Page 104 of Pining for You

The haloed moon Eve and I saw together last night is keeping its promise.

“It’s a miracle!” Cash shouts.

“But how?” Diya says. “This wasn’t in the forecast at all!”

I never got a chance to tell any of them about what Eve and I saw. She and I were the only ones who could have known this would happen and I decide to keep it that way.

“Sometimes, we silly humans can’t predict things,” I quote Diya back to herself with a smirk.

“However it happened, it’s beautiful,” Izaac says.

He’s right. This is a gentler snow, flurries that don’t feel like they’ll threaten the rest of the evening, but only add to the glittering ambiance. And for the first time since this morning I feel it coming back. It’s…

“Magic,” I add.

A moment later, old man Cooper appears in the big open entryway to the barn and taps a microphone to confirm what we’re all seeing. “Well, folks… the curse has been lifted!” he shouts, and the whole barn erupts in cheers. I’m sure there are some people in the crowd who feel less than enthusiastic about shoveling snow on Christmas morning, but for the moment, they’re outnumbered.

“And now I have to make good on my promise, I guess.” Cooper chuckles. “So, let me see if I can channel Oprah here… You get a turkey! And you get a turkey, and—well, you get the point,” he says, and the crowd laughs along at the very stale joke. I have questions about the logistics of this turkey distribution, but for now I stay focused on the snowfall.

“But more than that, I want to thank everyone for another extremely successful Cooper Christmas Eve Bazaar, which is pretty darn impressive given that we all had to brave the Polar Quasar to make it happen!” he goes on. “I especially want to thank our departing seniors. You have made our farm stronger and given us incredible memories. And as a gift—one that I arranged before I realized I was going to be giving away dozens of turkeys—we have a little last-minute surprise for y’all this year. So, if everyone would form an orderly line, please! Right this way…”

We all look at one another, puzzled, then stand and follow the crowd to see what’s happening. There are knee-weakening aromas coming from just outside the barn. Woodsmoke and spices that are familiar, but that I can’t put my finger on… until I see it there in the distance. Lit up like a beacon all the way from Brooklyn, New York.

Carlos and Tía’s taco truck.

30

I’m not sure how long I’ve been staring when Izaac leans in. “Uhhh, B, are you seeing this too?”

Before I can answer, Audra comes running up to him.

“Surprise!” She shouts this pretty much right in his face as she barrels in for a hug.

“Audra, what… what’s going on?” he says.

Then Carlos comes sauntering up behind her.

“Looking sharp, my man,” he says. “Loving this suit!”

“Thank you?” Izaac says, almost as a question. Bless the dude for looking stunned to death but never forgetting his manners.

“You guys…,” I stammer on behalf of us all. “What?”

“Well, I’ve been promising Casper for years that I’d bring the truck up one of these days. After hearing y’all talk about it, I figured the Christmas party was the move. So I called him this morning and asked if they might want to surprise the crowd.”

My mind races to make sense of it all. At some points throughout the day, I was certain what happened in Brooklyn was a dream, something I imagined like so many other holiday city scenarios. And after this morning’s fiasco I almost wanted it to be.

But this scene—the truck, Audra, Carlos, the fact that people around me are lining up and talking about the tacos they’re about to have—is proof that it wasn’t a hallucination.

Audra grins. “But that’s not a-aall.” She sings the last word like a game show host. Then she gestures to the stage.

Instead of the jazz quartet that’s been playing low-key carols to partygoers so far, there is a figure, at least six feet tall, wearing a red-and-green sequined gown that could stop a reindeer faster than a set of headlights. And through the speakers behind my head comes her low and gorgeous voice, crooning a brassy version of “Jingle Bell Rock.”

A sign behind her head unfurls and reads:

Johnna Candy & the Kickers from Queens

She’s here, in the flesh, accordions and all.