Once Upon a December: A Holiday Short Story Collection (7 page)

Megan sighs with relief and rises to her feet. With a smile as bright as the stars, the little boy takes my wife's hand. She takes mine, and the three of us walk out of the cold alleyway.

After devouring a big bowl of chili and a peanut butter sandwich, Luke is now freshly bathed and wrapped in a terrycloth robe. His head rests in Megan's lap while she reads to him from a book of fairytales as they sit in the front of the fire.

I don’t ask where she found the storybook.

I don't have to.

Mesmerized, I sit across the room and watch as her fingers fluff his hair. The dirt and grime had given way to a head full of shocking blonde hair. His eyes are closed but his smile is bright as he listens to Megan's gentle voice. The Christmas tree glows in the corner of the room, and if I live to be a hundred years old, I will never forget the look on Luke's face when he first laid eyes on our tree. To me, it’s just an ordinary tree. Beautiful, definitely, but just a regular tree. I've seen a thousand of them in my lifetime. But to that little boy, it was like seeing the sun for the first time. He hadn't taken his eyes off it throughout dinner, prompting Megan to finally place everything on trays and carry them into the living room so we could sit around the tree while we ate. After dinner, Megan had helped him take the longest bubble bath in the history of the world while I made some calls. The first was to my sister, Mackensey, who is the retail manager of one of the children’s department stores in town. The next call was to David, my friend and an investigator with the Minneapolis PD.

Only one of those calls had proven successful.

Mackensey had arrived an hour later with enough clothes to dress a pint-sized army. David, however, was a complete dead-end.

“I can hand him over to Child Protective Services,” he’d told me.

“Which means what?”

“Which means he'll likely end up as a ward of the state. They'll probably send him to a group home.”

Not the answer I wanted to hear. When I had told Megan, she'd leveled me with a look that assured me that sending Luke to a group home wasn't an option at all.

I hadn't expected it to be.

A million questions race through my mind as Megan continues to read aloud to the little boy in her lap.

Where are his parents? Are they even alive? How long has he been living in that alley? What about the lantern? How is it still working? Had he been eating, and if so, what?

I shudder when I think about the dumpsters in the alley.

There is also the mystery of the drum. Convincing him to let go of the instrument long enough to take a bath had required some fancy negotiating, but my wife is an amazing woman. She had tempted the little boy with the promise of bubbles . . . which would be fun for him but bad for the drum.

I want to fumigate that drum.

Burning it would be better.

Megan suddenly falls silent, and that’s when I hear Luke's quiet snores. His face is sweet and content as he snoozes in her lap. Her fingers continue to ruffle his hair, and the smile on her face as she gazes down at the little boy assures me that I have finally found the perfect Christmas gift for my wife.

And I have a feeling I won’t be returning this one.

“Can you imagine what he's been through?” Megan whispers.

We’re lying on the bed in the guest room with Luke sandwiched between us, still snoring peacefully.

“No, baby, I can't. I don't want to.”

Her eyes brim with tears. “Tomorrow is Christmas Day. Kids all over the world will be waking up to trees surrounded by toys. If you hadn’t found him, this little boy would have woken up in a cold alley without anything but a drum and a lantern.”

She dissolves into quiet tears, and I reach across the sleeping boy, cradling her face in the palm of my hand.

Megan offers me a watery smile and sighs softly.

“Justin, can we keep him?”

I’m not at all surprised by the question.

“Meg, we don’t know the first thing about him.”

“I know.”

“His parents could be out there somewhere. He could be sick.”

“I know that, too.”

“We'll have to go through the proper channels, starting with David and child services. This might not be easy, sweetheart.”

“I understand all that. I really do.”

“But?”

Megan sighs softly. “But we can't take him back to that cardboard box. I won't do that. Not ever.”

“No, we won't do that, I promise. There's nothing we can do tonight. There probably isn't much we can do tomorrow since it’s Christmas. But I'll call David and see what needs to be done.”

She sniffles quietly, and I let my fingers linger across her moist cheek.

“I'll call Haley and get the number of the kids' pediatrician,” she says. “Maybe we can convince the doctor to make a holiday house call.”

And that’s when it hits me. While Luke will no doubt love the new clothes that my sister had delivered, shouldn’t he have . . . toys? Something fun to open on Christmas morning?

“I need to call Mack. Again.”

Megan frowns. “Why?”

“I mean, I guess we could gift wrap the blue jeans, but . . .”

Megan’s eyes widen. “We need toys! I didn’t even think about Christmas gifts! I was more concerned with getting him out of those filthy clothes. I didn’t even think . . .”

“Shh, I know. I'll take care of everything.”

Her beautiful green eyes glisten. “You will?”

“Of course I will.”

Carefully and slowly, I climb out of the bed. I lean down and kiss my wife before pulling the blanket around the two of them. Luke shifts in his sleep, and his blonde head finds a home against her chest.

Megan sighs contently, and I swallow the lump that has suddenly formed in my throat.

“Mackensey, you don't know how much I appreciate this.”

My sister smiles as she hands me the credit card receipt. “Yes, I do. Your appreciation comes to just under $2000. Our store, and my commission, thanks you.”

I grin. “Don’t lie. You enjoyed yourself.”

“My brother hands me his platinum card, points me toward the toy department, and tells me to go nuts. Yes, I enjoyed myself immensely.” She glances at the mound of toys and frowns. “How are you going to get them wrapped?”

“Umm . . . don't you have employees who will do that for me?”

Mackensey snorts. “It's ten o'clock on Christmas Eve. My employees are at home. With their families. Which is where I should be.”

I tiredly rub my face.

“But you are my brother, and you’re doing a good thing here, so I’m happy to help. I can call some guys and get this stuff delivered, but I can’t hire gift-wrappers for you. You’ll have to figure that out on your own.”

“I really appreciate this, Mack.”

Mackensey reaches for the giant teddy bear. “I don’t know how you’ll wrap this fella, but good luck with that.”

I glance at the drum set. It’s red and white. Most importantly, it’s clean.

 “Maybe I don't have to wrap anything. Maybe just having the presents waiting under the tree will be surprise enough.”

Mackensey shoots me a disapproving glare. “You can tie a big bow around the bear, but everything else needs to be wrapped! That's part of the excitement! The brightly-wrapped gifts and the mess to clean up afterwards. It's all part of the Christmas morning experience.”

I have no idea what Luke's normal Christmas experience is like. Will this be his first?

If so, it was going to be one he will never forget.

“Well, little sister, I suggest you get our brother on the phone and call our parents. Tell them there is a gift wrapping party going on at my house, and I expect everyone to bring their own gift wrap and tape.”

Mackensey’s eyes soften. “You're really attached to this little boy, aren't you?”

“He just . . .” my voice falters as I try to wrap my mind around the situation. “He has nothing, Mackensey. I can’t imagine his parents would just
leave
him, you know? He's living in a cardboard box in the alley, and his only possessions are a lantern and a drum. He devoured Megan’s chili as if he'd never seen food in his life, and then I watched as she bathed him in a tub full of bubbles. Right now, he’s wrapped in her arms and sleeping like a baby. So, yes, you could say that we've become attached.”

Mackensey walks around the counter and wraps her arms around my middle, squeezing tightly.

“We'll make Christmas perfect for him,” she says.

The delivery guys arrive just after midnight. They don’t seem happy, but I tip them outrageously, which seems to brighten their moods a little.

Now to get it all wrapped.

Paul, Haley, and my nieces were on their way over, as were my parents and Mackensey. After calling and giving them strict instructions to
not
ring the doorbell, I peek into the guest room to find Megan and Luke still fast asleep.

Should I let her sleep?

Megan loves to wrap gifts. It’s an obsession, really, and I have a feeling she’ll kill me if she doesn’t get a chance at this mound of toys.

I slowly walk over to her side of the bed and kneel onto the floor. It takes several soft kisses against her forehead before she begins to stir.

“Justin?”

“Hi, sweetheart.”

“What time is it?”

“It's pretty late, but I want to show you something.”

Through sleepy eyes, Megan glances down at the sleeping boy in her arms.

“He's been restless. Bad dreams, I think.”

With a life like his, I can only assume nightmares are common.

“We'll keep the door open,” I tell her.

With a nod, Megan gently slides Luke out of her arms and wraps the blanket tightly around him before following me out into the hallway.

I’m a little nervous about this reveal. My wife and sister are the very best of friends, but Megan is rarely happy when I hand Mack my credit card. Mackensey likes to shop, and she’s good at it, but she has our mother’s expensive taste, which clashes with Megan’s idea of casual comfort.

“Okay, don't get mad,” I tell her.

“Why would I—”

Megan’s eyes grow wide when we enter the living room. We might as well have walked right into a toy store. Every flat surface is covered with some type of toy. The giant teddy bear is nestled close to the tree. The drum set is perched right next to the bright blue electric car. There’s a red bicycle with training wheels and the deluxe train set that surrounds the tree. We have Legos, action figures, and a gaming system with enough video games to last until he’s a teenager. Mackensey, in her brilliance, didn't just buy toys, however. There are more clothes, shoes, bedding, and enough books to open a library.