AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I shook my head, refusing to deny I wasn't collecting any longer. "That's not gonna come off easily," I assured the mother, who picked furtively at her fleecy jumper.
She sent me a slightly horrified look and skittered off after her family.
Tightening my bearhug around Pickles, I drew him a little closer until we were side-eye to side-eye–there was no chance I’d get within his spitting range–and spoke softly into his ear. "Cute display. Don't do it again, or I’ll add lights to your halter, and a candy cane basket for the kiddies. Are we clear?"
Pickles whuffled at me and stuck his nose in his feed bucket.
I rolled my eyes. Of course he was hungry after emptying his last meal onto the local populace.
I checked the directions again, trying to work out my bearings when the one-way alleys didn't seem to line up with anything on my map app.Damn thing is at least a decade out of date.Finally, I shoved my phone into my pocket and headed to the nearest intersection.
A man wearing several coats and smelling like last year’s roast sat on the ground near the corner looked at me through squinted eyes, but as I approached I realised how glassy they were.
"Want a treat for your animal?" He lifted a candy bucket and a flask full of what smelled like whiskey.
"Thanks," I looked around. “I'm looking for the Plaza Hotel."
"The what?" He rose unsteadily and coughed in my face, his words blurring into the next. One hand cupped around his ear, though he didn't look old enough to be wearing a hearing aid.
"Plaza Hotel," I spoke to him like he was a Martian, and for all the recognition across his face, he may as well have been one.
"Market’s down there, Aussie." His accent drew the world out until it sounded more likeass-ey.
I shook my head and raised a hand. "Thanks."
"Plaza is three blocks that way. Just turn right, and right again." A different bum, wrapped in three coats and stuffed with newspapers, pointed out hopefully.
"Thanks, mate."
I scraped my fingers to the bottom of my Santa hat, pulling out the couple of bucks and whatever coinage had been donated to Pickles’ spitty cause, and held it out to him. "Merry Christmas."
The bum’s eyes lit up, and he reached out. A slim hand intercepted me.
"Nope. Not that one. Moving right along." A flash of tinsel lit up my world as the same hand wrapped around my elbow, sliding between me and Pickles. Suddenly I was paraded across the intersection, surrounded by gaggle of chattering tourists, holding phones up for pictures and ogling maps, similar to how I had a moment before.
"Wait, I need–"
“Nope. Trust me, Aussie. You really don’tneedhis charity.”
I stared down at this tiny woman – elf – between us, dressed in striped tights, high black walking boots, the red nose, and reindeer face paint. A headband fixed with antlers made her tiny frame almost top Pickles at his full five-feet, eight-inches height, the tall bugger.
Her crowning achievement was the small string of flashing Christmas lights on the headband and wrapped around her head in a multicoloured, glowing halo.
Deep brown eyes twinkled beneath thick curled lashes. She stared up at me with a saucy grin on her face. "Joey has a house down the block. Big one. Don't give Christmas cheer to those who don’t deserve it. He probably earns more than I do." She grimaced.
I blinked as my feet hit the pavement at the other side of the intersection, chancing a glance over my shoulder where Joey accosted someone else, one shoulder dropped and forming a limp he hadn’t had a moment before.
"He's a fake?"
She nodded. “We've got a few of them. Regulars. But Joey is known to basically everyone locally. Only the new business owners tend to feed him, and any cash goes straight to extra Christmas cheer.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Why are you in New York, and why aren't you on my tour? Doesn’t he look lost?" She asked her tour group, who wrapped around us in a tight circle.
Pickles honked his alarm and backed up a few paces as hands descended on him.
Definitely not my best idea.
"I am lost. The– Joey was pointing in the direction of the Plaza Hotel."
"That's where you're staying?" She covered a snort, her eyes twinkling at me in a way that left blood rushing from my head. "They aren’t gonna like the alpaca."
