Danny Mendoza counted his change three times in while the teacher talked about what they were all supposed to bring for the class winter holiday party tomorrow. It was really a Christmas party, at least in Danny’s class, because that’s what all the kids’ families’ celebrated. Danny had his party contribution covered. He had volunteered to bring napkins and paper plates and cups because his family had some left over from his little brother’s birthday party with characters from Gabba Gabba Hey on them. He’d get teased about that, he knew, but he didn’t want to ask his mother to make something because she was so busy with his little brothers and the baby, and now that Danny’s stepfather Luis had lost his job they had a Money Situation. Danny could live with a little teasing.
Danny was going to buy a candy bar for his mother, one of those big ones. That was going to be his Christmas present to her and Danny knew how much she’d like it — he hadn’t just inherited his small size and nimble fingers from her, he’d got her sweet tooth, too. And she had just been talking about the Christmas a few years ago when Luis had a good job with the Sanitation Department and he’d brought her a whole box of See’s chocolates. Danny knew he couldn’t match that, but the last of the money he’d saved up from raking leaves in the neighborhood and walking old Mrs. Rosales’ wheezy little dog should be enough to buy a big old Hershey bar that would make Mama smile. No, what to get wasn’t a problem. The thing that had him thinking so hard as he went down the street at a hurried walk, hands shoved deep into his jacket pockets, was whether he dared to get it now or should wait another day.
In Danny’s San Jose neighborhood the Mercado Estrella was like an African water hole, not only a crucial source of nurture but also the haunt of the most fearsome predator in his 3rd grade world. Any stop at the little market meant he risked running into Hector Villaba, the big, mean fifth-grade kid who haunted Danny’s days and often his nights as well. Danny couldn’t even begin to guess how much candy and other goodies Hector had stolen from him and the other kids over the years, but it was a lot — Hector was the elementary school’s Public Enemy Number One. About half the time his victims got shoved around, too, or even hit, and none of the grown-ups ever did anything about it except to tell their humiliated sons they should learn how to fight back. That was probably because Hector Villaba’s father was a violent, drunken brute who didn’t care what Hector did and everyone in the neighborhood was as scared of him as the kids at school were scared of his son. The last time someone in the neighborhood had called the police on Hector’s dad, all their windows had been broken while they were at church and their car scratched from one end to another.
Danny was still trying to make up his mind whether to risk stopping at the market today or wait for better odds tomorrow (when class ended early because of the holiday) when he saw Mrs. Rosales walking Pinto, her little spotted dog. He almost crossed the street because he knew she’d want to talk to him and he’d spent a lot of time doing that already last week when went to her house to get Pinto nearly every day. He was too close, though, she’d seen him, and Jesus hated being rude to old people almost as much as he hated it when kids lied, or at least that was what his mama always told him. Danny wasn’t expecting much from Santa anyway, but if Jesus got upset things would probably be even worse. He sighed and continued toward her.
“Look who’s here!” Mrs. Rosales said when she saw him. “Look, Pinto mi querida, it’s your friend Danny!” But when he waved and would have passed by she told him, “Hold on a moment, young man, I want to talk to you.”
He stopped, but he was really worried that Hector and his friends might catch up if he stood around too long. “Yes, Mrs. Rosales?”
“I short-changed you the other day.” She took out a little coin purse. It took her a long time to get it open with her knobby old fingers. “I owe you a dollar.”
“Really?” Danny was astonished.
She pulled out a piece of paper that looked like it had been folded and unfolded a hundred times and handed it to him. “I know boys need money this time of year!”
He thanked her, petted Pinto (who growled despite all their time together, because Pinto was a spoiled brat) and hurried toward the market. Another dollar! It was like one of those Christmas miracles on a television show – like the Grinch’s heart growing so much it made the x-ray machine go sproing! This changed everything. He could not only buy his mom’s present, he could buy something for himself, too. He briefly considered blowing the whole dollar on a Butterfinger, his very favorite, but he knew hard candies would be a better investment — he could share them with his younger brothers, and it was Christmas-time, after all. But whatever he got, he didn’t want to wait for tomorrow, not now that he had something to spend on himself. Danny Mendoza had been candy-starved for days. Nothing sweeter than the baby’s butterscotch pudding had passed his lips that week, and the pudding hadn’t been by his own choice. (His baby sister had discovered that if she waved her spoon things flew and splattered, and she liked that new trick a lot.) If he hurried to the market he should still get there long before Hector and his friends, who had many children to harass and humiliate on their way home. It was a risk, of course, but with an unexpected dollar in his pocket Danny felt strangely confident. There had to be such a thing as Christmas luck, didn’t there? After all, it was a whole holiday about Jesus getting born, and Jesus was kind to everybody. Although it sure hadn’t seemed like a lucky Christmas when Luis, Danny’s stepfather, had lost his job in the first week of December. But maybe things were going to get better now — maybe, as his mama sometimes said, the Mendoza family’s luck was going to change.
He was even more willing to believe in miracles when he saw no sign of Hector and his friends at the market. As he walked in Christmas music was playing loudly on the radio, that “Joy to the World” song sung by some smooth television star. Tia Marisol, the little old lady who ran the place on her own since her husband died, was trying to hang some lights above the cigarettes behind the cash register. She wasn’t his real aunt, of course. Everybody in the neighbohood just called her “Tia.”
“Oye, little man,” she called when she turned around and saw him. “How’s your mama?”
“Fine, Tia Marisol. I’m getting her a present.” He made his way past the postres to the long candy rack. So many colors, so many kinds! It almost seemed to glow, like in one of those cartoons where children found a treasure-cave. When Danny was little, it was what he had imagined when the minister at the church talked about Heaven. The only better thing he had ever seen in his whole life was the huge piñata at one of his school friends’ birthday party, years and years ago. When the birthday boy knocked the piñata open and candy came showering out and all the kids could jump in and take what they want – that had been amazing. Like winning a game show on television. Danny still dreamed about it sometimes.
Danny realized that he was staring like a dummy at the rack of candy when every second the danger that Hector and his friends would arrive kept growing. He quickly examined the big Hershey bars until he found one with a perfect wrapper, a massive candy bar that looked as if it had been made special for a commercial. He would have loved to spend more time browsing — how often did he have a whole dollar to spend just on candy? — but he knew time was short, so he grabbed a good-sized handful of hard, sour candies for sucking, took several different colors of candy ropes; then, as worry grew inside him, as uncomfortable as needing to pee, he finally snatched up a handful of bubble gum and ran to the front counter.
“What’s your hurry, m’hijo?” Tia Marisol asked.
“Mom needs me,” he said, which he hoped was not enough of a lie to ruin Jesus’ upcoming celebration. After all, Mom did always need his help, especially by this time in the day when she’d been on her own with the baby and the littlest brother since morning, and had just walked the other brother home from preschool. He pulled the three dollars worth of much-counted change out of one pocket and mounded it in front of Tia Marisol, then put the Hershey bar and his own handful of candy down beside it before digging out the crumpled dollar Mrs. Rosales had given him. She slid her glasses a little way down her nose while she looked at it all.
“Where’d you get so much money, Danny?”
“Raking lawns. Taking Mrs. Rosales dog for walks.”
Tia Marisol smiled, handed him back twenty-three cents, and put everything into a paper bag. “You’re a good boy. You and your family have a happy Christmas. Tell your mama I said hello, would you?”
“Sure.” He was already halfway through the door, heart beating.
The Christmas miracle continued outside: other than a couple of young mothers with strollers and bundled-up babies, and the old men who sat on the bus bench across the street drinking from bottles in paper bags, the area around the store was still clear. Danny began to walk toward home as fast as he could without running, because he had the bag under his coat now and he didn’t want to melt Mama’s candy bar. Still, he was almost skipping, he was so happy. Joy to the world, the Lord is come…!
“Hey, Mendoza,” someone shouted in a hoarse voice. “What’s in the bag, maricon?”
Danny stopped, frozen for a moment like a cornered animal, but then he began to walk again, faster and faster until he was running. There was no question whose voice that was. Pretty much every kid in his school knew it and feared it.
“Hold up, Mendoza, or I’ll kick your ass good!” The voice was getting closer. He could hear the whir of bike tires on the sidewalk coming up behind him fast. He looked back and saw that Hector Villaba and his big, stupid friends Rojo and Chuy were bearing down on him on their bikes, and in another second or two would ride him down. He lunged to the side just as Hector stuck out his foot and shoved him, sending Danny crashing into the low wire fence of the house he was passing. He bounced off and tumbled painfully to the sidewalk as Hector and his gang stopped just a few yards ahead, now blocking the sidewalk that led Danny home. The hard candies had fallen out of his bag and were scattered across the sidewalk. He got down on his knees, hurrying to pick them up, doing everything he could to avoid eye contact with Hector and the others, but when he reached for the last one Hector’s big, stupid basketball-shoe was on top of it. The older boy leaned over and picked it up. “Jolly Rancher, huh? Not bad. Not great, but not bad.” He waved it in Danny’s face, making him look up from all fours like a dog at its master. “I asked you what’s in the bag, Mendoza?”
“Nothing! It’s for my mama.”
“For your mama? Oh, iddn’t dat sweet?” Hector’s fingers hooked under Danny’s chin and lifted. Danny didn’t fight — he knew it wasn’t going to help — but he still flinched when he saw Hector’s round, sweaty face so close, the angry, pale yellow-brown eyes. Hector Villaba even had the beginnings of a real mustache, a hairy smudge on his upper lip. It was one of the things that made him so scary, one of the reasons why even bigger twelve year olds like Chuy and Rojo let him lead them — a fifth-grader with a mustache!
“C’mon, open it up,” Hector told him. “Let’s see what you got for your mama.” When Danny still didn’t offer up the bag, Hector’s friend Chuy put a foot on Danny’s back and pushed down so hard that Danny had to brace himself to keep from being shoved against the sidewalk. “I said show me, maricon,” said Hector. “Chuy gonna break your spine. He knows karate.”
Danny handed Hector the bag, biting his lip, determined not to cry. Hector pulled out the big Hershey Bar. “Hijole!” he said. “Look at that! Something for your mama, shit — you were going to eat that all by yourself. Not even share none with us. That’s cold, man.”
“It is for my mother! It is!” Danny pushed up against Chuy’s heavy hiking boot trying to reach the candy bar, which didn’t look anywhere near so huge clamped in Hector Villaba’s plump, dirty fingers. Chuy took his weight off for a moment, then kicked Danny in the ribs hard enough to make him drop to the concrete and hug himself in pain.
“If you try any more shit, we’ll hurt you good,” said Hector, laughing as he unwrapped the candy bar. He tossed a piece to Chuy, then another to Rojo, who grabbed it out of the air and shoved it in his mouth like a starving dog, then licked his fingers. Hector leaned down and gave Danny another shove, hard enough to crash him against the fence again. “Don’t you ever try to hide anything from me. I know where you live, dude. I’ll come over and slap the bitch out of you and your mama both.” He pointed to the hard candies still clutched in Danny’s hands. “Get that other shit, too, yo,” Hector told Rojo, and the big, freckled kid bent Danny’s fingers back until he surrendered it all.
The Christmas chocolate bar, looking sad and naked with half its foil peeled away, was still clutched in Hector’s hand as he and his friends rode away laughing, sharing the hard candy out of the bag.
For a while Danny just sat on the cold sidewalk and wished he had a knife or even a gun and he could kill Hector Villaba, even if it made Jesus unhappy for weeks. At that moment Danny almost felt like he could do it. The rotten, mean bastard had taken his mom’s present!
At last Danny wiped his eyes and continued home. It was starting to get dark and the wind was suddenly cold, which made his scratched-up hands ache. When he reached the apartment he let himself in, dropped his book bag by the door, then called a greeting to his mama feeding Danny’s baby sister in the kitchen as he hurried on to the bathroom so he could clean up his scratches and tear-stained face and do his best to hide the damage to the knees of his pants before she saw him up close. It wouldn’t do any good to tell her what had happened – she couldn’t do anything and it would make her very sad. Danny was used to keeping quiet about what went on between home and school, school and home.
After a while he went out and sat at the table and watched as his mother fed green goop to the baby. Even her smile for Danny looked tired. Mama worked so hard to keep them all fed and dressed, hardly ever yelled, and even sang old songs from Mexico for Danny and his brothers when she wasn’t too tired…
And now that cabron Hector had stolen her present, and he didn’t have any money left to get her something else.

*
Later that night, when the house was quiet and everyone was asleep, Danny found himself crying again. It was so unfair! What had happened to the Christmas luck? Or did that kind of thing only happen to other kids, other families?
“Please, Jesus,” he prayed quietly. “I just have to get Mama something for Christmas – something Hector can’t take. If that’s a miracle, okay – I mean, I know you can’t do them all the time, but if you got one…an extra one…”

*
Something woke him up – a strange noise in the living room. For a moment he lay in bed wondering if Santa Claus might have come, but then he remembered it was still three days until Christmas. Still, he could definitely hear something moving, a kind of quiet fluttery sound. His brothers were both sprawled in boneless, little-boy sleep across the mattress they shared, so he climbed carefully over them and made his way out to the living room. At first he saw nothing more unusual than the small Christmas tree on top of the coffee table, but as he stared, his eyes trying to get used to the dark, he saw the tree was…moving? Yes, moving, the top of the pine wagging like a dog’s tail.
Danny had never heard of a Christmas tree coming to life, not even in a TV movie, and it scared him. He picked up the tennis racket with the missing strings Luis kept promising to fix, then crawled toward the scraggly tree with its ornaments of foil and cut paper.
As he got closer he could see that something small was caught in the tree’s topmost branch, trying to fly away but not succeeding. He could hear its wings beating so fast they almost buzzed. A bird, trapped in the apartment? A really big moth?
Danny looked for one of the baby’s bowls to trap it, then had a better idea and crept to the kitchen cabinet where his mom kept the washed jars. He picked a big one that had held sandwich spread and slithered commando-style back to the living room. Whatever the thing was, it was really stuck, tugging and thrashing as it tried to free itself from the pine needles. He dropped the jar over it and pulled carefully on the branch until the thing could finally get free, then Danny clapped the lid on the jar to keep it from escaping.
The thing inside the jar went crazy now, flying against the glass, the wings going so fast that it made it hard for him to see for certain what it was. The strange thing was, it actually looked like a person — a tiny, tiny little person no bigger than a sparrow. That was crazy. Danny knew it was crazy. He knew he had to be dreaming.
“What are you doing?” the thing said in a tiny, rasping voice. It didn’t sound happy at all. “Let me go!”
Danny was so startled to hear it talk that he nearly dropped the jar. He held it up to the light coming in from the street lamp to get a better look. The prisoner in the jar was a little lady — a lady with wings! A real, honest-to-goodness Christmas miracle! “Are you…an angel?” he asked.
“Let me out, young man, and we’ll talk about it.” She didn’t sound much like an angel. Actually, she sounded a lot like that scratchy-voiced nanny on that TV show his mama watched sometimes. Her hair was yellow and kind of wild and sticky-uppy, and she wore a funny little dancing dress. She was also carrying a bag over her shoulder like Santa did, except that hers wasn’t much bigger than Danny’s thumb .
“P-Promise you won’t fly away?” he asked this strange small person. “If I let you out?”
She had her tiny hands pressed up against the inside of the jar. She shook her head so hard her little sparkly crown almost fell off. “Promise. But hurry up — I don’t like enclosed places. Honest, it makes me want to scream. Let me out, please.”
“Okay. But no cheating.” He unscrewed the lid on the jar and slowly turned it over. The tiny lady rose up, fluttering into the light that streamed through the living room window.
“Oh, that’s so much better,” she said. “I got stuck in a panoramic Easter egg once, wedged between a frosting bunny and a cardboard flower pot. Thought I was going to lose my mind.”
“Wow,” he said. “Who are you? What are you?”
She carefully landed on the floor near his knee. “I’m a sugarplum fairy,” she said. “Like in that ballet.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. Look, thanks for getting me loose from that tree.” She turned herself around trying to look down at herself. “Rats! Ripped my skirt. I hate conifers.” She turned back to Danny. “I didn’t mean to scare you, I was just passing through the neighborhood when I felt somebody thinking candy thoughts — real serious candy thoughts. I mean, it was like someone shouting. Anyway, that’s what we do, us sugarplum fairies — we handle the candy action, especially at Christmas time. So I thought I should come and check it out. Was it you? Because if it was, you’ve got the fever bad, kid.” She reached into her bag and produced a lollypop bigger than she was, something that couldn’t possibly have fit in there. “Here, have one on me. You look like you need it.”
“Wow. Wow!” He suddenly realized he was talking out loud and dropped his voice, worried that he would wake up his mama and Luis. He reached out for the lollypop. “You’re really a fairy. Do you know Jesus?”
She shrugged. “I think he’s in another department. What’s your name? It’s Danny, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “Yeah.” It suddenly struck him. “You know my name…?”
“I’ve got it all written down somewhere.” She started riffling through her bag again, then pulled out something that looked like a tiny phone book. She took out an equally small pair of glasses, opened the book and began reading. “For some reason you fell off the list here, Danny. No wonder you’re so desperate — you haven’t had a sugarplum delivery in quite a while! Well, that at least I can do something about.” She frowned as she took a pen out of the apparently bottomless bag and made a correction. “Of course, they may not process the new order until early next year, and I’m not scheduled back in this area until Valentines Day.” She frowned. “Doesn’t seem fair…” A moment later her tiny face brightened. “Hey, since you saved me from that tree branch I think I’m allowed to give you a wish. Would you like that?”
“Really? A wish?”
“Yes. I can do that.”
“You’ll give me a wish? Like magic? A wish?”
She frowned again. “Come on, kid, I know you’ve been shorted on candy the last couple of years but is your blood sugar really that low? I just very clearly said I will give you a wish. We’re allowed to when someone helps us out.”
He was so excited he could barely sit still. It was a Christmas miracle after all, a real one! “Could I wish for, like, a million dollars?” Then even if Luis didn’t find another job for a while, the family would be okay. More than okay.
She shook her head. “Sorry, kid, no. I only do candy-related wishes. You want one of those extra big gummy bears? I hear those are popular this year. I could bend some rules and get it to you by Christmas.”
He was tempted — he’d seen an ad on television — but now it was his turn to shake his head. “Could I just get a big Hershey bar? One of those extra-big ones? For my mother?”
The little woman tilted her head up so she could see him better from where she stood down on the ground. “Truly? Is that all you want? Gee, kid, I could feel the desperation coming off this house like weird off an elf. You sure you don’t want something a little more…substantial? A pile of candy, maybe? A year’s supply of gumdrops or something? As long as it’s candy-related, I can probably get it done for you, but you better decide quick.” She pulled quite a large pocket watch on a chain out of her bag, then put on her glasses again. “After midnight, and I’ve still got half my rounds to go.” She looked up at him. “You seem like a nice kid, Danny, and it doesn’t look like you guys are exactly swimming in presents and stuff. How about a nice pile of candy, assorted types? Or if you’d rather just concentrate on — what did you say, Hershey Bars? — I could probably arrange a shopping bag of those or something…”
For a moment his head swam at the prospect of a grocery bag full of giant chocolate bars, more than Hector the Butt-head Villaba could ever dream of having now matter how much he stole…but then another idea came floating up from deep down in Danny’s thoughts – a strange, dark idea.
“Can you do all kinds of wishes? Really all kinds?”
“Yeah, but just one. And it definitely has to be candy-related. I’m not a miracle worker or anything.”
“Okay. Then I’ll tell you what I want.” Danny could suddenly see it all in his imagination, and it was very, very good.

*
The school holiday party was nice. Danny and his classmates played games and sang songs and had a snack of fruit and cheese and crackers. Nobody brought Chips Ahoy cookies, but one of the mothers did indeed bring cupcakes, delicious chocolate ones with silver, green and red sprinkles for Christmas. There were even enough left over that although Danny had finished his long ago despite making it last as long as possible, he was allowed to take home the last two for his little brothers. He suspected that the teacher knew his family didn’t have much money, but for this one day it didn’t embarrass him at all.
After the bell rang Danny followed the other third-graders toward the school gate, holding one cupcake carefully in each hand, his book bag draped over his shoulder. He was watching his feet so carefully that he didn’t see what made the other children suddenly scatter to either side, but as soon as he heard the voice he knew the reason.
“Look at that, it’s Maricon Mendoza, yo,” said Hector Villaba. “What’d you bring us for Christmas, kid?” Danny looked up. The mustached monster was sitting astride his bike just a few yards down the sidewalk, flanked by Rojo and Chuy. “Oh, yeah, dude — cupcakes!” said Hector. “You remembered our Christmas presents.” He scooted his bike forward until he stood directly over Danny, then reached out for the cupcakes. Danny couldn’t help it — he jerked back when Hector tried to take them, even though he knew it would probably earn him another bruising.
“Punch the little chulo’s face in,” Rojo suggested.
Hector dropped his bike with a clatter. The other kids from school who had stopped to stare in horrified fascination jumped out of his way as he strode forward and grabbed the cupcakes out of Danny’s hands. He peeled the paper off one and shoved the whole cupcake in his mouth, then tossed the other to Chuy. “You two split that,” he said through a mouthful of devil’s food, then turned his attention back to Danny, who was so scared and excited that he felt like electricity was running through him. “Next time, you better remember to bring one for each of us, Mendoza. You only bring two, that’s going to get your ass kicked.”
Danny backed away. It was hard to look into those yellow-brown eyes and not run crying, let alone keep thinking clearly, but Danny did his best. He dropped his book bag to the ground and out fell the stringless tennis racket that he had brought from home. Hector hooted with angry laughter as Danny snatched it up and held it before him as if it was a cross and Hector was a vampire.
“Que? You going to try to hit me, little boy?” Hector laughed again, but he didn’t sound happy. He didn’t like it when people stood up to him. “I’ll take that away from you and beat your ass black and blue, Mendoza.” The bully took a step nearer and held out his hand. “Give it to me or I’ll break your fingers.”
“No.” Danny wasn’t going to step back any farther. He lifted the racket, waved it around like a baseball bat. It was old and flimsy, but he had come to school determined today. “You can’t have it…you fat asshole.”
Behind Hector, Rojo let out a surprised chortle, but Hector Villaba didn’t think it was funny at all.
“That’s it,” he said, curling his hands into fists. “After I kick your ass, I’m gonna rub your face in dog shit. Then I’m gonna kick your ass again. You’re gonna spend Christmas in the hospital.” Without warning, he charged toward Danny.
Danny stepped to the side and swung the racket as hard as he could, hitting Hector right in the stomach. With a whoop of surprise and pain Hector bent double, but when he looked up he didn’t look hurt, just really, really mad, his eyes staring like a crazy dog’s eyes.
“That’s…it. I’m…going…to…get…you…Mendoza…” he said, then sucked in air and stood up straight, but even as he did so a funny expression crossed his face and he looked down at where he was holding his belly. Hector’s hands were suddenly full of crackling, cellophane-wrapped hard candies, so many of them that they cascaded over his fingers and onto the ground. He lifted his hands in disbelief to look and dozens more of the candies slid out of the front of his open jacket — candy bars, too, fun-size and even regular ones, Snickers bars, Mounds, Tootsie Rolls, lollipops, candy canes, even spicy tamarindos. The other children from the school stared in horrified fascination, guessing that Danny had broken a bag that Hector had been carrying under his coat. They were so scared of Hector that they didn’t move an inch toward any of the candy that was still slithering out of the big boy’s coat and pooling on the ground at his feet.
“Oh, man,” one of the other third graders said in a hoarse whisper, “Mendoza’s going to get beat up so bad…!”
But even more candy was pouring out of Hector’s belly now, as if someone had turned on a candy-faucet, a great river of sweets running out of the place where Danny had knocked him open with his old tennis racket.
“What the…?” Then Hector Villaba looked down at himself and began to scream in terror. Candy was showering out of him faster and faster onto the sidewalk, already piled as high as the cuffs of his pants and still coming.
“Hijole, dude!” said Rojo. “You’re a piñata!”
Hector looked at him, eyes rolling with fear, then he turned sprinted away down the street squealing like a kindergartner, a flood of candy still pouring from him, Crunch Bars, M&Ms, (plain and peanut) as well as boxes of gumdrops and wax-wrapped pieces of taffy, all raining onto the street around the bully’s legs and feet, bouncing and rolling.
Rojo and Chuy watched Hector run for a moment, then turned to stare at Danny with a mixture of apprehension and confusion. Then turned from him to look at each other, came to some kind of agreement, and threw themselves down on their knees to start scooping up the candy that had fallen out of Hector Villaba. Within a few seconds the other school kids were all scrambling across the ground beside them, everybody shoveling candy into their pockets as fast as they could.
Danny waited until he wasn’t breathing so hard, then started for home, following the clear trail of candy that had gushed from Hector Villaba as he ran. He didn’t bother to pick up everything, since for once in his life he could afford to be selective. He stuffed one pocket of his jacket with candy for his brothers, then filled the other just with Butterfinger Bars, at least six or seven, but kept walking with his head down until he spotted a nice, big Hershey Bar in good condition which he zipped in his book bag so it would stay safe for his mother. The rest of the way home he picked up whatever looked interesting and threw it into the book bag too, until by the time he reached home he was staggering with its weight up the apartment building walkway. For once, Hector Villaba had been the one who had run home crying.
He didn’t feel sorry for Hector, either, not at all. Scared as the fifth-grader was now, he would be all right when he reached home. Danny had made that a part of the wish and the fairy had said she thought it was a good idea. Jesus didn’t want even mean kids to die from having their guts really fall out, Danny felt pretty sure, so he had done his best not to spoil the Lord’s birthday. Of course Hector Villaba probably wouldn’t have a very merry Christmas, but Danny had decided that Jesus could probably live with that.

You know you’ve arrived in Cornwall when the landscape turns from rolling fields into heath and moorland and the buildings become few and far between and it’s with that change in scenery that I start to feel at peace once again. We normally stay in a small town called Hayle, a few miles from the old fishing town of St. Ives and this year was no exception. Of course, most of the towns are now aimed at the tourist industry rather than fishing, but in a funny kind of way this will preserve the landscape because the tourists want to see picturesque villages rather than modern industrial towns.

One of the places we visited was the tiny coastal town of Mevagissey. It’s typical of many of the coastal villages and towns that dot the coastline throughout Cornwall. It’s very pretty, with a small working harbour and fabulous views. There’s also a variety of gift shops and restaurants to visit which means you can quite happily spend all day there. We even managed to climb a steep set of stairs to find a seat that was up quite high, offering fantastic views over the village and out to sea.

The Cornish coast always makes me feel inspired and free, so much so that my other half, Sean and I have taken up body boarding over the last few years. Apart from looking like a couple of beached whales in our wetsuits, once we’re in the water with the force of the waves upon us, we gain a new respect for the ocean, one which brings us even closer to Mother Nature. We also tend to start calling everyone ‘Dude’, but we won’t go into that!

As well as being very pretty, Cornwall also has strong ties to ancient earth religions and is littered with sacred sites. If you look hard enough, it’s possible to find stone circles, standing stones, ancient villages and monuments, all of which provide a link back to the old ways. Some of these sites are still visited by worshippers and druids to this day and on visiting one particular stone circle, I almost felt like I shouldn’t have been there and found myself looking over my shoulder the whole time I was there, for fear that someone (or something) was watching me.

All in all, we spent two weeks in the beautful south west and came home utterly exhausted but thoroughly inspired and we’ve even started planning our next visit. If you haven’t been to Cornwall yet, I would suggest you book a holiday there soon because you really don’t know what you’re missing!

Buy Beer Bottle Goblets at Moonrust – New Age Shop.

Buy Runes at Moonrust – New Age Shop.

The Pocket Garden is an excellent way to give a loved one or friend a gift that will become a permanent reminder. In fact, these funky gifts are so handy that they’ll quite happily sit on any window sill or office desk, so you can give them to almost anyone!

Supplied in a sealed leak-proof bag our Pocket Gardens contain specially formulated compost and seeds, so all you need to do is cut open and add water, allowing the contents to grow into a beautiful houseplant or herb.

We have three ranges of Pocket Gardens, the Occasions Range, the Organic Herbs Range and the Plants Range, so there’s a Pocket Garden to suit everyone.

These items can only be shipped to customers within the UK.

Ask The Spirits II

For many people healing crystals and Shiva Lingham stones can be a little confusing, which is why we have compiled a beautiful collection of crystal sets, and accompanying guides to help you on your journey of healing and self improvement. Most people are aware of the incredible power of crystals, each offering unique powers and energies which can help heal, cleanse or energise the body, but when it comes to how to use crystals, or even how to choose them, it can seem quite confusing at first.

One of the easiest ways to start understanding the healing power of crystals is to consider traditional medicines, and how we see them working. You can have a dozen boxes of tablets, all of which look reasonably the same – perhaps differing in colour, shape or size. But each has tremendously different healing powers – one to wake you up, one to help you sleep, one to help you digest food more quickly, one to slow your digestion down, one to target pain, one to quicken the body’s healing powers. So much variety, yet so apparently similar at first glance.

In the same way, the energies which crystals generate can affect the body and mind in quite different ways, and just as you wouldn’t take a tablet without knowing exactly what it was going to do, and whether it was suitable, so it’s important to have a reasonably good idea of how crystals can help you, and the best ways to use crystal healing techniques.

I’m very much an advocate of alternative therapies and healing crystals – stuffing my body full of manufactured chemicals and drugs I don’t understand doesn’t always feel right. Of course, I would never suggest abandoning traditional medication in favour of alternative therapies. But at the same time there are often times when using Shiva Lingham stones or healing crystals can prove very effective as complementary treatments, as well as sometimes offering healing, strength or energy which simply can’t be offered by traditional drugs and medicines.

One of the first things to appreciate is exactly how crystals interact with our body, and how they help to ease pain and allow the body to heal itself more quickly. Many people become confused, believing the crystals are somehow directly interacting with the body, but in fact the crystals are interacting with the body’s aura. The aura is the energy field which surrounds every living thing. Just as a mobile phone is constantly sending out unseen signals, and the air all around us is full of signals, broadcasts and energies we can’t see, so our living bodies have an energy field which most of us never see.

However, the aura is often detected unconsciously by many of us, and with practice it is possible to read, and even see, these auras. I once met a man who had been blind since birth – but he could see auras. Just by looking at a person he could tell their mood, their energy level, and even identify pain or illness. A quite remarkable gift, and yet another example of how we can too often take for granted that what we see represents the totality of what exists. In truth, there is a very great deal we overlook in our busy, day to day lives.

Different aspects of the aura which flows in, around and through our bodies are connected to specific points known as chakras. Each of these areas has its own harmonic frequency, for some people identifiable as a colour. Indeed, many of the meditative exercises recommended suggest focussing on each of these colours whilst working on a specific chakra. By placing a specific crystal on, or near, specific parts of the body, the vibrational energy of the crystal can harmonise with the aura at that point, helping to restore balance, increase energy and strength, and allow the body to heal, energise or cleanse more quickly.

Imagine if you will, making waves in your bath! If you swirl your hand around clockwise you’ll create a fairly strong wave. How do you stop that wave? Three ways: you can either sit and wait, which could take a while, turn your hand the other way, which creates waves twice as high for a while, or you could turn your hand more slowly, which helps harmonise the waves, settling them in a more controlled way.
This is one, very simplified way of understanding how healing crystals and Shiva Lingham stones work – by sending out vibrational energies which harmonise with your auric energy in calming ways, to help restore balance and flow. Our healing crystal sets include seven types of crystal, one for each of the chakra points in your body, and we even provide a guide so that you can start to use these wonderful crystal sets straight away.

If you would like to buy Healing Crystals or Shiva Lingham Stones, you can do so from our Moonrust Shop.

Supplied in a sealed leak-proof bag our Pocket Gardens contain specially formulated compost and seeds, so all you need to do is cut open and add water, allowing the contents to grow into a beautiful houseplant or herb.

We have three ranges of Pocket Gardens, the Occasions Range, the Organic Herbs Range and the Plants Range, so there’s a Pocket Garden to suit everyone.

These items can only be shipped to customers within the UK.

]]> http://www.moonrust.co.uk/blog/25-off-all-pocket-gardens-until-the-end-of-june-2009/feed 0 http://www.moonrust.co.uk/blog/voodoo-dolls-worry-dolls-and-21st-century-gods-of-the-wire http://www.moonrust.co.uk/blog/voodoo-dolls-worry-dolls-and-21st-century-gods-of-the-wire#comments Fri, 29 May 2009 21:11:00 +0000 Faith Lamb http://www.moonrust.co.uk/blog/voodoo-dolls-worry-dolls-and-21st-century-gods-of-the-wire

Worry dolls and voodoo dolls come from quite different backgrounds, yet seem to have come together in providing a growing number of people with either a charming, quirky token of pagan, New Age thinking, or very real strength and confidence, depending upon their beliefs.

At Moonrust we supply a number of quite different, cheeky little voodoo dolls, and several sets of worry dolls, and although it’s not possible to know all the different reasons why our customers keep on coming back for these gifts, there are three reasons why they prove popular in general.

The first reason is that today’s voodoo dolls, about as remote from the macabre and sinister activities of the Caribbean witchdoctors of darker times as it’s possible to get, represent a wry acknowledgement of where we have come from. With our twenty first century gods of the wire, digital deities that seem to be omniscient to the point of predicting what we’re going to type next, more and more of us are feeling a deep need to acknowledge that our past contains magic, mystery and unknown powers which would make a mockery of our present day reliance on hard facts, scientific theories and dismissiveness of all things unproven.

Perhaps it’s simply the name, although this is unfair since the spiritual beliefs of Haiti, which included voodoo, were very much based upon the environment, natural and spiritual energies, and the intrinsic relationship between all people, and the natural world in which they live. But thanks chiefly to Hollywood, voodoo does stir up images of dark, mysterious magic and above all, the ability to control the actions and behaviours of other people. How appealing this is, especially when the tax man calls, or the bank writes to us!

The second reason why we feel that voodoo dolls and worry dolls have grown in popularity is that they have been designed so well, with such character and appeal, that as fascinating little curios or talking points, they engender humour and interest, harking back to dark and mysterious times but in a way which cannot be taken literally or seriously, knocking 21st century cynicism very slightly out of kilter.

But perhaps the biggest reason, and the least mentioned, is the fact that, deep down, most of us harbour superstitious beliefs in one way or another. A little voodoo doll, or a set of worry dolls might on the surface appear to be little more than harmless fun, a light-hearted bit of frivolity. But perhaps our needs run deeper than we like to admit, and small tokens or charms may hold more power than that for which they are given due credit.

We live in a world where silicon seems to be running the planet. Our love affair with silicon, the heart of every microchip, seems to have inspired us to take this compound into our own bodies in efforts to fabricate our natural bodies as we fabricate our own version of this world in place of our inheritance. Whether it is our blessing or our curse to be born into a world where scepticism is encouraged almost from the moment we learn to speak – don’t trust strangers, don’t believe all you see on TV – our life is a gift nonetheless, and it is up to us to take this gift to heart and go with it where our will takes us.

But as silicon and nuclear physics drives our world ever forwards, it seems to be becoming ever more important for us to look over our shoulders, and keep tight hold of our heritage for fear of losing it, and ourselves, in the maelstrom of modern gods of the wire over which we fool ourselves we still have control. Perhaps this is why so many of us are secretly stowing our worry dolls under our pillows each night, giving each the gift of a single worry, whilst keeping our chosen voodoo doll nearby to guard against our foes, seek out and disarm our fears, or weave their magic over those who inspire us, or whose hearts we earnestly wish to win!

It is a curious fact that as technology advances, the questions become ever more numerous, and as scientific research digs ever deeper into the fabric of our world, the more it seems to scratch its head in disbelief. Superstitions are often based on subconscious memories and knowledge inherited from our ancestors, perhaps misguided, but at least all of us alive today have been born of those who survived. Perhaps there may be something in it after all!

Above all, for many people, simply having one of our sets of worry dolls encourages the mental facing up to our fears, the acceptance of our concerns and the organisation of our troubles, and this in itself is a healthy and positive thing to do. Similarly, whilst we cannot guarantee our delightful little voodoo dolls will win over your boss, win the love of your life, or guard you from all possible harm, perhaps the mere acknowledgement of your fears, hopes and desires is really all it takes?

The truth is that no one really knows for certain. The cause of the effect cannot be measured, but the degree of success most certainly can. The easiest way of thinking about crystal divination or pendulum dowsing is to consider the aerial on your radio. Flying through the air, quite unseen to any of your senses, is a multitude of radio waves and radio signals. Passing through your body, through your head right now are many dozens of radio channels, voices, songs and adverts. Fortunately for us all we can’t tell!

But simply by using a little aerial, our radio can detect these unseen signals, and interpret them as meaningful sounds, words and music. In just the same way of course, our televisions also pick up the many other signals flying thorough the ether. When you stop to think about it, at any one given moment there may be dozens, scores – perhaps even hundreds of programs and signals, all man-made, passing through every cell in your body, every second of the day.

But these unseen signals all around us aren’t just man-made. Think about the earth’s magnetic field. We can’t feel this ourselves, at least, not many of us can. But birds and many other animals rely on being able to detect these fields. It’s one of the main ways that birds and other migratory animals are able to navigate their way with pinpoint accuracy across journeys of thousands of miles. Some people seem to have an uncanny natural ability to tell which way north is, even when blindfolded in a room, and it may be possible that there are vestiges of this internal compass in some of us.

Crystal dowsing using a pendulum is believed to be a way of tuning our bodies and minds into these unseen signals which are all around is, but which we cannot detect using our normal senses alone. It isn’t known precisely how we manage this, or in what form these energies or signals may be, but proof, if any is needed, is in the undeniable fact that using a pendulum works, and has been seen to work in all manner of fields.

You may not be looking to identify the exact location of enemy submarines, nor locate murder weapons, gold veins or blood clots, but one of the reasons why pendulums have proven to be so popular is that they can be used for almost any purpose. We all have questions, every day – many of them seemingly trivial, but often we find ourselves debating which course of action is right, which way to tackle a problem, or who to trust.

Perhaps deep down we have an inkling of an idea, a subconscious gut feeling, which many perceive to be a very low quality method of tuning in to the energies around us, picking up on the positive feelings, the right energies, and turning away from potential negative energy. If so, then it is clear to see how using a pendulum or crystal dowsing chain can help calm and steady our bodies, helping them to tune in to these subconscious feelings and guide us in the right way.

Although many pendulums incorporate a crystal within the base, there are many different types of pendulum, and many jewels, crystals and metals which can be used. Some have even used wood, or water. It seems that certain natural elements have an added ability to tune in to the energy and signals around us, and crystals have long been known to have the ability to tune in to vibrations – which is one of the reasons they’re often used in watches.

We sell onyx and quartz pendulums which are very beautiful and tactile. We’re also very excited about being able to offer a new range of pewter pendulums. These have a very classic look to them, and because pewter is quite heavy, the pendulum’s swing is much more precise. This means that readings taken using our pewter pendulum are far more accurate and much easier to interpret. Whether you have an interest in using crystal dowsing as part of Reiki, Feng Shui or healing, or whether you wish to use explore the art of pendulum divination, we are sure that our pendulum will prove to be both beautiful and effective. As many people use pendulums to help find lost items, why not buy two – then if you lose one you can find it with the other!