An Unusual Christmas Story

By Dipti David

One winter morning when everything outside was frozen and covered with snow. Everyone was caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Every building was covered with holly jolly decorations. And the buildings that weren’t, we're in the process of being decorated in the city of Albany.

The feeling of new cheers and warmth was filling the air and every heart. The sweet aroma of fresh bakes and sweet treats surrounded the environment of streets where bakeries are present for a very long time.

Among all those bakeries that are situated in this bustling city, is a special bakery that is very profound. And this profound bakery is run by a profound lady named Margaretta. She was a kind-hearted lady who was always sweet to people around her. But she always strived for perfection in whatever she did. She also expected it from others too.

Margaretta had a little sister named Sasha, who was a lovely gentle kid. But because of her big sister’s over-perfectionism, Sasha was finding things hard to even enjoy her sweet life. Whenever people came in contact with Margaretta, they would often fear her over-perfect expectations that were very hard to be met.

In the same street where Margaretta lived, was another profound bakery named “The Butterfly Bakery”. This one-of-a-kind bakery is run by two sisters named Daisy and Dazzle. Both of them were the most cheerful, loving, and careering people in the world. They were not perfects or even strived to be one. But they had a learning mentality towards making mistakes and took things lightly.

Whenever someone opened the door of “The Butterfly Bakery” their jingle would start playing.

“Butterfly, oh! Butterfly.

If you need some delicious treats,

then why don’t you flutterby?

Butterfly, Oh! Butterfly.

If you want delicious treats…

Then you have to flutterby,

our Butterfly Bakery!”

The soft melodious tune of this jingle mesmerised everyone that listened to it. This included Sasha. Whenever Sasha and Margaretta passed by the “The Butterfly Bakery”, Sasha would marvel at the bakery jingle whenever it was played.

“Margaretta, look how wonderful the jingle is?! Why shouldn’t we also have one for our bakery?”

“Oh please, having a jingle for our bakery where our customers like to enter would be very unprofessional, and it would also be irritating to the customers.”

Margaretta always despised creativity. She always wanted to confirm and was always close-minded. In the same town of Albany, there was another girl named Laila. She is a young girl from Greece who was kidnapped, trafficked, and forced into prostitution. Margaretta who strived for perfection also despised Laila for the work that she does without even knowing her whole story.

“Why do you hate the lady so much? She seems like a nice lady, but she appears to have some kind of sadness in her inner being,” Sasha was talking to her big sister while they were doing the dishes at home after coming home from the bakery.

“Well, she is indulging in something wrong, and that is not acceptable. It only causes harm to the society,” Margaretta smirked “Anyway, you are just a kid Sweetheart, you will understand when you grow up.”

Both of them washed the dishes silently and went to change into their nightclothes to get ready for bed. They had to sleep because it would be a long day for them tomorrow. After all, it would be Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile, Daisy was reading a good bedtime story to Dazzle about kindness. She read a story about how kindness rewards us in many unusual ways.

“Daisy, I wanted to ask you a question.” Dazzle stated “Laila, appears to be a kind woman, but I’m not able to get why people despise her? I don’t know what to do.”

“Dazzle, I just wanted to tell you one thing. No matter how others treat her, you need to treat her with kindness.”

“But what if other people say something wrong?”

“What other people think of you is none of your business. And remember kindness pays and this Christmas is the season to bring cheers into many people’s lives.” Daisy said as she leaned in to kiss Daisy on her forehead. “Good night, sweetheart.”

“I guess you’re right, I need to be kind no matter what. There are a lot of benefits to it.”

“Good, now go to sleep Dear, we have a big day tomorrow,” Daisy said and switched off the light before leaving Dazzle’s room. And Dazzle turned around to lie down straight and closed her eyes as she drifted off to sleep.

The next morning the whole city was filled with ringing bells and glee filled wishes. The carols that are being sung keeps wafting into every nook and cranny. And great tidings of comfort and joy was filling the bakeries of Albany. Leila becomes so broken inside. She is ill-treated by everyone around her.

Merriment was everywhere, except in the heart and soul of Laila. Laila is a person who is good at heart and her intentions are good. But everyone misunderstands her because of the work that she is involved in. There is no one for her to cry out to or share her feelings with.

Even when she enters shops or bakeries, they do not show her the respect that she deserves as a human being. All of them give her either a wary look or a rude look. She is mistreated everywhere, by the people for whom she is forced to work and also by the others who are around her.

After some time while walking past “The Butterfly Bakery” she hears the jingle of the bakery as someone was opening the door. She was mesmerised by the tune and the words of the jingle from the bakery. And so, she decided to walk into it.

A few moments later she was inside the café, suddenly the room went quiet. Everyone turned around to look at her. She felt her cheeks turning red. She wanted the ground to swallow her. Frankly, that doesn’t seem to happen.

Both Dazzle and Daisy notice her and signal to her to come to the table, towards them. Even though she hesitated at first, she went near them. She didn’t expect much.

Within minutes they placed a plate with burger and cake in front of her. She was amazed to see how kind and soft they were towards her. Never has she ever witnessed this sort of a kindness towards her.

Laila eats the food with contentment. When she finishes eating the food and is ready to leave, both of the sisters stop her and give her a gift rapped and tied with a ribbon. This made her jaw drop. Not only hers, but even the jaw of Margaretta who was watching this from the display window of the bakery, dropped on witnessing this.

Laila was filled with tidings of comfort and joy. And the same happened to Dazzle and Daisy. And everyone who was around were able to see the glow of the season on all three people’s faces.

At that moment, the one who was using Laila for prostitution barged into the door. He shouted at Laila and was pulling her by her hand, forcing her to come with him. Immediately Dazzle stopped him by giving him some money and told her to let her go. And he did just that by receiving the money and left the place.

“From now onwards you can live with us,” stated Daisy. “It will be extremely safe for you here; we can be really good sisters!” exclaimed Dazzle.

And, the merriment continued in that special bakery of Albany!

By Dipti David