Page 55 of Light Up My Life

Mom saw me first and she popped up. “Jasmine! Hello. How were the rest of the lights?”

“Good. Uh … what are you all doing?”

“Buddy ran out of hot water, so we were letting him refill one of his dispensers here, but it was so close to nine that he decided to shut down for the night.”

“Oh. Okay, so good night for sales, then?” I asked, my heart and mind still racing from my escape and from everything I’d overheard at Ryan’s house.

Buddy nodded. “Very good.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have given us those free ones earlier,” Marcus said.

“No, man, that was the right choice.”

“Why are you still here?” I asked Marcus. “What happened to the sock exchange?”

Marcus held up a small gift wrapped in snowman paper. “Decided to wait until the streets opened up.”

“Okay.” I perched on the arm of the couch, near Marcus. “What was everyone laughing about?”

“Buddy was telling us stories about things he’s seen while running his cart,” Momma said.

Buddy looked up at me. His blue eyes were sparkling with humor. “There was a major skateboard train accident a couple days ago. Everyone was fine, but for a moment, a bunch of teenagers were in a pile on the sidewalk flashing green and red with the lights they were wearing. They looked like a human Christmas tree.”

I smiled at the image. “That’s funny.”

“Yeah, it was.”

“One year when Jasmine was, like, eight,” Mom said, “we were setting up our decorations, and Jasmine wrapped the year-old popcorn garland around herself and started eating it like a candy necklace.”

“I stand by that,” I said. “Who saves a real popcorn garland for a whole year anyway? I’m surprised the mice didn’t get it.”

“I want a popcorn garland,” Harris said, coming out of his sleepy daze to say that.

“We’re too fancy for that now,” Marcus said.

“We’re not fancy,” Harris said. “We’re messy.”

Our moms laughed.

So did Buddy. “So am I, man.”

I turned my attention back to Buddy. He saw a lot out there while running his cart. “Have you seen any Scrooges?” I asked. “People walking around looking angry about the lights?”

Momma shot me a frown. “Why would he have seen that?”

“Just curious if anyone doesn’t like the decorations.” I knew someone didn’t. I needed to know who so I could better understand their motivations. Try to convince them with kindness to drop the lawsuit. Try to appeal to their soft side, if they had one.

“Jasmine is the holiday-joy police,” Marcus said.

“No, I haven’t seen anyone like that,” Buddy said. “Everyone seems to love the lights and the houses. Why wouldn’t they? They’re magic.” He said that with a tone of reverence in his voice and a spark in his eyes.

“You like the lights?” I asked.

“Doesn’t everybody? They’re my favorite.”

Marcus laughed and patted him on the back. “You’d fit right in with this family, dude.”

My chest tightened. I liked that everyone liked Buddy. He seemed nice, and Marcus was right, he fit right in. But I wished Marcus thought that way about someone else too. I wished they all did.