Page 14 of A Curvy Wonderland

He glanced toward the girls, picking which machine they wanted to insert their next quarters into.

“And did you see how happy Mrs. Banerjee was yesterday with her decorations?”

His lips pressed together.

“And oh my gosh, seeing Clifford smile at the girls and saying it was his favorite part of the holiday?” My chest warmed at the thought.

Eldan’s eyes were intense as they studied me, but I didn't shy away, meeting his gaze directly.

“I know there are so many bad things going on in the world, but it doesn't do us any good to focus on them. I'd rather focus on the things that make life a little bit better. And when I do that, I have less time to spend being upset because I realize just how good life is.”

He opened his mouth like he was about to respond, but the girls came running back with their toys. They played with the little trinkets until Scrooge returned with our food.

We ate it all, and as we walked out of the diner, Tatum said, “That was so much fun.”

Eldan whispered, almost to himself, “Yeah, it was.”

8

ELDAN

Today, instead of waiting for everyone at the café, I took the Christmas tree farm’s Polaris and drove it down to meet Holly, Tatum, and Lucy at their house. When I pulled up, the two younger girls came running outside, Holly following behind and locking the door on her way out.

I watched her, intrigued, until a six-year-old stole my attention.

Lucy got up to me first, looking up at me with a smile that was missing one of her front teeth. “Are we driving this today?” she asked.

“I am,” I said. “You get to ride.” I nodded my head toward the back where several snow shovels waited for us including two smaller ones in the girl's favorite colors, pink and green. “We have some snow to shovel today.”

Tatum quickly said, “I call the front seat.”

She jumped in beside me, and Lucy pouted as she went to the back seat next to Holly, who climbed in. Today, her bright red winter coat was open, showing a pink shirt with curling font on front. I couldn't read the whole word, but I was sure it was something Christmas related.

Holly teased, “Not Santa’s sleigh, but it will do.”

“Way better than Santa’s sleigh, because it doesn't take any smelly reindeer,” I retorted.

Lucy looked at me aghast. “Rudolph doesn't stink.”

“Yeah,” Tatum agreed. “Take it back.”

I pretended to zip my lips and throw away the key. But Tatum pretended she had a fishing hook and cast it out toward where I had thrown the imaginary key and “reeled” it back in. “Here you go.” She pretended to unlock the zipper at my mouth.

“Fine, I don't know if Rudolph stinks, but that Prancer. Pee-yew.”

Tatum laughed, but Holly stared at me in shock.

“What?” I asked, wondering if I had breakfast stuck on my face somewhere.

“You just told a joke.” She held up her phone, pointing the light at me like an interrogation lamp. “Who are you, and what have you done with Eldan?”

I shook my head. “Don't worry, I'm sure I'll come to my senses soon.” Then I put the Polaris into gear and started driving down the road toward the first house we were supposed to shovel today.

Over the last few days, several requests had come in for snow shoveling, so we had our work cut out for us today. Hopefully we could get four driveways done throughout the day.

No one was home at the first house, which could be good because we could get a lot of work done without having anyone around to talk with. If I noticed something about Holly, it was that she never met a stranger. Everyone was her friend, which meant they had long, friendly conversations.

So the five of us grabbed our shovels and got to work. Holly made it a contest with the girls to see who could build the biggest pile of snow, which kept them busy. The work seemed to go pretty fast. Especially with the radio in the Polaris playing. I had set it to a non-Christmas music station, but Holly quickly went and changed it to one exclusively playing holiday songs.

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