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Katheryn Pleasance and her two kids rushed out of their apartment room like it was on fire. Katheryn was late to an important work conference and her kids were late to school. The meeting wasn’t until eleven-thirty, but she needed time to drop her kids off and make a few errands before her shift.
Being a single mother wasn’t easy, but it was especially difficult with a five-year-old. She had been up until two-thirty the night before scaring away monsters under her youngest son’s bed. Reggie had an overactive imagination, at least that’s what the doctor had said when Katheryn asked about his sleeping habits. He’s much too young for sleeping pills. Just try cuddling him before bed. That was the doctors advice. Unfortunately for Katheryn it hadn’t done her much good.
“Mommy, I don’t want to wear my coat.” Her daughter, Haley, said rather fiercely as they rushed towards the elevator.
“We talked about this sweetie, you need to stay warm.”
“All the other kids will laugh at me because it’s too short. They’ll think I’m trying to make a stupid fashion statement or something.”
“Baby, I can’t afford a new coat right now, you know that.”
The elevator doors opened and Katheryn walked straight into another person. There was a gasp from the woman she bumped into, and Katheryn watched in horror as a bunch of wrapped gift boxes toppled to the ground.
“Oh I’m so sorry!” Katheryn exclaimed, bending down to retrieve the fallen gifts.
“Oh no, don’t worry about it.” The woman said kindly, bending down as well, and Katheryn finally did have a chance to get a good look at her.
“May? May Parker, oh my gosh! Hi.”
“Oh hi Kathy.” The dark haired woman greeted warmly. May was just about the kindest neighbor in the whole apartment. She alway struck up a conversation in the halls, and she offered help to everyone she met. Katheryn was no exception. For the first few months after moving to this apartment, May was babysitting her kids. But after a while, Katheryn found another babysitter and since then, she just hadn’t seen much of May. Both of their schedules were incredibly busy. May was also a single mother - or actually she was a single aunt - but she still had a child to feed.
Speaking of her child, Peter Parker was standing just outside the elevator keeping his arm in the doorway so it wouldn’t shut on them. He was always a gentleman, ever since she met him.
May gathered her boxes then stood. Katheryn handed her the rest.
“I’m so happy to bump into you, oh my gosh. We need to get together sometime and talk.” She said before sending a smile to Katheryns kids.
“I agree. Call me sometime when you’re off of work. I have so much to catch you up on. Reggie over here is a little artist.”
May gasped. “No way! Is he really?”
“Oh yeah, he won an art contest.”
Reggie giggled, knowing the group was talking about him. Katheryn felt a pang of pride strike through her. That was her boy.
“Very impressive.” May said sweetly.
“He takes after me of course,” Katheryn joked.
“Naturally.”
“I see your boy has grown at least another two inches. My gosh he is getting big.”
May turned to look Peter over, and she grabbed his biceps. “He’s getting stronger too.”
“May,” Peter whispered quietly, under his breath. Katheryn was all too familiar with the embarrassed little whispers from her own children. She decided not to torture him further. She needed to get her kids to school anyways.
“Does Peter not have school today?” She asked, the idea suddenly popping into her brain.
“He does, but we’re doing a volunteer activity so the school is considering it an excused absence.”
“That’s so wonderful. Well you have a fantastic day.”
“Thank you, you too. Bye kids.” May waved to Katheryn and her small family as they boarded the elevator. It was so nice to see such a kind face again. May Parker was one of the golden ones.
After dropping Haley and Reggie off at the school drop-off center, Katheryn drove to her local Walmart. She needed to buy a Christmas present for her boss at work if she wanted to keep her job. And by all means, she wanted to keep her job.
Not because her job as a secretary in an advertising firm was spectacular, but because she needed the money to pay her monthly rent. Just last month she couldn't make her payment, and her landlord shut off the electricity to her apartment. She made sure to work every single overtime shift she could find to make ends meet. Luckily she scraped enough money to get the electric back up and running. But right now she was boarded line broke. All she had in her bank account was twenty two dollars. She stopped at the bank first to withdraw the twenty-two dollars, and then she pulled into her local Walmart.
She had no idea how she was going to buy her boss a good gift and give her children gifts this Christmas, but she would try her best.
Some candles were cheap, but Katheryn knew her boss wouldn’t want another candle. She thought about practical gifts, things like pens and notebooks. They were decently cheap. She decided it was the best way to go, because at least her boss could use them. She even threw in a few colorful posted notes.
Once she was finished shopping for her boss, Katheryn checked out and drove to the food pantry that was located not too far from her apartment. A bunch of elderly citizens were in change of the pantry and they were always so nice.
“Katheryn sweetie, it’s so great to see you again.” One of the elderly women said as she handed her a cart.
“We have some wonderful things that were donated this year for Christmas, so please, feel free to take two boxes of cereal instead of one, and make sure you check out our cake mix options.”
Katheryn thanked her and began shopping around the small room for food items her family was going to be living off of for the entire month. They would have to rationalize big time, but they could make it work. Katheryn would get her paycheck next week and they would have money to go to the grocery store.
She was looking over the options of canned beans when a young volunteer politely asked if she needed help.
“Thank you, young man, but I’m okay.” She turned to face the boy and gasped. “Peter!”
“Mrs. Pleasance,” He said, taken aback as well. “What are - what are -what are you doing here?”
“I’m just shopping for my family.”
Peter winced, looking as if he were mentally kicking himself for asking that particularly obvious question. Katheryn couldn’t stand watching him fret.
“Don’t worry honey, you didn’t offend me. It’s just where I’m at right now. It will get better. But I see this is the lovely volunteering you and your aunt are doing.”
Peter nodded. “Yes - yeah - I wanted to do something good this year.”
“Well this certainly is something good. You’re helping me.” Katheryn said and Peter returned the smile.
“If you need any help reaching anything, let me know. Like you said, I am getting tall.”
Katheryn laughed, and patted the boy’s head. He was a good boy. May raised him well. She could only hope her Reggie would grow up to be just like Peter.
When she was finished, she went over to May to congratulate her on raising such a fine young man. May blushed and insisted she couldn’t take all the credit.
“My husband was a gentle soul. I think he rubbed off on Peter the most. More than I ever could. If anything, I gave that kid headaches growing up.”
“You were the strict one?”
“Oh yeah.” May laughed. “Sometimes I think they secretly teamed up against me. Peter had Ben wrapped around his finger, so Ben was more than often convincing me to let him get away with things.”
Katheryn shook her head fondly. “That sounds like something a great father would do.”
May smiled, but there was a sadness behind her eyes. “Ben and I tried our best to give him the best childhood we could. It wasn’t always easy. Sometimes we couldn’t afford to give him a big Christmas.”
“Oh I know the hardship all too well,” Katheryn said. “I’m afraid I can’t afford to get my kids hardly anything more than the gifts people donated to us this year.”
May frowned, looking at the gifts in Katheryn’s cart. There was a small toy pony, about the size of an action figure and there was a children’s book about Blues Clues. But that was all May could see.
“It’s alright,” Katheryn whispered. “Christmas isn’t about gifts anyways. The sooner my kids learn that, the better they will be.”
May nodded, a ghost of a smile gracing her lips. “You have a wonderful day, Kathy. Stay safe.”
With those words, Katheryn unloaded her boxes of food into the back of her mini-van and she drove to work. She couldn’t afford to be late, but she also couldn’t afford a speeding ticket so she took it slow.
After a long and strenuous eight hours of crystal earrings glistening off of fake snow and hellish phone calls from the marketing team, Katheryn finally got to go home to her beautiful children and relax.
“MOMMY REGGIE STOLE MY COAT!”
Well she could dream of relaxing. Katheryn went into mother mode, switching to her second job of the day, and worked out the conflict between her children. They were all dressed snug in their pjs, when Katheryn kissed them goodnight.
She shut off their bedroom light and walked sadly into her bedroom where the two little presents sat on her dresser. She grabbed a few pieces of newspaper and began to wrap the gifts.
Four days later and Katheryn was sitting in front of her Christmas tree on Christmas morning with her two children squealing at the sight of their two little presents.
“Kids, before you open your gifts, Mommy wants to say something.” She gathered them in her arms and sat them on her lap. “This year has been really really tough since Daddy left. I don’t have that much money and my main goal is keeping you two munchkins fed. So don’t get your hopes up this year about the presents, okay? Next year will be better. I promise.”
“It’s okay Mommy.” Haley said confidently. “We don’t need anything as long as we have you, Reggie and I are happy. Right Reggie?”
“Right.” Her youngest declared.
She kissed their heads repeatedly, swearing to herself that she would be better for them someday because they were great kids and they deserved so much better.
“Can we open presents now?”
“Yeah, go for it, babies.” She nudged them in the direction of the tree and sat back on the sofa, grabbing her cup of hot cocoa.
Her children tore open the newspaper and underneath was more wrapping paper. Beautiful gold and silver wrapping paper with Santa hats and reindeer along with big bows. Both her children turned to her in surprise, but Katheryn was just as surprise. She almost choked on her drink she couldn’t believe it. Was she hallucinating? It was simply impossible.
Her kids opened the wrapping paper to reveal a Connect Four board game along with the Blues Clues book, and Haley got a brand new coat along with her My Little Pony doll.
Katheryn slapped her trembling hand over her mouth to keep herself from bursting into tears. How? Who? Why?
“Look! It’s a note.” Reggie said, handing it over to his big sister to read.
“Merry Christmas from your friendly neighborhood santa-man. Ps. Look outside your front door.” Haley and Reggie jumped off the floor and spirited over to the door, nearly tackling one another to get it open, meanwhile Katheryn couldn’t move. She was frozen in awe. Spider-Man? Could New York’s greatest hero really have saved Katheryn’s Christmas? It seemed so unreal.
“MOMMY!” Her child’s shrill brought her out of her daze. Both her kids began screaming like they were being murdered. Katheryn couldn’t run fast enough to the door. But the second she saw what they were screaming about, she froze once again. Two bikes were laying against the wall, but not only that but also there were piles of presents surrounding them. Katheryn collapsed to her knees as her kids read the names on each gift.
“To Reggie, To Haley, To Katheryn - Mommy this one is for you.”
Katheryn took the medium sized gift and gently peeled it open. She wanted to remember this moment for as long as she lived. She took ages to open it, but once she did it was packed with clothes and gift-cards for Amazon, and restaurants. She got up and joined her kids in their celebratory dance because now that the shock had worn off, Katheryn felt like she was ten years old again. She frolicked in a circle with her kids, picking them up and twirling them around.
“Merry Christmas baby!” She yelled. “Merry Christmas.”
________________
May and Peter stuck their heads outside their apartment door and watched as the scene unfolded. Peter couldn’t stop smiling at his neighbor as she spun her kids around with such joy. It warmed his heart more than any present for him would have done.
“Merry Christmas, May,” Peter whispered and May planted a kiss on his forehead.
“Merry Christmas, Spider-Man.”