Celeste the sock was getting a good soak. Immersed in laundry soap and hot water, she swished around, glad to have a good wash. She somehow had been worn two days in a row and she was becoming ‘toned’. She belonged to a book seller and preferred the word ‘toned’ to ‘yellow’. She did not smell much like a rose either. While she spun around and around, she was getting excited thinking of how she was going to be packed up and worn on some sort of Christmas vacation. She was thrilled as she made her final tour in the spin cycle. She wondered if she would be accompanying those new jeans her owner had bought. “Oh, how exciting” she thought, as the final spin made her feel better.

Her owner came to put everyone in the dryer and somehow Celeste got stuck to the inside of the machine. She cried for help but, as you know socks are quite silent. Quite silent indeed. She stuck to the side for hours until someone plucked her out and hung her on the door. From the view on top of the door, Celeste knew it was a long way down and there was no way that she could jump. After all, socks cover the feet but they themselves don’t have feet. Well, yes, some do have toes..:)

For days on end Celeste hung there thinking she would never ever got off that door. She could not yell for help because she did not have a mouth and of course she really couldn’t see much through the fabric knit. But she saw her owner go by some days and wondered why she did not come to get her. She knew her owner would just buy more socks and not worry about having lost one.

One day, someone came into the laundry room and took Celeste off the door. She was taken down the hall to a huge room full of sewing machines and fabric. She was put on a child’s hand and the child sewed eyes on her. Black and white plastic movable eyes. Celeste could now see. The little girl also sewed some doll shoes on the edge of Celeste. Then the child took some embroidery thread and, very carefully, embroidered a smile on her. Now Celeste had a mouth and very carefully and slowly, formed one word and that word was,

“Help!”

She said it once, she said it twice and finally she screamed it out.

‘HELP!!” ,

The little girl’s eyes look frightened and she scolded the sock and said,

“Socks don’t talk!”

Celeste stopped talking and just sighed. Even with a mouth and eyes, no one cared. No one cared at all.

For days Celeste layed on the table and then became part of a pile of something. What exactly she did not know, but the pile of something was heavy and she was getting fed up.

What to do , what to do….

As she laid there, she realized she had shoes so she could move. She squirmmed and squeezed and somehow got out of that pile. She slithered down the floor and out of the door that was ajar. She spotted a very very small bicycle in the hall and got on it and rode and rode. She rode down the hall to where her owner lived but no one was home. Then she rode out the door and down two blocks and then two more blocks and then blocks and blocks and more blocks. She was free. Yes, she was free but she needed to be found, and she wanted to be home.

She rode by the church and went in to look to see if her owner was there. It was Christmas Eve Day and everyone in there was preparing for the night’s service. The church was filled, full of happy people, but her owner was not there.

She rode by the dairy and went in and had her picture taken so she could be on milk cartons. Actually it was going to be on the egg nog cartons as “twas” the season. She knew her owner loved egg nog, so she might see Celeste’s face on the carton.

She rode down the main street but her owner was not shopping in the bustling stores.

She rode up to the top of the hill where her owner would gaze at the stars but she was not there either. She did not seem to be anywhere.

What to do..What to do…

Celeste laid on the sidewalk beside her bike while people walked by. No one glanced, no one exclaimed that a sock with eyes and a sad mouth was on the ground. She was thinking she might have to give up when she had an idea. It was her last hope and her last chance. Yes, her very last chance.

She got on her bike and drove to the cookie store. There in the windows were so many festive cookies ready to eat. Her owner’s best friend owned the store and Celeste had been there many times. She knew that her owner’s friend Jimmy, would be with her owner on Christmas Eve. He would bring her very favourite cookies; sugar cookie base with peppermint icing topping and drizzled chocolate on top. How her owner loved those cookies!

Celeste very carefully looked behind the counter so as not to be seen. Sure enough, there was a bright green bag with red ribbons, full of the chocolate peppermint cookies. Celeste slithered quitely into the bottom of the bag and waited and waited. Soon the lights were turned off in the store and Jimmy took the bag full of cookies and Celeste out the door. He opened the door of his bright yellow Citroen and put the bag in the back seat, got in the car and drove off into the dark night.

After what seemed to Celeste the sock a very long time, the car stopped and she and the bag were ushered into the white house on top of the hill which belonged to her owner’s family. She heard loud and happy voices and one voice stood out clear as a bell. It was her owner!

Her owner was thrilled to see the cookies and quickly took the bag from Jimmy. She dug her hand deep and shrieked!

“Jimmy! ”
“What is this?”
“Oh my goodness. It’s my lost sock but now it has eyes and a mouth and feet!
“Is this some sort of joke?”

Celeste did not think it was any sort of a joke, she was just happy to be back with her owner and hopefully reunited and paired up with her twin sister Marjorie.

Her owner looked long and hard at Celeste and started to giggle. With a cookie in her mouth and another in her hand, she grabbed Celeste and hung her above the fireplace. She was filled with a baby rattle and another small toy. She had become “The Christmas Sock’ for her owner’s new baby niece Belinda. Celeste smiled and her owner smiled back.

The next day she was handed to her owner’s sister and brand new baby. Her sister giggled at how funny Celeste looked. Celeste wondered what would happen to her after the gifts were removed. In fact she was quite worried.

The very next day Celeste was packed away in green tissue paper and folded carefully into a box. She was to become a cherished family heirloon. A Christmas sock. One to be remembered for years to come. The sock that came with the peppermint cookies. The sock that cared.

For all of you who lose socks from time to time, do not believe the myth that elves and leprechauns take them in the night. Remember the story of Celeste, the lost sock that found her true calling. Look carefully at those Christmas stockings this year as one of them might be your lost sock. And, oh yes, do check the pictures on the milk cartons..:) You just never know.

Linda Seccaspina
copyright 2009
Savannah Devilles