A Very Jeremy Christmas by M. L. Buchman

Author:M. L. Buchman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Buchman Bookworks, Inc.

8

He and Dad had done as they always did, talked about the code behind Flight Simulator, the product team his dad had headed for Microsoft for years. They talked about how to emulate on-screen the complex aircraft that Jeremy studied in real life—at least the ones that had crashed.

With the help of the excited children flocking about them, they found the snail, the turtle, and tomatoes. Jeremy dutifully checked them off on the tour map, including the ones he’d been unable to check off while holding Taz’s hand.

They stopped to admire the work of the new giant web and spider.

The women hustled by them at that point, with Caro offering a clear, “Eww! Creepy.”

He tried to catch Taz’s eye, but when he did, all he got in turn was a scowl. It was one of her dangerous, I’m-about-to-kill-someone looks and it was aimed at him. At least he thought that’s what it was. He’d never been good at guessing what she was thinking. Asking had been the answer to that, but getting her alone since the moment they’d pulled up to the house hadn’t been easy. Or possible at all.

Jeremy barely remembered the rest of the walk, though he saw by the critter map he still clutched at the exit that they’d checked off every item on the list. He couldn’t even recall seeing his perennial favorite, the long green dragon arcing out of the ground in grand sinuous loops as if it could swim through the earth itself. Missing the dragon was like missing a piece of himself.

But it was too late to double back. He’d ended up in the van’s middle seat with Mom who was squeezing the life out of his one hand as hard as Taz had been squeezing the other. Taz and Caro were in the way back seat, but their whispers were drowned out by Mom’s family news that covered a hundred topics, each for only an eyeblink or two.

Back at the house, after the traditional post-Garden d’Lights hot cocoa, they were in his room. Finally.

“What the—” Jeremy could only stare. Mom had changed out the old twin bed with a double, probably in the last forty-eight hours since he’d said he was bringing Taz home. He’d never had a girl here before, and now his room was changed. Different. For years it was always the same every time. And now—

“Keys,” Taz held out her hand.

Jeremy reached into his pocket for the car keys. “Did you leave something in the car?”

Her look was grim as she continued to hold out her hand without saying a word.

And he knew, he somehow simply knew, that if she got her hands on them, she’d be gone and he’d be waking up alone for a long time to come. It was only then that he noticed she’d shouldered her daypack.

He kept his hand clenched so tightly around the keys that they cut into his palm.

“No.” He’d never argued with Taz before and he wasn’t sure what would happen next.

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