As he passed the Christmas tree to go to the elevator, Kevin thought about taking one of the elegantly wrapped presents home with him as a reminder. Then he could open it up on Christmas morning to find the answer he’d been waiting for for several weeks.

Look, honey, this is what I spent ten years working toward.

The box would be empty, of course. Like this trip. Like his career.

As he entered the elevator, Muzak played a rendition of a country song he knew well. And it caused Kevin to start laughing, then to shake his head and look at the reflection of himself in the door in front of him.

God must be a country music fan, he thought. ’Cause this is how He gets back at me for ignoring Him for so long.

The song that played was “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones.

And yes, that’s what had happened today.

A Little Turkey Somewhere

The worst part about holes in his socks were the blisters. And the worst part about blisters was trying to play basketball with them.

Doesn’t really matter much when you don’t have a team to play for.

Thomas took off his shoes and then winced as he peeled off his socks. They were officially done, no doubt about it. He’d need to go to the dollar store soon and get some new ones. As he tossed the rags to his side on the living room floor, his sister moaned in protest.

“Put your socks back on!” Sara said. She sat on the couch across from him in the little trailer Mom had managed to find after they took off last Christmas.

The trailer hid in the middle of nowhere, a side road off a side road. It was right across from the Sinclair farm, so there was always a nice smell in the air at any given point of the day. Barbed wire highlighted the edges of the property, though the trailer they were renting belonged to the Sinclair family, as did much of the land surrounding them.

Sometimes Thomas felt like they had stumbled upon this place and that any minute now someone was going to come storming in telling them they had no right to be there.

“Just hush,” he said, too tired to deal with Sara’s annoyance right now.

“What are we doing for lunch?”

“I don’t know.”

“You know the stove’s not working again.” Sara sounded like an adult, like it was his fault and he should do something immediately.

“Guess we can’t cook the turkey, then.”

She obviously wasn’t in the mood for his jokes. “Mom’s working.”

“I know.”

He knew well. That was one reason he’d played ball this morning. Wasn’t much else to do. It was that, or stay home in the trailer listening to his annoying little sister.

“We have to eat, you know.”

“No we don’t,” Thomas told her, still trying to joke.