Chapter 21: Christmas at Hendry's

"Is he coming?" Norman asked.

He was looking at the empty space after HALLIE on the board.

"No," I said. "He's in Marren Falls, loading trucks. I'm not inviting him."

"Then why is your hand still up?"

"I want a chair for him anyway. With a plate. Nothing on it."

Norman took the marker out of my fingers and capped it.

"Then there's a chair," he said.

He did not ask me why, and I would not have known how to say it.

On the twenty-fifth the diner sat dark and shut from noon, with the lights on in the back.

Norman had pushed four tables into one long one and covered them with a paper tablecloth from the restaurant supply.

Hallie brought canned cranberry sauce, still shaped like the can.

"Don't judge it," she said. "It's my mother's recipe."

"It's a can."

"It's my mother's can."

Mom came at one with a green bean casserole in a dish towel, and she carried it to the kitchen herself before anyone could take it.

Dad came at ten past, with a bag of rolls from a grocery store and a bottle of cider.

They stood three feet apart in the doorway to the kitchen and looked at each other.

"Marla."

"Glenn."

"Your hair's different."

"I cut it," Mom said. "Last week."

"It's nice."

She turned her head so I would not see her face, and went to find a serving spoon.

Norman carved.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Boy You Starved for Him from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.