And on the wrong side of the bed too.

The woman picked up one of the ornaments. As she turned around, she gave him a questioning look.

That’s why she’s here—free stuff. I knew it.

“Have a wonderful day,” Kevin said, a bit too friendly, a bit too sarcastic.

He watched the lady walk off, and as he began to head outside of the store, he saw the sign.

THE SALVATION ARMY

CHRISTMAS

ANGEL TREE PROGRAM

HELP US TO HELP OTHERS BY BEING AN ANGEL

TO A NEEDY CHILD OR SENIOR CITIZEN.

Below were suggestions and guidelines for those who took the angel-shaped tags.

It took Kevin a moment to realize that the names on the tags were those of real people in real need.

Suddenly a combination of shame and guilt poured through him. Here he thought they were excited—that people could only get excited—by something free. By something selfish. But boy, was he wrong. The woman had taken an ornament so that she could help someone else.

As he stepped toward the tree, he found a card in the center of it with very neat handwriting.

There it is, man. Your Golden Ticket. Pick this and your life can change.

But he thought of everything he had going on in the coming month. Stuff with work and with Jenny and Gregory and the babies and Christmas. Kevin decided not to pick up one of the paper ornaments. Instead, he walked out of the store and decided to head back home.

It was nice to have wide-eyed hope like Charlie’s when he was a kid, but he was grown-up now. And part of being a grown-up was realizing that there weren’t such things as Santa Claus or reindeer or Golden Tickets that were magically going to help.

Help came when you went looking for it. Which was exactly what Kevin planned to do.

Another Not-So-Good Guy

“Did you finish your list?”

Mom asked this after she finished her muffin and headed back to the one bathroom they all shared in the trailer. It was Saturday and she always started work around ten.

“Not yet,” he called out.

When his mother came back into the room, her hair was in a ponytail that made her look younger. He liked the way she looked. Even though she was always busy and often looked really tired, Thomas liked seeing his mother busy. Like she had a purpose. Back at home, there’d been times when she looked lost.

Make that imprisoned.

There was something different about her now. She almost seemed lighter, younger.

Freer even though she was tired.

“Make sure you fill that out today, okay?”

“Anything I want, huh?”

“No,” Mom said, glancing at him with a you-know-better look. “Be reasonable.”

“Hey, it’s free stuff.”

“Yeah, stuff that someone has to buy. Someone is giving their money to buy you presents. So within reason.”

“Did Sara give you her list?”

“We need to modify it a bit.”