Chapter 2
Noelle Jackson scanned the items on the conveyor and smiled at the little boy in the cart as his mother loaded more things onto the belt.
“Are you ready for Santa?” Noelle asked, sliding a can of tuna over the scanner and placing it in a bag.
“Yeah,” the boy said, his eyes lighting up as he smiled. “I’m good.”
“I’ll bet you are,” she said.
His mother snorted. “Well, at least now since it’s so close to Christmas.”
“Little ones are always good this time of year.”
When she finished ringing up the woman’s purchases and waited for the credit card transaction to process, Noelle gave the boy a sticker with a reindeer on it. He put it on his jacket and grinned, showing her he was missing two front teeth.
“Merry Christmas,” the woman said as the boy waved.
“Thank you, Merry Christmas to you, too.”
“It’s break time, Noelle,” her shift manager, Darlene, said. “You’ve got thirty, and then I’m going to have you work returns for the rest of the shift.”
Noelle turned off the light for her lane and said, “Did you get Christmas Eve off?”
Darlene shook her head. She was middle-aged, twice divorced, and was helping to raise her two young grandkids. “I need the hours, and it’s hard to pass up the holiday pay. I saw you’re off. Do you want me to try to get you on?”
“No. My dad’s coming in for a visit. It’s the only time of year he can get away.”
“Aw. You only see your dad once a year? What the heck does he do for a living, work for the CIA or something?”
Noelle laughed. “No, he works for a toy company in Northern Canada. They keep him busy.”
“That’s sad. I would hate it if I didn’t get to see my dad anytime I wanted.”
Her dad’s limited vacation time made Noelle sad, too. “Yeah, well the upside as a kid was that I always had really awesome toys. I’m pretty sure he’ll be bringing me a stuffed animal again this year.”
“A stuffed animal? Even though you’re an adult?”
“I think I’m perpetually ten years old to him.”
“Dads are like that. Have a good break. Call me if you need anything.”
Noelle hurried back to the break room to clock out, and then she pulled her lunch from the fridge. She joined her co-workers at one of the large tables and unzipped her bag, pulling out the contents.
“Would you like to come to the zoo with us?” Jessie asked as she stirred a spoon in a tub of yogurt.
“The zoo? At Christmas?” she asked, raising a brow.
“They have a really cute thing they do at night,” Yana said. “Lights everywhere, sleigh rides, hot chocolate. We’re starting a new tradition this year to go on Christmas Eve. None of us are working.”
“Sorry, my dad’s coming into town, and it’s the only time I get to see him.”
“Oh, right,” Jessie said. “I think your dad is Santa.”
Noelle grinned. Her friends had teased her for a long time about her dad’s annual visits, which happened to coincide with Christmas. “He does bring me toys, but he’s not Santa, you nut.”
“Call him and ask him to bring me something sparkly, like diamond earrings,” Yana said.
“He’s not Santa,” Noelle said.
“Annual Gift Man, then,” Jessie said, her voice dropping dramatically low as she spoke.
Noelle shook her head and then took a bite of her sandwich. “Thanks for the invite to the zoo. I’m sure you’ll have fun.”
“We’ll send you pics,” Yana said.
Noelle tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, wishing her dad could stay long enough so they could do something fun, like go to the zoo. But he was only able to spend Christmas Eve with her, and that was as long as he’d ever been able to stay.
“Can I ask you a personal question?” Jessie said.
Noelle’s brows rose. “Sure. Just not my PIN or social security number.”
“Nothing like that. I was just wondering about your ears. Were you injured or in an accident?”
Noelle didn’t like the blush that heated her cheeks, and she fought the urge to pull her hair back over her ear again. She’d been distracted by the conversation and done something she rarely did – expose her ear in public.
“You embarrassed her. I told you not to ask,” Yana whispered loudly.
“No, it’s okay.” Noelle put down the sandwich and said, “My ears were deformed when I was born. My mom paid a plastic surgeon to correct them before I started school.”
“That’s so sad,” Jessie said.
Noelle resisted the urge to rub the tops of her ears. She didn’t remember what her ears looked like before they were fixed, and pictures from that time had been lost in a house fire when she was in elementary school. Her mom had said they were oddly shaped, pointed at the top like a cartoon elf. They looked fine now, but they weren’t perfect. Her mom’s insurance hadn’t been willing to pay for the cosmetic surgery, so she’d had to find a surgeon she could afford, and as a result of settling for a less expensive surgeon, Noelle’s ears didn’t look quite right. They were a little oddly shaped at the top, and made her self conscious, so she’d gotten in the habit of keeping her hair long to cover them. She’d never told anyone, but she’d always felt like getting her ears fixed had been a mistake.
“I’m good now, though,” Noelle said.
“Thanks for letting me get personal,” Jessie said. “You can ask me something if it will even things out.”
“No, that’s fine.”
Yana leaned forward and looked at Jessie. “Oh! What happened when you went out with the bottled water delivery guy last month? You never said.”
Jessie glared. “I said Noelle could ask me something, not you.”
“Sounds like someone got a special delivery of her own,” Yana said with a giggle.
Jessie groaned. “This is why no one tells you anything.”
Noelle laughed as her friends bantered back and forth, threatening to tell secrets and cause trouble for each other. With the topic of her ears forgotten, she finished her lunch and clocked in when her half hour was up. A very long line of waiting customers in the returns department took over her thoughts and made the rest of the day pass by quickly.
After work when Noelle walked into her apartment, her feet ached and her stomach growled, but she sat down at the computer first to check her inbox. She and her dad kept in touch by email, and once a month they used a video call program to chat live. He was her only family. Her mother passed away two years earlier from complications that arose after gallbladder surgery. Noelle had felt like she’d been all alone, then. Her dad hadn’t been able to leave work for the funeral, and for a little while, his absence during such a difficult time had strained their relationship.
But when he visited her that Christmas Eve, he took her to the cemetery and told her how he’d met her mother and how much he’d cared for her. It had never been enough for him to leave his job and stay with them, or bring her and her mom up to see him, which she’d never understood. But her mom had been happy with the relationship, and she’d only ever wanted Noelle to stay close with her dad, no matter how much distance separated them.
She found a message from her dad and opened it. There was a picture of him holding a stuffed polar bear, which was similar to one he’d given her several years earlier.
Hi, sweetie. Found this guy looking all lonely on the shelf, and I promised him he could come with me to visit you on Christmas Eve. You can give him a home, right? He said he doesn’t eat much, but I’m pretty sure he’s a blanket hog. Can’t wait to see you. Love, Dad
She smiled at the picture and forwarded it to her phone so she could set it as her wallpaper. Hitting reply, she wrote: Hi, Dad! I think I’ll call him Lollipop because you’re such a sucker for stuffed animals. My friends are going to the zoo on Christmas Eve night. Maybe we could go for a bit? It sounds like fun. And they have real polar bears, which would be super cool to see. Looking forward to your visit. Love you bunches, Noelle
Her stomach took that moment to remind her that it was definitely dinnertime, so she closed down the email program and headed into the kitchen to find something to eat. After dinner, she needed to finish wrapping her dad’s gift and to start making the homemade caramels, his favorite candy. This year’s batch would be covered in dark chocolate and topped with sea salt, but she’d set aside some plain ones for him to take home. Making candy at Christmas was something she and her mom had done, and the tradition had remained with Noelle even though she was now making it alone.
While looking for something to eat, a thought drifted into her mind, and she couldn’t ignore it. She decided to ask her dad if he would mind if she moved up to Canada. They were each other’s only family, and it seemed silly for them to be so far away that they spent only one day a year together. She enjoyed working at the store, but she could find a similar job in Canada, and although she’d miss her friends, there was no replacement for family.