Page 47 of Through the Snow Globe
Diana could hear that the boy was near tears. She doubted such a sweet child could have done anything wrong enough to warrant not receiving gifts. Then again, neither had Diana and she’d had many a sparse Christmas.
Diana pretended to study the dolls as she listened to the woman and the child. Then she turned and headed down another aisle to look at whatever was there. Legos maybe?
“Hi,” a tiny voice said.
Diana turned and looked at the little boy, who was suddenly standing next to her. She recognized him from the day he’d rushed past her when she was bringing Linus lunch. He’d run into her that day, with something obviously stuffed beneath his coat. At close range, she noticed that he had freckles on his face that perfectly matched the rust color of his overgrown hair. “Well, hello there.”
“Who are you?” the boy asked.
“Diana. What’s your name?”
The child appeared to be around eight years old. He was wearing a T-shirt with superheroes under his open coat, but Diana couldn’t name any of them. She didn’t know any of the characters that children liked. She knew practically nothing about children. The youngest of her patients were usually teenagers, like Addy. “I’m Dustin,” he said, revealing a missing canine tooth as he smiled.
Diana stuck out her hand for the child to shake. “Nice to meet you, Dustin.”
He placed his hand in hers and gave it an energetic jerk that took Diana by surprise and made her laugh.
Then the boy leaned in and lowered his voice. “Hey, you know tomorrow is really Christmas, right?”
Diana blinked. “What? What do you mean by that?”
“It’s supposed to be Christmas tomorrow,” he repeated in a secretive voice. “But no one else believes me. I keep telling my foster mom, but she thinks I’m lying.” He lowered his eyes for a moment.
Diana bent to hear him better. “Are you reliving a day too?”
The boy’s eyes lit up as he looked at her again. “You believe me?”
“Dustin?” The woman from before turned the corner and glared at Diana as she approached. “Who are you talking to, Dustin?” she asked in an irritated tone.
“This is Diana. She believes me about tomorrow being Christmas Day.”
The lady gave Diana a disapproving look as well. Maybe she was just frustrated with the entire world. What was her excuse? Was her fiancé in a coma too? “I told you that’s not true,” the lady bit out. “Christmas is a couple weeks away. You’ll be very disappointed when you wake up tomorrow if you believe it’ll be the big day.” She grabbed Dustin’s arm and tugged him along, offering Diana a less than sincere smile from over her shoulder.
Diana wanted to stop them and pull the woman’s grip off the boy’s. She somehow suspected that wouldn’t help him in any way, and Dustin might actually get in more trouble with the woman if Diana did that.
“Hey?”
Diana turned toward Linus’s voice.
“What was that about?” He gestured down the aisle where the lady and Dustin had turned to go onto the next.
Diana fidgeted with her hands. “Oh. Hi. I didn’t know you were there. Um . . .” She tried to think of a good way to explain what that had been, but she didn’t even know. Was that little boy in a time loop just like her? Was that even possible? Then again, was any of this possible?
“You’re telling kids that tomorrow is Christmas?” Linus’s brows lifted high on his forehead.
“No.” Diana shook her head quickly. “Of course not. He toldmetomorrow was Christmas. I just kind of agreed with him.”
Linus frowned. “Why would you do that?”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. You know I don’t know how to talk to children. I’ve always told you that.”
Linus reached for her hand. “It just takes spending a little time with them, that’s all. It’s an acquired talent. Don’t worry. There are loads of kids in my extended family. You can practice on them. Then one day we’ll have children of our own. I hope,” he said softly.
Diana was slightly taken off guard. Of course he’d brought up the subject of having kids before, but he’d never referred tothemhaving children together.
“You know,” he continued, “lately I’ve even considered that it might be nice to foster a kid or two before trying to have one of our own. There are lots of kids who need someone to love them.”
An ache settled over Diana’s heart. She’d needed someone to love her when she was younger. A man who would say what Linus just did was a man she could love forever. She reached for his hand. “You’d be great at that.”
