Chapter Sixteen
Neva
“That was a long time ago when we had our two dogs, Ernie and Bert,” Fiona explained to her grandmother, and Neva was jolted out of her state of scared disbelief.
It didn’t have to mean anything. A long time ago for Fiona could mean something that had happened a year or two ago, or something she had imagined in pre-school age. Both Fiona and Elsa had vivid imaginations.
But she said this with so much sincerity, and Neva had to think of Angie’s off timeline when it came to Fluffy, and the mention of another pet.
With the clock creeping closer to midnight, that magic moment, she couldn’t help wondering if for some inexplicable reason, she had been the one who’d been wrong all along. She thought of the sketchbook she had found, pages after pages of their lives. Happy lives.
It was scary to think that her own memory had betrayed her, but what if this told them that they needed to find middle ground more often?
Angie clearly thrived on Christmas, and perhaps they had scaled it down too much in the past years, too worried about adding stress to the holidays when their lives were already so busy. They might have overlooked something.
She would have loved to pick up painting again, but Neva hadn’t even considered this to be an option in recent years. And Christina…Neva blinked back tears thinking about their conversation. She had held something back that had been weighing on her.
It shouldn’t be that way.
Neva wanted them to spend more time together. This was what they had been working for so hard. And yet she was here, while Angie had felt the need to leave…
This wasn’t right. It was Christmas after all, and maybe to make it right, she had to believe.
“I’m going to check on Angie,” she told her father and silently left the house.
Three minutes before Christmas Day, starting her car, Neva made a wish.