High C

20. And Comfy Cozy Are We

For some, Christmas Eve day is the day when the brilliance and pleasure of the yuletide season reaches its zenith. The letdown of the end has yet to come. All is still joy, excitement, and wonder, and what better way to witness it than through the eyes of children for whom magic is still an expectation rather than a quiet hope?

After spending the night apart, Natasha in her love nest with Rodney, Bob trying to justify his absence from his gathered family with tales of his absurd weekend over video call, Natasha's car picked Bob up at his apartment. Together they headed to the Christmas Train to volunteer in place of the few staff members whose contracts had ended early. On this special last day, instead of merely accepting Food Bank donations, they were giving out Christmas dinner in a box – instant potatoes, canned and fresh vegetables, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce, frozen turkeys donated from various grocery chains and pies for all in need. There were also gift bags, donated toys, and photos with Santa to be kept rolling out. With DeeDee arriving a little later to help in the kitchen, Bob had asked his former co-stars not to let on that he'd worked there before, promising to make the reason worthwhile over drinks at a later date despite impatient, curious pleas for the immediate tea.

He watched with a little good natured envy as another actor performed 'Christmas in Killarney' with Lena. The guests still loved it. That was the important thing, even if they didn't know how much better it had been before. Alongside other staff, he sorted and stacked, punched tickets and packed, swept up crumbs from the train seats and wiped sticky fingerprints from the windows, working as best he could with one good arm. More than once, real carrots had been found in the animatronic reindeer pen. Bob only removed the ones with their green tops still on, as they looked sad and wilty by mid afternoon, much like Ivan in his hot snow monster suit.

He brought a few to the kitchen and found DeeDee portioning out cocoa for hot chocolates on a scale. With her hair in a high pony tail, white ribbon with a bow on the slipped shoulder neckline of her black shirt, she almost looked like she was in uniform, though he had never known anyone who worked in catering to look so happy doing it.

"You get all the easy jobs," he said, announcing himself.

"What's up doc?" she said, greeting him with her luminous smile.

"I'm taking a small lunch break."

"Carrots for lunch? You want a shortbread instead?"

"These are unfortunately for the trash, but I'm good, thanks. There's usually a potato or tuna salad going on in the staff fridge."

"How would you know?"

"When I inspected the place for bugs," he thought quickly.

"Bed bugs wasn't it? In the fridge?"

"I'm thorough."

"So gross."

"Can you take five?"

"I don't think I can."

They were both disappointed.

"But I've never actually ridden the train before and I've been promised a seat on the last ride at 4:00pm. Want to do it with me? Natasha said it makes her queasy."

"It's a date," he said, waving his carrots in the air.

"Here, give me those."

"I can make the shot from here," he said, suggesting the open garbage bin from across an island of cups and saucers.

"Careful."

Bob took aim with the largest carrot but leaned his bad wrist on the island taking the shot. A sudden jolt of pain caused his aim to veer off, and a carrot landed on the counter next to DeeDee. She shrieked at the crash and cocoa powder plume.