O Come All Ye Faithful
Page 1
O Come All Ye Faithful
And Other Short Stories
By Faith Blum
Table of Contents
Title Page
O Come All Ye Faithful
Other Titles by Faith Blum
Table of Contents
O Come All Ye Faithful
Peace on Earth
Silent Night
The Gift Goes On
O Christmas Tree
Author’s Note
Text and cover copyright 2018 by Faith Blum
All rights reserved. This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
eBook Edition
November 2018
Cover by Amanda Tero | amandatero.com
Layout: Amanda Tero | amandatero.com
Editing: Kelsey Bryant | kelseybryantauthor.weebly.com/editing.html
O Come All Ye Faithful is a work of fiction based on historical events. All names, places, characters, and incidents are from the author’s imagination. Any similarities to real people, living or dead, are entirely coincidental. All historical characters are fictionalized.
All Scriptures are paraphrased by the author from the New American Standard Bible.
Other Titles by Faith Blum
Hymns of the West Series
A Mighty Fortress
Be Thou My Vision
Amazing Grace
Lily of the Valley
The Solid Rock
Hymns of the West: The Complete Series
Hymns of the West Novellas Series
I Love Thee
Pass Me Not
Redeemed
Hymns of the West Novellas: Volume One
Just a Closer Walk
Just As I Am
Blessed Assurance
Hymns of the West Novellas: Volume Two
Short Stories
Where the Light May Lead
Heaven’s Jubilee And Other Short Stories
Faith is the Victory
The Light Leads to Hope and Peace
Christ Arose
Orphans of the West
Savior, Like a Shepherd
All the Way My Savior Leads
He Hideth My Soul
He Leadeth Me
Orphans of the West Novellas
’Tis So Sweet
Sing the Wondrous Story
Audiobooks
A Mighty Fortress
Be Thou My Vision
Tales of the East
Trust and Obey
Lo, How a Rose
To Naomi and Seth
Neither of you are exactly like Gareth, but you both inspired him.
Table of Contents
O Come All Ye Faithful
Peace on Earth
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Silent Night
The Gift Goes On
O Christmas Tree
Author’s Note
O Come All Ye Faithful
December 23, 1914
Edwin stared across the vast expanse. He could almost make out a couple of German soldiers across the divide. The sun set too quickly as always. Just as they were making progress in their attempt to get across what everyone called No Man’s Land, the sun would set and they would start over again the next day.
Darkness settled over the land and Edwin turned his back on the field of bodies, crouching down deeper in the trench.
“Another night of restless sleep?” one of Edwin’s soldiers asked.
Edwin nodded. The lieutenant’s stripe on his uniform was the only difference between his and those of his soldiers. They were all equally tired, grimy, hungry, exhausted, and war-weary.
“Any chance we’ll get to go home for Christmas?” Charlie asked.
Edwin scoffed. “That’s what? Two days away? Not a chance. We’ll be lucky to still be alive.” He set his rifle down, took his helmet off, and leaned against the trench wall. “I’m going to get some shut-eye. Wake me up before dawn.” He put his helmet over his face to keep some of the light out and fell into a light sleep almost before his arm rested into his lap.
The fighting the next day was as brutal as always. Men charged only to be mowed down by the Germans. At this rate no one would win the war. How could they? No one could get across—Germans or English. Edwin fired his rifle like an automaton. He was past caring if he hit anything. If he did, he didn’t even think of that person as a human being. He had killed too many people now.
Midday passed by too quickly. The sun waned down farther and farther toward England and away from them. Come back, sun. Don’t leave me behind. I don’t want to be stuck in the dark with my nightmares. His wishes were useless. The sun never listened and soon set, and another evening started with too many men scrunched into the trenches.
Edwin blinked against the dim light of the dawn. What had awakened him this time? A dull boom in the distance startled him. Distant or not, that boom was much too close for comfort. Who had fired their artillery and where? It was far enough away to not be a danger to him or his men, but if it was the Germans, that meant another company was getting artillery shells lobbed at them.
Not for the first time, Edwin wished he lived back during the days of King Arthur. Boulders catapulting toward him would be preferable to the devastation from a shell. He had always imagined boulders would be easier to see and move away from. If he couldn’t, then being crushed had to be better than shrapnel. He shuddered as memories of the army hospital tents came back.
The captain shouted orders to them and Edwin bit back a groan. Another day, another fight, another depressing... Wait, it was Christmas Eve. Not that it mattered, but being gloomy on this holiday was not something his sister would approve of. A smile flitted across his grim face. It didn’t stick, but that tiny seed of hope lifted his spirits just a little.
The men around him stood in the trench and looked across No Man’s Land. Someday, one of the armies would cross the expanse. Whoever that happened to be would likely win the war, too. At this point, Edwin didn’t care who it was so long as the fighting stopped. Too many had died already.
The acrid smell of gunpowder and dirt filled his nostrils and Edwin shook himself out of his reverie. His friends were fighting and he needed to help them as best he could.
The exchange of volleys continued all day until darkness set in and they could no longer see well enough to fire anymore. Edwin let out a sigh. He was still alive. Most of the men near him were also alive. They had survived to at least see Christmas Day.
Edwin jerked out of a light sleep. What was that noise? It didn’t sound like gunfire or artillery fire. He shook himself awake and concentrated on the new noise only. Singing? Someone was singing? What song was it?
Others up and down the line joined in the song and soon Edwin could make out the words.
Silent night, holy night!
Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.
Edwin joined in on the fourth verse. Few of the men actually sang in tune, but all together they sounded like a choir of angels worshiping the newborn king born about 1,900 years bef
ore.
As the song came to an end, silence filled the trenches for a few minutes. Then suddenly, singing voices rose from across No Man’s Land. It took a while for the exact tune to reach across the way, but it was unmistakably the German version of “Silent Night.” Edwin hummed along with them.
Back and forth, each army sang Christmas songs. Some were well known and Edwin joined in on them; others were unfamiliar and he just listened in and hummed the tune once he figured it out.
Silence fell again around midnight. Neither side started up a song. Finally, a man near him climbed a ladder and stood up outside the trench. He took a dozen steps into No Man’s Land. Edwin’s heart jumped into his throat. That man was determined to die. He had to be to do a crazy stunt like this.
The man, Brennan, clasped his hands behind his back and stood tall and straight.
O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant...
The words belted out of his mouth like a gunshot from a sniper’s rifle. Brennan had a beautiful, loud voice and one that commanded everyone to join him. By the third phrase of the song, music surrounded Edwin and, if he wasn’t hearing things, surrounded No Man’s Land as the Germans joined in.
O come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him, born the King of angels;
O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.
As the last word of the last refrain faded out, a German started singing the song in Latin. Nostalgia filled Edwin as he thought back to his mother singing those words every Christmas. He looked up at Brennan’s legs and a smile—a full smile—spread across his face. Without thinking it through, he climbed up the closest ladder and stood next to Brennan, belting out his off-key rendition of “Adeste Fideles.”
Other men joined Brennan and Edwin, and the moon shone just enough to see Germans climbing out of their own trenches. Edwin’s smile grew. Christmas was a time for peace all over the world, even during war. As the song neared its end, each line of men came closer and closer together until they reached the middle of No Man’s Land.
The song ended and Edwin reached out and shook the hand of the German soldier facing him. “Merry Christmas!”
“Fröhliche Weihnachten,” the German replied.
Edwin reached into his pocket and handed the German half the candy bar his mother had sent in the last care package.
The German smiled and took a small bite. He closed his eyes and groaned in pleasure. “Danke.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a packet of cigarettes.
Normally, Edwin would have refused since he never smoked, but this time he couldn’t. He took a cigarette and said, “Thank you. I will keep it for later.” He put it in his shirt pocket and smiled.
The German nodded and smiled back.
As the night went on, the soldiers retrieved shovels from their own trenches and together they buried their dead who had lain in No Man’s Land far too long. It was hard work due to the frozen ground, but needed to be done.
As light cracked the horizon, Edwin looked around him. It may only have been a temporary ceasefire and truce, but he could honestly say, this was one of the best Christmases he had ever experienced. It proved that the Germans and the English could get along, despite the language barrier and their differences, for at least one night.
Never would he think of the Germans the same. Edwin pulled the cigarette out of his pocket. He had thought of giving it to one of his trench mates, but maybe he would keep it as a reminder instead. A reminder that Germans were human, too. A reminder of German-English cooperation and that most wonderful of Christmases on the Western Front in 1914.
Peace on Earth
1
Emmie double-checked her list. Everything had a checkmark as well as a line through it. Had she forgotten to add something to her list? It was only a ten-day trip, so why was she so stressed about it? Because all your friends keep telling you Christmas is meant to be spent with family, not friends. Emmie sighed. Family was the one group she wanted to avoid this holiday if at all possible. And so far she had managed to do just that.
Her parents were divorced and remarried with children of their own. She had never met her father’s wife and she hated her mother’s husband, so she avoided talking to any of them if at all possible. And she was able to avoid it easily. She had gotten a new phone number and never told any member of her family.
A smile crept on her face. She wasn’t an evil person, she just didn’t like her family. If that made someone evil, they needed to set their sights on Emmie’s twin sister, Elana. If Emmie hated her family, Elana despised them with a vengeance. Another reason Emmie had changed phone numbers without telling her family.
Elana was the favored one. She had a fake sugariness that fooled everyone who came in contact with her. Elana was prettier, likable, and more charismatic than Emmie. Elana even liked her mother’s new husband and called him Pops.
Emmie slammed her suitcase shut. Enough reminiscing about the past. All it did was drain what little Christmas spirit she had in her.
She looked around her small Idaho apartment and flicked her bedroom light off. Picking up her suitcase, she lugged it to the door where she set it down to make one last walk-through of her home. A small cooler sat on the kitchen counter and Emmie rolled her eyes. She’d almost forgotten her food. Again. Emmie slung the cooler handle over her shoulder and double-checked the knobs for the stove. She’d heard too many horror stories about people burning down buildings by leaving things on, especially stoves.
Making her way back to the door, she unlocked it, picked up her suitcase, set it out in the hall, and closed the door behind her. She locked the knob and bolt and wished the Fort Knox lock could be locked from the outside, but it couldn’t. Not that she had anything terribly valuable in her home; she just felt safer with all the locks secured.
Her immaculate silver car sat where she had parked it the night before after her date with Brett Carson. She jumped as her phone vibrated from inside her jeans pocket. She pulled it out. Speaking of the devil, Brett was on the phone right now. She hesitated before answering,
“Hello?”
“Em, I was wondering if we could go out tonight. I know it’s short notice, but I really enjoyed our time together and—”
“Brett,” Emmie interrupted. “I can’t. I’m leaving town for a while. I’ll call you when I get back.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone for half a minute. “Oh. Okay. Have a safe trip.”
“Thank you and...Merry Christmas.” Emmie hung up, hoping he hadn’t noticed her hesitation in saying the happy words. Brett was her seventh boyfriend in as many months. It wasn’t that any of them were such terrible people; she just couldn’t bring herself to get close to them at all.
She popped her trunk open and stuffed the suitcase inside. The cooler slipped off her shoulder and she huffed. Time to get on the road or she would never make it to her hotel tonight.
Once in the car, she turned it on, turned the heater up a little, and pushed a music CD into the player. No Christmas music for her this time. At least not for the first leg of the journey. Maybe after this CD stopped.
The soothing strings of a Bach violin concerto flowed through the speakers, and she leaned back, closed her eyes, and let the music envelop her for a minute before plugging the hotel address into her GPS and putting the car into gear.
2
“Carla, have you seen my purple shirt?”
A giggle came from the living room. “You mean the one you are wearing?”
Elana looked down and groaned. “Thanks. No wonder I couldn’t find it.”
“If your head wasn’t attached, I think you would lose it,” Carla said as she came into the doorway to Elana’s room. “I’m not sure how you can survive in this disaster.”
“I know exactly where everything is. I call it organized chaos. My clothes are over there, my computer and other office-y things are on the
desk, and my books are all over here.” As she said each one, she pointed to them. Her clothes were piled so high a toddler could have claimed the stack as the first mountain climbed. Her desk was stacked with piles of papers, her computer, and other office-y things, some of which looked rather precarious. And last, her stacks of books that with the slightest wind would have all fallen to the ground. It was a miracle they hadn’t fallen considering how fast Elana had been moving around them that morning.
“Can I help you pack?” Carla asked.
Elana looked at her friend and roommate. “Would you? I don’t want to give you unnecessary work...” she trailed off.
Carla laughed. “I know you well enough by now that I put on my list of things to do ‘help Elana pack.’ I knew you wouldn’t have anything started.” She held out a piece of paper. “I even made a list of things you should pack.”
Elana snatched the paper from Carla’s fingers and skimmed through it. “A nice dress? What for?”
“To wear to the party your friend is putting on. I know you like to wear something casual all the time, but in this case, I think something fancier would be in order. It’s Christmas after all, and you mentioned something about your friend’s brother.”
Elana narrowed her eyes. “I told you, I’m not interested in ever getting married. I’m especially not interested in Megan’s brother.”
“You might say you aren’t interested, but your body language tells me otherwise.”
“Ugh! Why did I have to be roommates with a psychology major?”
Carla gave her a hug. “Because you love me, darling, and I’ve been one of your best friends since you moved here five years ago.”
Elana grabbed a pen off her desk and a few papers slid, almost falling to the floor. She used the pen to cross off the things she had packed and sighed. “There’s still a lot on here.”
Carla snatched the list from her and skimmed it. “I’ll get some snacks in a bag for you while you work on your toiletries and finish packing your clothes.”
Elana smiled. “Yes, ma’am.” They went about their individual tasks and regrouped ten minutes later in Elana’s bedroom.