Page 23 of Shy Santa

“That I can’t tell you, but I’m sure it hurt her heart to talk about him. When you love someone and you break things off, it's hard to think about them.” It was uncomfortable talking about Bear and this woman I never met. “Maybe you can ask Bear.”

“Okay, girlies, here’s grasshopper pie.” Aunt Shirley plopped down a plate with an enormous slice of ice cream pie.

The sight made my mouth water, but I couldn’t fit another bite in me.

“Now, shall we all head to your house, Alice-Grace, for some girl time?” Aunt Shirley wrapped her arm around the little girl, a beaming smile on her pale face.

When I was little, Mom would rant about how lucky her sister was to not have children to bog her down. After Shirley lost her daughter, Mom seemed to relish in it. She always looked to ship me out here for a week or two at a time. Mostly over summers when I was out of school and underfoot, as she called it.

Those weeks here during summers were the best. How Bear and I never met is beyond me. Given the way Shirley’s taken to Bear and his daughter, I should have met them over the years.

“Do you want to join us, Ms. Addy?” Alice-Grace beamed up at me.

“Um… Sure. I have nothing else to do.” I sighed. Friday night and nothing good going on. That was my sad life now. Maya had a date or I would’ve dragged her down here to watch sappy movies and eat our weight in junk food.

* * *

The house lookeda million times better than it had the first time I was here. It looked more like a home. Mostly empty, but still the mess and boxes in various stages of breakdown were gone.

“Ms. Addy, do you want to watch a couple movies? We can’t watch Frozen. Mr. Bear said I only get to watch that twice a week.” The cute pout on her face made me smile.

“I think we can watch a couple of movies.” I set my bag on the kitchen counter next to Shirley’s. “Hey Alice-Grace, why does Bear call you Ace, and you call him Mr. Bear?”

She froze, looking through the cabinets, her body stiff and giving off a weird vibe. “My Mom always told me to call my elders Mr. or Ms. or Mrs.” She pulled out a couple bags of chips.

“But he’s your dad. Shouldn’t you at least call him by his first name, if you’re not comfortable calling him Dad?” I leaned against the counter wondering at the girl’s head space. I would have loved to have had a dad, but he was gone and out of the picture by the time I was born. Mom always bitched about him saying he was a lazy no-good bastard, and I probably had a string of siblings I’d never know about.

Alice-Grace set the bags on the counter and climbed onto a stool. “It doesn’t feel right.” She murmured; gaze locked on the counter in front of her.

I looked at Shirley, who stood by the fridge, a tear slipping down her cheek. Both our hearts broke for this little girl.

“Well, enough of that.” Shirley clapped her hands and opened the freezer, slipping the grasshopper pie in. “Why don’t you run and get the movie set up and your jammies on. It might be Friday night, but you still need to be ready for bed after the movie.”

She scampered off. The sound of her small feet clomping up the stairs and to her room filled the house. Shirley turned to me, “Addy, do you think you can stay here till Bear gets home? I’m moving slow today and should get some rest tonight.”

“Yeah, no problem. But will Bear be okay with that? After what happened last time I was here, I’m not sure he’ll be happy.” My stomach clenched. It killed me to know I could have given a kid drugs. Yeah, it might have only been pot gummies. But she’s a little girl and it could’ve been bad.

She waved me off. A small smile on her lips. “Already texted him about it. He just said to pat you down for drugs.” Shirley burst out laughing at the horrified expression on my face. “I’m kidding. He was fine with it. No pat down needed.”

I could’ve sworn she mumbled under her breath that he would have rather done the pat down. I tried not to cringe but having a family member find you on a walk of shame is not something I wanted to repeat.

“That’s fine. Alice-Grace and I are fine here if you want to head back now.” I grabbed the chips while she grabbed a couple of bottles of water and juice.

“Naw, we have a tradition on Fridays. We do face masks and movies. I’ll whip up the masks and you get the movie started. After the first movie, I’ll head out and you guys can do the next one. Bedtime is 8:30 hard. Bear gets home about midnight tonight. He’s not on for the after party.”

When we got in the TV room, Alice-Grace was snuggled under a blanket with a pillow and the movie cued up, ready to go. “Come on, slowpokes.” She beamed at us.

“What’s up first, love?” Aunt Shirley asked. Setting the bowl of homemade face mask on the table.

“We’re starting with Beauty and the Beast.” Alice-Grace hit play on the movie. The haunting, opening strains of music filled the room.

Aunt Shirley pulled out her spatula. “Who’s first?”

CHAPTER14

Bear

It’d been a long shift. Two weeks working behind the bar or as security took its toll. The work itself wasn’t horrible, but the women, and sometimes men, drove me crazy.

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