Eric Flint's 1632 & Beyond: Alternate History Stories

Previous / Next

A Christmas Letter

Bjorn Hasseler

Friday, December 18, 1637

Kathy Sue Burroughs and Alicia Rice eased down the wooden staircase and rejoined the other nine women who were all seated on sofas and chairs in the living room.

“The kids are all tucked in.” Kathy Sue’s eyes twinkled. “Finally.”

Heads swiveled away from the television set atop a low wooden shelving unit against the far wall.

“It is so pretty,” Anna Maria Ilgenfritz apologized. The dark-haired Catholic woman, one of Kathy Sue’s boarders, was seated in an easy chair at the far end of the room.

“It is,” Kathy Sue agreed. “Does anyone need another drink?”

Magdalena Rimpler, Kathy Sue’s other boarder and a Lutheran, jumped up from one of the dining room chairs they’d brought in. “I will get the drinks.” She waved Kathy Sue to the other easy chair.

“Thanks for inviting us over.” Alicia kept her voice down. “A slumber party is a great idea.”

Kathy Sue smiled as she sank into the chair. “You’re always welcome—especially when you take care of my kids.”

“Kids are so much fun. I wish more of the moms in the house church had come with their kids.”

Kathy Sue shrugged. “Me, too, but I can’t blame them. Reid says going somewhere with all the kids requires almost as much gear as an Army regiment. If one of the other mothers were hosting, I might have thought twice.” Her eyes twinkled. “But Reid exaggerates. It’s only a company’s worth of equipment.”

Alicia giggled.

Kathy Sue lowered her voice. “Thanks for talking the younger girls into it.”

“Oh, I didn’t have to try very hard at all. Slumber party plus a horse ride tomorrow? All I had to do was explain to their parents it’s basically the house church’s youth group plus us college-and-careers types. As long as Astrid came as their chaperone, they were fine with it.”

“Help me out, Alicia. I’ve got mommy brain. Regina’s dad and Astrid both work for NESS, so they’d know Astrid comes to the Bible study. But I thought Sarah knew the rest of you through Marta?”

“True, but Sarah and Regina were already good friends. It was completely coincidental people invited each of them to the house church at the same time.”

Kathy Sue’s smile turned whimsical. “Once is coincidence. Twice is divine action.”

Once they were all settled again with cider or mint tea, Anna Maria turned her attention to the television again. “How did they do it?”

Amalia Ramsenthalerin leaned forward from the near end of the sofa. “A couple nights ago, they took the television camera to the top of the Ring Wall near Schwarzburg castle and set it up. Then they waited for night. I went home to Schwarzburg to watch.”

Sarah Rodrigo was seated on the floor in front of them. The quiet, slender seventeen-year-old brushed dark ringlets of hair away from her face as she turned to say, “Wednesday was the new moon.”

“Right. It gave them the best picture. They just shot about an hour’s worth and brought everything back to the studio in the morning.”

The screen showed the lights of the Ring of Fire shining in the darkness. The power plant was in the bottom foreground. A ribbon of lights stretched out from there until it expanded into the glow of downtown Grantville. Other lights could be seen here and there in the distance. Whenever the camera panned left, the girls could pick out lights on the mountain tops: the Jenkins farm, the highest point within the Ring of Fire and now home to the Greens and Mountain Top Baptist Bible Institute and, on the next mountain top to the south, the Brethren settlement. Whenever the camera panned right, they could see the lights on the Voice of America radio tower.

Magdalena looked over at Amalia. “You are from Schwarzburg. Do you see this every night?”

“Not every night, but yap.”

Anna Maria rolled her eyes at the combination of ja and yep that had come out of Grantville High School.

“It is one of the reasons I wanted to come to school in Grantville,” Amalia said. “It seemed like such an enchanted place, with rows and rows of lights.”

“Like… candles,” Sarah murmured.

“It is like an angel’s view of Grantville,” Magdalena said.

Kathy Sue smiled at her housemate. “Could be.”

Astrid Schäubin, also seated on the carpet, looked up at Kathy Sue’s unintentional use of one of her boss Edgar Neustatter’s favorite phrases.

Pretty Regina Drehmann was seated between Sarah (her best friend and fellow high school sophomore) and Astrid. She looked back at Magdalena. “Do Lutherans believe in angels? No offense—it has never occurred to me to ask before.”

Ja. There are angels all through the Bible,” Magdalena replied. “Und guardian angels and…”

Nona Dobbs, a petite young woman who was in her first semester at SoTF State Tech spoke up from where she was seated next to Amalia on the sofa. “Are we sure guardian angels are in the Bible?”

Anna Maria answered quickly. “Of course! Und there’s Uriel and Raphael…”

“I thought those were artists,” Alicia Rice muttered. “Or ninja turtles.”

After that was explained, Magdalena shook her head. “You up-timers have strange stories. Anna Maria is right about angels, though.”

Kathy Sue spun her chair so she could reach the shelves against the wall on the short side of the room. She pulled a couple books from it. “Let’s check. Y’all can look up the verses for us.” She flipped pages in the concordance. “Who has Genesis 19:1?”

“I do.” Nona reached for her Bible and riffled through the opening pages. “King James Version. ‘And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.'”

“Do they just show up?” Kathy Sue asked.

“No. Wait, I know this.” Nona flipped back a page. “‘And the LORD’—all caps—’appeared unto him’—Abraham… Ok, there are three men. The LORD and the two angels. Huh.”

Kathy Sue asked her favorite question. “What does this tell us?”

Magdalena frowned. “Angels look like people.”

They looked up more verses. Kathy Sue asked, “Who’s got Psalm 91:11?”

“Me,” Anna Maria said. She read from a German version Cardinal-Protector Larry Mazarre had approved. “‘For he has commanded his angels over you to keep you in all your ways.’ See—guardian angels.”

“Maybe,” Kathy Sue allowed. “Guard us, yes. But is there one assigned to each of us? This verse doesn’t say one way or the other.” She skimmed the list of references. “Someone, find Luke 2:9.”

“Got it.” Alicia read. “Starting in verse eight, through verse fifteen in the New Revised Standard Version. ‘In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” ‘ “

“That is so cool,” Magdalena said.

“Any textual variants we should know about?” Kathy Sue asked the question with a grin.

Ja,” Magdalena answered. “The German says ‘Christus der Herr.'”

“‘Christ the Lord,'” Kathy Sue translated. “Christ means anointed one or chosen one in Greek. Messiah means the same in Hebrew.”

“So no problem,” Magdalena summarized.

“Then there’s the other one,” Barbara Kellarmännin spoke up. She was seated on the sofa between Amalia Ramsenthalerin and Marike Gendt. “‘Peace, good will to men’ or ‘Peace to men of good will’ which somehow turns into ‘peace among those He favors.’ It has nothing to do with angels, though.”

“All right,” Kathy Sue said. “We’ll keep moving along, then.”

“Alicia’s version is missing a ‘behold,'” her friend Amalia stated. “In verse nine.”

“Mine, too,” Kathy Sue said. “One of you Bibelgesellschaft scholars, please explain.”

Nona found the passage in the Greek New Testament and peered at the apparatus at the bottom of the page. “Majority Text has ‘behold.’ Alexandrian Text doesn’t. So wherever you come down on that topic.”

After a moment, Anna Maria spoke up. “I know some of them have names. The angels, I mean.”

“Only two are named in Scripture,” Marike Gendt stated. “Gabriel and Michael.”

“Daniel 8,” Kathy Sue directed.

A couple verses later, Regina’s eyes widened. “Gabriel talked to Daniel and to Mary?”

“And then there’s Michael,” Kathy Sue continued. “Daniel 10:12 and following says—New American Standard Bible—’Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come.” ‘ “

She flipped more pages and looked up. “Raphael and Uriel aren’t in this concordance. I think they are in some of the apocryphal books.” Kathy Sue giggled. “From your expressions, I can see no one wants to revisit the what’s-in-canon-and-why discussion tonight. Let me just say in general terms, sometimes people get caught up enough in something they write a story about it. At least one aspiring novelist got into a lot of trouble back in the early hundreds AD.”

“So you do not think Raphael and Uriel are real?” Anna Maria asked.

“I’ve got no idea,” Kathy Sue answered. “Let me tell you about one of these stories, though. It’s about a man who thought he was pretty useless and was thinking about killing himself. An angel showed up to talk him out of it.”

“Kathy Sue!” Nona exclaimed. “That’s not an apocryphal book! That’s It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s a movie,” she told the down-time women.

“Sure, we know it’s not apocryphal,” Kathy Sue acknowledged. “But there’re copies in Grantville, because it still gets played on TV a couple times every Christmas season. And in a thousand years, will people be as clear about it? That’s it’s just a story? With bad theology?”

“Bad theology?” Magdalena asked.

“Absolutely. It’s also about the angel earning his wings.”

Nona sputtered. “That is… that is…”

“Works salvation.” Magdalena’s voice dripped with disgust.

Yap, it’s silly,” Alicia acknowledged. She grinned. “Not as silly as the angel being named Clarence, though.”

Several of the ladies giggled.

“Seriously?” Astrid asked. “Clarence?”

“Uh-huh.” Kathy Sue leaned forward in her chair. “I’m not saying don’t read other books. Just be on the lookout for things that aren’t right. I like a good story about angels myself. My favorite not-real angel is Captain Tal.” She gave them a short description of This Present Darkness.

“Is it better than the Amish romance you lent us Brethren girls?” Barbara Kellarmännin asked with a grin.

Marike had a fit of the giggles, and Kathy Sue laughed. She remembered their reactions.

“Yeah. But don’t wander around in the dark after reading it. Not that you should be wandering around in the dark in the first place.”

Barbara and Alicia exchanged a look, remembering Barbara coming to Alicia’s rescue at the Mine Disaster memorial one evening back in the spring of 1635.

A contagious yawn passed around the living room.

“Are you all ready for bed?” Kathy Sue asked.

Just then, a faint cry could be heard upstairs.

“Priscilla’s hungry.” Kathy Sue headed for the stairs. “You ladies can roll out your sleeping bags and blankets. I’ll be back in a bit.”

By the time the girls had brushed their teeth and changed into pajamas, Kathy Sue had fed and changed Priscilla.

“Everything okay?” Alicia asked.

“Oh, sure. Priscilla woke up her sister Mary, so I had to tuck her in again. Lydia slept through it all. Third grade will wear a kid out.”

Alicia snickered.

Kathy Sue surveyed the living room. The girls had returned the extra chairs to the dining room and moved the coffee table in there, something they were used to doing for church on Sunday mornings, when the living room was even more crowded than it was tonight.

Kathy Sue, like Alicia, wore an oversize tee shirt and sweat pants. To her surprise, so did Amalia and Regina. Most of the down-timers and Nona wore what Kathy Sue thought of as nightgowns.

“You and Anna Maria should take the sofas,” Regina told Magdalena.

Magdalena looked suspicious.

Nona’s eyes twinkled. “She’s right. Otherwise, you old people will complain about your bad backs in the morning.”

Magdalena playfully shook a finger at her. “Anna Maria and I have perfectly good beds upstairs, and we have to work tomorrow.”

Kathy Sue giggled. “Watch it. I’m the oldest one here, and I’m only 31. Magdalena, Anna Maria, see you in the morning.”

“I forget you up-timers married young,” Astrid told her. “You don’t look older. You just seem older.”

Kathy Sue grinned. “Thanks, I think. Waiting until we were twenty-one sure didn’t seem like marrying young at the time.” She gave Astrid a look. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-five. Und don’t start.” Astrid held up her gunbelt. “Do you have somewhere I can put this? Out of reach?”

“My rifle’s on top of the bookshelf.”

“I saw. But if we need them, maybe we don’t want all of them together.”

“Good point. Okay, how ’bout the shelf above the television?” Kathy Sue raised her voice just a bit. “Any of you other girls packing?”

Barbara pulled a .38 Special from her pack, and Regina held up the ten-round .22 revolver Astrid used to carry.

“Put one of those up on the shelf with Astrid’s and the other with mine,” Kathy Sue requested. “There’s a good chance we’ll be overrun by my kids in the morning.” She laid her blankets out closest to the stairs. “Maybe they’ll jump on just me. Besides, I’ll probably have to go get Priscilla at least once tonight.”

Alicia rolled out her sleeping bag next to Kathy Sue. “Priscilla. I wonder what she’d think?”

“She’s five months old.”

“No, the other Priscilla. What do you suppose Priscilla Alden will think when she finds out you named your baby after her?”

“How is she going to find out?”

“You’re going to write her, silly,” Alicia told Kathy Sue. “You’re about the same age, you’re both moms, and I know you slipped a note into the packet we sent her to tell her Nona and I aren’t crazy. You’re natural penpals.”

“It’s three months one way by ship!” Kathy Sue exclaimed. “There’s no way she has stamps. Maybe not even paper.”

Alicia shrugged. “So we send her paper and postage.”

Kathy Sue sat down on the floor and arranged her blankets. “How?”

Nona Dobbs squirmed into her sleeping bag. “Just like in that funny story Reed told you, and you told us. When somebody put a box of paper and some ink on the train and sent it to some soldiers. We just need to get it added to the next shipment. You should send some of your Bible studies, too.”

Kathy Sue froze. “I couldn’t! Who am I to try to teach the Bible to the Pilgrims and the Puritans?”

Alicia double-teamed her. “And to the Algonquians.”

“Ladies.” Kathy Sue sounded a bit exasperated. “A women’s Bible study in the USE is one thing. Everyone’s had a few years to get used to us. But the Puritans are pretty strict on things like that. You know they don’t even celebrate Christmas, right? Because the New Testament doesn’t command us to.”

On the other side of Alicia, Amalia Ramsenthalerin sat back up and frowned. “I suppose Christmas is adiaphoral. But even if the Calvinists are not interested, maybe the Algonquians would be. None of us are from the same denomination as you. But we Lutherans… und Catholics”—she gestured toward Regina and Sarah—”und Methodists”—another wave, at Alicia—”und whatever Nona is—”

“Let’s go with Celtic Southern Baptist,” her friend suggested.

“—and even the Unitas Fratrum think you are a good Bible teacher,” Amalia finished.

“Remember what Walter Goodluck told us,” Alicia added, “about the Algonquian women’s council being eager to talk to President Gundelfinger. Your Bible studies might carry more weight with them than a guy preaching at them.”

“There is the small matter that they don’t have a written language yet.”

“That’s why you start with Priscilla.”

“This place where they have all gathered, what is it called?” Astrid asked.

“Dorchester.”

“Is it the critical point?”

Nona nodded. “That conversation at Hough Field, back in… ’35? Not when you graduated, Alicia, but the year before.”

“Yap,” Amalia agreed. “The critical point, und how it is not Boston or those other cities from your timeline.”

“It’s Dorchester,” Nona stated. “Kathy Sue, that’s why you should write to them.”

“What is it you always say?” Barbara asked. “‘Can’t hurt, might help.'”

Kathy Sue sat back. “I’m flattered. I really am. But this could hurt—a lot—if we get it wrong. I mean, how do you start a letter like that?”

“I believe the classic formula is ‘Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.'” Nona’s voice was dry as dust.

Kathy Sue sputtered. “No, I don’t want it to sound like Scripture. They have to know we know the difference.”

“So say that next,” Nona suggested.

Barbara spoke up. “If Katharina and Marta were here instead of in Prague, they would say you should make the greeting Trinitarian.”

“Good idea,” Kathy acknowledged. She looked around the room. “You’re going to make me go get pen and paper right now, aren’t you?”

“Nope.” “No.” “Nein.” “Wouldn’t think of it,” came a chorus of voices.

Kathy Sue sighed. “Fine.” She threw back her blankets and got to her feet. “Anyone need anything?”

She came back with a pen, ink, and paper from the old writing desk in the dining room and a saucer from the kitchen. “Nona, there’s a lap desk at the end of the sofa. Toss it to me, please. It’s just a bean bag attached to a smooth board so it lays flat on your lap.”

Nona found the object and gave it an easy lob.

Kathy Sue caught it and arranged her supplies. She put the inkwell on the saucer. “We’d better pray first. Lord, please help us say what You want said. Help us get it right.”

A few of the others prayed out loud before a final amen.

After a moment, Kathy Sue suggested, “Let’s make it clear we aren’t telling them what to do.”

“Right,” Alicia agreed.

Nona nodded vigorously. “No ‘to the church in whatever city, write…'”

“Oh!” Kathy Sue exclaimed. “We missed an angel reference. Somebody, find Revelation 2 and 3.”

Alicia reached for her Bible. “‘To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write…'” She scanned the two chapters. “The letters to the seven churches all start like that.”

“Let’s not do that,” Amalia urged.

“I agree a hundred percent,” Kathy Sue said.

Alicia spoke up. “Y’know, Walter Goodluck said the Algonquians liked that we just want to tell them about Jesus and not make them change their culture.”

“Unless something conflicts with Scripture, of course,” Amalia put in.

“It works both ways,” Kathy Sue reminded them. “They’re likely to point out things we do that we ought to stop.”

“Like not eating blood sausage.” Amalia’s example drew a grateful smile from Sarah.

“How about this?” Kathy Sue mused.

From a house church in Grantville to the Algonquians, Pilgrims, Puritans, and everyone else in the Connecticut River valley. Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, the Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. We are not writing to give you orders, and we certainly are not writing Scripture.

Alicia took over.

But we want you to know Walter Goodluck has returned to Thuringia-Franconia safely. He told us about you and about what happened.

“Maybe not everything that happened,” Astrid put in from where she was rolled up in a couple blankets toward the far end of the living room. “He may have left out military details. Not that I blame him. I would have done the same.”

“That’s reasonable,” Kathy Sue agreed. She finished writing what Alicia had said. “I’ll add this.”

Well, he probably did not tell us everything. He may have saved certain information for the president and the prime minister and maybe the captain-general.

“What do I say next?”

Regina turned over on one of the sofas. “‘We are praying for you.’ Because we do.”

“Maybe ask them what they would like us to pray for?” Nona suggested. “I know the Holy Spirit knows what they really need but it’d be nice if we were at least sorta on the same page.”

“Right,” Alicia agreed. “And ask them to pray for us. For God to keep the men safe in the war. For unity.”

“They probably need the same thing,” Kathy Sue mused.

We are praying for you, for the Lord’s protection, especially for the men in the field, and for unity. We ask that you pray for the same things for us and send us other prayer requests.

“Now what?”

The ladies looked at each other. Then Barbara spoke up. “We should tell them a little about ourselves and our customs. They may think us strange, but it will make us real, not just words on a page.”

“In that case, tell them our weekend plans,” Amalia suggested.

Alicia did so.

Eleven of us are at Kathy Sue’s house tonight. Up-timers and down-timers, Catholic, Lutheran, Brethren, Baptist, and Methodist.

“Tonight the television station showed Grantville,” Amalia continued. “How do we explain it?”

Nona offered a suggestion.

Television is like the radio that sent Massasoit Ousamequin’s message to Europe, except it sends pictures. It is only in Grantville. We cannot make new televisions yet. But the camera recorded a picture of Grantville from on top of the Ring Wall, the cliffs that surround the town on most sides. It is night, but we can see all the lights. Lanterns, electric lights, gas lights, all shining in the darkness.

Alicia took over.

Anna Maria asked if that is how angels see Grantville. Magdalena agreed, and Kathy Sue had us look up Bible verses about them. They are ministering spirits. And we talked about how people speculate about them. An angel announced Jesus’ birth, and the shepherds saw lots of angels praising God.

We know you do not celebrate Christmas, and that is okay.

“All right,” Amalia offered. “They will not know what ‘okay’ means.”

Kathy Sue crossed it out. “I’ll need to make a clean copy later. It’s not like we’re putting this in the mail in the morning. How ’bout we say, ‘But since the angels celebrated Jesus’ birth, we believe it is all right for us to do so, too’?”

“Is there not a verse about this?” Barbara asked. “Holy days, and you can celebrate them or not?”

Sarah and Regina frowned.

Kathy Sue carefully capped the ink and then leaned over to snag the concordance. After flipping pages, she reported, “Nothing under ‘observe.'”

“Maybe celebrate?” Nona suggested.

“Yep! Good call. Romans 14:6.”

“I’ll get it.” After a moment, she said, “Verses five and six. ‘One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.'”

“Are we sure they can understand Nona’s old-fashioned version?” Sarah asked.

Nona laughed. “That’s how they talk. The King James came out just twenty-six years ago. To the Pilgrims and Puritans, it’s the new-fangled version they’re still suspicious of.”

“I am sorry. My English history is not…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kathy Sue told her. “Mine wasn’t very good when we got here. Keep hanging out with these girls, though. They’ll catch you right up.”

Romans 14:5-6 says that you can esteemeth the day above another or not.

“What’s next?” Amalia asked.

“Well, if we are being ourselves, like Amalia and Barbara suggested, we could tell them about our plans for tomorrow,” Kathy Sue pointed out. “However…”

Yap,” Alicia agreed. “It’ll set them off. The Puritans and the Pilgrims, I mean. The Algonquians won’t know what to make of us anyway.”

Kathy Sue read off her words as she wrote.

We know you have your reasons for not celebrating Christmas. One of them is what we up-timers call the commercialization of Christmas. In some respects, buying presents was overemphasized, and it became a sort of generic holiday people associated with Santa Claus. Tomorrow we are going caroling. We have hymns picked out, and we are going to the assisted living centers.

Regina held up a hand. “We need to explain what an assisted living center is.” She did so from a down-time perspective.

Kathy Sue did so.

Then we are going to Christmas Town. I am going to drive my family’s automobile, because it is the easiest way to transport my five children. We do need to turn the engine on once a week anyway to help keep it operating. Regina and Sarah are riding horses, because they really enjoy it. We are going to buy what we up-timers still call Christmas presents, although since the Ring of Fire I have come to appreciate how down-timers tend to give most of the gifts on St. Nicholas Day or on Epiphany/Three Kings. There was a measles epidemic in Grantville in November and December, 1635, and my family ended up giving presents on Epiphany. We decided to continue with Epiphany this year, especially since there’s a chance my husband Reed could be back from the front to pick up more supplies.

We aren’t sure what you think of Nicholas of Myra, the man who came to be known up-time as Santa Claus. He provided for the poor and allegedly punched the heretic Arius in the face at the Council of Nicaea.

“So you ought to get along just fine,” Nona muttered. “But don’t write that.”

Several of the ladies laughed.

We know our customs are different from yours. Barbara said it would be helpful to tell you about ourselves, and Amalia suggested we share our weekend plans.

On Sunday, we will have worship services here at the house. Since we are from different denominations, pastors rotate in alphabetical order: Anabaptist, Arminian, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic. This week is a Calvinist Sunday. Gordon Partow is scheduled to preach. He is two years older than Kathy Sue and a year older than her husband Reed; they know him from school. He went to Geneva to study to be pastor in 1633 and just came back this autumn. We think he agrees with you on a great many things.

“Nice touch, Kathy Sue!” Alicia exclaimed. “Kinda hard for Puritans to argue a pastor educated in Geneva is a heretic.”

“Oh, they’ll find a way,” Nona predicted.

Kathy Sue looked up. “Everything okay, Nona?”

“Me? Oh, I’m fine. I’m just… being realistic that people who want to find a problem will go ahead and find a problem.”

“Sadly, Nona is right,” Astrid agreed. “Otherwise, Dr. Luther would not have written to explain our neighbors’ actions in the kindest way.”

“Yeah, sin’s a problem,” Kathy Sue agreed.

Ja, the Bible may have mentioned it,” Astrid replied. “Point taken.”

Kathy Sue looked back down at the letter in progress.

You can take up the fine points of predestination with him in another letter. There is a package of paper, quills, ink, envelopes, and stamps for you. Like the packets Nona and Alicia sent you this past summer, we have not been told how it will get to you—just that it will.

“Are you saying any more about predestination?” Barbara asked.

“I hadn’t planned to.” Kathy Sue smiled. “It’s one of the major reasons I don’t feel comfortable writing to Puritans and Pilgrims. We might be just about done, now, though.”

“You should greet the people you know,” Amalia suggested. “It is polite.”

“It would remind me a lot of Romans 16.”

“Just write like you talk. Unless, as Nona said, someone has decided he or she wants to find a problem, no one should fault you.”

“Go ahead and say you are aware this could sound like Romans 16,” Astrid suggested, “but what better model is there?”

“Oh! Thank you!” Kathy Sue began to write again.

We hope you do not think we are pretentious for greeting some of you by name. I hesitated. It felt too much like Romans 16 to me. But Amalia says it is simply polite, and Astrid pointed out the New Testament is our best model. So, John and Priscilla Alden, we heard from Walter Goodluck you made it to the Connecticut River valley. My husband and I named our newest daughter Priscilla. She was born in July. Her brothers and sisters are Lydia, Thomas, Mark, and Mary.

Barbara Standish, we are so sorry about what happened to your husband. We are praying for you and your children.

“And John Winthrop, Junior,” Alicia added. “His father is still in Massachusetts Bay.”

“Do not say that.” Astrid urged. “Say nothing that could be used against people if the letter falls into the wrong hands.”

“How likely is that?” Magdalena asked.

Astrid shrugged. “I know nothing of how the letter will get to this place.”

“Walter Goodluck said their ship had a narrow escape,” Nona recalled.

“How is this?” Kathy Sue asked.

We grieve with those who have lost family and friends. And with those who have family and friends trapped, we pray you can be reunited soon.

We understand you are forming governments and pray for wisdom for you. We have had our own experiences setting up new governments here in Europe, and anyone doing that needs wisdom.

Und we pray all of you have food and shelter.” Marike shivered. “Und that you take in anyone who does not. Like you did me.”

Barbara gave her a quick hug while Kathy Sue wrote.

Marike encourages you—and us—to pray for the Lord’s provision, for food and shelter for everyone and that He use us to provide for any who lack.

“What about the Algonquians?” Nona asked suddenly. “We have been focused on the Pilgrims and Puritans.”

“What would you say differently to the Algonquians?” Astrid asked.

“Tell them about Jesus.”

Kathy Sue carefully set her pen down. “Should it be a separate letter?”

“Good question,” Alicia told her. “We wrote eight separate letters before. We didn’t know how many would the people we intended.”

Kathy Sue noted duplicates on a separate sheet of scrap paper.

“Six of eight letters reached the addressees,” Nona pointed out. “Seven, if you count John Winthrop’s opened by his son. We have no information on where Roger Williams might be.”

Kathy Sue spoke the words as she wrote them. “Figure out where Roger Williams and others are. Because you’ve mentioned some other people in the past.”

Yap,” Nona agreed. “It would be nice if someone could find John Eliot.”

“This sounds like mission planning,” Astrid observed. “Not missions planning, as you call it, but as if you request search and rescue from the Underground Railroad.”

Kathy Sue held up a hand. “This is getting into your area of expertise, Astrid, so I’d like to hear more. The way you said it sounds like you disapprove.”

“I do not. Not really,” Astrid said. “As far as I can see, finding Williams and Eliot is a good thing to do. I am concerned about requesting it from here.”

Nona sighed. “You’re right, Astrid. We said the Special Forces are a model. We need to let the people there make the decision.”

Yap,” Alicia agreed. “I don’t want to get anyone hurt. Or killed. Okay, we let them figure it out.” She sighed. “I want to go help.”

“Me, too,” Nona agreed.

“I think you had better have a Lutheran along,” Amalia stated.

Marike sat up, startled. “You sound like you really mean to journey to America.”

“We do,” Alicia said. “Just as soon as we can figure out how.”

“It is dangerous!”

“So was what Astrid and Barbara did last year,” Alicia pointed out.

Kathy Sue took in Marike’s expression. “Okay, let’s get back to the Algonquians. What would you tell them if you were there?”

Alicia, Nona, and Amalia exchanged glances.

“Are you two sure you are not related?” Regina asked.

She didn’t bother to specify which two she meant. Alicia and Amalia looked enough alike that they’d done Twins Day at school.

“You even get the same expression when you concentrate on something,” Kathy Sue said.

Alicia and Amalia put their heads together and stuck out their tongues.

The rest of the ladies cracked up. When Kathy Sue recovered, she said, “Probably shouldn’t lead off with that in Dorchester.”

“Probably not,” Alicia agreed. She changed the subject. “We tell them about Christmas, right? I mean, it’s why you volunteered to start the letter, isn’t it?”

Kathy Sue returned a grin. “Somehow, that’s not how I remember it. I think I was voluntold.”

After another round of giggles, Nona said, “We should start with why there needs to be Christmas in the first place.”

“Excellent!” Kathy Sue said.

“Something like, there are Bibles for this, but here’s the short version,” Alicia suggested.

We do not know what you Algonquians know about Christmas. It seemed better to possibly repeat some things you already know than to leave them out.

“That’s really good,” Amalia declared.

So… In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…

Some minutes later, Kathy Sue concluded

so it was time for God to come to earth Himself.

“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, since he was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had thought this over, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son; and you shall name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’ Now all this took place so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled: ‘Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they shall name Him Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us.’ And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he named Him Jesus.” Matthew 1:18-25, New American Standard Bible

Then angels—spirit messengers from God—appeared to some shepherds and sang praise to God. And wise men brought gifts. This is why we sing and give gifts. God did not command it, which is why the Puritans and Pilgrims do not. Decide for yourselves. The important thing is Jesus is the promised one and Emmanuel—God with us.

Kathy Sue looked up. “Whew.”

“That gave me chills,” Sarah said.

Kathy Sue saw other heads nod.

“Keep going?” she asked. “Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday? Amalia, you look very conflicted.”

Yap, keep going. But maybe it could be an Easter letter.”

“Write a second letter,” Alicia said. “Let them decide if they read it right away or not.”

Her suggestion with murmurs of approval.

“Sounds good to me,” Kathy Sue said. “Let’s see… we should end this part.

There is another letter about Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. You can read the other letter it now or decide to wait a while.

But we can tell you how everything turns out.

She flipped pages in her Bible.

“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all the tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'” Revelation 7:9-10

Sehr gut,” Barbara said.

“Kathy Sue, you said you will copy this, right?” Nona asked.

“Yeah.”

“Why not bring the greetings down here? And add more.”

A quick discussion ensued.

Thank you for helping the people from Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. We are very grateful to you.

We are praying for you and for the things Walter Goodluck told us about. May your confederation prosper.

Sakaweston, best wishes from Kathy Sue’s father, Garland Alcom.

We understand there are massasoits and men’s and women’s councils. We would like to write more to the women’s council. Might some of the English women translate back and forth?

What questions do you have for us? What information or items do you need?

May the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit watch over and protect you all. Merry Christmas. Christ has come.

a house church in Grantville

Kathy Sue looked around at the others. “Anything else?”

“Nope.” “Nein.” “I think that’s everything.”

Kathy Sue wiped the pen and laid it on the saucer, then capped the ink. “Is everyone else as exhausted as I am?”

“I’m drained,” Alicia confessed. “It’s barely even late, for a slumber party.”

“It is practically second sleep!” Sarah exclaimed. “Not that I mind,” she added with a smile.

“We need to do this again,” Kathy Sue observed. “But for now, let’s get some sleep. And I apologize if my kids wake you up tonight.”

Nona made a shooing motion. “We got the important stuff done. Tomorrow is caroling and Christmas shopping. Merry early Christmas, everyone.”

“Merry Christmas!”

Previous / Next

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *