Have Some Cake
Christmas: Orono, ME > Buffalo, NY
Orono, Maine, USA
Mounds of snow line the icy sidewalk Jeremy Swayman is skating on. The dreary dorm buildings under the gray skies whizz by him as the brisk air hits his rosy face. His backpack over his coat-covered shoulders sways to the beat of his gliding. The scenery holds tones of gray with dull blue and a little vibrant gold.
Jeremy brakes and gazes ahead. Confusion muddles his face.
Laying on the snow ahead of him to his left is a splotch of vivid gold. He glides up to it, eyeing the odd colour in such an environment.
The piles of snow around the colour moves away from Jeremy’s vision as he nears it, revealing the source: a long blue knitted ribbon with golden stripes.
He furrows his eyebrows then lifts his head to see the source of the knitted item.
The ribbon stretches out from the dorm building it is in front of before disappearing around the corner.
Jeremy resumes his skating, this time with his eyes glued on the ribbon. He takes the left side at the fork of the sidewalk, rounding the corner.
The ribbon extends past the dorm building’s property and onto the empty road in the fog.
A resolved smile forms on Jeremy’s face. He pushes off to follow the ribbon.
The knitted item stretches past the university’s grounds, across roads, through forests and glades. Jeremy hops onto frozen streams, ponds, and concrete to continue skating alongside it.
Even out of breath, Jeremy glides alongside it. Amazement grows in his eyes as he is unable to comprehend how long a knitted item can be.
The ribbon reaches down a straight road of a suburban neighbourhood. Jeremy glides on the sidewalk, gazing around the area.
The quaint two-story houses have snow piled up on their layered roofs. The trees to the goalie’s left have their fair share of snow lined on their bare branches.
Jeremy then gazes ahead to find the ribbon cutting in front of him and past a house’s white vinyl gate to his right. He turns to the right, following the ribbon rising to a lit-up, ajar window next to the porch of the house.
With an “O”-shaped mouth, Jeremy approaches the gate and pushes it open. He glides down the pathway before clomping up the steps. Then he stomps to the door and pushes the doorbell.
The wooden door stays still before its golden knob turns and swings open. Warm air from the inside wafts around Jeremy, bringing a pleasant tingling sensation throughout him.
Casey Mittelstadt stands on the other side. He is wearing a Buffalo Sabres ugly sweater. Despite his sweet smile, apprehension is evident in his eyes.
“Sway Baby?” Casey squeaks out.
Jeremy gives him a warm smirk. “Hey, Mittens.” He leans against the door jamb. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Wh-wh-what are you doing here?” With nervous eyes on the goalie, Casey fiddles with his fingers.
“Uh, well…” Jeremy leans back to spot the knitted ribbon snaking down from the window and extending out into the horizon. “...I saw your knitted...thing from my dorm area and I followed it to see where it was coming from. It’s long.” He turns back to find Casey gawking.
“You mean you came from Maine?”
“Yup.” Jeremy nods before narrowing his eyes in thought. “That’s like—what?—six hundred miles of...ribbon?”
“Wow.” Casey dips his head in embarrassment.
“Two questions—” Jeremy raises two fingers then lowers one. “One, how can you knit that much and two—” He holds his other one up. “—why didn’t I ever know you could knit?”
Casey lifts his big blue eyes at him. “Well, uh, I knit whenever I’m nervous…” He shrugs. “…and the more I’m nervous, the more I knit.”
The goalie drops his hands and gazes at him in inquisitiveness. “So, what are you nervous about?”
Casey drums his fingertips against each other while looking aside. “Uh, nothing really…”
Jeremy glances at the long ribbon to his right once again before shooting him a flat look. “Come on, Mittens.”
He drops his hands. “Fine.” He slumps forward. “It’s Secret Santa. I don’t know what to get.”
Jeremy’s face lights up. “Ohhh!!! That’s not bad!” He slips out a chuckle. “Who’d you get?”
“Jeff Skinner.”
“Oh yeah, I’ve heard of him!” He flicks his hand at him. “He’s that smiley guy, right?”
“Yeah…”
Jeremy leans against the door jamb again. “What does he like?”
Casey leans back with a craned head at the ceiling. “Everything.” He gazes at him. “And that’s the hard part! I want to get him something that makes him happy, but he’s happy all the time!”
Casey holds his hands out from his sides. “How can I top his happiness? There’s no way to compete against his happiness! No way to improve on it because that’s as happy as a human being can get!” He leans back with a groan.
Jeremy scratches the back of his neck while gazing up. “Ah, I see... Well…” He reverts his eyes on him. “...do you know what he likes specifically?”
Casey looks back at him with no expression. “Happiness.”
He drops his hand. “Uh, anything tangible?”
“Smiles.”
“Something you can hold?”
“A hockey stick.”
Jeremy straightens up and throws his hands in the air. “Come on, something tangible that he doesn’t have that he’ll like!” He then halts as his eyes light up. “Wait…” He fixes his gaze at him. “...you say he’s happy all the time?”
Casey has a bewildered look at him. “Yeah.”
“So whatever you give him, he’ll be okay!” He holds his hands out from his side. “Because he’s happy all the time!”
Casey blinks. “So I can give him anything?”
He shrugs. “Anything nice, yeah. I mean—” He throws his hand out to knitted ribbon’s direction “—you can give him that six-hundred-mile-long thing you knitted if you wanted to.”
Casey gasps with delight. “Maybe I can…!” He then steps out of sight.
A few moments later, he returns. In his hands is the other end of the ribbon tied to his knitting needles. At his feet are the two balls of yarn with their strings pulled up to the needles.
Casey has hopeful eyes on his creation. “I think he’ll like it!” He lifts it at the goalie. “It’s tangible, homemade…”
“...and unique,” Jeremy finishes off. “Very unique.” He eyes it with unsure surprise. “You can even register it into the Guinness World Record.”
Casey chuckles as he places his knitting needles down on the end table behind the door’s frame. He scoops up more of his knitted ribbon.
“I’ll give Jeff this...this…” The creator holds its creation up in the air as if it is a large trophy. “...super duper long scarf!!!”
Jeremy flashes him a grin. “Perfect! That should definitely bring a smile to his face!”
“Awesome!” Casey puts down the abnormally long scarf on the end table. “Thanks, Sway Baby!”
Jeremy shoots him a smirk. “Of course.” He pats his shoulder. “Now I should get back to Maine.”
“Sounds good!” Casey then pokes his head out to glance at the scarf’s path through the window, across his yard, and down the street. “Can you help me pick up the rest of the scarf from Maine?” He gazes back at him. “I need it all to wrap it up!”
“Sure thing.” Jeremy huffs, letting out a puff of white smoke. “It’s my workout for the day.” He then gradually turns around on the blades of his skates. “Bye for now!”
Casey excitedly waves to him. “Bye!”
Jeremy climbs down the steps and glides through the front yard. He then makes a sharp turn into the sidewalk and skates back into the crisp, blue environment.
The End.
