Page 1 of The Alien Reindeer's Bounty
Chapter 1
Odessa
Twenty Years Ago
Followingthe high silvery sounds of a flute, Odessa stomped through the leaves littering the forest floor. Her mom warned her not to wander too far and made her wear the ugly orange sweater for the hunters, but Odessa wasn’t scared. She walked the deer trails hundreds of times and knew this part of the forest like it had been etched onto her bones. She’d seen loads of interesting things, mostly bunnies, deer, and foxes, but she never heard music like this.
The thin, wavering notes sounded like something out of a dream, a dream she wanted to remember but forgot when she woke. The music pulled her toward a clearing.
A boy wearing antlers sat on a fallen log. His eyes were closed as he played. He had dark hair, shaved at the sides but wild on top.
The song repeated. Odessa wanted to sway in place or dance or sing, needing to be part of what the boy created.
His eyes opened and he dropped the flute.
“Don’t stop. I liked it,” she said.
He grabbed the flute—only the black metal tube didn’t look like a flute but she hadn’t seen a flute in real life, so what did she know—and jumped up from the log, clutching the instrument to his chest.
“Your headband is really cool. It looks so real,” she said.
They stared at each other, the girl in the bright orange sweater and the boy with antlers.
“You can touch them if you want,” he said. His words were clumsy and heavy with an accent, like English was not his first language.
Her fingers brushed the antlers, finding them soft, almost as if they were coated in velvet. This close, she realized she was a little taller than him and he smelled nice, like pine needles and smoke.
“I haven’t seen you in school before. Did you just move here? I’m Odessa, by the way. I’m ten and I live over there.” She pointed toward her home.
“I’m home-schooled,” he said. “I like your sweater. The color, I mean. It’s bright, like you.”
Odessa smiled because she knew no one liked the ugly orange sweater and he was lying to be nice. “I like you too. Where do you live? Do you want to come to my house? We can play Mario.”
“My father said I’m not ready to meet humans yet.” He paused, then added, “Or strangers.” The boy frowned, trying to think around the problem.
“We’re not strangers. I’m Odessa Muller. My parents own the grocery store in town. We know everyone,” she said with authority.
“I’m Mads Sommerfeldt. Maybe you can come to my house and then we won’t be strangers.”
The girl with the ugly sweater and the boy with the antlers walked out of the forest, hand-in-hand, friends but also strangers.
* * *
Eighteen YearsAgo
“Mads, come here for a minute.”Dad popped open the trunk and motioned for Mads to join him.
Odessa saw the pair of ice skates he put in the trunk that morning. Saying nothing, she hauled her own skates over her shoulder and made for the bench.
“Odessa’s cousin plays hockey. He outgrew these. I thought they might do for you.” Dad held out a pair of obviously not-used hockey skates.
Mads’ eyes went wide, then narrowed, like he was trying to decide if the gift of skates was amazing or an insult. He clutched his old pair of skates, cracked black pleather held together by pride, to his chest. They barely fit and Odessa just didn’t understand why Mads’ dad didn’t get him a new pair.
“It’s just a thought,” Dad said, closing the trunk.
“No!” Mads muttered something in Norwegian—he was so cute when he did that—and nodded. “Thank you.”
“Hurry up, I wanna skate,” Odessa said, lacing up her boots.
