Part 2 (2/2)
”Show me,” he said.
She took him into the living room and pointed at where he'd been standing, and Fred squatted down again and peered at the carpet.
”How does he disappear?”
”I don't know. He just. . . isn't there.”
Fred stood up. ”Has he changed anything else? Besides the tree?”
”Not that I know of. He turned the TV on without the re- mote,” she said, looking around the room. The shopping bags were still on the coffee table. She looked through them and pulled out the video. ”Here. I'm your Secret Santa.
I'm not supposed to give it to you till Christmas Eve, but maybe you'd better take it before he turns it into a snowy owl or something.”
She handed it to him. ”Go ahead. Open it.”
He unwrapped it. ”Oh,” he said without enthusiasm. ”Thanks.”
”I remember last year at the party we talked about it, and I was afraid you might alreadyhave a copy. You don't, do you?”
”No,” he said, still in that flat voice.
”Oh, good. I had a hard time finding it. You were right when you said we were the only two people in the world who liked Miracle on 34th Street. Everybody else I know thinks It's a Wonderful Life is-”
”You bought me Miracle on 34th Street?” he said, frowning.
”It's the original black-and-white version. I hate those colorized things, don't you?
Everyone has gray teeth.”
”Lauren.” He held the box out to her so she could read the front. ”I think your friend's been fixing things again.”
She took the box from him. On the cover was a picture of Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed dancing the Charleston.
”Oh, no! That little rat!” she said. ”He must have changed it when he was looking at it. He told me It's a Wonderful Life was his favorite movie.”
”Et tu, Brute?” Fred said, shaking his head.
”Do you suppose he changed all my other Christmas presents?”
”We'd better check.”
”If he has . . .” she said, darting into the kitchen. She dropped to her knees and started rummaging through them.
”Do you think they look the same?” Fred asked, squatting down beside her.
”Your present looked the same.” She grabbed a package wrapped in red-and-gold paper and began feeling it. ”Evie's present is okay, I think.”
”What is it?”
”A stapler. She's always losing hers. I put her name on it in Magic Marker.” She handed it to him to feel.
”It feels like a stapler, all right,” he said.
”I think we'd better open it and make sure.”
Fred tore off the paper. ”It's still a stapler,” he said, looking at it. ”What a great idea for a Christmas present! Everybody in Doc.u.mentation's always losing their staplers. I think PMS steals them to use on their Christmas memos.” He handed it back to her. ”Now you'll have to wrap it again.”
”That's okay,” Lauren said. ”At least it wasn't a Yanomamo ornament.”
”But it might be any minute,” Fred said, straightening up. ”There's no telling what he might take a notion to transform next. I think you'd better call your sister again, and ask her to ask the Maharis.h.i.+ if he knows how to send spirits back to the astral plane, and I'll go see what I can find out about exorcism.”
”Okay,” Lauren said, following him to the door. ”Don't take the videotape with you. Maybe I can get him to change it back.”
”Maybe,” Fred said, frowning. ”You're sure he said he was here to give you your heart's desire?”
”I'm sure.”
”Then why would he change my videotape?” he said thoughtfully. ”It's too bad your sister couldn't have conjured up a nice, straightforward spirit.”
”Like Santa Claus,” Lauren said.
Her sister wasn't home. Lauren tried her off and on all evening, and when she finally got her, she couldn't talk. ”The Maharis.h.i.+ and I are going to Barbados. They're having a harmonic divergence there on Christmas Eve, so you need to send my Christmas present to Barbados,”
she said, and hung up.
”I don't even have her Christmas present bought yet,” Lauren said to the couch, ”and it's allyour fault.”
She went into the kitchen and glared at the tree. ”I don't even dare go shopping because you might turn the couch into a humpbacked whale while I'm gone,” she said, and then clapped her hand over her mouth.
She peered cautiously into the living room and then made a careful circuit of the whole apartment, looking for endangered species. There were no signs of any, and no sign of the spirit. She went back into the living room and turned on the TV Jimmy Stewart was dancing the Charleston with Donna Reed. She picked up the remote and hit the channel b.u.t.ton. Now Jimmy Stewart was singing, ”Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight?”
She hit the automatic channel changer. Jimmy Stewart was on every channel except one. The Ghost of Christmas Pres ent was on that one, telling Scrooge to change his ways. She watched the rest of A Christmas Carol. When it reached the part where the Cratchits were sitting down to their Christmas dinner, she remembered she hadn't had any supper and went into the kitchen.
The tree was completely blocking the cupboards, but by mightily pus.h.i.+ng several branches aside she was able to get to the refrigerator. The eggnog was gone. So were the Stouffer's frozen entrees. The only thing in the refrigerator was a half-empty bottle of Evian water.
She shoved her way out of the kitchen and sat back down on the couch. Fred had told her to call if anything happened, but it was after eleven o'clock, and she had a feeling the eggnog had been gone for some time.
A Christmas Carol was over, and the opening credits of the next movie were starting.
”Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. Starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed.”
She must have fallen asleep. When she woke up, Miracle on 34th Street was on, and the store manager was giving Edmund Gwenn as Macy's Santa Claus a list of toys he was supposed to push if Macy's didn't have what the children asked Santa for.
”Finally,” Lauren said, watching Edmund Gwenn tear the list into pieces, ”something good to watch,” and promptly fell asleep. When she woke up again, John Payne as Fred Gailey was kissing Doris, a.k.a. Maureen O'Hara, and someone was knocking on the door.
I don't remember anyone knocking on the door, she thought groggily. Fred told Doris how he'd convinced the State of New York that Edmund Gwenn was Santa Claus, and then they both stared disbelievingly at a cane standing in the corner. ”The End” came on the screen.
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