Jeremy: A Christmas Story; Part 1

From WGBH Radio and Artana Productions, Jeremy A Christmas Story by Jay O'Callahan. [music: Bell version of "O come, all ye faithful] Christmas was such an exciting time as a little boy, once my grandmother who lived in Cambridge, she took me on the subway to Boston. We went into Jordan Marsh. It was a great big department store. We got on the elevators of the elevators that were huge, the door open. And Santa Claus, he was sitting way at the end, the red suit, and there were lots of little children waiting in line to sit on his knee.

I got in line Santa Claus, so exciting. I was so glad he took the time to be here. I knew how busy he was. And I worried about him up there in the North Pole, getting all the presents ready and all of his health running around so fast and busy. I finally got in his knee. I don't remember what I asked for, but I remembered I was worried about him coming down the chimney. We lived on Peel Hill was a neighborhood, a big old fashion houses. And in our house we had thirty two rooms with a lot of fireplaces. And most Christmas Eves would have a big party starting late at night, nine o'clock at night, and they'd be roaring fires in the fireplaces. I always wondered about Santa coming down the chimney when we still had a fire in the middle of the night was exciting on Capitol Hill because on Christmas Eve, of course, we'd have the tree and we'd hang the stockings. My sister Maureen would hang hers and she put a hard little rubber figure of

Dopey above her stocking above mine. I had Grumpy my sister Sheila. She had happy. And we'd go out singing Christmas carols in the dark on Christmas Eve with Dr Graham a few days before Christmas Eve, Dr Graham. He ran the Faulkner hospital and he was so busy seven days a week, he was at the hospital, but he had come back early to rehearsals for the carols we'd all get in his living room. There were about 16 of us and it was the former living room. No one. No one was in that usually. But we go in there to rehearse and the piano would start. And Dr Graham, he conducted us so seriously, he loved to sing. We just wanted to sing out the songs that I like to sing in the key of free. But Dr Graham, he wanted done right and he'd bend over and especially for O Come All Ye Faithful. He'd been way over and his hands would kind of lead us o come let us do

it. Stand up a little more o come let us adore him. He'd stand way up tall o come let us adore. Oh, him cries Oh, Lord. Christmas Eve had come and we go out with him, but this Christmas Eve was very special because Mummy had just come home from the hospital day before she'd had a baby. Her new brother, Christopher. But Christopher didn't come home from the hospital. There was something wrong with his heart. They said mummy was busy that day cooking, but she looked much paler than usual. Sister Maureen said she was worried because Daddy was out shopping with Uncle Neil and Maureen said, I hope he doesn't come on festive late in the day, Mummy. She sat down. Mummy never sat down. She was always busy. And she said.

I hope he's all right. Christopher, I mean, hospital hasn't called, maybe I'll call them. The phone rang and Mummy picked it up and the doctor said, I'm awfully sorry, Mrs. O'Callahan, but the baby's going to die. I mean, hung up, daddy came home just a little while later and he told him and Daddy got on the phone and he thundered at that doctor and daddy and mommy drove to the hospital. Another doctor said, listen, there's been a mistake, a blood test, your blood, Mrs. O'Callahan, is RH negative and the baby is RH positive. What we can do is replace the blood, it's a new procedure, but there's a chance, and that's all I can tell you, there's a chance and it's best just to go home. So they came home not knowing whether Christopher was going to live or die.

And money was always full of energy. Well, not that my daddy helped her upstairs and. Said, you better just sleep, Alan. Shut her door. And he said, listen, why don't you just go out caroling, I go out caroling, we left the house and as I ran out, I realized, oh, the house was blazing with light. Usually on Christmas Eve, daddy and mommy went all around our house, 32 rooms, and they shut out every light and they lit a white candle in every single window. I hadn't done it and we didn't think about it. That never happened. Always we had the Christmas candles in. The whole house was dark, but we'd all forgotten. Dr. Graham took us down to the hospital to free hospital for women, and we sang way up on the third floor where 40 old women was a ward bed to bed to bed and all over Peel Hill. Dr. Graham always knew who was sick or who was dying, and we'd sing at their doors

and we got back. And Dr. Graham. He pointed up at our house. It was all dark, but there was a white candle in every window. I knew the daddy must have done it. Dr Graham said, come on, we're going to go round on Edgehill Road here and sing a special Carol for Mrs. O'Callahan. Dr Graham knew that Christopher might be dying. So on the darkness, in the cold, 16 of us. We started to sing the first Noel up towards Mummy's window, was all dressed up for the candle, all of a sudden Mummy appeared there standing over the candle. Ten years later. We were standing there, all of us, the same time, singing up to mommy's window. Mommy appeared there. My sister Maureen was singing the first Noel, but she was crying.

She'd just been married and she was going off to Chicago. As she was singing. Her shoulder was touching Christophers. He was 10 years old. Jeremy has a dream. That's what Aunt Mary now at always say, little Jeremy, only three years old, but

she could almost see the dream in Jeremy's eyes and the sparkle. She would say to her husband, look at the twinkle in Jeremy's eyes. Yes, he does have a twinkle, doesn't he? Well, it won't last. Of course it'll be gone when he's 15 or 16. I've scored. But life is hard. He'll always have the twinkle. He won't marry now. And I don't prepare yourself for disappointment. He will always have that twinkle. And Jeremy is going to be a wonderful man. You'll be a man. That's enough to be a man. Not enough. But nothing could dim the twinkle in Jeremy's eyes. When Jeremy was three and a half, he got up early and decided to make breakfast for his uncle and aunt. He went out to the bar and he got about twenty twenty one eggs and put them in that basket. He brought them into the kitchen. He got up on the stool and he started to make breakfast.

He knew to make breakfast. What you did is crack an egg, put it in the pan, crack an egg, put it in the pan, crack an egg, put it in the pan crack and put in the pan crack and put it in the pan. He cracked twenty one eggs. What he didn't know is the stove was supposed to be hot. After a while he got the great big platter and he poured twenty one raw eggs onto that platter. And then he started up the stairs. He tipped the planet to the left and two of the eggs splashed onto the stair and he tipped it to the right splash two of the eggs. When he got to the bedroom, though, there were still seventeen eggs. Jeremy he pushed open the window. The bedroom was kind of dark. OK, I got breakfast, he ran forward and he tripped over the rug and 17 raw eggs went all over his uncle's head, splosh. Oh, Jeremy, what are you doing? Going to make toast now?

Nothing in the twinkling parametrized. When Jeremy was five on Mary Nelsa, Jeremy Morley, come on, I'm going to take you both down to the village. Come on now, Molly. She was five years old and she lived in the farm right across the road. The two of them they followed Mary Nail down into the village was late in the afternoon. The snow was swirling around. The slaves were going by Jeremy and Molly. They were behind Maranello, sticking their tongues out of one another. The shops were all lit up with the candles and the lanterns, Mary said. Which Mrs. Cosgrove? Now be careful down that wooden sidewalk. Mrs. Emily Khosro. Everyone was careful of Mrs. Emily Colegrove. She was important and she was rich. Everyone was terrified of her. She leaned forward. Mrs. Colegrove, if you met her on the sidewalk and if you said hello, Mrs. Kozko, she would say, what? What is my name? You would say, Oh, Mrs. Grove, that's the way she made

everyone say her name. Mrs. Colegrove. It made her even more important than she was. She bent forward against that wind until you felt sorry for the wind. Down she came. That wooden sidewalk remain out of the way for Mrs. Colegrove, but he didn't get out of the way. Mrs. Colegrove almost knocked him off the sidewalk. He grabbed the wooden roof. You said this is Emily COFCO. She bent over the gentleman. He stuck his tongue way out of her. Oh, this is your new toy boy. He's not a naughty boy. You almost knocked him off the sidewalk. He's a naughty boy. He should get out of the way for his betters. Jeremy, your naughty boy, you should be punished severely. Oh, she went and Jeremy thumbed his nose. He jumped up and down, laughing. Nothing could dim the twinkle in Jeremy's eyes. When Jeremy was 11, all the students had to stand up one after the other and say what they liked and what they wanted to be.

Molly stood up, she was 11 long brown hair and very slender. What I like is color and what I want to be as a painter. Molly sat down and Nikki Cosgrove stood up. Nikki Cosgrove was just like his mother. He was thin. He was very handsome, black hair that came to a point. He leaned forward like a schoolmaster. What I like is money. I'm going to be rich. He sat down and there was a chill in the classroom and Jeremy stood up and told me it was a real farm boy. He had ruddy cheeks and he was kind of plump, but very strong. He stood there kind of swaying his arm, going back and forth. Well, everybody, you know, what I like to do is whittle and what I like to do is to give what I whittle away. Jeremy said that very afternoon Jeremy was whittling. He was good at it. He had finished all of the farm chores and he was sitting out there on the tree stump

outside the farm, whittling away. He'd been willing since he was four or today as he whittled Nicky Cosgrove came over and he leaned over. Jeremy, I've got the sled. We're going to the ICU. If there are four of us, we'll really go fast. So come on, Jeremy. I wish I could make a lot of sledding, but I got a little wheeling a Christmas present from my uncle. No one gives Christmas presents. I never heard of such a thing. Well, I'm going to Nicky because my uncle is going to have his teeth out just before Christmas. He's going to be sad. You're never going to finish. Jeremy got a hunk of wood and three weeks to Christmas. I'll finish, Nicky. I'll finish tomorrow. We'll see. Nicky came by the next day and Nicky and four of his friends, they lean forward. You're finished? Yes. I finished your finished in a day. Yes, I finished the thinking. Now I do the witling for the next three weeks. Every night Jeremy was whittling away in the bar and he sat right by the car to keep

himself warm. He had the lantern and he finished the present. On Christmas Eve, who was sitting at the table and his uncle just a week ago, it had every tooth pulled up by the horse doctor. His face had been like a beehive. Tonight, his uncle just sat there looking so he couldn't have a Christmas Eve dinner. Could have only soup. Uncle, he's a Christmas present for you. Well, I know I've got a problem for Groupon, but for where you're getting on now, hoping it will open up. Oh, no, I wouldn't do wooden teeth. Wouldn't wouldn't put them in. Well, I will ask. Rather stiff, but but look at me in the mirror. Jeremy, I look 20 years younger. I look like a boy marionette. Look at me now. You want to dance, Marinho? Want to dance. His uncle and aunt started to dance around.

I've never seen them dance before. And Jeremy knew now what he wanted to do was to give Christmas presents to everybody. When Jeremy was 15, he was sitting out on that tree stump late in the day. His cheeks, they were red as could be. It was only two weeks to Christmas and he was whittling a ballerina, but he wasn't really concentrating. There were two red spot right in the middle of Jeremy's cheeks. He was so mad. Today, for the last three weeks, Molly had walked home with Mickey. And yesterday, Molly had come back to the farm with Nikki. In their pony carriage, the Cosgrove pony carriage, Jeremy looked over there and Nicki was over there at Marlee's, Mickey's footmen were helping with Molly's farm chores. Jeremy Widdled, and he never realized until the last three

weeks how much he thought about my. He really liked my. He was still witling when it was dark. Nikki came over and he kind of leaned over, Oh, Jeremey, nice to see you. Witling. I was thinking, you know, Molly's going to marry one of us someday. I think you like her, don't you, Jeremy? So you think about this. If she marries me, she gets to be rich and then she can paint and do what she wants. If he marries you, he marries a whitelighter. Think about it, Jeremy did think about it that night. He was still working in the ballerina. He was in the bar and now had a little workshop there. The door open about 10:00. Oh, Jeremy, I saw the lantern. Mean, that is a beautiful ballerina. I'm doing it for Carrie Salt and Pepper, I'm going to do 16 wooden toys.

Look at my toy soldier here. I don't think I'll finish the only two weeks. I could help Jeremy, would you let me paint? Help Molly took the toy soldier and she took the red paint and she painted a red chest and that toy soldier, then five black buttons, then she painted the blue trousers and then she painted the black hat and the gold chinstrap and the toy soldier. It seemed a wink and march around the barn. And just like that, the two of the Malian army, they were a team. They worked until dawn. Then they did their farm tours and walk to school together for the next two weeks. Jeremy and Molly, they worked. They worked half the night, but she walked home every day with Nikki. They worked till late Christmas Eve. And then they delivered the 16 wooden toys and the last wooden toy they brought to carry salt and pepper. She took that ballerina and said, Jeremy, it's just like a sword in my mind. Oh, it has the red shoes, the yellow dress and blue hair.

I love blue hair, Cheramie. Molly and Jeremy, they crunch through the snow that night right through the village, looking up at the stars. Molly, why are you going to the Christmas dance with Mickey? Because he asked me, Jeremy. And I really like him, Molly. I want to give presents to everyone. It's a big village. No, Molly, I mean children everywhere. Then, Jeremy, you should go to the blue. People know Molly. They have that bench. And if you don't have a good dream, you bounce right off. Jeremy, I promise you, you won't bounce off. All right, my. I go. Two days later, Jeremy, he went right through the village and he started up the hill of the blue people. The blue people.

The Hill was always covered with snow, a good two feet of snow in Jeremy's boot. It broke the crust of the snow underneath that crust. The snow was below. They were called the blue people because of the snow and because they had a bench, a strange bench that was blue. But mostly they were called the blue people. Because they were so mysterious. Jeremy kept going up. There were wisps of blue smoke coming out the chimney, and then he looked up all of the blue people. They lived in very rough old wooden houses underneath the trees, huge porches. They were all very old and wrinkled. And they would be sitting on those porches talking, laughing, singing. They were all very content. The leader of the blue people was on one of the porches looking down at Cheramie, she was a very old woman called the old one Jeremey

coming quite a little wonder if he's got a dream. Everyone get ready just in case. Just in case. Now, Jeremy sat on the blue bench and in a moment he was in a kind of trance. He'd got a dream. All right, everyone. Like the blue clay pipes. They had long blue clay pipes. All right. Now blow the blue smoke over Jeremy's head. Go ahead. Now, there were at least 40 of them blowing the blue smoke, which got a dream coming. All right. Look in the blue smoke over his head. You see it, a beautifully carved wooden toy that are quite a few of them. Look at the car butterfly. They're painted up beautifully. It's a good beginning. She barely clapped her hands and Jeremy was awake to have a dream. Oh, you have a dream, Jeremy. And a very good one. It almost finished. Well, not almost finished. It's a good beginning. Well, be back next year.

No, not next year, Jeremy. Maybe you'll come thirty or forty years. That Jeremy a dream can take ten or twenty years and. A great dream takes a lifetime. Made no sense to Jeremy, 30 or 40 years, and in the following year, there was one thought that obsessed Jeremy over and over. If I were rich, I could give presents to everyone if I were rich. I could give wonderful presents to everyone if I were rich, really rich, I could have a pony carriage and more, they'd come home with me if I were rich and I could give presents if I were rich. Mollet should be here every day.

If I were rich, if I were rich, if I were rich, if I were rich. And before I knew it, it was graduation night, the biggest night in the village. As soon as it got dark, everyone came down from the hill under the great field. There were 2000 people. They all came down with torches of bells and everyone gathered in a great circle in the middle of the circle. It all began with a dance. The smartest girl, the head girl danced with. The smartest boy. The head boy. Molly was dancing with Nicky and Nicky in our straight and handsome, as could be, and he was so smart, the two of them danced round and round. Everybody applauded. It was all beginning. And Jeremy, he was in the crowd watching Nicky dance with Molly. He heard Mrs. Cosgrove up ahead talking to a friend. Well, look at Nicky. I have to both. He is very handsome and he's extremely bright.

He's going to be very wealthy. And Molly, she's a lucky woman. He'll do very well together. They're going to be married. Oh, of course. Yes. Molly is going to marry my Nicky. What if she says no to him? She won't say no to Nicky. The only point in being rich is no one can say no to you. There will be married in three or four years. That's all Jeremy had to hear. He went right back to the bar and began to pace and he was still pacing in the bar at four in the morning. And his aunt came in Cheramie. You're right. Yes, yes. I've been thinking a long time, not just tonight, and I'm going to be rich. I've got to be rich. I'm going to the city. I'm going to be rich. I'm leaving right now. He threw his arms around. I gave her a hug. He told me I. No, you tell her he turned on. Mary Nell was crying.

Jeremy went out into the night. She watched his hunched shoulders and she was crying. Because the twinkle was gone from Jeremy's eyes, it took him almost three weeks to get to the city and Jeremy, he stepped over the bridge and stepped into the city. And Jeremy, he just stared. He was 16 and quite strong, but he felt like a terrified three year old. He had never seen anything like the city in his life. There were hundreds of buildings. There were huge buildings. There were stone buildings and wooden buildings. There was a wide street with hundreds of people on it. There were dogs and cats and carriages. There were cripples there and there are beggars. There were side streets and so much. What's going on? There were people shouting, market shadows, curse come in Launceston, man, oysters, oysters on your tongue and so much confusion. And north, he looked at all of this and he saw a group of beggars and one of the beggars calling Edward that George Edward that George Bush, when they called Edward just a beggar boy, couldn't have been 12 or 13.

He was running easily after a carriage. Please, please give me a penny. I haven't any. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Ma'am. Oh, thank you, ma'am. Oh, thank you, ma'am. Edward, how did you do? I got the gold piece where the boy they called Edward. He was the brightest thing in the whole street. Jeremy watched him for a while and then he jumped out of the way just as someone threw some slop from an upper window. And then the confusion got hold of them again. All he could do was watch all this confusion as a man behind Jeremy reached right into Jeremy's pocket and took every penny Jeremy had at night. He stood in that same corner, bewildered and frightened. It was nowhere to go. He didn't know what to do. He turned it with the Big Apple. It was. You're right. Yes, it would. You know my name. Yes, sir. But I watched you earlier. You really can sing.

Oh, thank you. Who are you? I'm Jeremy. I'm from the country. Oh, I never would have guessed. Come on, Wolf. Some stew until I get a job here. Maybe this'll help. Jeremy, it. Gold coin toss and not a cent, but it's worth 50 pennies to send. When I was a little boy, I never could say present. I used to say Santa, my mother still does to Santa. Come on, we'll have some still. Maybe you can get a job at a shoe shop. Cheramie I used to work. I always fell asleep. Oh, come on, we'll have some stool. The next morning, Edward, the bigger boy, he he set up those stairs as the shoe shop. Don't let the husband get to you without Jeremy. Jeremy climb the stairs and he stepped into the shoe shop. He stepped in and he had never seen a room that big in his whole life.

It was a huge room with a wide aisle on either side of the aisle or tables, and they must have gone a full city block. There were hundreds of tables and hundreds and hundreds of people making shoes, making part of shoes, the heels of shoes on the toes of shoes or fancy leather boots for shoes that they were sewing the shoes hundreds of people were doing this way down by the left. There was a great belt going round and round on a huge wheel. It made such a racket. Jeremy was unaware that a hard, unyielding looking man came right down. He had a bright red face, much taller than Jeremy. Oh, sir. Sir. I'm sorry, sir. I've got strong hands. Could I have a job? Got strong hands. I'll sit. Sit down. Sit down. That's a knife. That's leather. That's the tongue of a shoe. Put the tongue on the leather and make another tongue do it. Jeremy sat down right away, began to make the tongue. It was easy for him to cut that leather, but he was shaking because of that hard one staring at him in the arm slip. Now, you ruined that piece of leather. Do that twice and you're out doing other tongue. He did the next time and he did it very slowly.

Now he was doing the curved part of the tongue and the hard one said, Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. But he didn't hurry and he finished that time. I've done a U-turn to Tom. I'll be watching you all day. You get no pay today. You know, I'll tell you tonight, if I'll keep you nine o'clock at night, the hard one came. All right. You're not cold, but I'll keep. Yeah, you'll be here at six o'clock in the morning. You work till nine o'clock tomorrow night. I'll give you a four pennies for pennies. For pennies I can barely eat for pennies is what you get if you're any good after five years, you move ahead 100 tables and be Hilman, another five years, you move ahead 100 tables, you'll be a tall man. And so it goes 40 years. Then maybe you'll be a master shoemaker way up the top 400 tables. Then you get 50 pennies. You won't make it, though. You'll be a young man all your life.

Now get out. Jeremy was there 6:00 the next morning, and for four months, he worked every day that hard, one would walk up and down that long aisle. He would shout at people, spit at them. And for Jeremy, he had one word, honey, honey, honey. That's all he ever said. Honey, honey, honey. Never a kind word for anybody in the whole place. After four months, there was a kind of murmur and then it died down. There was a fat, squat man with squinty eyes walking up and down that long aisle. He was the owner of the shoe shop.