“Really?” Arthur said, the wheels in his brain clearly spinning.

Dr. Raymond nodded. “Yep. They’ve even got ’em to pull a sleigh!”

I locked eyes with a triumphant Arthur then looked back to Dr. Raymond.

“What about the snow? Or, you know, lack thereof?” I asked him.

“They got a doodad that makes snow. How cool is that?”

“Super cool.” Though my brain was fervently trying to picture how that could work. I was a sleigh-riding novice but I had seen enough films and advertisements with it to know sleighs would require a serious amount of snow. Could the Snow Doodad make enough?

Arthur turned to his aunt. “Mashi, what do you think?”

“About reindeer?”

“About seeing them. That was on our list of things to do.” His aunt appeared momentarily perplexed and a tiny glimmer of distress flickered in his dark eyes. “Remember? I emailed it to you when we were discussing coming to Christmas for Christmas, and then after we made the arrangements, as well as right before we caught our flight.”

“Oh, yes. It was exceptionally thorough.”

Arthur puffed. “Thank you.”

“And wasn’t there something on the town’s website about feeding them reindeer corn? That sounded so charming.”

I hurriedly piped up, “That should probably be verified.”

Grandma Jo must have detected something in my tone because she shifted her gaze onto me like a spotlight hits an escaping prisoner not yet over the wall.

I tried to act cool, despite the tiny trickle of sweat that was about to make its way down the center of my back, and smiled.

It was a mistake. She cocked a single brow, which roughly translated to: “You’ve done something and we’re going to discuss whatever it is later when we’re not in front of guests, and don’t even try to get out of it.” I’d experienced that eyebrow before.

Arthur asked his aunt, “Would you like to go there tomorrow? Finley has volunteered to take us around to see and do as many Christmas-related activities and events as we’d like.”

Ayisha snorted and murmured, “Good luck.”

Before I could get annoyed at either Arthur or Ayisha, Aunt Esha turned her attention to me and smiled. “How kind of you, Finley.”

I blushed, like I often did when adults who weren’t my relative or I didn’t know well focused on me. “Happy to,” I lied, and avoided glancing at Arthur.

“What about joining us, Jo?” Aunt Esha asked of my grandmother.

But before she could answer, Dr. Raymond interjected, “That was why I comin’ by, to see if Jo wanted to come with me.” I couldn’t quite tell if he was annoyed at Aunt Esha’s spontaneous invitation or if he welcomed the segue to his own.

Either way, Grandma Jo said, “We should all go together,” like it was the most normal thing in the world.