The Quiet Ever After

The Association's Notice - 1

Thanksgiving in Oaken Reserve, Axel observed, was an odd break in the Holiday season. It'd never really been his favorite of the holidays, and in the last few years, a different weight pressed down on him around the season: regret.

The trio of siblings between himself, Kyle, and Linda never gathered for Thanksgiving. He and Kyle shared a few, and Axel only ever saw his sister once for the holidays and it'd been just before he and Nina moved away. Kyle was already gone. When Axel woke that Thanksgiving morning, he hoped to see a message that Linda was in town.

He wasn't disappointed to not get such a message. For the last couple of years, Axel and Nina spent Thanksgiving with Phil and Hideki's family since those two were often alone for the holiday, too. Plus, there was a nice change of pace in that Veronica joined them that year, and the five of them later made their way across the street to see Brittany, Jaime, and the boys.

Axel, though he'd witnessed when Nina banished Sarzo, was still surprised to see just how competitive the three women got when watching the football game on Thanksgiving night. Even Brittany's boys were surprised.

However, it was the next morning when the Thanksgiving window swiftly came to a close that loads of transformative work erupted out of their house. It was time to take things from a meager fall to a joyful Christmas. Nina had to get to the shop early, as people would be hustling and bustling all about town to get their coffee fix en route to their next Black Friday destination. That left Axel to deal with the loads of decorations that were the only occupants of their attic.

Last year, they kept the decorations down in the basement. However, they found that the wires for many of the lights had become quite overloaded due to exposure from all of the magic concentrated in the basement, so they had to change course.

Axel did away with a few cobwebs and set to work, ushering out his heaps of enchanted rugs from their sealed corner to keep away the dust. He laid them at the base of the attic steps, and then, with a tap of each decoration box, they moved on their own to a rug. Once connected, the rug then set off for its own spot in the house, with the magic sealing the box and rug together. Nina had been the one to create the spell every year Axel was ever more grateful for it.

However, there was simply no spell they could come up with that would make putting up the decorations go any quicker.

He always felt that placing Christmas decorations had an element of proper style to it, but also a certain amount of instinct. If something looked good in a particular spot, why move it? Sometimes things just fit perfectly the way they were.

Axel saved everything indoors for last and set about decorating the exterior of the house and garden, replete with net lights, dancing lights, and hanging lights for the roof. He had a ladder out to give the illusion that he needed to climb it since he was just jumping back and forth from the ground to the roof if he had to get down. Thankfully, almost everyone was either recovering from Thanksgiving or out shopping while he worked, so nobody noticed him.

Well, almost nobody. Down the street, also standing atop his roof, was Ryan, having leaped up there himself. A fell wind blew down the street as they made momentary eye contact, then the two pressed on, a noticeable increase in pace setting in to see who would be done faster.

Axel, having established a cadence in how and where to hang things over the last couple of years, won.

"You missed a spot!"

Axel whirled around, at once aware of the time. Nina stood in the driveway, her work apron still on, and waved.

"Did I really?" he asked.

"Eh. Guess not. Need any help up there?"

"Not up here, I think I'm just about done. Mind helping with the railing and I can get things going on the lawn?"