A Magical Christmas Read Free Page A

hand. “We rocketed down U.S. One, sped along Fifty-seventh, dodged that light at Eightieth… then plowed right into a wall of BMWs and Mercedes Benzes at your brother’s school, huh, sweetie?”
    “We’re not that late, Mommy,” Julie thought she heard Ashley say. Her defense of her father was as silent as Julie’s earlier criticism of him had been. Ashley, this last of her brood of three, just would be her father’s daughter. Ash had Jon’s unique light green eyes, a color that must have been somehow touched with hazel so that it could actually change to gold at times. Her hair, too, was her father’s, a thick, rich russet, though Jon seemed concerned these days that his wasn’t as thick as it should be.
    Good. She hoped he went cue-ball bald—and that the fashion didn’t become him.
    He would definitely deserve it.
    “Honest, Mommy, it will be okay.”
    Her daughter’s attempt to make her feel better meant much more to Julie than the ride to school and work that morning.
    But then Ashley started complaining that her stomach hurt from being in the car. That was because her sister had insisted on sitting in the front before, and Ashley always complained about sitting in the back. The kids practically came to blows overwho got to sit in the front seat. This morning, it just hadn’t been Ashley’s turn.
    So she moaned. All through the traffic.
    “Maybe I shouldn’t take you to school,” Julie muttered.
    “If you stop driving, maybe my tummy won’t hurt anymore,” Ashley said.
    “If I stop driving, maybe my head won’t explode,” Julie muttered.
    And they were late. They were seven minutes late. If they’d been five minutes late, the first-grade door with Pooh Bear on it would have still been open, and Ashley could have slipped right in. But once that five-minute mark had been passed, Pooh Bear no longer faced the hall. Arriving with Ashley at the door, Julie found herself greeted by plain hardwood with a notice that stated: students arriving late must acquire a pass from the office .
    “They’re real nice in the office,” Ashley offered. Her eyes were very grave on her mother’s. “And Mommy, my tummy is all better. I’m sorry I made you mad.”
    Julie was suddenly very sorry, aware that she inflicted her emotions on her children.
    But that, too, could be blamed on Jon.
    She spurred herself to another smile. “I’m not mad, just aggravated. Traffic does that to people. And they
are
very nice in the office, and I’m so gladthat you like the people at the school. You like your teachers; they’re just great, right?”
    Ashley nodded solemnly. “Don’t forget to see if anybody wants to buy chocolates. You know what?”
    “What?”
    “Jillie sold over two hundred bars already. She’s going to win a stuffed bear. I need to sell chocolates. I really want to win a prize, too, Mommy.”
    Julie gritted her teeth. She supposed that the school needed fund-raisers, but she was completely opposed in principle to anyone using bribery with first-graders. No parent with any sense was going to let a six-year-old sell candy door-to-door—not in their modern world. That meant that parents had to cajole friends and family into chocolate bars. Everybody loved chocolate bars, especially around the holidays—that was what the school said. They lied—and Julie knew it. Her friends winced at the very whiff of chocolate in the air, especially around the holidays. Even those who were usually especially generous with one-dollar bills could clam up in December.
    Jillie’s mom must be wallowing in chocolates.
    But it seemed that other moms were always able to be up on the supermom scale. Jillie’s mother was a damned saint. She read to the class two days a week, she was room mother, she ran the parentmeetings—and looked down her nose big-time when a mom couldn’t make sure to fit her young daughter’s class meeting into her schedule.
    “Chocolates,” she murmured. “Sure, chocolates.”
    She just wasn’t