Author's Name:  Evergreen

Title of Story:  An Angel at the Manger

Type of Story:  Christmas Story Contest, 2007

Rating of Story:  PG

Characters in Story:  J, F, L, Iola

Warnings:  None

Date Story Posted:  December, 2007

Plot Blurb: Three months after Iola’s death, Joe has no interest in the usual Hardy family Christmas preparations.

Splash Page:  With a choked-off wail of grief, Joe snatched up the cocooned Baby Jesus and shook the little figure hard. “Why didn’t you save her?” he shouted in fury.  “Why did you take her away?”  Flinging it down, he picked up the little angel holding the lamb and cradled it close against himself, then buried his face in the pillow of the guest-room bed and began to sob; great wrenching sobs that made him feel as if he was being turned inside out, barely able to breathe through the suffocating pain in his heart.  He cried all the tears he had been bottling up for the past three months – and then some.