My Special Santa Claus

(Length 35,000+ words)

Jennifer Wilson, a seven-year-old, African-American girl who lives in a low rent project development. She is embarrassed to go to the hospital when she has the measles because her only pair of pajamas is badly torn. While she is there, some white teenagers visit to sing Christmas songs for the children. But Jennifer cannot be with them because she is quarantined.

The seventeen-year-old member of a street gang, who hadn’t wanted to dress up as Santa Claus, sees Jennifer and enters her room despite warnings from the nurse. “So I’ll get the measles,” Johnny says and shrugs it off.

This is a wonderful romance, beautifully told by Johnny Dragona.