Williston High School is a normal sized building with teens learning in each class. It may be normal for other people here in Williston, but for me, it is still a struggle. I’m a new history teacher that moved from Michigan; I came here to start over my life.

I have never been independent. Since high school, I lived with my parents and sometimes helped them with the bills. Finally, I had enough money to buy what I needed. So, I decided to move here, to this obscure town that was once rich with people.

I have been teaching here at Williston High School since August of this year. I have been greeted by the other teachers, and they have been telling me how good this would be since I just graduated college in March of this year.

Today marks down two days until Christmas Day. I’ve wanted to go visit my parents, but I had not earned that much money to travel. I’m not saying that I don’t earn enough money, it is just that living here in this town has its own expenses. This holiday will not be like the others. I have not made any friends due to teaching and grading thousands of homework assignments. Sometimes, I don’t even want to, but the protocol of teaching asks for it.

You are wondering how I’m going to celebrate Christmas this year…well, I’m just probably going to buy McDonald’s and stay on my couch, watching Christmas movies. I know it’s very sad but true. As I was thinking of my plans in two days, I bumped into someone.

“Sorry! I was on my phone and didn’t see you walking my direction,” said a student of mine. She had short dark brown hair and eyes that remarked gold; her name was Mireya.

“It’s okay. Next time don’t be on your phone and look up. You could end up going into a trash can and rolling down the stairs,” I said with a laugh, and she looked at me and laughed, too. She kneeled in front of me, and I looked down to remember that I had let go of some papers.

“Wait… are you planning to eat and sleep like a depressed old man for Christmas?” asked the gold-eyed girl. She looked down at a piece of blue paper where I wrote:

Christmas Plans

• Go to Walmart
• Buy snacks; Cheetos, sugar cookies, Lay’s chips
• Buy Christmas movies
• Go to McDonald’s and buy almost all the menu
• Make hot cocoa or maybe Pepsi
• Sit down and be by myself

“Well… you know… um….” I didn’t know what to say for myself. I kneeled in front of her and just started to pick up the papers that were still on the ground.

“Oh, come on don’t tell me you are not going to see your family,” said Mireya with some sadness in her eyes as she finished grabbing the few papers left. “If you aren’t going anywhere this holiday, what if you came to enjoy the holiday with my family?”

I could have never believed that a student would offer something like that. “I don’t think your parents will feel comfortable with me being at something so personal, I will-” I was cut off my Mireya.

“You are going to come. It’s a holiday nobody should spend alone. It might not feel like you are home in some ways, but you still can enjoy part of it.” She smiled up at me and gave me the papers she held a second ago.

I nodded. Mireya’s smile grew bigger and with a pat on my shoulder, she walked out of my sight in a matter of seconds.

“What have I gotten myself into?” I whispered to myself. I looked down at the papers I now held in my arms and with a sticky note that was shaped like an angel. There was an address and a time.

Today is Christmas day. Yesterday, I spent my day thinking what I should do. Finally, I decided to go. I put on my dress up clothes and left my house in a matter of an hour. The house was located out of town at the north end of Williston. I drove almost twenty minutes and followed the directions that my phones was directing me.

“Turn east,” said the voice inside my phone. “You have reached your destination.”

The two-story house was this white color that didn’t look damaged at all; the snow was over the trees that surrounded the warming home. I could see lights on from the outside and people laughing and dancing. I parked in the front driveway of the house. I got out, and and I could feel an invisible hand pushing me toward the door gate that had angels forming it. I walked to it and with a light push, the gates freely opened.

“What is this? I have never seen anything like this before,” I asked to no one in particular, but deep inside I thought I wanted an answer. I walked the few meters that were between me and the heavenly looking house, and with my index finger, I rang the doorbell. A few seconds passed, and Mireya opened the door. She looked at me and smiled.

“Welcome Mr. Gray,” said Mireya, and she signaled for him to come inside.

“Wow,” I said. For a moment, I thought I was in heaven. The warmth of the house touched me, and I automatically felt like home.

“We were waiting for you. My parents were so happy when I told them that you would be joining us for this holiday,” said Mireya, leading me to the big living room. As soon as I entered the room at the far-right side of the living room looking out the bay window, I saw the green, adorned Christmas tree and a little boy with gold hair sat in front of the piano and was playing Christmas songs. At the left side was a whole row of couches with people chatting and laughing, children running around with their little early Christmas presents.

“Oh, Mr. Gray! I’m so glad you decided to come and accompany us in this holiday with us,” Mireya’s mother smiled and shook my hand. I returned the gesture.

“Thank you for accepting me into your home for this miraculous Christmas,” I said with sincerity.

“Well, now that everyone is here we can start dinner,” said Mireya’s mother as she walked off to the kitchen where her husband was also waiting.

Dinner was fantastic and warm. People talked, laughed, sang, and got to know each other. I had a great time, but I had been here for almost all evening. I would want to let Mireya and her family enjoy more themselves with a stranger in their house… well, I wasn’t a stranger, but I was the teacher. I stood up from floor where I was playing with little kids and said:

“Thank you for inviting me, Mireya.”

“You are welcome Mr. Gray,” she smiled and with that smile it seemed like she lightened the whole room. “Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas!” I said and smiled to everyone in the room. I said goodbye to everyone and with a nice departure, I went out the front door.

My body felt warm even with my coat on and the snowflakes falling from the sky. I could see my breath in the winter cold and found the outside beautiful. There was a garden at the right side of the house and a little white bunny that stared at me with its big black eyes. Its coat white as snow and sharp as a cheetah as soon I gave a step forward.  I stared at the bunny’s track and followed it. It led all around the house and finished where it started.

“Hmm, this is weird,” I said to myself but after a moment I just forgot about it and walked out the gate to my car.

Christmas break was over, and it was a new year. I got up early and got ready. I came inside WHS, and I remembered Christmas Day. Mireya. I went up the stairs to my classroom and searched for her name. I knew I had her in my modern history, but it seemed like she wouldn’t appear anywhere. Then it hit me.

The day I met Mireya in was in the hallway at school, but it was….Saturday. Then, she disappeared like the wind itself. Her house looked like the house of where an angel would have been residing. No, it can’t be! But also she gave me a paper with her address and a time when I didn’t even saw her write it down. It was shaped like an angel too.

“I will just put this thought on hold and just ask people if they have seen her,” I whispered to myself.

I asked people all around the school, even teachers in the faculty room. No one knew Mireya, but I had a plan. As soon as school ended, I drove again to the address I had remembered for some reason. Without directions, I got to the house. Where had once been this happy warming house, instead stood… nothing. The garden and the house were full of weeds and bushes.

“The bunny!” I said out loud and ran to where I followed the small animal but… nothing. The house couldn’t have disappeared. Mireya was real. Wasn’t she?

“Mireya! Mireya!” I screamed her name repeatedly. “Mireya! Mirey-,” wait. Mireya is a name in Spanish. I took out my phone and searched: “Mireya”.

“Mireya is a Spanish name that means ‘miracle,’” I read out loud and after a while of realization, I smiled.