Paper Planes

"You look so cute."

"Why? I am freezing. I don't think I have ever lived in a place this cold."

"What? The cold season is the best one!"

"But I thought you said the last one was the prettiest here?"

"Yeah, but the cold is definitely the best. Go get dressed. Something warm, we're going to be outside."

"Outside?! But it is December!" I called to his retreating figure. He left for the basement. I smiled to myself. Everything with Tucker is such an adventure.

I still think about the friend thing. Maybe it's just me getting cold feet. I closed my eyes and thought of home. I opened them, and decided that I didn't care if I married my best friend, at least I would never have to go back.

Well, at least he's my best friend. And he's nice to me now. I pulled on a pair of thick jeans. I put on a long sleeve red shirt with one of Tucker's old shirts over it. I put a sweatshirt on over that. I am a very cold person. I put on two pairs of socks and some boots. I went downstairs, put on a coat, a scarf, and a little hat. I pulled it over my ears. Finally warm!

Tucker came up with and put a box in a pile of boxes he had already brought up. He looked at me and smiled. I went over the the boxes of storage and tried to open them. He slapped my hand. "Not yet," he said. He pulled on shoes and a heavy coat. "Okay, are you ready?"

I smiled. "Yes!"

"Are you sure you're ready?"

"Tucker, open the cases." He laughed and slowly revealed what was inside. What? "What is this? Lights?"

"Yes. Grab a light one and come outside with me."

A little peeved, I grabbed a box and heeved it outside. Tucker pulled out a strand of giant colored light bulbs and put it on the ground. He then pulled out a strip with no lights on it and plugged it into the outlet on the house. He started untangling stands, so I did the same.

"These are net lights. They go over the bushes." He threw a net light over the bush and plugged it in. Nothing happened. He did this over the next three bushes. Then he grabbed some big colored bulbs. "These, we'll wrap around the big tree. Get on," he said, pulling me onto his shoulders. He lifted me up and we started at the bottom, worked our way up, and then dropped it back down to the bottom for the end of the strand.

"Alright, go grab the snowman inside for me?"

I went inside and grabbed a giant snowman. I looked inside the other boxes to see if he had any more lights. He didn't. It was just stuff. The snowman was surprisingly light. When I put it down outside, Tucker had already finished the other side of the bushes. There weren't that many on that side.

"Thank you, Padma," he said. He took the snowman and placed it on his front steps next the door. He plugged it in and turned all the lights on. It was still bright out, but they were pretty. I smiled. He looked at me and smiled. He put his arm at me and asked, "Do you like it?"

"It's so cool!" I said.

He laughed at me. "Did you just say cool?"

I sheepishly grinned. "So what are the rest of the boxes for?"

"Get in the car and we'll do the next step."

I did as I was told and waited patiently for the next forty-five minutes. Sort of.

"So where are we going?"

"It's a surprise."

"What are we going to do there?"

"It's a surprise."

"Are we getting something new?"

"Padma---"

"Are we getting more lights? But where will we put them? Does your heat go hotter?" He pulled into a Starbucks. "We passed like, three of these."

"Yes, but that was until you told me you were cold." I stared blankly at him. "This isn't where we're going. We're just getting you some hot chocolate."

I laughed. "Wouldn't it melt?"

"You've never had hot chocolate?" I shook my head. "It's a drink. You need to try some. Let's go inside. He walked up to the counter and ordered two hot chocolates. In a grand size.

"So you drink melted chocolate?"

"No, it's like, milk and chocolate. And it's warm. You'll like it."

We both took a sip of the hot chocolate at the same time.

"It's hot!" I said.

"It's hot chocolate."

"It's good."

He smiled. "And onwards!"

Once we got back in the car.... well, "How much further until we get there?"

Tucker groaned. "Padmaaaa."

It turned out to only be about ten more minutes. "You brought me to a house in the forest. You are not going to kill me, are you?"

"You watch too many movies. No. We're taking one of those trees home with us."

"Why?"

"Because it's a tradition."

"Won't the people in that house get mad?"

"We'll buy it from them."

"Okay. But that will probably be pretty strange for them."

He laughed. "No, everyone does it. Do you know what holiday is coming up?"

"Yes. Christmas."

"Well this is a Christmas tree. Let's go pick one out."

"How about this one?"

"It's all empty on one side. And we need a biiig one."

"You are so excited about this, aren't you?"

"Excuse me, Ms. Thirty questions."

I laughed at him. "Oh, shut up. How about this one?"

This went on for another half hour. Until after my warm drink disappeared. We finally ended up with a big full one. He told me to stand by the tree. Where is it going to go? He came back with a man with an ax and a saw.

He chopped down the tree, and then dragged it back to the little house. On the side, the ran it through some netting and then helped us tie it to the roof of his car.

"So what do we do with a tree on your car?"

"We take it home, put it up, and decorate it."

So we took it home...

The putting it up part was proving to be difficult. "My hands are covered in sticky!"

"Just hold it a little longer. I almost have it."

A little longer was ten minutes. My arms were tired, they were covered in 'sap' whatever that was. The house smelled very nice though.

"Okay, first I'll put on the lights. I'll make some popcorn first."

"Are you hungry? I can make you something else."

"No. It's for the tree."

"You have to feed it?"

"No. String it on some thread and hang it on the tree."

"Whatever you say."

He just laughed at me. Bag after bag of popcorn I strung into a very, very, very long strand. He wrapped that around the tree next. "And now for the ornaments."

"What's this?"

"Tree skirt. Keeps you from vacuuming the floor every day."

I smiled and followed him to the ornaments.

Because Tucker picked such a big tree, it took us about two hours total to put it up and decorate it.

"Finished."

"It's beautiful. What's the rest of the stuff for?"

"I don't know. My mom gave it to me when I moved in here. I haven't gotten it out since."

We looked through the boxes. "This is tinsel. This is a snow globe. Nope, this is a snow globe collection. This is a nut cracker. This is a... cloth?"

"I believe it's a table runner."

"Okay. This is a table cloth. This is a toy train."

We set up the rest of what was in that box.

"So what else do we do at Christmas?" I asked.

"I wish we could do more, but I'm going to have to do a lot of work."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. We need to finish this product so we can have it out next quarter."

"Okay. Well, whatever you have to do."

"I'm sorry."

"Tucker, it is fine. It is your work."

"It's just Christmas used to be the best part of the year for me."

"Well, we can still have Christmas. Just when you're at home."