Rachel watched the door until Aiden was out of sight, then turned to Jack. “I have a favor to ask.”
“Anything.”
“I want you to take Aiden to do Christmassy things this season.”
“Okay, ask me for anything but that.”
She swatted him on the arm. “I’m serious, Jack!”
“Come on, Rach. You know I’d do anything for you. But Aiden doesn’t need a Grinch making him hate Christmas, too. I can’t think of anyone who would be worse at it than I would.”
“He needs this. I want him to have the kind of Christmases that we never had.”
“And you’ve been giving it to him every year. One Christmas isn’t going to make or break his feelings about Christmas.”
“So, what...” She raised an eyebrow. “It takes an entire childhood of going without it to turn someone into a Christmas-hating Grinch?”
“Pretty much.”
“Five years old is the most magical age to experience Christmas, and I don’t want him missing out on that just because I’m sick.” She paused for a long moment, then added, “Jack, it’s important to me.”
November and December were his busiest months at work, and he had to put in so many hours a week during those months to accomplish all that he needed to. But how could he say no to his sister’s request? Especially when it was important to her?
He took a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll make sure he experiences a fun Christmas.” He couldn’t guarantee it’d be him helping Aiden, but he’d make sure Aiden didn’t miss out on a single thing.
She gave him a weak smile. “Thank you.”
When Aiden came back into the room, his arms wrapped around a box that was almost too wide for his five-year-old arms, Rachel said, “I need to rest for a bit. Why don’t you have Uncle Jack help you hang those up?”
Aiden nodded, and they both left the room, pulling the door closed behind them. Aiden set the box on the coffee table, then went to the kitchen and returned a moment later with a spool of kite string, a roll of tape, and a pair of scissors. After setting them down, he headed back to the kitchen, grabbed one of thechairs at their small table, and hefted it into the family room area.
“Mom says we can’t put up the Christmas decorations until she’s feeling a bit better, but we can put up these.”
Jack hadn’t even noticed that they didn’t have decorations up. His lack of prickliness at first walking into the room should’ve tipped him off to their absence.
Aiden patted the stack of snowflakes he’d made from cutting folded paper. “I’ve been making these for a really long time. I’m talking for a really long time. Like, at least ten days. I want to hang them from the ceiling so it’ll look like it’s snowing in here. I know they aren’t really Christmas decorations, but there’s always snow at Christmas, so it’s kind of like Christmas decorations.”
He much preferred thinking of them as simply a winter thing.
They cut lengths of string, taped one end to each snowflake, and then Jack climbed onto the chair to tape them to the ceiling. Aiden started singing a song he was making up as they went along about hanging them up. Jack was having fun. He liked hanging out with his nephew.
But then Aiden said, “I know! We should be listening to Christmas music instead of me singing!”
And then his nephew turned on the music, and a song about jingle bell time being a swell time filled the room, and Jack felt his hackles rise. The longer they worked and the more Christmas songs played, the more Grinch-like Jack could feel himself becoming. He just had too many negative feelings attached to Christmas from his childhood to ever enjoy the season again.
He taped a snowflake string to the ceiling, and Aiden said, “It needs to go that direction like this much.” He held his hands about six inches apart.
“It’s fine where it is,” Jack snapped.
He immediately regretted the words, even before seeing Aiden’s reaction to being barked at.
“Aiden, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken sharply—that had nothing to do with you. It needs to go this direction, you said?” He pulled the tape from the ceiling and moved it to the right. Aiden nodded, so he stuck it in the new spot.
There was no way he could be the one to help Aiden experience the joy of Christmas. Jack couldn’t be around anything relating to Christmas without feeling cranky, and no matter how hard he could try to hide it, it was bound to rub off on Aiden. He could never do the holiday justice for a five-year-old who was so wide-eyed and expectant of the season.
He needed to find help.
three
