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“I just lost the joy of it,” I said. “I knew by the time I was eight that Santa was Nick’s dad, dressed in a suit. I knew the reindeer were assholes that liked to bite people and not a single one of them could fly. I knew that no matter how hard we wished for Santa to bring them, Melanie wasn’t going to get new lungs.”

“Yeah. But I bet you saw other kinds of magic,” she said. “Like the toy drives that put gifts into homes for kids who wouldn’t have them. The joy that the illusion brings to people, even the ones who know the truth. The wonder when you grow up is seeing the wonder in someone else. You might not believe in the magic anymore, but you get to be the magic instead. You’re the one behind the curtain, moving the gears. And sometimes it’s better to know that there’s good people in the world doing good things than it is to believe it’s run by a make-believe man in a red suit.”

I nodded slowly. I hadn’t thought of it that way.

A truck coming in the opposite direction flashed me with their headlights. It was Nick. He pulled up next to me and I rolled down my window. “We found it!” he said.

“Where?” I asked.

“They left it in a ditch about half a mile outside of town. It’s on its side, and I can’t lift it. Wayne’s there waiting for us to get back.”

An hour later we’d hoisted it out, but it wasn’t good. One of the steel runners was broken.

It wouldn’t be usable.

We stood around on the side of the road in the headlights of Nick’s truck like game wardens grieving the death of a poached animal. A rare and beautiful thing, felled for no reason.

It was almost one in the morning. Wayne looked like he’d been crying. All five of us were exhausted.

Four of us were still in ugly sweaters.

“I can’t believe I’m looking at this,” Nick said.

“I know,” I said quietly.

“What happens now?” Lauren asked. “Is the mayor going to make an announcement or something? Break the news to everyone?”

“I doubt it,” I said. “He’s a Lab named Cornelius.”

She choked.

“It’s okay to laugh,” Nick said tiredly. “He won in a landslide.”

We stood there, staring at the hobbled sleigh.

“It’s just the steel leg thing, right?” Lauren said.

Nick nodded.

“What if we can get it fixed?”

We all looked at her.

“I know a guy,” she said.

Noel pivoted to face her. “What guy?”

“A guy who may possibly have mafia connections but who also works on classic cars?” She sucked air through her teeth.

Noel’s expression went flat. “No. We’re not asking one of your weird boss’s friends for help.”

“Why not? He welds. He builds parts for vintage cars when they can’t find them. He literally works with antiques,” she said. “Maybe he could fix this.”

Wayne shook his head. “The town council will never let it out of their sight. You know how they are.”

“They’ll spend months arguing about what to do with it,” Nick said. “They’ll end up sending Santa out on a damn snowmobile tomorrow.”

“What if we didn’t tell them?” I said.