Oh, Saint Nick

Evelyn sat in the large office desk, colouring while I took up the couch where I was absently researching schools around where my parents lived. My old school was still running but its reputation wasn’t as good as it used to be. I considered some of the private education systems. Erin would probably prefer for Evelyn to go to a private school back home.

“Whatcha doin?” I glanced up, surprised, to find Evelyn standing in front of me curiously looking at my iPad. I hastily got out of the web page and stuck the iPad down.

“Nothing important. You finished colouring?” Evelyn nodded and twisted her hands together, one foot tapped on the floor while her eyes whipped around the room. She was bored and I definitely was as well. It was a slower day then usual, a lot of people not coming into the Shopping Centre at all.

“How about we go for a walk to get some lunch?” I suggested to her. Hey eyes lit up and she nodded, running over to grab her coat and proudly zipping it up herself. She was by the door waiting with her hand up before I had even slipped my shoes back on. Laughing, I ruffled her hair before grabbing her hand and heading outside, letting Dee know where I was going.

We headed past the Santa photo area that was still set up near the food court; I was surprised by the lack of children surrounding the area there as well.

“Has it finished snowing yet Aunty Emmy?” Evelyn asked, a small sigh in her throat.” I want to go outside and play.” I frowned and glanced towards the doors that led outside. There was still a slight snowfall.

“Maybe tomorrow love.” I tired to comfort her, her shoulders sagged and her feet dragged the rest of the way to the food court. I frowned and pulled her closer into me trying to offer comfort.

“Well what on Earth could be wrong with you little one?” It worried me that I wasn’t even surprised to see Stalker Santa. He was actually back in his Santa suit this time obviously working today. Evelyn looked up at him without her usual amount of excitement; I thought she might finally be over her belief that he was Santa.

“It won’t stop snowing Santa.” Or not. I sighed and allowed her to have her delusions. This man hadn’t done any harm so far so letting him play that part of Santa to Evelyn wasn’t a terrible thing to happen.

“Well now that just won’t do.” He mumbled thoughtfully. I rolled my eyes at his jolly act. “How about if you promise to be good I’ll make it stop.” I frowned at Stalker Santa’s overstep and was about to cut in except he held a hand up in front of my face, rudely cutting me off. I huffed and glared at him while he extracted a promise from Evelyn before agreeing to stop the snow. Now Evelyn was not only going to be disappointed by the snow continuing all day but she will probably think she wasn’t good enough. I glared at Stalker Santa and tugged Evelyn away.
I would have to find some way to distract Evelyn and hope to God she wouldn’t notice the weather. It was unlikely but worth a try.

The only good part of the meeting was that it made Evelyn behave the whole time we got food. She stayed by my side patiently and didn’t complain or whine about what food we were getting. She thanked me when I handed her a hot dog and proceeded to take a bit while we walked back. She waved to Santa happily when we passed, almost throwing the hot dog across the square. I rolled my eyes and guided her through the few people milling around and back into the empty shop. Nicky was in the corner cleaning a few tables. I waved to her before disappearing out back where Dee couldn’t be found. Evelyn headed straight into my office where she shrieked. I widened my eyes and rushed in after her before taking a deep breath. It was just Harry.

“Christ Evelyn, you scared the… me.” I mumbled over my words and Harry shot me an amused look when I clearly skipped a cuss word.

“Guess what Harry.” Evelyn bounced excitedly in front of Harry who was occupying the office chair. He reached out and wiped the tomato sauce off her face, I handed him a napkin. “Santa said if I be good he’s going to stop the snow for us so I can go outside and play.” Harry shared a worried look with me.

“Did he? Are you sure Santa can do that?” I almost sighed in relief. Despite Harry’s theories lately about Stalker Santa being the real deal his sanity still seemed to kick in when those theories were put to the test. Of course Stalker Santa wasn’t the real Santa because no one was. It was basic, normal human knowledge. He was a creation to excite the children that was all, just a creative thought.

“Of course he can silly. He’s Santa.” Evelyn shook her head at Harry like she was deeply disappointed in him before disappearing out the door where Dee could be heard, shuffling things around. I was about to tease Harry about his Santa theory when I saw the smile slide of his face.

“What?” I asked worried, I had never seen Harry so serious before. He fiddled with the pieces of paper in front of him.

“Evelyn’s parents. Your sister. They died in a car accident didn’t they?”

“Uh yeah.” I answered Harry slowly, narrowing my eyes when he hand the pieces of papers over to me. I realised that they were the papers that Evelyn had been drawing on before. It was the car crash drawings again except there were more of them and from different angles. Some had Erin and Ethan lying outside of the car, Evelyn’s face in the corner with tears coming down her cheeks. There was a drawing of me crying with a flipped car in the background.

I gasped in shock and fell back against the desk while flipping through the rest of the drawings. They all had some relation to the car crash or her parents dying. They were horrible.
“Did she draw anything else?” I asked Harry who shook his head.

“This was all I found when I came in here to wait for like Dee suggested.” Harry told me, his eyes sad as he watched me intently. His hand came up to rest on my thigh, his thumb rubbing calming circles over my pants. “You’ve seen her draw this before.” I nodded to Harry although it didn’t really seem like he asked a question.

“The other day I found one drawing amongst others. The rest were normal drawings but there was one like these placed under the colours. I didn’t know if she had been trying to hide it or was putting it to the side because it was important.” I told Harry truthfully, pulling my eyes away from the drawings. “I have to check her room, see if she has other drawings hidden somewhere.” I told Harry. He nodded and stood up.

“We could go now. I’ll distract her while you go looking for them.” Harry offered. I nodded and tucked the drawings in one of the desk draws before grabbing my bag and heading out of the office with Harry close behind me.

“Hey chook ready to head home?” I pulled Evelyn’s attention to me from Dee. Dee looked at me in surprise but pulled Evelyn into a hug anyway while we headed outside. Nicky waved half heartedly while casually flipping through a magazine. I debated whether I should actually be stricter on everyone working. Erin wouldn’t have allowed them to do what I allow.

“I made sure Evelyn was wrapped up as we headed towards the door. I was panicking wondering what I would do if she had drawings all through her room. Should I set her up to see someone? Should she have been talking to someone about their deaths this whole time? I was confused and worried that I didn’t notice Evelyn’s gaps of happiness before she pulled onto my hand and I ran into Harry’s back.

“What are you doing?” I demanded of Harry, rubbing my nose from when it slammed into his back.

“Look Aunty Emmy! No snowing!” I looked at Evelyn confused before glancing around us. Snow covered the grounds but it had in fact stopped snowing. My mouth fell open in shock just as Harry closed his.

“Coincidence.” I muttered but Harry shook his head.

“The weather said it was supposed to rain for the next two days. This isn’t right.” Harry shook his head, looking around like it would be snowing somewhere else.

“The weather channel isn’t always right.” I pointed out, searching for reasoning behind the coincidence. Harry shot me an annoyed look. “Well what other reason is there? That Santa is real and is stalking me and my five-year-old niece.” I pointed out to Harry who sighed and ran his hands through his hair, frustrated. I grumbled and moved to grab Evelyn from where she was playing with snow. Her jeans were probably already drenched.

“Emmalyn…” Harry started, but I shook my head at him. My hands were shaking and my thoughts were too busy worrying about Evelyn to even consider any other possibility that was not completely rational. “I can’t do this with you right now Harry.” I headed straight for my car. Harry sighed before heading to his so he could follow us home.

“Can we go play in the park? Santa made it stop snowing.” I sighed and rested my head on the steering wheel before peering back to look at Evelyn.

“Okay sure, we can ask Harry to come too but first we better get home and get drenched into warmer clothes.” I told her, she nodded eagerly and seemed content to wait, her eyes wide and her cheeks rosy as she watched outside. I grew more annoyed to see that snow wasn’t falling anywhere.

Harry was already waiting out front of our door by the time we got there. He was quiet and just nodded when I asked him to come to the park. I frowned at him but left Evelyn with him and practically bolted to her room under the pretense of grabbing her clothes.

I checked under her bed first before moving to the toy boxes. Nothing was in them. Her drawers were filled with clothes and I searched but couldn’t find any papers hidden underneath clothes. The rug in the middle of the floor was clear too, if not a little bit dusty. I started to calm down when I realised that she must have only started drawing them now and I could probably talk to her about it. Maybe she was ready to talk about what happened to them earlier then I thought. I could keep it simple but enough to satisfy her curiosity.

It wasn’t until after I grabbed her large coat from the wardrobe that I noticed a black box placed in the corner, behind shoes I hadn’t seen before and that weren’t hers since they weren’t kids size. They were not mine either, I never wore heels. The did look a lot like Erin’s favourite pair though with Ethan’s watch shoved into them. I grabbed them out of the cupboard, shocked. They had both been wearing these items that night it happened. They had died in the shoes and watch and I had no idea how Evelyn got them in her room. I grabbed the black box from behind the shoes without touching them and opened the lid.

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply before lifting up the large wad of paper, flipping through to see hundreds of drawn variations of the crash. Evelyn didn’t seem to have an intricate grasp of what happened but she had the basic detail of the car flipped.

“Aunty Emmy!” I shakily put the box back, not sure what to do with this new information. I grabbed Evelyn’s coat and backed out of the room. Harry could tell by my face that it wasn’t good news. Evelyn didn’t seem to notice, she grabbed her coat off me and let Harry help her to put it on. I stood there not knowing what to do. I wasn’t sure where Evelyn got her information from or the shoes and watch let alone what to do now that I knew she knew.

“Ready to go?” Harry cut into my trance and shot a meaningful look at an excited Evelyn. I nodded numbly and let Harry lead me out of the apartment and down the stairs. I almost walked the wrong way to the park, which set Evelyn off into hysterical laughter while she bounded through the snow in front of us. The sky had cleared and the sun shone through. Harry watched it for a while before turning his attention to me.

“So what did you find?” He asked softly, his hand coming up to rest comfortingly at my elbow. I sighed and frowned at Evelyn.

“There were more drawings,” I told him, Harry sighed and nodded.

“It’s understandable. Probably her way with dealing with it all.” I shook my head at Harry and stopped as we reached the park. Evelyn ran forwards and immediately began pushing snow around.

“No you don’t get it Harry. I never told her about how they died. As far as I knew she didn’t know at all. She never asked and I never told.” Harry frowned and looked concerned at Evelyn. “And that’s not the only thing. She has Erin’s favourite shoes and Ethan’s watch. Two items they were wearing the night that they died.” Harry’s eyes widened in shock as I watched Evelyn roll a small ball. Why had she thought she needed to hide that all from me?

“Okay that is honestly confusing and creepy but right now you’re niece is exceptionally happy after drawing the death of her parents for most of the day. Whether or not that’s due to the magic of Christmas or just lucky weather it doesn’t matter. Right now though you should be enjoying said lucky weather with your niece before it disappears.” I knew Harry was right but there was just an uncomfortable feeling settled in my stomach. I wanted to know who else would have told Evelyn what happened?

“You have to come play to then.” I told Harry, reaching out and grabbing his hand. He sent me a surprised looked which I ignored, instead pulling him along towards Evelyn. She sent me a beautiful smile, which almost had me stop in my tracks if Harry didn’t push me forward. I knelt down beside her and she reached over, pushing my mouth into a smile with her cold hands. Harry smiled warmly and pressed a kiss to my temple. Despite the cold air and the worry I felt quite content in this one moment.