Chapter 18 - One Last Christmas
August lived longer than the doctors expected.
Long enough for Christmas.
Barely.
The family moved Christmas forward twelve days.
No one admitted it.
December 13 became Christmas morning inside Howerin House.
Poppy wore red pajamas.
Daniel complained the tree was crooked.
Walter insisted it was artistic.
Ethan cooked breakfast and burned half of it.
Ruth decorated the library around August's bed.
He watched everything.
Weak.
Thin.
Happy.
Poppy placed a gift on his lap.
"I made it."
Inside was a scarf.
Uneven.
Too short.
Holes everywhere.
August held it like silk.
"It's perfect."
"No, it isn't."
"It is to me."
She climbed carefully beside him.
"Can you come to my birthday?"
Her birthday was in March.
Everyone went quiet.
August looked at Ruth.
Then Poppy.
"I don't think so."
Poppy nodded.
She had learned to ask painful questions without hiding from answers.
"Will you know when it's my birthday?"
August swallowed.
"I think I will."
"How?"
"I don't know."
"That's not very scientific."
He laughed.
"No."
She leaned closer.
"Then I'll tell you."
"How?"
"I'll say it really loud."
August kissed her hair.
"Deal."
Daniel gave him a photograph.
The two of them outside Saint Matthew's Church in Philadelphia.
The day after Daniel returned home.
On the back Daniel had written:
YOU CAME BACK.
August read it.
Then cried.
"I need to tell you something."
Daniel sat beside him.
August gathered strength.
"That night. When I went back into the warehouse—"
"I know."
"No."
August held his gaze.
"I was afraid."
Daniel frowned.
"I thought you weren't scared of anything."
"I was terrified."
"Then why go back?"
August smiled faintly.
"Because you were inside."
Daniel's face crumpled.
August reached for him.
"I love you."
Daniel bent over him.
"I love you too."
Ruth turned away.
Some moments felt too private even inside family.
Later, August gave Ruth her gift.
A simple envelope.
Inside was no money.
A train ticket.
Expired.
Destination: Charleston, South Carolina.
She looked confused.
August smiled.
"The first time I planned to ask you to leave Baltimore with me."
"When?"
"Before we married."
"Why Charleston?"
"You said warm water."
Her eyes filled.
"You kept this?"
"I keep everything."
She looked at the blue horse.
The drawings.
Letters.
Hospital bracelets.
Yes.
He did.
Ruth leaned down.
"What do you want for Christmas?"
August looked around.
Poppy.
Daniel.
Walter.
Ethan.
Ruth.
"Nothing."
"That's cheating."
"I have it."
His eyes closed.
That evening, snow began.
Rare.
Soft.
Poppy screamed with excitement.
They moved August's bed near the tall windows.
He watched her and Daniel throw snow at each other outside.
Ruth sat beside him.
"Are you in pain?"
"Yes."
"How bad?"
"Enough."
She increased his medication.
He caught her hand.
"I'm afraid to sleep."
Ruth's eyes filled.
"Why?"
"What if—"
He didn't finish.
What if I don't wake.
Ruth climbed carefully beside him.
"Then don't sleep alone."
She lay beside him.
His head rested against hers.
"Tell me something ordinary."
Ruth thought.
"The kitchen faucet leaks."
"Terrible."
"Walter keeps pretending he doesn't know."
"Fire him."
"He'd haunt us."
"True."
"Poppy hid cookies behind the blue sofa."
"I know."
"You knew?"
"I ate one."
Ruth laughed.
August smiled.
"More."
"Daniel likes a girl at school."
His eyes opened.
"What?"
"Ordinary."
"Who?"
"I'm not telling."
"I may have only days. This is cruelty."
She laughed harder.
His breathing eased.
Outside, Poppy pressed her hands against the glass.
August raised one weak hand.
She raised hers.
For a moment, palm to palm through the window.
Then August whispered:
"I thought my life ended in that fire."
Ruth turned.
"It didn't."
"No."
He looked at her.
"It started again when you dropped a tray."
She smiled.
"Very romantic."
"It was expensive silver."
"I still haven't paid for it."
"Consider the debt forgiven."
She kissed him.
That night, August slept.
He woke at dawn.
Everyone exhaled.
One more day.
But December 14 had arrived.
Exactly ten years since Warehouse Seven burned.
August looked at the date.
Then at Daniel.
"Take me there."
Ruth stared.
"No."
Daniel understood.
August repeated:
May you like
"Please."
And because some wounds can only close where they opened, they agreed.
