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“Who are we? NASA engineers? It’s straight enough.”
The dogs, sensing that Ellie was finally done with her task, made a run across the floor.
“Boys! Down!” Ellie said, just before they ran into her and sent her flying.
Alice giggled. The minute the sound slipped out, she covered her mouth with her hand. She looked at Julia and pointed at Ellie.
“Your Lellie needs to get control over her animals,” Julia said with a wry smile.
Ellie emerged from the tangle of canine bodies. Laughing, she pushed the hair from her eyes. “I should have disciplined them as puppies, it’s true.” Climbing free, she stepped away from the dogs and headed for the stairs.
“Where are you going?” Julia called after her.
“You’ll see.”
A few moments later Ellie came back downstairs; she was carrying several huge red poinsettia–decorated boxes, which she set down on the floor by the Christmas tree.
Julia recognized them instantly. “Our ornaments?”
“Every one.”
Julia moved closer. Lifting the first box top, she found skeins and skeins of lights. All the bulbs were white, because
Mom said it was the color of angels and hope. She and Ellie coiled the tree in those lights, wrapped the branches in the way they’d been taught. It was the first time they’d decorated a tree together since high school.
When the lights were all in place, Ellie plugged the cords into the wall.
Alice gasped.
“You think she’s ever seen a Christmas tree before?” Ellie asked quietly, standing beside Julia.
Julia shook her head. She went to the box and picked up a shiny red apple ornament. It hung from her finger on a filigree gold thread. Kneeling in front of Alice, she offered the girl the ornament. “On the tree, Alice. Make it pretty.”
Alice frowned. “Tee?”
“Remember the book we read. How the Grinch Stole Christmas?”
“Ginch.” She nodded, but her frown didn’t ease.
“Remember the Who’s tree? Pretty tree, you said.”
“Oh,” Alice said, blowing out her breath on the word. She understood.
Julia nodded.
Alice took the ornament carefully, as if it were made of spun sugar instead of bright plastic. She walked slowly across the room, stepped over the dogs and stopped, staring at the tree for a long time. Finally, she placed the gold thread on the very tip of the highest branch she could reach. Then, slowly, she turned around, looking worried.
Ellie clapped enthusiastically. “Perfect!”
A smile broke over Alice’s face, transforming her for this wonderful moment into an ordinary little girl. She ran to the box, chose another ornament, then carried it carefully to Ellie. “Lellie. Prittee.”
Ellie bent down. “Who is giving me this pretty ornament?”
“Girl. Give.”
Ellie touched Alice’s hair, tucked a flyaway strand behind her little shell pink ear. “Can you say Alice?”
She pointed emphatically toward the tree. “Put.”
