward we’d be there. 

      The hot bath might as well be filled with ice cubes. There would be no relaxation now. 

      What do you mean you said we’d be there? My mom’s going to lose her shit if we change the plan now. It’s only three weeks before Christmas! 

      She’ll get over it, Jacob dismissed Eliza’s protest. We hardly ever see my brother. We always see your mom. It’ll be a nice change of scenery for all of us. Plus, Dymond and Edward will be hosting so you can just sit back and relax. It’ll be like a vacation.

      The words vacation and Edward and Dymond did not go together in Eliza’s mind. Disaster was more like it.

      Surely, Jacob knew what an impossible change it would be to swap a twenty minute drive to her mom’s house for a five hour drive from their Grand Rapids, Michigan home to Edward’s Cincinnati, Ohio mansion. Not only was it ludicrous, but it was so much more work that she’d have to do. She was actually on top of Christmas preparations for a change. She couldn’t face starting at zero now. There would be extra laundry and packing and the nightmare of gift purchasing to contend with. She was done with buying gifts. The closer to Christmas, the worse the shopping experience. Eliza had no desire to enter into that frenzied madhouse known as shopping in December. 

      You seriously want to go to Edward’s? Eliza was genuinely shocked. Jacob and his older brother weren’t particularly close. Edward’s main personality trait was being a pretentious jackass, whereas Jacob had more of a practical dreamer thing going on.  Edward’s favorite topics of conversation were his swelling bank account and the plethora of material possessions he was quickly amassing. It was tedious and, in Eliza’s opinion, crass. 

      Jacob and Eliza were financially comfortable, but Eliza tended to have a more conservative approach to spending. They had the kids to consider, so it made sense that they think through big purchases and analyze their priorities together. They didn’t always agree on what those priorities should be, but they had what they needed, most of what they wanted, and that was good enough for them. Even though they weren’t lacking, Eliza found it grating to politely smile and nod along to Edward cataloging his own wealth, with that irritating pompous voice of his.

      As if flaunting his wealth wasn’t bad enough, Edward was wont to make things into a competition. If Jacob had gotten a new car for his family, then Edward was quick to mention the even newer and more expensive car he’d gotten for himself. If Jacob got a promotion at work, Edward had made a ridiculously lucrative investment. If Jacob took the family on a summer road trip to northern Michigan, Edward had booked a Caribbean cruise, a three-week European tour, and a two-week anniversary trip to Monte-Carlo with Dymond. 

      Edward had been part of her family since she’d married Jacob twenty years ago, but they weren’t anywhere near close enough that she could call him out. Not that she would anyway. She’d been raised to be polite and gracious and giving anyone an earful of her negative feelings just wouldn’t do. She wished Jacob would tell him off, but he was under some sort of spell of Edward’s. Having no siblings herself, it wasn’t a dynamic she had firsthand knowledge of. Although, she’d seen enough arguing between her own kids, Bella and Bobby, to doubt they’d ever let the other get away with anything. She hoped it meant she’d done something right by her kids, but the longer she was at this parenting thing, the less sway she felt her influence had on them.

      Before she could wander down the path of what ifs that had become increasingly familiar since entering her forties, Jacob brought her back to the matter at hand. 

      Of course I want to go to Edward’s! He’s got a great place. It’ll be like staying at a resort for Christmas, only we don’t have to pay for it! Plus, it’ll do the kids good to spend some time with their cousin. 

      Eliza sighed. It may not be monetary but she was sure she’d pay dearly for this trip. So would the kids. The cousin in question was three-year-old Derby. His mother, Dymond, fit the role of stereotypical midlife crisis second wife. Whereas Edward’s first wife, Michelle, was only two years younger than him, Dymond was twenty-six to Edward’s fifty-four. They’d been married for three years, which was just after Edward and Michelle’s divorce had gone through. He’d gotten Dymond pregnant before leaving Michelle and their three nearly grown children. They hadn’t really seen those cousins since. It could have been a Jerry Springer episode. 

      Bella and Bobby were firmly in their sulky teenage years. They weren’t going to be thrilled to spend their Christmas break entertaining a hyperactive and ill-behaved preschooler. They hadn’t liked the prospect of quietly sitting around their elderly grandmother’s house for one day. A whole week with Derby wasn’t going to go over well.

      She didn’t see how Christmas would be a pleasant time to spend with them in their over-the-top mansion of a home. Eliza could only imagine what outrageous new things Edward and Dymond had purchased or done since the last time they’d see them. The Christmas gifts wouldn’t be sincere either. They’d be a competition and she didn’t want to spend her and Jacob’s hard-earned money buying expensive junk for unappreciative people. 

      I don’t know if this is such a good idea… Eliza struggled to find a way to convey that spending time with Edward’s family was something they should do, unfortunately, but maybe not at the expense of canceling Christmas with an elderly widow. The canceling, of course, would cause Eliza a whole heap of drama that she didn’t think she had the energy for. Especially not during Christmas, the supposed pinnacle of family togetherness, non-stop joy, and peace. What a farce that was.

      Jacob scoffed. Don’t be such a stick-in-the-mud. We always do the same thing for the holidays, going over to your mother’s. We can do something different for a change. See some new people. Have fun.

      Eliza bristled at being called a stick-in-the-mud. She could have reminded Jacob of all the events she wanted to go to with him, but he always declined. He wasn’t into author visits, or any of the interesting and free programs going on at their local library. She’d recently shown him a flier they received in the mail about a farm-to-table dinner at a local organic farm. He had looked it over, shrugged and said, Looks awfully expensive for a bunch of weird vegetables they grew themselves. 

      Even though he’d been the lead guitarist in a local band when they met, he usually didn’t want to go to the same concerts Eliza would like to see. So they’d gotten into a habit of not doing much. Well, not much recreational. They were always going to work. And helping her mother. And getting the kids through high school. And taking care of their house and yard. And on and on and on. 

      Jacob took Eliza’s lack of a verbal response as being enthusiastically on board and the matter closed. He turned to go, but then stopped and dropped another bombshell.

      Did you want me to get carryout for dinner?

      No, Eliza said, opening the drain with her toe so the water could start emptying out of the tub. Suddenly, she wasn’t in the mood for a bath anymore. I asked the kids to make something. 

      Uh, yeah. They just locked themselves in their rooms with their phones. They’re not cooking anything. 

      At seventeen and fifteen, Eliza had dreamed her children would be more productive parts of the household, but that hadn’t materialized yet. She didn’t know where she’d gone wrong or how to help them feel more ownership over the household. From what she’d heard her colleagues say at work, her kids weren’t an anomaly, but it didn’t soothe her nerves any. Were they destined to live in her basement until she and Jacob died or would a work-ethic and motivation suddenly appear out of thin air? It was just one of many things that popped into her head when insomnia woke her at 3:00 a.m. 

      There she went. Off on another panic spiral when she already had to break the news to her mother about Christmas. Then start managing everything for the trip.

      Can’t you tell them to boil some noodles for pasta? Eliza’s voice sounded shrill to her own ears, but didn’t seem to worry Jacob. 

      Nah. They’ll never do it. I’ll just order a pizza. Enjoy the rest of your bath.

      But how will they learn to– 

      She might as well have not said anything else. Jacob disappeared from the room, closing the door behind him. Her fluffy purple bathrobe hanging on the back of it looked just as slumped and lifeless as she felt. 

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