Gen Two- Chapter Thirteen

I had a moment or so to kill, so I snuck across to the other side of the first floor to see how things were progressing with Uncle Blaze and my brothers. I was sure to not let them notice me though, for they otherwise would have made me help them. The only reason I wasn't helping them then was because they thought I was still preoccupied with my previous task.

     "You want us to move it to the front side of the room? But we've always moved it to the back before. There's less heavy lifting and the tree is nice and visible from the street." Prism said in response to Uncle Blaze's unusual decision.

     "Who cares if other people can see our Christmas tree? We always have problems with the sunlight coming in through those front windows on Christmas morning. It ruins the pictures and forces us all to squint the whole time. If we move the piano and drums to the front and put the tree in the back, we won't have to worry about any of that."

     "This thing is so heavy though." Prism complained lightly, pouting at mom's piano.

     "Aren't you the one who's always working out?" Uncle Blaze laughed in disbelief, "What the point in building muscles if you don't put them to good use?"

I was sorely tempted to shout out that Prism only worked out so much just so he could brag, but the taunt wasn't worth getting myself involved in moving the piano that was indeed incredibly heavy.

     "If we're going to move it to the other side, let's pack up mom's planters first. There's no point in having them out now. They'll just get in our way." Wisp suggested.

     "Sounds good." Uncle Blaze agreed.

With the three of them beginning to move about, I hurriedly skittered away to avoid being seen. My place was taken back in the kitchen, and I watched over my creations until a certain someone appeared at just the right time. Cerise, now a solid four years old, expertly climbed up a bar stool to look at me with eager anticipation.

     "Is my cocoa ready?" she asked expectantly.

     "Yup, it's all ready and not too hot." I said, gently sliding the tray of mugs down the counter.

     "It's got lots of 'mallows?" she wondered, peering into the one I set in front of her.

     "A whole lot of them." I nodded.

I nonchalantly placed mine back near the cocoa making machine. I had put more marshmallows in my mug than I had hers, which would have her declaring it was hers instead if she saw it.

     "Remember to drink it carefully, Ceri," I instructed, "If you make a mess, you're big enough to clean it up now."

     "I know." my sister dismissed me instantly, carefully tilting the mug while it was still on the counter so the risk of an accident was lessened.

Feeling satisfied she was indeed capable of drinking out of a cup, I took the tray and last mug and left the kitchen.

Mom's room was my destination. The hot chocolate had been her idea, and I had been all too willing to be the one to make it. No supervision from her meant I could do what I wanted. My cup that was one-third marshmallow, for example.

     "Here you go." I said as I set the tray down.

     "Oh, thank you, honey." mom replied with a grateful sigh.

I hid a laugh as she comically struggled to reach the mug from where I put it, and she gave me the most amused 'help me' look I had ever seen. She took a good sip after I gave it to her and smiled hopelessly when I put it back down.  It was nice to see us facing an easily fixable problem. We had had enough real problems as it was.

Mom's pregnancy had been much more touch and go than ever before after that one Sunday. The stress from what had happened on Saturday had brought on some sort of false labor. Her doctor strongly recommended more bed rest and removal from as many stressful situations as possible after that. That was followed for all of about a week. Not that the breakage of that was our fault. Mom began having health problems again. Constantly getting sick, she was in and out of the hospital almost every week. That didn't help the pregnancy, which didn't help her poor health. It was a nasty cycle. Thankfully, things had stabilized in the past two weeks or so. Mom still had a great struggle in getting her body to cooperate, but it looked as if we would be able to make it through the holiday without her having to return to the hospital. That was the family's main goal for the moment, and since us kids were now on winter break there had been a silent agreement to do what we could to help.

I saw no reason to leave the room right away. In fact, I was quite glad mom never seemed to mind my company as I had grown perhaps just a tiny smidge fascinated with her baby belly. I remembered being upset during mom's pregnancy with Cerise as I had really wanted a brother. Thus, I hadn't spent much time paying attention to the child she carried within her. Now I loved feeling my new sibling move and kick. It was a great relief too. The terror everyone felt when we first assumed mom was going into labor only five months into her pregnancy was a crippling, chilling fear I never wanted to experience again. The chances that the baby would have made it were abysmal, and the threat of that had been the last thing we needed. Even Uncle Blaze looked as if he was about to burst into tears until the doctors assured us everything would be fine.

So, I rested my head gently against mom's bump. The result was me getting either punched or kicked on the cheek. The soft hit was far too weak for me to tell which. Mom laughed the loudest I had heard her laugh that day.

     "That's not fair. Hitting me when I can't hit back." I spoke to the baby, hiding another laugh of my own.

     "You two will have plenty of time to duke it out in the future." mom teased, ruffling my hair.

     "Does that mean you're saying the baby is a boy?" I questioned eagerly.

     "Nope. That meant nothing in regards to the gender." mom scoffed with a grin.

I rolled my eyes, and their gaze ended up on dad's nightstand. It was then that I noticed something was up.

     "Hey, mom? Where did you move dad's snow globe to?" I wondered.

     "What do you mean where did I move it to? I haven't touched it at all." mom immediately frowned, slowly turning her head to see what wasn't there to be seen, "W-what? Where did it go?"

The worry in her voice already signaled heartbreak. She shuffled across the bed, that big belly really looking like it was getting in the way, and ran her hand futilely over the empty nightstand hoping the globe would appear.

     "Let me go ask the others," I said cheerfully to counteract against the distraught stare I got from mom, "I'm sure Uncle Blaze just took it to shine it up or something."

The other three were doing such a good job at moving around the sun room that I stopped in my tracks for a second in surprise. The planters were already stacked and out of the way while the drum set and piano were packed perfectly in the front side of the room.

     "Ah, Coal. Just in time to help with the decorating." Uncle Blaze spoke brightly when he saw me.

     "He gets out of doing the hard work and gets to do the fun work." Prism teased.

     "Helping with the decorating can wait," I pretty much ignored both of them, "I need to find out what happened with dad's snow globe first."

     "What about Am's snow globe?" Uncle Blaze questioned reluctantly, which disappointed me as I had truly hoped he had be the one to take it.

     "It's not on his nightstand anymore, and I didn't see it anywhere else in the room. I thought maybe one of you took it to clean it or something."

     "No, I haven't touched it." Uncle Blaze answered, not looking pleased.

Wisp and Prism shook their heads too.

     "I'll go ask Desi and Ceri then." I said before anyone could say anything else.

I was still optimistic the answer would be easy to find and that I could walk back into mom's room with the snow globe in perfect condition as always.

Sadly, neither would come true. Desire had no idea about the snow globe, and Cerise, the sneaky thief who found my mug of hot chocolate, was adamant she hadn't done anything with it either. I had to crush mom's hopeful expression, and she was already crying by the time I met her by the empty nightstand.

     "Why does everything have to keep going wrong? I keep trying so hard, but each time I feel as if I'm starting to stand on my feet I get knocked down harder than before." she mumbled in her hands as she attempted to hold back her tears.
     "We can't mark this as a lost cause so fast." I countered.

I was resolved to keep that silent promise of giving mom as much of a stress-free of an environment as possible, because even the baby coming now would be far too soon. Then there was also the fact that I was angrily indignant myself at whoever would have done something with an item everyone knew mom cherished.

     "There is someone out there who has the answer to where the snow globe has gone. When was the last time you saw it?"
     "It was here like it always was just last night!" mom professed before her brows furrowed and her confidence faltered, "But...maybe it wasn't. I was so exhausted after I threw up all those times last night that I went right to bed at that early hour. I definitely saw it yesterday morning, but past that...I wasn't paying attention."
     "There we go then. We had everyone over yesterday for that end of school potluck. That's when someone committed the crime." I deduced assuredly.
     "They probably broke it on accident and didn't say anything to avoid getting in trouble or upsetting me." mom continued to mumble.
     "We'll know when we know, and I'm going to make sure that we definitely do know. I talk to everyone who came over yesterday to find out the truth. Detective Coal is on the case!"
     "Thanks." mom giggled, wiping away more tears and lovingly ruffling my hair.
     "Well, it's this or have to help decorate, and I'd rather not have Prism throw all the work on me like normal." I shrugged jokingly.

Mom giggled harder, and she promised to stay positive until I could bring her news one way or the other.

I ran upstairs in a flash to change into warmer clothes and put on my coat and boots. There was a grand mystery to solve, and I was determined to let nothing stop me. That is, until Cerise stopped me.

     "Where you goin', Coal?" she ran in front of me curiously as I walked towards the front door.
     "I'm going to go visit everyone who was here yesterday and talk to them to figure out who took dad's snow globe."
     "But why don't you just call them?" she questioned in confusion, tilting her head.
     "Uhh..."

That would make much more sense, wouldn't it?

     "Because! Because, um," I stammered, putting together an acceptable answer, "Well, it's just more fun my way, isn't it? It's a real mystery- an adventure. Also, this way it'll be harder for anyone to lie to me since I can look them right in the eye."
     "Ohhh, okay. Can I come with you? I wanna go on a 'venture too!" she asked, reaching out her hand for me to take it.
     "I don't know, Ceri. It's mostly going to be a lot of walking through the cold snow. If I do let you come, I don't want to hear a bunch of complaining."
     "I won't complain! Promise! I likes the snow." she confirmed vigorously.
     "Alright, I guess you can come. You have to hold my hand the whole time too though." I added.
     "I will!"

After getting Cerise changed, and checking with Uncle Blaze to make sure it actually was alright for Cerise to join me, the two of us were out the front door and on our way. The snow was deep enough to almost reach Cerise's knees, but she plowed on through like it was nothing. I wasn't naive enough to think I wouldn't end up giving her a piggyback at some point though.

     "This will be our first adventure together, won't it?" I realized.

It was a weird feeling acknowledging that I could actually do stuff with my little sister now. I couldn't imagine what it would be like in a few more years time when she was even bigger.

     "Yup!" she agreed cheerfully.
     "Say, who do you like more- me or Pris?" I had to ask.
     "Hmm, you. You play with me more. Why?" she answered innocently.
     "Oh, no reason. Really, it's nothing." I shrugged it off, turning my head to hide my victorious smirk.

We reached the end of our road where Cerise asked me where we were going to go first. Detective Coal already had the answer all planned out for her. We would be going to the house farthest away and work our way back. It made more sense to get the worst of the boring walking out of the way when we had plenty of energy instead of having to trudge that long distance back when we were sure to be tired. It was unfortunate the roads and sidewalks were too caked with snow for me to ride my bike- not that I had a way for Cerise to ride along with me anyway. However, the walk didn't turn out too bad. Mom, having needed a break, had sighed Cerise up for an every-other-day preschool. Cerise loved it. She talked non-stop about everything she was getting to do.

There was also another reason why I picked the house farthest away to visit first. That was because it was the house of the person I wanted to visit the least. It wasn't because I disliked him, but I was simply exasperated that I had no choice but to keep seeing him out of the classroom!

We hadn't even reached the door yet when I spotted Mr. Trail moving about inside. He didn't notice us though until I knocked on the door. His expression was curious when he came out to meet us, but he gave us a friendly smile too.

     "Hello, Coal. Hi, Ceri." he greeted.
     "Hi!" my sister responded brightly.
     "Hi." I echoed not quite as enthusiastically.
     "Well, what can I do for you two? Given how you're not the fondest of me coming by your house, I wouldn't think you came to my house just to hang out." Mr. Trail spoke to me with a hint of a tease.
     "We're on a 'venture!" Cerise exclaimed.
     "Yeah?"
     "Yeah. We're trying to find out-"
     "I wanna ask the question!" Cerise interrupted, and she waited until I shrugged and rolled my eyes before continuing, "Mr. Trail, did you take mommy's snow globe?"
     "Did I take your mother's snow globe?" Mr. Trail repeated in confusion.
     "Mom bought this tacky snow globe for dad as a present a long time ago. He absolutely loved the thing, and he always has kept it on his nightstand. It went missing sometime yesterday, so Ceri and I are going around asking everyone who was at the party if they know what happened. If they know if someone broke it, if they were the one to break it, or if they knew who, for whatever reason, might have swiped it." I explained better.
     "No, I'm afraid I have no idea what could have happened to it. Your mother and I have become friends, but I do know there are some boundaries I need to keep given that you are my student. I haven't even been inside your mother's bedroom, and I didn't see anyone go in there besides her and your uncle." Mr. Trail revealed.
     "That's alright. That's what I figured. Just needed to be on the safe side and ask anyway."
     "I hope you're able to find the answers to your questions. If I think of anything that might give you a clue, I'll give your house a call." Mr. Trail offered.
     "Thanks. Hopefully we won't need it," I replied, giving my teaching a little wave, "Bye, Mr. Trail."
     "Bye bye!" Cerise added.

Mr. Trail said his farewell too, and Cerise and I were off.

The next house was right on the closest perpendicular street. Thankfully, I was comfortable being let inside this time. The snow had stopped falling unlike the storm that had been going on all day yesterday, but the chilly temperature outside had me already shivering. Azure was blessedly quick to open the door.

     "I need to use the bathroom!" Cerise declared the second he did.
     "I'm not surprised given how you drank my hot chocolate too." I mumbled under my breath with amused exasperation.
     "The bathroom is past that door by the table." Azure instructed, stepping aside to let us in.
     "Thanks." I said.
     "Just coming by for a potty break?" my friend wondered.
     "No, Cerise and I are on an investigation. Dad's snow globe went missing yesterday, so we're asking everyone at our house who was at the party if they know something about what might have happened to it." I repeated the explanation that was quickly growing tiring.
     "I have no idea," Azure frowned, "I was with you for most of the time as you know. I had no reason to go into your mom's room."
     "Did you see anyone go in there who usually doesn't?"
     "No. Just your mom and Blaze."
     "That's what Mr. Trail said too," I sighed, "This is harder than I thought."
     "Let me go upstairs and ask Cy. He's coming down with a cold, so you shouldn't go anywhere near him in order to not pass that onto your mom. Dad and mom are on a conference call, but they'll be done in a minute. We can ask them too when they're done." Azure suggested.
     "Thanks."

We got the same response from Cyclone that we hadn't gotten so far. He hadn't gone into mom's room, he had no idea where the snow globe was, and he had no information to give us about who did know the truth. Then Uncle Sap and Aunt Purity came out, and I repeated the situation again. The exact same responses to my questions came for a fourth time.

     "That really is unfortunate," Uncle Sap spoke sadly, "I know how much Ethereal and Amaranth both loved that silly thing, and I'm sure losing it is one of the last things Ethereal needs right now."
     "It is. She started crying the instant she realized something had definitely happened to it." I was forced to admit.
     "I wish there was something more we could do. I wonder if we could find an exact copy of it if you can't find it," Aunt Purity mused, "Although, I doubt Ethereal would want something like that."
     "Probably not. A copy won't do when it's the original that held all the meaning." Uncle Sap agreed.
     "Tch, now this is just extremely infuriating. I can't believe someone, especially one of us, would have done something with it and not said anything. What were they thinking?" Aunt Purity spoke indignantly.
     "Well, we're off to Uncle Eden's next to see if we can find out." I said to get us going once more.
     "Good luck," Uncle Sap wished us.

My optimism was waning. I suppose I had expected too much that my search would be more like what one saw on television. I thought there would be a driving intensity to the situation that kept my curiosity burning. Instead, the steady rejection with no spare clues revealed had me sighing and sighing as Cerise and I walked down the road. Well, I walked. My sister had grown cold and tired, and, just like I figured, she subtly whined until I offered to carry her. I didn't mind all that much considering that result was anticipated. Cerise also wasn't heavy, and we traveled faster with me carrying her than with her walking.

     "Are you sad, Coal?" she asked after I sighed for the dozenth time.
     "Oh. Um, well..." I mumbled, not realizing the kind of attitude I'd been giving off, "I wouldn't say that I'm sad. Merely a little disappointed. I thought we would have at least gotten a clue as to what happened to the snow globe by now. I'm also...I'm also kind of worried about Christmas this year. Things haven't been going all that well. I don't want it to keep being like that."
     "You don't have to worry! Christmas is when everything is going to be made right!" Cerise encouraged, loudly, right in my ear.
     "Yeah? What makes you say that?" I wondered curiously.
     "It's a secret."
     "That's no fun."
     "You just gotta trust me!" Cerise giggled, "Everything's gonna be fine!"
     "If you say so, I'll believe it." I accepted with a grin, entertained by my sister's suspicious glee.

I carried Cerise right through Uncle Eden's front door. My siblings and I had never been required to knock before, so I saw no reason to do so now. Noise drew my attention left. Malachite sat on the couch watching television by himself. He gave Cerise and I quick glance, but as soon as his eyes met mine he tore them away and back to the screen. I didn't make any effort to address him. He hadn't been at the party. Thus, there was no need to question him. Malachite and I had barely spoken a word to each other anyway since the pool tripping incident. It took two days before he was bullied enough into coming over and apologizing. He seemed sincere enough in his regret at what happened that I chose to forgive him, but the air between us had been horribly awkward and tense ever since. We basically took to ignoring the other's presence. The incident had prompted Malachite to scale back some of his bad antics though, so I wasn't sure whether to mark the results as good or bad.

The greeting Cerise and I got was much warmer in the kitchen. Aunt Deny was there with Hunter and Rosemary. None of them even questioned our random appearance.

     "Hello, Coal. Hello, Ceri. I'm making apple chicken salad. Are you two interested?" Aunt Deny offered.
     "Apple, chicken, and salad?" Cerise questioned with tentative disgust.
     "It's really good. It's one of my favorites." Rosemary encouraged.
     I like it too. Maybe we'll come back in a bit, but we've got something we're working on right now." I led in.
     "Need something?" Hunter asked.

I repeated the explanation, and I got the exact same answers I had been getting before from the three of them. Neither Aunt Deny, Hunter, nor Rosemary had touched the snow globe or knew of its fate. They had no additional hints to help me. Trying not to get too dejected, Cerise and I warmed up while talking for a bit with our cousins. I was tempted to wait for that salad, but Aunt Deny was only just getting started. We would simply have to come back, and hopefully by then the mystery would be solved.

Heading to Midas' house appeared as if it wouldn't do anything to solve that mystery. Wash, lather, rinse, repeat- I went through the same steps and questions with him. I was getting the same, frustrating answers back as well, and I was feeling quite confounded. No one had looked as if they were lying to me, but with only one house left to visit it seemed as if the solution was going to be that the snow globe randomly gained sentience and wandered off on its own. Midas was rambling on a bit, so I wasn't listening to him too much. Then, finally, Cerise and I received a first clue.

     "You know, I do think someone went into your mom's room, now that I think about it." Midas revealed.
     "Really? Who?!" I was so ecstatic I barely controlled the excitement in my voice.
     "I'm not sure. But, you said so far the only ones you know who were in there were your mom and Blaze. I wasn't paying that much attention, but I do remember seeing your mom's door open while both she and Blaze were in the kitchen. When I glanced that way again a moment later, it was closed."
     "Great! So it is incredibly likely then that someone does know the truth of what's happened."
     "Probably, and if you have just one house left to visit- the answer is guaranteed to be there." Midas rationalized.
     "I do hope so."

That hope was one that would work out for me. Turns out, I had picked the totally wrong order for which houses to visit first. If I had gone with the ones closest to us instead of starting with the ones farther away, the mystery would have been solved in a matter of minutes. Cerise skipped next to me as we journeyed the thirty feet from Midas' front door to the Charm's front door. Aunt Dahlia let us in, and she directed us up to Holly on the second floor.

     "Your dad's snow globe is missing, and our house is the last one you have left to check?" she repeated the basics of the information I gave her.

Impatient eagerness had me shifting my weight from foot to foot as Holly thought. Pieces were being put together in her mind, and I held my breath when she took one.

     "I think you've come to the house of your culprit then. Mimi has been acting way too suspicious since yesterday. I've been able to tell she has some kind of secret, and I have a feeling this is it."
     "Mimosa," I sighed with a shake of my head, "I feel as if I should have been able to guess that."
     "She's in her room. Let's go ask her and find out."

Mimosa was finishing tidying up her room when the three of us walked in. As is typical for her, she let out a happy squeal when she saw that I was unexpectedly there. I was the receiver of a crushingly tight hug that knocked half the wind out of me. I wriggled free and pulled back before she could plant a kiss on me like I anticipated.

     "Hi, Coal!" she greeted with intense merriment, as I wasn't exactly prone to meeting her in her room due exactly to the kind of welcoming I was getting, "What are you doing here? Did you want to play?"
     "No. Ceri and I are looking for my dad's snow globe," I answered, and my own normal voice sounded impossibly quiet next to her loud one, "It's gone missing, and we think someone took it."
     "Your dad's snow globe?" Mimosa repeated, tilting her head as if she was dumbfounded, "I don't know what that is."

And with that, the culprit was caught. Mimosa was so obviously lying, and her grand smile faded away to be replaced by a hidden expression of nerves.

     "Yes, you do," Cerise piped up, "You're always looking at it when you visit."
     "I don't even go into your mom's room." Mimosa pouted.
     "If you don't know about dad's snow globe, then how do you know he kept it in his room?" I pointed out, folding my arms.
     "Well, that would be the obvious place to put it, wouldn't it?" Mimosa explained desperately.
     "Mimi, don't make me get mom and dad. You don't want to get in trouble for stealing and lying." Holly warned.
     "Maybe you don't even have to get in trouble," I tried to reason, "Just tell me what happened with it. If you simply broke it on accident or something, I'm sure my mom will understand."
     "I didn't break it..." Mimosa caved.

With a sad look, she shuffled to her dresser. The bottom right drawer was opened, and Mimosa carefully dug out the snow globe still in perfect condition from under the piles of clothes she buried it in. The greatest sense of relief washed over me when I was guiltily handed it, and I then gave it to Holly to hold so I could address Mimosa properly.

     "Why did you take it?" I asked, keeping as much accusation out of my tone to encourage Mimosa to give me the best and most honest answer she had.
     "I was just trying to help, promise," she mumbled, "Your mom has been looking so sad all the time. When I visit your house, I often walk past her bedroom to see her crying while looking at the snow globe or I hear her crying if the door is closed. I though if maybe the snow globe wasn't there anymore that she wouldn't cry so much. I knew your mom wouldn't give it to me though, so I snuck it out on my own when no one was looking."
     "I see. I guess that some make sense of some level, but, yes, you shouldn't have taken the snow globe no matter what. I think my mom would have appreciated it more if you simply went in to talk to her. You're good at listening to others and their worries and making them feel better. Mom needs that more than she needs the little pieces she has left of dad swiped away."

Mimosa nodded miserably.

     "I really am sorry, Coal." she apologized, sniffling as if about to cry herself.
     "It's alright with me. I'm not that angry. I happy that we were able to get the snow globe back. Since you took good care of it, I don't think mom will be that upset either."

Mimosa merely nodded again.

I promised to call later to let the twin sisters know the results of the situation. Mimosa didn't have much reason to worry though. Cerise and I traveled across the street to our house, and mom rushed over as fast as she was able when we walked through her door with the snow globe. She instantly snatched it out of Cerise's hands, placed it where it belonged on the nightstand, and ignored her belly so she could pick up Cerise and cuddle her.

     "My two amazing detectives!" she gushed, "So, what happened?"
     "Mimi had it!" Cerise answered.
     "Mimosa did?"
     "She noticed that it was making you cry sometimes, so she thought taking it away would help you to feel less sad." I helped to clarify again.
     "Well, I appreciate the sentiment, I suppose, but I naturally wish she went about trying to help in a different way."
     "That's what I told her."
     "I'll have to talk to her later," mom reasoned, "For now though, I'm going to relax. Although, I do think a reward is in order for you two first. What do you want?"
     "More hot chocolate! With lots and lots of 'mallows!" Cerise declared.
     "Easy enough," mom chuckled, "Coal, what about you?"

I smirked mischievously.

     "I want to know what the gender of the baby is." I requested, putting my hands on my hips.
     "Ugh, you little imp," mom pouted before giving me a smirk that matched mine, "Okay then, how about this?"

She put Cerise down, bent over, and whispered something in my ear. I frowned instantly.

     "That doesn't tell me anything!" I complained.
     "It's a riddle. If you can figure it out, you'll know the gender." mom boasted.
     "There's no way I'm going to figure that out!"
     "You should have asked for cocoa too." Cerise pointed out matter-of-factly.
     "Maybe." I couldn't help but to laugh.

That day came to a peaceful close. Mom truly didn't see a reason to get ridiculously upset at Mimosa, but she did at least call Uncle Al and Aunt Dahlia to let them know what she had done. I heard from Holly later on that Mimosa got one their standard lectures before being forgiven. Cerise drank her hot chocolate, I tried futilely to solve mom's riddle, and the two of us rested before heading back to Uncle Eden's for Aunt Deny's apple chicken salad. It was good as expected, and we brought some home as a peace offering for not helping out more with the decorating. Uncle Blaze, Wisp, Prism, and mom when she could handle did most of it.

A week passed, and Christmas arrived. Uncle Blaze's idea to put the tree in the back was proven right on the mark. The morning was obnoxiously bright, but the shadier back of the room stopped us from having to deal with the majority of it. The pile of presents underneath the tree was vast like normal given how many of us there were. There was a lingering sadness because of the one person we were missing, but everyone was resolved to make the day happy as it had always been. I received most of the presents on my list. A few were compromises. For example, I asked to finally get my own computer. I did get one, but it was mom's old desktop. Thankfully, it was still in a perfectly fine working condition, so there was no reason to complain. Even my new, unborn sibling got a few presents. None of them did anything to help me figure out if it was a boy or a girl, but I guess that couldn't be helped considering no one else knew either.

The day was spent hanging out, eating, playing games, calling friends and family, and having fun with our presents. I used a lot of my time setting up my computer and installing the games we already had disks of. I couldn't wait until I got more allowance so I could buy the newer ones I really wanted. Playing those old games though was what I did for most of the afternoon once we all got tired of everyone else's presence. We reconvened for dinner and watched a movie following that, but we eventually went our ways once more.

That was when I found Cerise doing something strange. She was almost always with someone else as she wasn't the fondest of being alone, but now she sat on the floor by the Christmas tree playing with her new teddy bear. I assumed she was simply enjoying a rare moment of content solitude, and then I spotted the crestfallen expression on her face. Cerise appeared to only be fiddling with the bear's limbs in order to give her hands something to do. Otherwise, she was bothered by something going on in her mind.

Curious and concerned, I moved over to her. The smile I gave her was not given back. Cerise glanced up at me guiltily before turning her attention back to the bear. She wouldn't look at me even when I sat down next to her on the floor.

     "What's up?" I asked gently.

After several long seconds of silence, I wondered if I was going to be able to get a response. Cerise did choose to trust me with her worry though.

     "I'm sorry," she apologized quietly, "Are you mad at me?"
     "Why would I be mad at you? Did you break something?" I questioned in confusion.
     "No," Cerise shook her head, "I said everything would be fine on Christmas, but it's not."
     "I don't quite get what you mean. Everything went well from my perspective."

Cerise's desolate expression grew more grim, and she buried her face into her bear's fluff.

     "Hey, Coal? Santa Claus doesn't exist, does he?" the heartbroken question came.

Instinct had me opening my mouth to contradict her. Four years wasn't the youngest to ever learn of the fake nature of Santa Claus, but it still felt wrong to break that belief. However, before I made one sound my answer got stuck in my throat. Cerise wasn't asking me about Santa Claus because she didn't know. She did know, and her asking was merely confirming it to herself. Lying would probably just make her mad.

     "Yeah, he doesn't exist. He's just part of a story. The presents come from the adults and our friends buying things," I explained with a hint of reluctance, "What made you figure it out?"
     "I had Desi write my Christmas list. I asked Santa to bring daddy back, and that he didn't hafta give me any other presents if he did. I got all the other presents, but daddy didn't come back. If Santa was real, then he would be here. Santa isn't real though, so he isn't." Cerise revealed in a mumble.
     "I'm sorry," I immediately said, ruffling her hair, "I wish I had known that's what you were talking about before. That's one big disappointment to deal with all at once."
     "Do you think daddy's going to come back? Mommy says he is, but he's taking a long time."

I hesitated. This was the first time someone was asking me that question, and I didn't know the right thing to do. Officer Noble wasn't exactly making any progress with the case even with the extra information he had. There had been nothing but mom's suspicions to signify that dad had been killed, but there hadn't been any evidence to support the opposite argument either.

     "He'll definitely come back." I sort of lied, ultimately deciding I couldn't break my sister's heart further on Christmas because of my uncertainties.

Cerise, thankfully, looked more cheerful after that. She was able to smile at me a bit, and I decided then was a good reason to turn the mood around.

     "I know I can't be dad's replacement, but if you feel lonely you can come to me. I'm your big brother, so that's what I'm here for." I comforted the best way I knew how.
     "Will you play the games that he played with me?" Cerise requested hopefully.
     "Of course."
     "Can we play horsey then?" she asked with a crazy big smile.
     "Eh, like, right now? On the wood floor?" I hesitated for a different reason this time, thinking of my poor knees.
     "Yeah, right now!" Cerise nodded, not catching my reluctance.

What could I do though? It was Christmas, and I had walked myself right into this situation. I could handle a bit of pain for the sake of the holiday. With a sigh and a groan in my head, I barely got down on all fours before Cerise scrambled onto my back. A giggly person just like mom, she laughed her head off as I moved about. I had to grin and shake my head, and as I headed towards the carpeted area of the house I quietly recognized that Cerise hadn't been that wrong. Things weren't perfect, but they were fine. There were a lot of troublesome events coming up, but at least for that Christmas day I had the confidence that we had grown strong enough to make it through it all.