This is my entry for the Winter Holidays Story Contest. This is my first attempt at entering a Literotica contest, and hope it will be well received.
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Benjamin Scott was overcome with joy as he held his newborn daughter in his arms in the maternity ward of St. Francis Medical center. His beautiful young wife had delivered little Wendy, who was named after her wife's mother, at one minute after midnight on Christmas day. Coincidentally, both the baby's grandmother and father were both born on the very same day and time. The nuns and nurses were all fawning over the baby and calling her a Christmas Miracle. The proud father reluctantly gave his daughter back to her mother, because he knew she was hungry, and her mother Christine's milk had started to leak from her breasts.
Life had not always been so kind to Ben. He had been born exactly forty years before under dreadful circumstances, during a particularly nasty winter storm. His father William was out of town when his mother went into labor at 8PM on Christmas Eve. His Uncle Henry and Aunt Wilma drove his Mother Ellen to St. Francis Hospital, and his father was on his way home from Indiana to be there for the birth.
It seemed that the stars were not aligned properly, and that night a double tragedy occurred. His father was killed in a pileup on the highway in Danville at 11 PM, and his mother died from complications related to the birth, which happened precisely at one minute after Midnight, Christmas day.
Since the child was their nephew, Henry and Wilma Scott were given custody of the baby. In an unexpected twist, when they were asked what the baby boy's first name was, Henry said "Ebenezer," as some kind of cruel joke. When his wife asked him about the name choice, he said, "It will make him grow up to be tough and self-reliant," referring to the title character of a song by Johnny Cash, 'A Boy Named Sue'.
Needless to say, the boy was subjected to a childhood filled with taunts and incessant bullying. In first grade at St. Anthony's Catholic Grade School, he met Jacob Marley, who would become his lifelong best friend. They were both taunted, sharing a common embarrassment, and wore the scorn of their classmates as a badge of courage.
Everything changed when the two friends started high school, and met Wendy Darling. She was blond, with fair skin and azure eyes, and was the most beautiful creature they had ever seen. By this time, the boys were known as Ben and Jake, and no one bothered them about their birth names anymore. The three became inseparable, and spent as much time as they could together.
By this time Ben's Uncle Henry had died in an accident with a drunk driver, and his Aunt Wilma was practically a recluse. Ben checked in on her regularly, but spent most of his time at Jake's house, and it was a relief to Ben when his aunt died from cancer during their senior year.
The three teenagers went everywhere together, and dated as a threesome, even going to the prom as a trio. No one at the school thought this was strange because it seemed as if they had always been together.
By the time the three graduated from high school, both boys were in love with Wendy, and she with both of them. She had a decision to make, and did not know what to do. She told her mother about her dilemma, and asked her which boy she should choose. Her mother said that because she and Ben had the same birthday, this was a bad sign, and would go against Karma if she married him. She never told anyone about this conversation, and didn't even consider whom she would marry until they started college the following fall.
The boys were having the same conversation between themselves, and not wanting to one-up each other, they decided to both ask Wendy, and let her make the decision who she would marry. On Wendy's and Ben's nineteenth birthday, at a party held at Jake's parents' house, both boys got down on one knee together and asked Wendy for her hand in marriage. The decision she made that evening would change the lives of four people, three of them alive, and one yet unborn. Because of what her mother had told her, Wendy chose Jake, and Ben, of course, had his heart broken.
Jake and Wendy were married in late March, during Spring Break, with Ben as best man. As the young couple went on a short honeymoon, Ben considered his options. Since he was on his own, he changed his name legally to Benjamin, applied to, and was accepted into an apprenticeship as an electrician. After he finished his second semester at college he quit school, began his apprenticeship training, and started his first job as an apprentice electrician, wiring houses for a local residential electrical contractor. He remained close to his best friends, and was in the maternity waiting room at St. Francis on Christmas Eve, when Wendy went into labor with their little girl, Christine. The coincidence of the birth occurring at one minute past Midnight, Christmas Day, was not lost on any who were in attendance.
Little Christine was the image of her mother, according to grandma and grandpa, and Wendy decided to take off some time from school to be a full time mother. Jake's father got him a paid internship with the brokerage where he worked, so that Jake could afford to support his family and still go to college. By this time, Ben was living on his own in the house on the West Bluff he had inherited from his aunt and uncle, and was in the process of completely remodeling it. Jake and Wendy brought little Christine home to a condominium her father had bought for them.
Ben got laid off from the housing contractor just before his next birthday, but because of his excellent work record, the JATC transferred him to a large commercial and industrial electrical contractor, building new factory facilities for the company that made big yellow earthmoving machines.
Everything seemed to be going along smoothly, until karma reared its ugly head again. After the holidays, when Jake went back to his job at the brokerage after Christine's second birthday, Jake and Wendy were given an anniversary present. It seems that his extra effort at the firm had been noticed, and the CEO of the firm paid for a two week vacation in the Caribbean for their second anniversary.
Everyone was happy, and grandma and grandpa were excited about being able to spoil their granddaughter. Ben drove them to the airport as saw them off on their second honeymoon. They were having the time of their lives and were deep sea fishing off the coast of Nassau, when they were caught in a freak tropical storm, and drowned. Both Jake's and Wendy's parents were inconsolable, so Ben took charge, calling in favors from old friends, taking charge of having their bodies brought home, and making the funeral arrangements. After the services, both parents thanked him, and Jake's father asked him to come to the office at his earliest convenience.
The young apprentice electrician had no Idea what to expect when he walked into the William Marley's office at the brokerage firm, the next Monday morning. What he discovered was that Jake's father William was an attorney, and had written both Jake's and Wendy's wills. Much to his surprise, Ben had been made the executor of the couple's estate, and was named legal guardian of their daughter Christine. He told Ben that it was his at son's insistence that the position was to be only given to him.
Jake's father said, "Until I saw the way you took charge and made the arrangements, while we were all falling apart, I had doubts about his choice. Now I know he was right in selecting you for this job. Helen and I have talked with Wendy's parents, and they are on board with Jake's wishes, so you will have all of our support in whatever you decide to do. "
The young man thanked him and said, "Sir, if it is alright with you, for the foreseeable future, I think it will be best for Christine to stay with you two and her other grandparents. I will finish my apprenticeship in three more years, and am expecting to be promoted to a supervisory position soon after that. That will give me time to finish the remodeling of my aunt and uncle's house. By the time I finish with the house, I will have more job security and will be able to spend more time with Christine."
