Joe was waiting impatiently in the emergency waiting room. The right side of his forehead was bandaged. The ER doctor had told him that he had been very lucky. Joe had a very mild concussion – the doctor had said it could have been worse. He slumped back in the hard chair then looked up when he heard someone call his name.

“Joe, oh my poor baby!” Laura gently touched the bandage then moved her hand down to caress Joe’s cheek.

“What happened son?” asked Fenton as he looked on with concern.

“I’m…I’m not exactly sure.” Joe stood quietly, a puzzled frown on his face. “Frank and I were at the mall when Santa….I mean a mall Santa started yelling. Some kid stole Santa’s money bucket…we chased the kid out to the parking lot…and…”

Joe stopped talking – he wasn’t sure what had occurred next. He thought he remembered getting into the van….Frank making a sharp turn and then…then there was Con looking at him with a worried expression on his face.

“When Con called us he did mention that you two were almost in a car wreck. Luckily the other driver managed to swerve out of the way.”

“They…they did? Then how did Frank and I…?”

Fenton had Joe sit back down; Laura sat beside him, her arm around his shoulders.

“From the information that Con got from the other driver, Frank must have hit the brakes really hard. It caused him to crash into the steering wheel and you into the window,” Fenton explained.

“Don’t forget we need to call the manufacturer about the van…the seatbelt should have locked and the air bag didn’t deploy!” Laura said angrily.

“So we didn’t…we didn’t crash into the truck?” asked a still puzzled Joe. For some reason he felt that there was something missing.

“Mom – Dad!”

The threesome turned to see a nurse wheeling Frank into the waiting room. A young man in a lab coat stood off to the side; he walked over to Fenton and held his hand out.

“Mr. Hardy, I’m Dr. Johnson.”

“Hello, this is my wife Laura and our youngest, Joe.”

“Yes, I didn’t treat Joe but I did get to see him for five minutes.” Dr. Johnson smiled at the Hardys.

“How is Frank?” asked Laura.

“In amazingly great shape considering he wasn’t wearing his seat belt! As I told your son, he really could have damaged his heart when he slammed into the steering wheel. But luckily he just bruised himself very badly. I wanted to monitor his heart though, but he’s doing very well.”

Laura let out a sigh of relief; Fenton thanked the doctor then left to sign Joe’s release papers. Frank wanted to walk out of the hospital but knew it would be useless to protest riding in the wheel chair – so he remained quiet.

Much to Joe and Frank’s chagrin, Laura and Aunt Gertrude made them stay at home and rest for two days. It was the day before Christmas Eve when the Hardy brothers were finally allowed out of the house. They headed for the mall again – the brothers still needed to get gifts for Iola and Callie.

Frank had wanted to give Callie a tennis bracelet – he had found one that had been on sale but when he went back the bracelet was sold out. He found a nice bracelet watch and bought that. Joe knew he wouldn’t be able to get the cameo, so he purchased a pair of birthstone earrings. With a small loan from Frank, he was able to get them for Iola.

Not being a very good gift wrapper, Joe wheedled Laura into wrapping Iola’s gift for him. He thanked her with a hug and a kiss, then went up to his room. He found Frank on the computer, and sat down on his older brother’s bed.

“You chatting with Phil?” he asked Frank.

“Yeah, he wanted to know if we were going to the Mortons’ Christmas party tomorrow night. I let him know that we were.”

Joe grew quiet and lay back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. It took him a few minutes to realize that Frank had stopped chatting with Phil. He raised his head and found his brother watching him – he sat up, giving Frank a quizzical look. “What?”

“You’ve been awfully quiet lately – anything wrong?”

“No…not really…I mean…” Joe stammered his answer, let out a sigh and tried again. “You’re going to think I’m weird.”

Frank was tempted to tease Joe but seeing the worried expression on his brother’s face stopped him. “I won’t think you’re weird…I promise.”

“Frank, I could have sworn we hit that truck head on!”

“Joe,” replied Frank. “If we were in court and I was sworn to tell the truth…I would swear that we had a head-on collision with that truck too.”  

“Frank – that’s not the only thing. I’ve been having strange dreams about….about Santa’s workshop.”

Frank’s eyes went wide with shock. “You’re not the only one. Joe…let’s agree not to tell anyone about that…okay?”

“You don’t have to ask me twice! I think I’m going to bed now. Night, Frank.”

“Good night, Joe.”

Christmas Eve found Frank and Joe at the Morton farm. Phil Cohen had come with Tony Prito and Biff Hooper, but they met their friends Liz and Daphne there. Chet and Iola had decorated the barn with garland and lights. They had swept a large area for dancing; Iola had also hung several pieces of mistletoe.

Mr. Morton played DJ – spinning his old 45’s for the teens to dance to. Joe and Iola accidentally found themselves under the mistletoe several times throughout the night. It was almost midnight – Joe and Iola, Frank and Callie were going to exchange their gifts then.

Joe took Iola to a secluded spot up in the barn loft. With her eyes shining brightly, Iola gave Joe his gift and waited for him to open it. She watched with excitement as he unwrapped the gift. He let out let out an excited cry of joy.

“All right – new lock picks! Thanks Iola!”

“My turn now!” squealed Iola as she began to unwrap her gift.

Joe wanted to tell Iola that wasn’t the gift he had in mind for her. That he wanted to get her something nicer than earrings. He stared down at the floor when Iola suddenly let out a scream.

“Oh Joe! This is…this is…it’s so beautiful!! How did you know? Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Iola flung her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. Joe was taken by surprise – if he had known Iola was going to like the earrings that much he never would have worried about the cameo. Iola finally pulled away; there were tears in her eyes and a huge smile on her face.

“Will you pin it on me?”

“What?!” Joe looked down at the box that Iola held out. Nestled inside was the cameo pin.

Frank was also exchanging his gift with Callie. He was happy with the new computer disc that she had gotten him. He watched as Callie tore off the wrapping paper then slowly opened the jewelry box. He grew concerned when Callie drew in a deep breath and didn’t let it out.

“Callie – breathe, Callie, breathe!”

“Frank, I can’t believe….I love it! I love you!”

Caught by surprise when Callie pulled him in for a passionate kiss, his head reeling, he didn’t see Callie take out his gift from the box.

“Can you clasp this for me? My hands are shaking so much!”

Clasp…what? Frank looked down and saw the tennis bracelet he had wanted to purchase. He managed to clasp the bracelet on her wrist, trying all the while to figure out what happened to the watch.

Still in a daze, Joe took Iola back down to the party where they met up with Frank and Callie. The two girls showed off their gifts – Joe glanced over at Frank, both brothers silently asking each other how this had happened.

“Let’s go sit out by the fire! I bet Chet is roasting marshmallows!” laughed Iola. She took Joe by the hand and led him outside. 

Taking Frank’s hand, Callie followed her friend out. As they headed towards the bonfire the four teens heard sleigh bells. Joe and Frank turned to each other.

“No way,” whispered Joe.

Frank opened his mouth then clamped it shut – he silently raised his hand and pointed up at the sky. Joe looked up, and for a split second saw a man dressed in a red suit, riding in a sleigh being pulled by eight tiny reindeer, fly by. A clear call rang in the brothers’ ears: “Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!”

Turning his attention back to Frank, Joe smiled.

“Merry Christmas, Frank.”

“Merry Christmas, Joe.”

The End