Christmas Lights
Chapter 17 - Christmas Lights
Daniel always overdid Christmas lights.
He claimed it was for Noah. Anna claimed he was competing with Mr. Donnelly, who had once put a glowing reindeer on his roof and never emotionally recovered from Daniel calling it “low commitment.”
That December, Anna opened the garage and found Daniel’s labeled boxes.
Roofline.
Porch rail.
Tree lights.
Ridiculous reindeer response.
She laughed until she cried.
Noah found her sitting on the garage floor beside the boxes.
“Are we doing lights?” he asked.
Anna wiped her face. “I don’t know how.”
Noah nodded seriously. “We need Lucas.”
They did.
Lucas arrived with a ladder, Major Miller arrived with extension cords, Mr. Donnelly arrived pretending he was not there to supervise, and by sunset the Whitmore house glowed so brightly Anna was fairly sure airplanes could use it for navigation.
Noah stood on the sidewalk, delighted.
“Daddy would say we won.”
Mr. Donnelly muttered, “Debatable.”
Anna smiled.
Above the porch, they hung one strand Daniel had labeled badly, half white lights, half blue, blinking at uneven intervals. Anna almost replaced it.
Then she didn’t.
Perfect lights felt wrong.
Daniel’s mistakes belonged too.
Inside, the folded flag rested on its shelf near the tree. Private Rocket stood beside it wearing a tiny red ribbon Noah tied around his plastic waist.
That night, Anna stood in the doorway after Noah fell asleep and looked at the lights reflecting on damp pavement.
The house no longer looked like the place where officers had arrived.
May you like
It looked like the place Daniel had loved loudly.
For one evening, memory felt warm.
