[Originally sent out December 2021 in 24 Days of Christmas Newsletter, with plot synopses for Hallmark-style holiday movies that I’d like to see.]
We left Christina caring for Horse while Jim leaves to find the special ghost medicine. Horse, a ghost horse descended from Rudolf, gets sick every Christmas Eve. Will Horse pull through? Will Christina learn that some things are more important than making partner at her corporate law firm, like falling in love with a small-town farmer who’s kind of a jerk to her and has a ghost horse?? Find out in…
THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT, Part Two
Horse starts to jerk and whinny. “Horse!” says Jim. “This happens every Christmas on account of his missing antlers. I’ve got to get him his special ghost medicine. But I can’t leave him like this!”
“Go,” says Christina. “I’ll stay with him.”
Christina delivers a touching soliloquy to Horse. At the end she ruefully reflects that when she came to Podunk, all she cared about was the Certificate of Title and closing her deal, and she didn’t care about Horse at all. But now she has learned the power of caring.
Jim returns in time to hear just the end of her speech, and misunderstands. “Oh, so all you care about is your fancy city dealmaking, huh?” he says. “I should have known. You city slickers are all the same. You care so much about your Certificate of Title? Well, here it is. Why don’t you get out of here and leave me and Horse alone. Now get!”
Christina, distraught, takes the certificate. She intends to go get some more ghost horse medicine to make it up to Jim and Horse, but gets lost in the dark and finds herself down the street, at 309 Elm. Sobbing, she trips over something sticking out of the ground and curses the fate that ever brought her to Podunk and opened her heart. At least she has her Certificate of Title. She takes a closer look at the Title. The land is deeded to… Rudolf R. Deer. She flings her briefcase away and scrabbles in the dirt with her fingers. The thing she tripped over is a set of antlers!
She races back to Jim’s farm, where he is crying over Horse and saying, “Old ghost buddy, it’s time to put you down for good. Every Christmas I wish we could find your missing antlers, but it’s not going to happen and I can’t bear to see you like this anymore.” “Wait!” cries Christina. They restore the antlers and Horse turns back, but not into a real horse, into a real REINDEER. And he flies around while Jim and Christina kiss.
Epilogue, Christina and Jim are now reindeer farmers and Horse has lots of baby reindeer. Children come and ride the baby reindeer around a ring while they all drink hot cider and laugh.
24 Days of Christmas
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