Chapter 10: The Reindeer Turn

I ran down twelve floors of back stairs with wet hair and my boots unlaced.

Felix was right behind me, pulling on his coat.

The service hall behind Window Seven was full of reindeer.

They'd been shoved onto moving dollies and pushed against the wall.

One antler was bent.

The lead reindeer's head hung crooked on its new conduit neck.

The tin skyline lay on its back on the floor.

Bex stood guard over them with a crowbar.

"The store's display team," she said. "Five a.m. Laurence signed the work order. The guard let them in because the president signed it."

Through the little back door of the window, I could see inside.

Cream boxes and pillar candles filled it.

A tasteful linen throw was draped over a tasteful chair.

A neon sign in pink script said Home is a Feeling.

And past it, through the glass, State Street.

I'd never seen it so full.

People stood thirty deep from the windows to the curb.

There were kids on shoulders, strollers, and grandmothers in folding chairs.

Somebody had brought a thermos and was pouring cocoa for strangers.

They were all looking at Window Seven.

They were looking at a candle.

On the sidewalk, right in front of the glass, Evangeline stood in a white coat with her ring light and her phone.

"Hi, loves," I read on her lips. "Surprise."

The crowd wasn't cheering.

I could hear a low, confused rumble through the glass.

A little girl on her father's shoulders was pointing at the neon sign and crying.

I tied my boots.

"Odessa," Felix said behind me. "What do you need?"

"Every hand you've got."

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