Christmas is supposed to be a time for family, laughter, and love, but that’s not how things went when my brother Ryan and his wife, Lindsey, unexpectedly showed up at our door days before the holiday. I never imagined what would follow—until Lindsey pushed me to the edge with her unbelievable actions.
It all started a week before Christmas when Ryan and Lindsey showed up at our house, looking frazzled and cold. Their heating system had broken down, and with the freezing weather, their home was no longer livable. Although I wasn’t thrilled about their last-minute visit, Nathan, my husband, and I welcomed them in, never expecting the chaos that would follow.
“Thanks for letting us crash here,” Ryan said, dropping their bags in the hallway. “We might be here for a while. We can’t find anyone to fix the heating, and we can’t stay in the cold.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Nathan replied, offering them a warm welcome. “Make yourselves comfortable.”
At first, it seemed like things would be fine. But by day three, Lindsey’s behavior was starting to get on my nerves. She took over our master bathroom, leaving damp towels and her clutter everywhere. What really got to me, though, was when I discovered some of my clothes were missing.
They had mysteriously ended up in her suitcase without her asking. I tried to ignore it, but each day, it was like a new problem piled on top of the last.
Then came Christmas Eve morning. As we sat down for breakfast, I noticed something strange. The mantel in the living room, which had been carefully decorated with garlands and stockings, was… empty. My heart skipped a beat.
“Has anyone seen Mom?” I asked, my voice trembling. I was talking about the black marble vase holding my mother’s ashes. We had placed it on the mantel as part of our tradition to keep her “with us” on Christmas. This would be our first holiday without Mom, who had passed away after a short battle with cancer.
Before she died, she made Ryan and me promise to keep her ashes with us, in the room where we celebrated Christmas. After the holidays, we were going to scatter them at her favorite place, the local river, where she and Dad had gone on their first date. But now, my heart sank. Mom’s ashes were just… gone.
Lindsey looked up from her plate, nonchalantly shrugging. “You mean her ashes? I threw them out in the backyard. That vase was creeping me out.”
The room went silent. My world stopped spinning for a moment as her words sank in.
“You did WHAT?!” I finally managed to gasp.
“I threw them out,” she repeated like it was no big deal. “Relax, it’s just ashes. Why are you all making such a big deal out of it?”
Fury bubbled inside me. Without thinking, I shot up from my chair, ready to confront her. But Nathan and Ryan quickly jumped between us, holding me back.
“You had no right!” I yelled, my voice cracking as tears flooded my eyes. “Mom’s last wish, and you just… threw it away?!”
Lindsey rolled her eyes. “It’s not like she’s going to know,” she said, as if it didn’t matter.
That was it. I stormed out to the backyard, praying it wasn’t too late. For an hour, I searched the trash, digging through the discarded remnants of the vase. But there was nothing left to save. My mother’s ashes, her memory, were gone forever.
That night, I lay in bed, seething with anger. I wanted to throw Lindsey out right then and there, but Ryan’s pleading eyes stopped me.
“Please, just wait until after Christmas,” he whispered. “We really have nowhere else to go.”
I reluctantly agreed, though I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it through the next day without exploding. But then, just past midnight, a bloodcurdling scream ripped through the silence of the house. Nathan and I leapt out of bed, exchanging alarmed looks as we raced upstairs.
The smell hit us first. It was unbearable—a thick, rancid stench that made me gag. We burst into Ryan and Lindsey’s room to find her standing on the bed, her hair a mess, shrieking in panic. The carpet, her clothes, and some of mine were soaked with murky water. The en-suite bathroom was overflowing with sewage.
“Oh my God!” Lindsey screamed. “It’s everywhere! Do something!”
Nathan tried to hide his grin. “Looks like the toilet backed up,” he said, doing his best to keep a straight face.
I couldn’t help it. “Why is it just this room?” I said, feeling a smirk spread across my face. “The guest bathroom’s fine, and ours works perfectly!”
Nathan raised an eyebrow and added, “Must be some kind of Christmas miracle.”
Lindsey glared at us, and Ryan, desperate, tried mopping up the mess with a towel.
“Honey, maybe we should—”
“Don’t you dare ‘honey’ me!” Lindsey snapped. “Do something useful!”
I couldn’t resist a jab. “Maybe this is karma,” I said, leaning against the doorframe. “For what you did to Mom. You know, her wicked sense of humor. This must be her revenge.”
Lindsey shot me a look so cold it could freeze fire. “This is your house! Your plumbing! Fix it!” she yelled.
Nathan stepped in before I could reply. “We’ll call a plumber in the morning. But in the meantime, why don’t you two clean up and maybe sleep in the guest room?”
Later, as I lay in bed, I whispered to Nathan, “Do you think this is a sign from Mom?”
“If it wasn’t, it sure feels like one,” he whispered back.
The next morning, my brother shared what had happened from his perspective. Apparently, the toilet had backed up when Lindsey decided to use it, and when she panicked and ran back to their bed, she slipped in the mess! We couldn’t help but laugh at the thought, even Ryan joining in on the joke.
Christmas Day was just as awkward. The plumber couldn’t make it until the day after Christmas, so we spent the holiday with the lingering smell of sewage in the air. At Christmas dinner, Lindsey barely spoke. She picked at her food while the rest of us laughed and shared stories.
Ryan pulled me aside later. “Thanks for not kicking us out,” he said awkwardly. “I know Lindsey can be… difficult.”
“Difficult?” I raised an eyebrow. “Ryan, she threw away Mom’s ashes!”
“I know,” he sighed, rubbing his forehead. “I didn’t know she was going to do that. I’m so sorry.”
For a moment, I was ready to tell him to pack up and leave, but then I looked over at Lindsey. She was sitting there, pale-faced, her eyes darting around nervously like she expected another disaster. “Maybe this is punishment enough,” I said, my voice surprisingly calm. Ryan nodded in relief.
The rest of the night passed without incident. Lindsey was thoroughly humiliated when other family members sided with me. My aunt gasped when she found out what Lindsey had done. “You threw away their mother’s ashes? What were you thinking?” she asked.
As the evening ended, Nathan and I cleaned up. He flashed me a sly grin. “You think Mom was with us today, even though Lindsey spilled her out?”
I laughed. “If she was, I’m sure it was with her wicked sense of humor.”
Nathan kissed the top of my head. “Well, either way, Lindsey got what she deserved.”
I nodded, feeling a weight lift from my shoulders. It may not have been the Christmas we’d planned, but somehow, it felt like Mom was with us. In her own way, she’d made sure that the holiday wasn’t going to be forgotten anytime soon.
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