Page 117 of My Secret Snowflake
“What did your mom and dad say?” I ask, having learned my lesson previously.
“I didn’t ask them yet. I just thought of this,” Jack says.
“I think you had that same question when you were younger, Iris,” Rose says.Phew. She’s listening in, and I’m not about to contradict whatever they told Jack.
“Your building has a fire escape, right?” I ask.
Jack nods.
“Santa Claus uses the fire escape and climbs in through the window. In fact, he prefers that,” I say.
“That’s how I met Iris. She was trying to climb through a window,” Sebastian says, and we share a smile.
“That makes sense. We should leave some carrots on the roof for the reindeer,” Jack says.
“Okay, we can go up.” My parents recently renovated the roof to create a deck space. “Sebastian hasn’t seen it yet, so we can show him too.” I turn to Sebastian. “Should we tell your mom we’re going to the roof deck?”
Sebastian laughs. “No. But she still wants us to see their apartment’s roof deck.”
Sebastian and I hold hands as we walk up the staircase to the roof, following Rose and Jack.
The top door is bolted shut, and it takes a few seconds for Rose to slide it out.
“Maybe we should just leave this open,” Jack says. “I bet Santa would like stairs even more. Do we have this on our roof, Mom?”
“Yes. We can do it at our place too,” Rose says as she opens the door. A burst of cold wind and wet snowflakes greet us. I pull up the collar of my coat.
Some high rises tower in the distance, but mostly we are surrounded by other flat rooftops, some with gardens or patio furniture and others left bare, all covered with snow. The faint sound of Christmas music from the bar down the street murmurs in the distance whenever someone opens the door. The city is slumbering, like in “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
Jack places the carrots on a table, and then Rose hurries him off the roof, saying they have to get home so the kids can go to bed on time. She adds, “Since they’re going to be up at five a.m. anyway.”
I hug her goodbye.
It’s just Sebastian and me on the roof. He pulls me in for a hug and a kiss. I wipe the snowflakes from his hair. He kisses my nose.
“There was a snowflake there,” he says. “We should probably go soon too.”
“Okay, just let me get Fatma,” I say.
“Fatma?” he asks.
“I do want to live with you,” I say. “And she comes with me.”
A huge smile spreads across Sebastian’s face. “That’s the best Christmas present ever.”
Then he tilts his head and his brow furrows. “Was there some kind of parent-approval test that I had to pass?”
“No. You passed that when you came over and helped me figure out Raphael’s clues and my mom brought us snacks.”
AfewChristmastreesremain at the tree stand around the corner from Sebastian’s apartment. The snow is falling more thickly now, swirling in the soft glow of the light from the lamp post. Fatma isnothappy to be out in the cold and is meowing in her carrier.
“Should we get another Christmas tree?” Sebastian asks. “I think you have more ornaments than we can fit on my small tree. And now they’re only twenty dollars.”
“But how will we get it home? We’re already carrying my stuff.” Or rather, we both have backpacks, and I have the cat carrier. Sebastian is carrying my box of ornaments.
“We can load it up on a Citi Bike and wheel it over to my apartment, and then I can carry it in,” Sebastian says. “As long as you can carry your ornaments.”
“Let’s do it,” I say. Sebastian goes to unlock a Citi Bike as I examine the last few trees.
