An Entire Year of You

Chapter 24: Gifts

The letter offered little useful information, but Carlos clung onto it all the same. The text had somehow got garbled, with letters out of place and words upside down, but he could work out some of it. He got 'fascinating town' 'wish to work with' 'impossible to find' 'please contact us' 'Best wishes, J.Fink and J.Cranor'. They didn't offer any contact information. He placed the letter in a draw for safe keeping. He would come back for it.

In the meantime, he was focused on a way of thanking Josie. He'd met the team a couple of times already, both at the bowling alley (a strange and interesting place in itself) and at the local pub, which was uncreatively though conveniently named 'The Pub'.

"There's only one pub, Carlos." Cecil had told him. "Why would we mess around with complicated names?"

It had certainly helped him feel like part of the town. Whether this was a good thing or not was yet to be decided, but it was nice not to be an interloper. So, he found the perfect gift to pay back not only Josie, but everyone he had the pleasure of meeting through her. He found the one thing every bowling team needed, jackets. The team had owned branded jackets once, long before Carlos had arrived, but they'd all been lost in the 'Great Fabric Destruction' of 2003. Nobody had bothered to replace them. Carlos looked far and wide for a customisable clothing, paid the steep price of three tablespoons of blood and nine strands of hair, and ordered a jacket with the team logo on for each person, himself included. It would make a good souvenir.

He would have preferred to give them to each person individually and make it more personal, but nobody seemed to be answering their door. In fact, nobody seemed to be doing much of anything. The streets were empty, doors were locked, and stores were closed. One person peered out of their window and yelled:

"Go home, stupid boy, it's not safe."

Before slamming it shut again. Back at the University of What It Is this would have been cause for alarm. However, this was pretty normal behaviour for Night Vale, so he thought nothing of it. Instead, he decided to leave the jackets outside each house. They'd be just fine. Soon he was left with just one, Cecil's. Cecil opened the door before Carlos even had a chance to knock.

"Carlos, what are you doing outside?" He asked frantically.

"Hey Cecil, I actually have something for you. So, remember when you were telling me out the jackets that got destroyed in 2003? Well, I thought-"

"Carlos." Cecil shouted. His hands firmly grabbed Carlos' shoulders and their eyes locked. Cecil's stare was terror filled and intense. "It's Valentine's Day."

"Oh...yes...it is." Carlos laughed nervously. "Um, Happy Valentine's Day?"

"No, Carlos, you don't understand. It's Valentine's Day."

"Ahuh..." Oh great, Cecil had gone off the deep end. Though he did so on a regular basis, so Carlos wasn't really surprised. "Listen, you're sweet, but Valentine's Day is kind of-"

Before Carlos could even finish his thought let alone his sentence, something crashed down to the street. Carlos instinctively leaped into Cecil's doorway and spun around. Half buried in the tarmac road was an almost building sized, pink plastic heart.

"What the..." Carlos trailed off.

"You should really come inside." Cecil said solemnly.

"What's going on?"

"It's Valentine's Day. Come on in." Cecil lead him inside and deadbolted the door shut. Cecil's home was small and warm, with furniture that was mix and matched from nearly every era since Victorian times.

"Does that happen every year?" Asked Carlos.

"Oh yeah, we're trying to get Valentine's Day officially cancelled. The amount of deaths just isn't worth it." Wow, if Night Vale was worried about the amount of deaths then it must be serious. No wonder nobody wanted to go outside.

"That must cause havoc with flights."

"Yeah, you'd think so, wouldn't you?" It was a wonder they'd never heard of it elsewhere. Carlos had seen planes fly over Night Vale; somebody must have noticed at least once.

"I have to go to work soon, but please stay inside until Valentine's is offer. I don't want you getting hurt."

"But it's dangerous for you too."

"Don't worry." Replied Cecil as he straightened his tie. "I've survived hundreds of Valentine's Days."

"That's just an exaggeration, right." Carlos chuckled. How old was Cecil anyway?

"Maybe." Cecil shrugged. "Why did you come over again? We kind of got cut off."

"Oh right." In the confusion he'd almost forgotten. He handed Cecil the neatly plastic wrapped maroon jacket, the logo on the front in the left corner, Cecil's name in bold white letters on the back.

"Oh wow." Cecil rapidly unwrapped it and inspected the soft material. A soft smile spread across his face as he put it on to wear to work. "I love it. Have you these for everyone?"

"Of course." Carlos smiled.

"We're going to look so good. Oh hey, I guess this is our first Valentine's gift." Cecil winked.

"Cecil." Carlos smirked.

"I'm joking." Cecil reassured. "But it is beautiful. I'm going to work now; I have to show off this jacket. Help yourself to food, blankets, TV, anything you need."

"So, I'm just supposed to spend the night at yours until the disaster blows over?"

"Absolutely. See you later." Cecil ducked out the door. Carlos sank into the warm sofa so a howling wind yelled outside the window. He sat and smiled. There were worse places to ride out a natural disaster.