The Christmas Wish
By Billy Burrew
The weather was just awful. An unusual cold
front had blown down from the north and blanketed Chicago under
several feet of snow and ice on Christmas Eve. JC's hands gripped
the wheel like a vice as he sat in the warm driver's seat and
listened to Jim Dale reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban as the SUV slowly drove along Interstate 57. He sighed,
wishing that Justin was driving up from Florida with him as
he didn't much like driving by himself. Justin had been called
away a few days earlier by his manager to attend several meetings
that would hash out and start to nail down his upcoming solo
album.
When NSYNC had broken up a little over a
year and a half before, it was Justin's and, surprisingly enough,
Lance's solo careers that had begun to explode. Lance was offered
several movie bids and the music execs snapped up Justin and
began to promote him as a hot new solo artist. Not forgetting
his past, Justin had brought JC into the fold by getting him
to pen several of the slower, ballad-y songs for his debut solo
album.
The two had decided, when Justin got off
the phone with his manager on December 21st, that they would
keep their plans to spend Christmas with JC's folks and then
swing over to Tennessee in the SUV a few days later and spend
New Year's with Justin's family. The drawback to this plan was
that Justin would have to fly into Chicago after his meetings
and JC would have to drive up to Chicago and meet him there.
JC had decided to split the journey up into a two-day trip and
arrive in Chicago late on December 24th. He drove through Florida,
Atlanta, and then stopped in Nashville, Tennessee. He arrived
in Nashville just after dark on December 23rd. The next morning,
as he was showering and packing his suitcase, he turned on the
TV and groaned as he saw the severe weather advisory for the
entire Mid-West.
The snow started just as he switched from
Interstate 24 to Interstate 57. It came down light at first,
then began to increase in intensity. JC patted the dashboard
of the Jeep Grand Cherokee lovingly, as one might pat the head
of a dog that was being especially good. JC put in disc two
of eight in the Harry Potter book and drove onwards on Interstate
57 toward Chicago. Four hours later, the conditions of the road
had deteriorated to a point that JC had kicked in the optional
four-wheel drive and was seriously considering stopping to put
on the snow chains that he was glad he had bought and placed
in the back of the Jeep last winter, despite Justin's objections
that they never really get snow in Orlando. An hour later, JC
stopped to put the snow chains on the Jeep and to get a cup
of hot tea at a gas station off the highway. JC sipped his tea
and pulled out his map. He was not too far away from his parent's
place. He just needed to get off 57 and onto 90 and it was maybe
about 20 minutes driving from there. The thought of being so
close to home bolstered JC's mood and, after calling to leave
a message with his folks that he would be there soon, he put
his tea into the cupholder, put the Jeep into drive and headed
back onto the highway.
Justin sighed, sitting quietly in the living
room of his lover. JC's parents had been so supportive when
they came out and told them that they were together that he
really had begun to think of them as yet another set of parents
to him. He had two on his own, his mother and father both having
re-married after their divorce. Justin got up and looked out
the window at the road outside the house for what seemed to
be the hundredth time, hoping to glimpse JC as he pulled into
the driveway. Justin watched at the window til his breath steamed
up the glass and then he turned and walked back to the sofa.
JC had called about an hour before and had said he was about
thirty or forty minutes away. Justin turned on the television
and began to flick idly around the stations, hoping to pass
some time. His blood froze as he landed on a local news station
that was reporting on a horrible accident on Interstate 90.
Seems a tractor-trailer had hit some ice and jackknifed onto
the next lane, falling over onto a Jeep Grand Cherokee and crushing
it.
Justin's eyes widened as the camera zoomed
in on the reporter standing next to the rear of the jeep, the
Florida license plate was the one on JC's Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Justin began to yell and scream and JC's parents ran into the
living room in time to see terrible wreckage of the accident
and hear the reporter say that the survivor was pulled from
the jeep with the jaws of life and airlifted to the Chicago
Hospital just moments before and was in critical condition.
Justin fell apart at the last words of the reporter and was
barely able to stop crying as JC's mother handed him his jacket
and ushered him quickly out to the car.
The silence on the ride to the hospital was
broken only by Justin's quiet sobs and the slosh of snow and
ice against the bottom of the van. When the group arrived at
the hospital, JC's mother and father held Justin's hands as
they identified themselves and asked the attending nurse at
the ICU about the condition of their son. The nurse took in
Justin's tear-stained face and she quickly looked down at her
roster and directed them to the third room down the hall, telling
them that he would probably be being moved to the ER soon for
emergency surgery.
Justin sprinted down the hall to the room
and opened the door and stopped. He felt his heart break wide
open at the sight before him. Covered with bandages and connected
to what seemed to be every machine in the room, was his lover.
Justin's breath hitched in mid-sob as the light caught his face,
bloody, bruised and broken, but still so very handsome. Justin
stopped at the side of the bed and reached down and took his
hand, curling his fingers around JC's as he had done so many
times before. JC stirred slightly, but did not open his eyes.
"It's all my fault." Justin said,
tears flowing down his cheeks. "I shouldn't have let you
drive up alone…I should have made you catch a flight up
and then we could have rented a car to drive to Tennessee."
Justin sat down lightly on one side of the
bed, stroking JC's hand lovingly.
"You can't leave me, Josh. Not now.
Christmas is our special time, remember? The first time we made
love was on Christmas. It's our little joke, remember? I let
you unwrap me…then a few hours later, after we both got
our wind back, I got to unwrap you. It was my first time…you
were my first…my only."
Justin wiped the tears from his eyes with
his free hand, then wiped his nose and sighed. "You can't
leave me. I wasn't gonna tell you…I was gonna surprise
you, you know. But I was gonna make an honest man out of you
tomorrow…I was gonna ask you to marry me…I know it's
something you've always wanted…so I thought I'd ask you
on Christmas, since it's our special day."
Justin put his head down and began to cry
again. "I'd be so happy if all I got for Christmas this
year was you back, all alive and healthy. You know, it sounds
silly to say, like I'm quoting lyrics, but you're all I ever
wanted Josh, don't leave me!"
The orderlies came in and stopped as they
saw Justin, crying and holding hands with their patient.
"Son…" the older man said
to him, "It's time for his surgery."
Justin turned and saw the man looking at
him sympathetically.
"We'll take good care of him."
Justin nodded and leaned down and kissed
JC on his cheek before whispering in his ear.
"Don't leave me, C. I need you. I love
you. Please don't leave me."
Justin let go of JC's hand and watched as
the orderlies wheeled him out of the room and down the hall
out of sight.
Justin walked back toward the waiting room,
suppressing a sob as he remembered how broken and lifeless his
lover had looked minutes before.
Justin stopped at a wide set of double doors
and realized he had walked past the waiting room and that he
was standing in front of the hospital chapel. Justin walked
into the chapel and into the first empty pew near the back and
sat down and began to pray to God for the life of his lover.
Several hours later, Justin felt a hand on
his shoulder and he looked up to see an old man with white hair
and a beard standing over him.
"Did you want to take communion, son?"
the man asked quietly. "Midnight mass is going to start
in about a half-hour and I wanted to check."
As Justin shook his head, more tears began
to fall from his eyes.
"Are you alright, son?" the old
man asked, bending down beside him in the pew.
"No." Justin said quietly. "I
need to pray for my lover. He was in a terrible car accident
tonight and is in surgery now."
The man nodded. "God is with him, young
man…as is your prayers."
Justin managed a weak smile through his tears.
"He needs to make it. I don't know what I'd do if he didn't
make it through. I was going to surprise him tomorrow by proposing
to him. I know it's one of his greatest wishes to be married…and
I was gonna give it to him for Christmas. My wish…well…all
I want this year is for him to come out of this alive…and
alright so that we can be together again."
"Christmas is a time for miracles, Justin." The old
man said quietly. "Never forget that."
Justin watched as the old man got up and
walked to the front of the chapel, genuflected, and walked behind
the altar to a partially concealed door.
"I wonder how he knew my name."
Justin said to himself as he watched the door close. His ruminations
were quickly ended as soft organ music filled the chapel and
a young man in white robes walked over to the pulpit and began
mass. As the song finished, JC's brother Tyler ran into the
chapel and grabbed Justin by the arm.
"Justin!" Tyler cried. "C'mon!
JC's out of surgery and is conscious…and he's asking for
you!"
Justin's eyes filled and the two tore off
towards the ICU. As Justin approached the ICU, Tyler smiled.
"It's a miracle, Justin! The doctor had come out and was
beginning to tell us that with the trauma and swelling of his
head wounds, he might not live through the night, and if he
did, he would probably never regain consciousness again. He
hadn't gotten half of it out when a nurse rushed out and said
that Josh was awake and asking for you! The doctor rushed back
in and was absolutely baffled by it. Mom and Dad sent me to
get you."
Justin and Tyler stopped in front of JC's
room and took a deep breath and opened the door.
"Josh?!?" Justin said as he opened
the door.
"Justin" came the weak reply from
the bed. "Hey, baby."
Justin began to cry again as he walked over
and took JC's hand again. "I thought I lost you…I
thought I lost you."
JC's eyes sparkled with tears. "Don't
cry Justin. I'll be OK!"
Justin wiped away his tears and looked down
at his lover.
"Hey! What's this?" Justin asked
as he saw a small pastel envelope on JC's lap.
"I don't know where it came from Justin.
The nurse said it was laying there when I got back from surgery."
Justin picked it up and gasped as he saw
the name written in gold ink in perfect cursive.
"It's addressed to me, Josh." Justin
said as he turned the envelope to show his lover.
"Open it!" JC said, "Open
it, Justin!"
Justin opened the envelope and pulled out
a card and gasped.
"What?!?" JC exclaimed. "What
does it say?!?"
Justin tears fell anew as he looked down
at JC. "It says, 'See Justin…I told you, Christmas
is a time for miracles, never forget that.' It's signed, Santa
Claus."
JC smiled. "You were talking with Santa
Claus?"
Justin smiled, "I guess that's who that
guy was. Oh, wait…there's more! There's a P.S., it says,
'Have a long and loving marriage."
"Marriage?" JC said, looking up
to Justin.
Justin nodded, "I was gonna ask you
on Christmas…."
JC smiled hopefully. "It's after midnight….it
IS Christmas."
Justin giggled. "I bet you were one
of those kids that opened all his presents on Christmas Eve,
huh?"
JC bit his lip and frowned, "Juuuuuusstttttttttttinnn!"
Justin grinned and fell to one knee by his
lover's bedside. "I love you with all my heart. Joshua
Scott Chasez, on this holiest of all nights, will you marry
me?"
JC smiled, "Yes! Justin Randall Timberlake.
Yes, I will marry you!"
Justin stood up and leaned down, catching
JC's lips lightly with his own.
JC smiled cheerily as his parents walked
in behind Justin. "Mom! Dad! Guess what? Justin proposed!!
What a great Christmas present, huh? He got me just what I always
wanted!"
JC's mom and dad smiled and clapped their
soon to be son-in-law on the back.
Justin took hold of JC's hand and sat on
the side of the bed, smiling. "I got what I wanted too…you're
alive and we're together again…I got my wish."
Justin paused and looked out the window at
the falling snow. "Thank you, Santa Claus."
The End
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