The program, Flora thought, was nearly perfect. After the first verse of “The Cherry Tree Carol,” a boy in the second row started the second verse too early and sang “As they —” quite loudly and all alone before realizing his mistake (which made several of the choir members giggle), and just as the final notes of “O Christmas Tree” were being sung, a small girl stumbled off the end of the lowest riser. But the rest of the performance went off without a hitch, and after Ms. Angelo had thanked everyone for coming, the audience burst into applause.
It was when Flora rose to leave that she felt the little spark she always felt at this time on Christmas Eve, the spark that told her that magic was taking place, that now anything at all might happen. If only there really were a Santa Claus to slide down the chimney. If only animals truly did talk at midnight. If only she could somehow see the miracle that had taken place in the stable all those long years ago.
The magic was around her, and Flora did a little skip and impulsively took Min’s hand and Mr. Pennington’s as they collected Ruby and left the center.
“Back home now,” said Min, the dusk gathering around them. “We have to put on our warmest clothes for the parade.”
The air was raw and a wind whipped up and for a moment Flora thought she felt the prick of snowflakes on her cheek. At home, she and Ruby and Min and Aunt Allie wrapped themselves in down jackets and mufflers and donned boots and mittens and hats. Then they called for Mr. Pennington and walked into town together.
“Wow,” said Aunt Allie as they turned onto Main Street. “This brings back memories.”
“The last parade I saw,” said Min, “was the year before you moved to New York City.”
“I haven’t missed a parade since I was a kid,” said Mr. Pennington. “I was fourteen and I caught a cold and my mother wouldn’t let me come into town. Oh, I was mad at her.”
“There’s Olivia!” called Ruby. “Let’s stand with Olivia.”
Flora didn’t know how her sister had spotted the Walters in the crowds of people that were lining the street. The bustling activity reminded her of the night the tree had been lit in the square — a blur of hats and heads and waving arms and babies riding on shoulders, of shouts and laughter and greetings and cries of “Merry Christmas!” The Row House neighbors stood together, and the adults eased the children toward the street so they could see better. Everyone kept craning their necks to the right, and Flora looked with them. Suddenly, she heard Robby say, “I see it! Here comes the parade!” and the crowd grew quieter.
From the south end of town came a pair of headlights. As the lights drew closer, Flora saw six elves (they were not wearing coats, and must have been freezing) dancing along in front of a float. They were tossing chocolates into the crowd and heralding the arrival of a string quartet seated sedately on the float, playing “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” Ruby jumped up and down and shouted, caught four chocolates, and gave two of them to Flora.
Flora took in a dizzying array of images after that — horses dressed as reindeer, the advanced tap class from Ruby’s dance school tappety-tapping to “Jingle Bell Rock” on a float called Twelve Tappers Tapping, an enormous snowman who bounced down the street and frightened Alyssa Morris, a float on which Santa’s workshop had come to life, and finally a fire truck outlined in blinking red and white lights.
The fire truck was at the end of the parade. After it went by, everyone peered expectantly all around.
“Santa could be anywhere,” said Robby, looking up and down Main Street and then above his head.
Flora looked to the sky, too, and that was when she thought she saw lights over the trees behind Cover to Cover.
“What’s that?” she cried, pointing.
Everyone’s attention was drawn to the sky. Flora stared fixedly, feeling like Dorothy watching Glinda’s bubble grow larger as it floated over Munchkinland.
“It’s a balloon!” Flora exclaimed to Ruby. “A hot air balloon!”
And it was. Flora now saw that a balloon, aglow in lights, was hovering above Main Street. It wasn’t a real balloon, Flora realized, for it was suspended from a crane that must have been parked in the alley between Cover to Cover and Fig Tree restaurant. But that didn’t matter. On this magical night, it could have been real.
The balloon was lowered toward the ground. When it was not more than a few feet above Flora’s head, she heard a shout, and then Santa rose from the basket of the balloon and began to wave to the crowd. Moments later, the balloon came to a gentle rest near the sidewalk, and Santa, still waving, opened a door in the basket, stepped out, and walked all the way down Main Street to cheers and clapping.
Flora looked over her shoulder at Min. “That,” she said, “was fantastic.”
Ruby had never seen anything like Santa Claus floating to earth in a hot air balloon. Never, ever, ever. And she had been to the Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City and to Six Flags Great Adventure. And the evening wasn’t over yet. Now it was time to surprise Mae, something Ruby had been looking forward to for several weeks.
Ruby and her family and the Row House neighbors, fully satisfied by the parade, walked slowly back to Aiken Avenue.
“I think I’ll skip the next part,” said Aunt Allie as they turned up their front walk.
“You’re not coming to the Shermans’ with us?” asked Ruby.
There was a pause. “I’ll see you when you get back.”
Aunt Allie disappeared inside and Ruby told herself not to care. There was too much to do. She couldn’t bother about … she tried to think of some kind way to describe her aunt (since it was Christmas Eve) and came up with “a shy person.”
“All right, let’s load up the van,” called Olivia from next door. In no time the van was filled with the food and the wrapped presents. It looked, Ruby thought, like Santa’s sleigh (if you squinted your eyes and ignored the roof and windows and tires).
Olivia and her brothers climbed into Mr. Pennington’s car then, and Lacey and Mr. Willet crowded into Min’s car. (Mrs. Morris had volunteered to look after Mrs. Willet.)
“You are a very realistic Santa,” said Ruby approvingly.
“It’s the suit,” Mr. Willet replied.
“No, you’re much better than a department store Santa. Isn’t he, Flora?”
“Definitely.”
Mr. Willet was as round as Ruby thought Santa should be, and he had white hair, and although he didn’t have an actual beard, his fake one blended in quite nicely with his hair. You could barely see the elastic band over his ears.
Min steered the car through Camden Falls and then onto the country road to the Shermans’ house. Behind her were the Walters and Mr. Pennington.
“We’re a Christmas convoy,” said Ruby. “Let’s sing!” So they sang “Feliz Navidad,” which was Lacey’s suggestion. (Flora sang very, very softly.)
“All right,” said Min after a while. “I think we’re getting close.”
Ruby and Flora recognized the end of the lane that led to Nikki’s house, and Min parked there with Mr. Pennington and Mrs. Walter pulling up behind her.
“Now,” said Olivia, “we have to carry everything from here. Be very, very, very quiet. Oh, I hope Paw-Paw won’t bark. Does everyone know what to do when we get to the house?”
Everyone did, and soon their arms were piled with bundles. They made their way along the lane, a silent procession in the stillness and the dark. Ruby felt a little nervous as her feet encountered stones and other obstacles in the snowy road, but she kept her eyes on the friendly lights of Nikki’s house, which she could see in the distance.
Ruby was carrying a stack of presents (she thought they were Mae’s doll and some of the books), and she followed Olivia to the Shermans’ porch, where she placed the gifts soundlessly into a pack that Mr. Willet was holding open. Then she stepped off the porch and into the shadows, joining Flora, Min, Mr. Pennington, Lacey, and Olivia and her family. Mr. Willet remained by the door with the bulging pack. In the light from the Shermans’ windows,
Ruby could see that he was smiling — a jolly, rosy-cheeked Santa.
Mr. Willet nodded toward his hidden neighbors, and then, “Ho! Ho! Ho!” he bellowed. “Ho! Ho! Ho!”
Ruby pulled a cowbell out of her coat pocket and jangled it loudly. Olivia did the same and Flora shook the tiny bells that usually hung on King Comma’s collar.
“Ho! Ho! Ho!” cried Mr. Willet again.
The Shermans’ porch light flickered on, and a moment later Mae’s face appeared in a window, curious, then awestruck. She turned around and called over her shoulder to someone behind her, and then the door flew open. There stood Mae, clinging to Nikki’s hand, Tobias and Mrs. Sherman behind them.
“Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!” said Mr. Willet.
Mae stared. She stared hard for nearly ten seconds (which is a very long time if you sit still and count it out). Then a grin crossed her face and she bounced up and down and began to shriek. “It’s Santa! Mommy, Nikki, Tobias, it’s Santa Claus! He came for real! I told you he would!”
Mr. Willet knelt on the porch. He appeared to study Mae. Then he consulted a long piece of paper that he withdrew from a pocket of his red coat.
“Are you Mae Sherman?” he asked her.
“Yes,” Mae said anxiously, and then added, “sir.”
“Just checking.” Mr. Willet put the list away and opened the pack. “I have quite a few things in here for you,” he said. “I think I have everything you requested. And presents for your sister and brother and mother, too.”
“Presents for everybody?!” exclaimed Mae.
Mr. Willet pulled out the list again, stared at it, then replaced it. “Yup.”
Ruby looked at Nikki, still holding Mae’s hand, and saw Nikki’s eyes travel off the porch and into the darkness beyond.
Mr. Willet lifted one of the presents out of the pack and handed it to Mae. “This one is for you,” he said, reading its tag. He pulled out another gift, then another and another and another, until the pack was empty and Mae stood by a tower of presents.
Mae gazed wide-eyed at Mr. Willet. “Oh, thank you!” she said finally. “Thank you. I didn’t know that you could bring all the things on the list. Or that you would bring presents for everyone else. Was it the map?” she asked finally. “You just needed the map? Is that how you found me?”
“Well,” said Mr. Willet, looking over his shoulder, “I did have a little help.”
Out of the shadows stepped Ruby and Flora and Min and their friends. “Merry Christmas!” they called, and soon everyone was hugging and laughing and talking.
Still, for one awful moment, Ruby was afraid that they had made a terrible, terrible mistake. She and Olivia and Flora hadn’t thought about what would happen when Mae saw Nikki’s friends rush onto the porch. Would she suspect that Mr. Willet wasn’t the real Santa?
But Mae looked from the visitors to Santa Claus with her shining face and said, “So they’re your helpers this year?”
“That’s right,” said Mr. Willet.
“Nikki! Flora and Ruby and Olivia are Santa’s helpers!” exclaimed Mae.
“Your map was very good,” Ruby said to her, “but Santa called us for some more directions.”
“Mommy, can we open the presents now?” asked Mae, giving a little skip. “Please?”
“I think we should save them for tomorrow, don’t you?” replied Mrs. Sherman.
“One then, please?” said Mae. “I can’t wait until tomorrow for everything.” She paused. “That’s just asking too much.”
Mr. Willet choked back a laugh, and Mrs. Sherman smiled. “One present,” she said. “But let’s all go inside. It’s freezing out here.”
Ruby didn’t know it, but Nikki’s house had never seen so many visitors before. In no time, the presents had been carried inside, and the food had been put away in the kitchen, and everyone gathered in the living room.
Mae treated Mr. Willet like royalty. “Have a cookie,” she said. “Do you want some milk? No, you probably get a lot of milk.” She led him to an armchair and made him sit down. “How long can you stay?” she asked. “I know you have a lot more deliveries to make.”
“This is my busiest night of the year, as you know,” said Mr. Willet, “but I can stay for a little visit.”
“Oh, goody,” said Mae, and she climbed into his lap.
Ruby was standing with Flora and Olivia by the Shermans’ tree, looking at the decorations. Nikki joined them. She fingered a papier-mâché star and said shyly, “I made this in third grade.”
“I made one just like it when I was in third grade!” said Olivia. “Only I didn’t know you then.”
“This time last year I didn’t know any of you,” said Nikki.
“I didn’t have any best friends,” said Olivia.
“And Flora and I still lived in our old town,” said Ruby.
“I can’t believe you guys did this,” said Nikki. “I really can’t. Nothing like this has ever happened to us before.”
“Mommy!” called Mae suddenly. “You said I could open one present. Could I open it now? Please? I’m going to explode.”
“My goodness, we can’t have that,” said Mr. Willet. “Which present would you like to open?”
Everyone looked at Mae, waiting for her answer. “You choose, Santa,” she said to Mr. Willet.
Mr. Willet, pretending to make a serious decision, laid one finger beside his nose, and Mae gasped. “Don’t nod!” she cried. “Please don’t nod, or up the chimney you’ll rise.”
Mr. Willet smiled. “I won’t leave yet,” he assured her. He surveyed the stack of presents that were for Mae and, after much apparent thinking and consideration, selected one. (Ruby grinned at Flora; Mr. Willet had no idea what was in any of the packages.)
Mae plopped down on the floor. The present was large, wrapped in candy cane paper and tied with green ribbon. Before untying the bow, Mae regarded the gift with awe. Then she opened it carefully. “The piano!” she shrieked. “Mommy, it’s the piano! And it’s exactly the one I was hoping for! Oh, thank you, Santa! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
Mae plinked at the keys and Ruby thought she could make out the beginnings of “Jingle Bells.”
Min looked at her watch then and said, “Heavenly days, McGee! It’s late. We should be on our way.”
And the next thing Ruby knew, Nikki had thrown her arms around first her, then Olivia, and finally Flora. “This is the best Christmas ever,” she said. “I never expected anything like it. I don’t know how you did it, but thank you.”
“That’s what friends are for,” said Ruby.
Everyone began to put on their outdoor clothes then and the room grew quiet. But when all the buttoning and tying and zipping had been accomplished, the house became noisy again.
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” Nikki said to her friends.
“Thank you for everything,” said Mrs. Sherman warmly.
“Thank you, Santa,” said Tobias, grinning. He shook Mr. Willet’s hand, and then he hugged Ruby and Flora and Olivia. “Nikki is lucky to have friends like you,” he whispered.
Mr. Willet was the last one to leave, and Mae said suddenly, “Where’s your sleigh?”
Ruby turned around in horror and saw Mr. Willet’s eyes widen, but he said nonchalantly, “It’s down at the end of your lane. I was having some landing problems. Merry Christmas, Mae! I’ll be back next year. Ho! Ho! Ho!”
The last thing Ruby heard before the Shermans’ door closed was Mae calling, “I love you, Santa!”
Ruby trudged down the snowy lane again. The clouds had cleared and the stars were out. A full moon, too. Ruby felt that must mean something special — a full moon on Christmas Eve — and even with the fake Santa walking along ahead of her, she swept her eyes back and forth across the night sky. What if, just what if, she saw the real Santa’s sleigh up there, silhouetted against the great shining moon? She glanced at her sister and knew that Flora was thinking the exact same thing. Because after all, it was Christmas Eve, an
d on Christmas Eve anything might happen.
“I’m starving!” Flora exclaimed as she and Min and Ruby opened the door to the Row House.
“Then it’s a good thing we’re just about to have our Christmas Eve dinner,” said Min. “My, we’ll be eating late tonight.”
“What do you have for Christmas Eve dinner?” asked Ruby, sounding suspicious. “Dad always made oyster stew because he said that’s what his father used to have on Christmas Eve. But Flora and I don’t like oysters. Or anything that used to live in a shell.”
“Luckily, Dad never made us eat the oyster stew,” added Flora. “He said that on Christmas Eve, people shouldn’t have to eat things they don’t like.”
“We’re going to have a smorgasbord,” said Min. “Allie!” she called. “We’re back!”
“What kind of a smorgasbord?” asked Flora.
“This kind.” Min began taking jars and packages and platters out of the refrigerator.
“Oh, look! Teeny bread!” exclaimed Ruby. “I love teeny bread.”
“It’s fancy,” agreed Flora.
“We’ll make fancy sandwiches,” said Min. “There’s roast beef and turkey and all the trimmings.”
Dinner was eaten in the kitchen with carols playing softly on the radio. Min and Aunt Allie recalled Christmases when Allie was a little girl.
“I remember one year,” said Allie, looking at her nieces, “when I was six and your mother was nine — and I still believed in Santa. I really, truly thought I heard sleigh bells outside and I nearly had a heart attack because I wasn’t asleep yet and I thought Santa would skip our house if I was still awake. Of course the next morning our stockings were filled and there were presents under the tree.”
“What about the sleigh bells?” asked Ruby.
“It was your mom jingling a set of house keys,” said Allie.
Flora smiled. “What else do you remember?”
“I remember the year — I think I was in high school — when Mother had absolutely convinced me that I wasn’t going to get this very expensive bicycle I’d been asking for. She kept saying things like, ‘You’re in Fantasyland, Allie.’ But on Christmas morning, there it was.”