We cut across the town square toward the train station. On the way, we passed by a nativity scene with life-size figures. As we walked past, a flash of red caught my eye.
Was that her?
Merrie had lain down in a pile of straw next to a fiberglass sheep. I looked around in the dark.
Did she move into the fucking nativity scene?
She could not sleep there. What if she froze to death?
Not any of your business. She’s in a shelter; there’s hay.
Down the street came a group of young men, singing Christmas carols drunkenly.
You can’t just leave Merrie outside by herself, I argued.What if something happens? People will ask why she was sleeping outside. You’ll get blamed.
This is crazy.
But what could I do? I certainly wouldn’t be able to check her into a hotel room. They were all booked up. And she absolutely was not going to live at my condo. That was not an option.
Just a few hours. Until the last of the bars close.
I stepped onto a nearby bench and sat on the bench-back, my feet on the seat. Kringle ate some snow and sniffed around. Neither of us minded the cold. I watched Merrie snooze in her nest of hay.
Had she really said she was talking to Brody?
You probably misheard. There’s no reason she would have been with him. Besides, he’s with Hensley, right?
My phone chimed with a message on the group chat I shared with my siblings.
Oliver:Bro.
Oliver:You alive?
Matt:Yes?
Jack:We thought you had passed out drunk and were slowly freezing to death.
Owen:I have a tracking app on your phone. Your dot hasn’t moved in the last half hour.
Owen:Also, you were at the Christmas market for the entire evening.
Jonathan:We figured you must be pretty wasted.
Matt:I’m just…
Creepily watching a girl sleep?That didn’t sound good.
Matt:I was just out here thinking.
Jonathan:That’s a new one.
Matt:Fuck you. I’m thinking about my business.
Owen:Belle, are you investing in that shit show?
Belle:No.
Jack:This fucking family.
