Aunt Santa

Chapter 20

Once they landed in Oslo, Sara made a decision to try and burn as much of BB's energy as possible which was easier to do in the much larger airport.

She sent Sam off on a "secret mission" at one of the stores before they closed for the night and took BB to a more deserted terminal. "We're going to have a race," Sara declared. "The winner gets a special prize."

"What kind of prize?"

"Your brother is getting it right now." Sara set the rest of their things aside and drew herself taller as she stood over her niece. "You ready to do battle?"

They raced back and forth across the terminal, occasionally having to come to a shrieking halt if someone crossed their path. Sara felt immune to the judgmental looks at this point. You try being five and dealing with four flights to get home, she thought as she set BB up for another run.

By the time they met Sam at their gate for the flight, Sara was a sweaty mess. He handed her the bag from the gift shop. "So, who won?"

"Me!" His sister bounded over and held out her arms for her prize.

Sara told Sam to do the honors. BB shrieked when she saw the stuffed reindeer. "I love him!" She reached out and gave it a squeeze.

On the plane heading back to New York, BB continued to cuddle and murmur things to her reindeer. She also held it up to the window so "it could watch them take off," and Sara hoped it was a good sign that BB's head had dropped back against the seat.

Maybe it was too much to hope that she would sleep most of the eight-hour flight home, but a girl could dream.

"Almost there." Sara tapped her nephew on his wrist. He'd been quiet the whole day, but when she'd asked him to go to the gift shop for her, he'd done it without comment. "You feeling all right?"

"Yeah." He'd been tapping at the screen on his seat, looking for something to watch. His headphones were still on his shoulders as he frowned at the options.

"Thank you for getting the reindeer. That was a big help."

"Sure."

"By the way," she added. "I sent Henrik some money. He didn't want any for himself, but I told him it was for Jakob. As a thank you for all he did for us."

"Oh." His frown deepened. "That's good. He did do a lot."

"Yeah."

"Him and Henrik."

"I don't know what we would've done without them." With a sigh, Sara's head fell back against the seat. "He gave me his number, by the way."

"What? He did?" Sam's eyes went wide as he turned to her, the grin breaking across his face. "For real?"

She told him an abridged version, enjoying the conspiratorial grin on his face even though recounting it brought butterflies back to her stomach.

"So, what? Are you going to, like, talk and stuff?"

"I don't know. Maybe?" Sara smiled at the thought of trying to chat with Henrik on the phone, hearing about his day and what he was up to. "I mean, why not?"

"I guess." Sam shook his head. "It's just so far. He's so far away." He looked around the plane. "Like, four flights to go see him all the time would be crazy."

It was definitely something Sara had been thinking about when she wasn't wrestling BB's arms and legs on their many flights that day. "Who knows anything, Sam?" She heard the edge in her words but didn't know what to do about it. "The only thing I know for sure about life is that we don't really know what will happen to us. But if something good comes your way, why not try to hold onto it as long you can?"

Sam jabbed at something else on the screen. He put his headphones on and then immediately took them off. "I kissed Jakob." He looked at Sara. "After the swim, when you guys went inside."

"Oh." Sara struggled through her surprise, her mind racing. Was this why he seemed so down like he was slipping back toward sadness as they drew closer to home?

She tried to read him. She tried to remember how it had been between the boys after that, searching her memory for clues. "So, how was it?"

"I don't really know." He shrugged. "It was good, I think. He kissed me back." The start of a grin broke through his face again.

"Really?" She smacked him on the arm. "That's amazing."

"Yeah. Honestly, I think I took him by surprise. I don't know what happened." He shook his head. "It doesn't matter, you know? It's not going anywhere. I know that. It was just one kiss. And then a second one outside the airport." He laughed as she smacked him a second time.

"Would you like something to drink?"

They looked up at the flight attendant. Sara asked for water and Sam got a soda. The woman handed them their plastic cups and her nephew slipped his headphones back on, leaving Sara to her thoughts for a while.

At some point, all three of them fell asleep. Sara had pulled up the armrest between her and BB. Her niece stretched out with her legs over her and Sam's laps, her head resting on the pillow on her own seat. Even with the occasional kick, Sara and Sam still passed out somewhere on the long ride over the Atlantic.

It seemed like minutes later, they were pulling into the gate at JFK. Everyone on the plane seemed to do the same slow blink as the lights flickered on overhead. It was two in the morning in New York.

Somehow, they managed to zombie-walk off the plane and find a bathroom. Sara tried to wash her face in the sink and slap some alertness back into her. "We need to find coffee," she told a yawning BB.

The sharp cold outside the airport helped to wake her up. Sam pulled the zipper up on his new jacket, equipped for a far worse cold than New York could offer in late December. BB must've been used to it too, because she started to fall asleep in Sara's arms as she and Sam trudged toward the shuttle that would take them to the car.

She probably should've tried to find a hotel where they could sleep the last few hours and had half-heartedly looked as the plane touched down, but then decided she owed it to the kids to just drive them home. She had made a promise, after all, to get them back by Christmas. By the time she got them buckled in the car, Sam reclined in the passenger seat as far as it could go, and BB snug in her booster seat, it had been Christmas Eve for almost three hours.

The hunt for coffee in the airport hadn't been successful so the first stop was at a drive-through. She got the largest coffee possible, on ice, so she could get the caffeine into her veins even faster.

The roads were mercifully clear. It had occurred to her as they waited feverishly for her car to warm up, that there could've been bad weather while they were away. The last thing she wanted to do was navigate her car on snowy highways with little sleep. But their luck hadn't expired just yet.

She looked up at the night sky and saw a star wink. "Thanks for the help," she murmured. "For everything, actually."

She tried to imagine Sam winking back. He'd certainly been busy the last few days, she thought, turning the car onto the highway. Maybe her Aunt Rae had a hand in this, too. It was an awful lot of magic for just a few days.

The radio had turned on when she started the car, already set to Christmas music. She turned it down low and let it keep her company on the long drive back home.