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“Oh, there’s more,” Maye winked.
Back at Maye’s condo, Tracy put on her holiday music playlist and found the TV channel where Christmas movies were playing around the clock.
“So what do we do now?” Chris said, after having changed out of his figure skating body suit and into sweatpants and a t-shirt.
“You wait here while Tracy and I get a few things from the other room,” Maye said and then signaled for her cousin to follow her. “Oh, not there,” she warned Chris as he pulled out a chair at the table. “That chair’s a little rickety.”
Maye led Tracy down the hallway and into the spare bedroom closet and handed her a box labeled “Ornaments.”
“Eek!” Tracy squealed. “It’s happening!”
Next Maye started pulling a zipped up plastic bag where the sections of her pre-lit artificial tree were stored.
“Is that what I think it is?” Tracy was practically hyperventilating. “I need to sit down.”
“No!” Maye struggled to pull the bag from the closet. “I need your help.”
The two finagled the large, awkward bag out of the closet and onto the floor.
“You two need some help?” Chris poked his head into the room.
Chris tossed the tree bag onto a shoulder while Maye and Tracy each picked up a box, and the three bounded for the living room. Together, the three cleared a spot and assembled the tree.
“I’ll plug it in!” Tracy scampered behind the tree to find an outlet. “Okay, count me down!”
Maye lowered the living room lights while she and Chris counted down from five. Tracy plugged in the tree illuminating the room in a flash of bright, white light. The tree quickly dimmed and then gradually faded back up to fill the room with light again.
“It looks amazing,” Chris said.
“It always does. But we’re not done. Here,” Maye handed him two strands of color lights.
Chris looked confused. “But the tree is pre-lit, it already has lights.”
Tracy shook her head. “It’s like you’ve never seen a tree decorating scene before. We want this thing to be visible from space.”
Chris wrapped the lights around the tree and then joined Maye and Tracy as they unboxed the ornaments.
“What’s this one?” Chris asked, holding one by its hook.
Maye glanced and quickly tried to move him along. “Oh, nothing. I’ll take it.”
He looked closely and read the ornament. “Our first Christmas.”
“That could be from anyone,” Tracy joked, breaking up any tension that might have been developing.
“Well,” Chris stood up dangling the ornament from his finger. “You can’t change your current past, but every day is a chance to write your future’s past.” He placed the ornament on the tree.
“A Merry and Joyous Math League Christmas?” Tracy asked.
“Nailed it,” Chris said, pointing at her.
“Did you just quote one of your own movies?” Maye asked, in awe of the audacity.
“Hey, we’re almost ready for the star,” Tracy said, gently unwrapping it from bubble wrap. “Maye, there’s something I need to say to you.”
Maye took a seat next to Tracy.
“These last few months have been really great for me,” Tracy continued. “We started our Christmas cousins journey in a really dark place. Mostly you. You were in the dark place—”
