Slipping by Bertha, I tossed my book bag on a hook and leaned to glance in the kitchen where Aunt Sylvia was conversing with my Uncle Ted, likely grouching about me for not keeping up.

I hesitated, studying the vintage sign and eyeing the splinters of wood that seemed to have flaked off the storefront into brittle piles over time. It wasn’t an eye-catching place, but still, I was sure it wasn’t here a moment ago, which didn’t make sense because the store wasn’t newly built; all the evidence said as much. I sighed, wondering if a good night’s sleep would fix me since most of the medical journals in the Waterloo Region Library advised that rest was the best remedy for people out of sorts. I lifted my mitten but before I could ask what the rush was about, the girl shoved something into my palm: a glass ball about the size of a tennis ball. Book two, A Heart as Red as Paint was just released last month, so you’ve got two gorgeously festive fantasies to dive into this Christmas, and the wait for book three, A Crown as Sharp as Pines, is only a few months!Throughout the reading, Ralf’s children begged him to let them open just one gift from the pile beneath the tree. It severely disrupted the poem, but we all clapped nonetheless when he was done, and finally, he told his kids they could each choose one present to open early. As though summoned by the girl’s lunacy, a horn-like blast echoed down the city street, and I whipped around in alarm.

Antique streetlamps illuminated downtown, prismed in every direction like hovering confetti. Carols blared from the speakers of a newspaper stand whose buzz-like radio sound muddied the familiar melody of Jingle Bells and swallowed most of the other noise in the street. Buildings hosted glassy bouquets of scarlet, green, and gold ornaments, but it was difficult to enjoy the splendour of the season in this bitter flash-freeze. She smiled again like it was a secret, but I knew she didn’t have any secrets from me. In some ways, I was the daughter to her that my mother had been, replacing an old memory with a new body.Glory to Elowin! It was a stifled muffle through her facemask as she cast one last look at me and slapped the medallions together.