Daily Read #35: ReGifting of the Magi Part 1.

Gift of the Magi has long been a favorite holiday tale of many of us I'd imagine. Well written over a hundred years ago, it's been a long time coming that somebody with the help of an inflation calculator modernized the heartwarming story. That somebody might as well be me.

It will come in four installments.

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Forty Four dollars and eight cents. That was all the screen said was left in the e-coffers. Pennies saved one and two at a time by joining every coupon group the world wide web had to offer. Three times Jan refreshed the browser thinking that would change it. Forty Four dollars and eight cents And the next day would be Christmas.

With nothing to do but flop down on the second hand microsuede couch and watch someone win money on Wheel of Fortune. Thus she did. Which instigates the moral reflection that in life at least someone in the world has the promise that all of their spinning will result in big money.

While the madame of the home is gradually subsiding from a state embittered self-pity to a state of more resolved moroseness, take a look at the home. A basement flat at just over $200 per week. It was no hovel but it also had no view better than the farside of a window well.

In the vestibule below was a welcome mat onto which few feet would tread, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. Judson McKay Hart."

The "Mckay" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $700 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $470, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming M. But whenever Mr. Judson McKay Hart came home and reached his flat below he was called "Juddie" and greatly hugged by Mrs. Judson McKay Hart, already introduced to you as Jan. Which is all very good.

Jan finished her pouting and attended to her matted brown locks with a scrunchie. She stood by the window and looked out dully at the gray gravel soaked by gray rain that fell from the sliver of gray sky that could be seen above. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $44.08 with which to buy Judson a present. She had been saving every dime she could for months, with this result.

A direct deposit just shy of $500 a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $44.08 to buy a present for Judson. Her Juddie. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and techy--something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Judson.

There was a desktop computer between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen such a desktop in the house of graduate student. Even a squant and clumsy person may, by observing his reflection in the monitor, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Jan, far from being squant or clumsy, had mastered the art.

Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass monitor. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length. Brushing it back behind her ears again she saw something truly of value in the reflection of the monitor.