Christmas 2024: A Christmas Haunting

Once upon a time, maybe just a few days ago but far from here, maybe far from anywhere, the ghosts got together to share their tales.
They gathered in a lodge on the edge of winter. Through the windows, you might see polar bears or snow sparrows or spirits of the aurora dancing through the skies.
The ghosts told of their greatest hauntings, which often involved people they’d known in life—and just as often, transformation.
This night, one of the youngest ghosts, fresh to the realms of haunting, said she’d experienced something wholly unexpected just one night or a lifetime ago. She had arrived to present her message of hope but found the target of her haunting preparing two mugs of hot chocolate.
He had ground the cocoa himself and heated the milk slowly, adding a touch of corn starch to thicken it and spices to sweeten it, just as his grandmother had done. He was pouring the chocolate over huge marshmallows for the two of them when she arrived. He said he’d been expecting her.
“You’re not supposed to expect me,” she told him.
In reply, he motioned toward the mugs on the table.
She sipped the chocolate, and never before had tasted something so rich or so delicious. They drank in silence, having said all they’d needed to say during life. They danced slow in each other’s arms for a huge stretch of the night. Then he kissed her.
After she left, she found herself once again a phantom, incapable of touch, barely capable of the tears at her eyes even now, and certainly unable to drink anything.
One of the older ghosts, well-travelled and wise, said, “Magic is always a mystery. Maybe you needed the haunting more than he did.”
“I still don’t understand how it happened,” she admitted.
The old and wise ghost said, “Sometimes, understanding isn’t required. Just accept the Christmas miracle for what it is.”