Page 324 of Under Her Skin
“I can help you out there,” Delaney says with a smile. “You have me around now. And men are easy. Show the tiniest amount of interest in him and you’ll have him eating out of the palm of your hand. You are stunningly beautiful,Kate.”
My heart grows with love for the woman on my right. Her kind spirit makes her even more beautiful to me, and I wonder if she was put in my path for a reason. Maybe Delaney is meant to be our matriarch, falling into the place mom’s death leftvacant.
That role needs to befilled!
Chapter6
DELANEY
December23rd:
The bus full of Santa-and-elf teams Blaine has put together, using his brother, sister, and other members of his staff, is ready for action. Each Santa has a bag full of goodies to hand out to every last kid in the entire Children’sHospital.
Mr. Sanders was unable to get enough signatures on his petition to get Blaine banned from the hospital, and Blaine has come with me every day to see his four favorite kids. He had posters made up to let the other kids know Santa would be visiting them today to give them all something special to make their holidays a bitbetter.
I’m uncomfortable in the shapeless elf costume with the long, pointy, green shoes that feel odd on my feet. Once I have to put the elf mask on, which Blaine said was a necessary evil so we don’t stick out like a sore thumb, I’ll really beuncomfortable.
I have to admit, after the makeup that Blaine had done on all the Santa’s, they all look alike. Their fat suits match right down to the last button and so do their white beards and little wire-framed glasses. I can’t tell one from theother.
The bus, which has been wrapped to resemble a train, has the wordsPolar Expresswritten down the sides. It pulls to a stop in front of the hospital entrance. “Here we go,” Blaine says. “Stay in character now. You all have the areas you will be visiting, so let’s get this show on the road. Ho! Ho!Ho!”
The bus erupts into ho, ho, ho’s as the other Santa’s seem to be cheering. Blaine hands me my mask with the silly pointed hat attached to the top of it. He makes sure my hair isn’t visible at all, and we get out after all the others have. “Here we go, baby. I can’t explain how excited Iam.”
I can’t explain how nervous Iam!
Ten of us in all, we move into the lobby, and my heart stops as Davenport comes toward us with a frown on his face. “Okay, I’m gonna need to see a little ID herefellas.”
Silence falls on us all as the others have been briefed not to reveal their true identities. The other Santas and elves look back and forth at each other with odd looks on theirfaces.
“Just kidding!” Davenport shouts as he laughs. “I know Santa doesn’t need an ID. Go wish the kids a Merry Christmas, guys.” He waves and goes to the elevator to go down to his surveillance room to monitorthings.
“Scared me there for a second,” Blain whispers tome.
I laugh nervously. “I’m stillscared.”
“Calm down, little elf,” he says, then adds, “Ho, ho,ho.”
The sounds of the happy Santas fill the lobby, then disperse as we all take separate paths to separate areas of the hospital. My heart is pounding as we go to the set of elevators that will take us to what Blaine has called hisdestiny.
The man can be so dramaticsometimes!
The elevator stops on our floor, and as we step off, I nearly pass out, as the hallway is filled with the parents and families of the patients. A lot of them have cameras and most have their phones out, recordingus.
“Oh, Blaine, this is terrible,” I whisper, so no one else can hearme.
“It’ll be fine,” he says, then makes a big wave. “MerryChristmas!”
“Look, it’s really Santa,” a little girl says as she comes running up to us. She tugs on Blaine’s red, velvet pants leg. “Hi, Santa. Remember me? I’m Polly and my sister is here. She’s very sick and I have only one thing to ask you for thisyear.”
“Of course I remember you, Polly,” Blaine says with a deep voice that I can’t recognize as his at all, and I find myself pretty relieved by that. “And what would you like to ask Santa for thisyear?”
“I want my sister to get better and get to finally come home,” she says with a smile on herface.
Just as I worry that Blaine won’t be able to come up with anything to say to her and work hard on trying to make my voice sound different, he says, “Well, that’s a great thing to ask for. Aren’t you a wonderful sister, Polly? I think I have a present in my sack for a sweet little girl like yourself.” He pulls a prettily-wrapped package out of his bag and hands it to her. “Here you go, and remember to be good. Christmas is right around thecorner.”
“I know, Santa,” she says as she holds the package in her arms as if it’s precious to her. “Thank you somuch!”
I have to smile underneath my mask, as he pulled that off better than I thought he’d be able to. And he didn’t even make a fake promise that might scar the little girl if her wish doesn’t cometrue.
