Cami hesitated, then nodded. “Okay, let’s leave her off. I think we should stick with people who fit our profile, at least for now.”
Lucy nodded.
“I have one more I think we should add,” Max said. “What about the Barristers?”
Cami frowned. “I don’t really see that,” she said.
Lucy shook her head slightly. “That is really hard to imagine.”
“But that’s why it’s total genius,” Max said, his eyes bright. He was clearly still in spy mode. “You’d never guess them, which is the perfect cover.”
“Who are the Barristers?” Joe asked, looking at Cami.
“This weird old couple —” Max started.
“They’re not that weird,” Cami said. “They just, uh, hardly ever come out of their house and when they do they never talk to anyone.”
“There are all kinds of stories about them,” Max continued. “Like that they work for the CIA. Or are political fugitives. No one knows for sure, but they’ve got to have some kind of secret, and that’s why they stay hidden all the time.”
“But you still think they might be GB?” Cami asked. She wasn’t buying it.
Max nodded. “Just think about it,” he said grandly, clearly loving his theory. “This whole time they act like they’re not part of the town but secretly they’re the force behind the town’s most famous tradition.”
Cami could tell Max was doing his typical Max thing, getting totally carried away, but Lucy was nodding. “Max could be right,” she said.
Max grinned at Cami, who rolled her eyes. It seemed like a waste of time but if it made him happy, it was fine by her. “Is there anyone else?”
“I don’t really know anyone in town,” Joe said. “But I was thinking about another trait we should add to the profile.”
Cami looked at him, surprised and pleased he wanted to contribute something. Once he was really part of things, she could casually mention to her grandmother how she had helped bring him out of his shell. “That’s great! What?” she asked, trying to sound extra supportive.
“It’s probably someone who doesn’t have a big ego,” Joe said. “I mean, they do all this awesome stuff but never want credit for it. I don’t know many people like that.” He shot a pointed look at Max.
Cami hoped that Max didn’t see it but his face immediately darkened. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he snapped.
“Just that someone like you would never do something like that,” Joe muttered with venom. This was not what Cami hoped would happen when he came out of his shell.
“You don’t know anything about me,” Max said hotly.
Cami saw that he was squeezing his hands into fists, and she jumped in, desperate to stop this before it got bad. “Knock it off you guys. We don’t have time for this. There’re only fifteen days till Christmas, when we have to know who GB is and have a whole party planned. So let’s just finish our list.”
But Max was pushing back his chair so hard it hit the wall behind him with a thud. “I don’t need this,” he said. “I’m done helping you guys if he’s going to be hanging around.” He stomped to the door and headed out into the cold.
“Sorry,” Joe said, not sounding sorry at all.
Now that she saw how much he truly disliked Max, Cami did not understand why Joe had ever agreed to help them. But there was no way he was getting out of it now.
“It’s not all right,” Cami snapped. “And we’re still meeting Friday after school to start our investigation.”
“I think we should go to Pine Forest,” Lucy said.
Cami was grateful for Lucy’s optimism in the face of the disaster that had just happened.
“Pine Forest is the Christmas Tree farm where almost everyone gets their trees,” Cami explained to Joe. “If GB got the Angel Tree from Pine Forest, it might be a good place to start looking for clues.”
“I’ll be there,” Joe said. “But I can’t speak for anyone else.” He seemed cheerful as he put on his coat and headed out.
“That didn’t go well,” Cami said with a sigh. There was no way she could tell her grandmother about the meeting now.
“Well, maybe Max will change his mind,” Lucy said, clearly not believing a word of it.
Cami had the sneaking suspicion that her great plan was over before it could start.
“Here’s your check,” Syda said, setting it down. “And aren’t you ladies generous to treat.”
Cami would have laughed if she’d had it in her. Of course the boys had stuck her and Lucy with the bill. The not-so-perfect ending to a not-so-perfect afternoon.
Max hated Joe. Hated him. The guy was a menace. If they hadn’t been in Cinnamon’s with half the town around, Max would have …
But he couldn’t do that to his family, not now. The thing he could do, though, was stay as far away from Joe as possible. That would mean missing out on finding GB but at this point Max didn’t care. The only reason he had agreed to help was that it sounded fun to track down the mysterious person behind the tree, kind of like being a spy. Now, though, it was anything but fun. So he was out and that was the end of it. He was annoyed with Cami for asking Joe in the first place and he honestly had no idea why Joe had agreed, seeing how much he obviously despised Max.
Stalking through the snow, Max had reached the corner of Main Street and Church and for a moment he glanced wistfully down Church, where the remains of his home stood. Then he sighed and headed down Montgomery toward the small apartment building next to Handyman Hardware.
As he came up to the building Max told himself that the apartment wasn’t that bad. It was just small and dark with mold in the corners and a bathroom that reeked of mildew … Okay, maybe it was that bad. Max didn’t really know; all he knew was how much he hated living there and how much he missed his home.
He pulled open the heavy glass door and was surprised to see Mr. Pink bent over and squinting at the lobby mailboxes, his bald head shiny under the sharp fluorescent lights.
“Max, just the person I’m looking for,” Mr. Pink said, straightening up.
For a moment Max wondered if Mr. Pink had been eavesdropping at the bakery. “Really?” he asked, baffled that Mr. Pink wanted to talk to him.
Mr. Pink laughed and Max realized his response was less then polite. Good thing his mom hadn’t overheard — she was big with manners.
“Yes, indeed,” Mr. Pink said, straightening and rubbing his hands together. “I need a favor and you’re the one who can make it happen.”
“Okay,” Max said, confused as to how he could possibly help Mr. Pink.
“Do you think you could get your family to come to the Angel Tree tomorrow night at seven?” Mr. Pink asked.
“Why?” Max asked. He knew it wasn’t the polite response but he was too curious to worry about it.
“Good, I’ve piqued your interest,” Mr. Pink said, pulling a wool hat out of the pocket of his down jacket. “I assume that means your answer is a yes?” He put the hat on and moved toward the door.
“Yes,” Max said.
Mr. Pink gave him a thumbs-up and headed out into the night, leaving Max staring after him and hoping against hope that the appointment would have something to do with his wish.
The frosty night bit into Joe as he walked home from Cinnamon’s, the sweet taste of sugar still on his tongue. He hugged his thin jacket around his shoulders, thinking about the afternoon and wondering if he had really made the right choice to help find GB.
If it had been the week before, Joe would have turned Cami down flat the second she revealed that Max was in on the project. But when his wish was granted, things changed. Or more accurately, they were going to have to change. Because Joe had spent the last five months lying to his mom and now that she was really and truly coming to Pine River, Joe was going to have to twist some of those lies into the truth.
Although Joe liked to remember the good things about his life in Virginia — his mom making peanut brittle for their weekly movie nigh
ts, friends coming over after soccer, walks through the woods outside town — certain things had been hard and they all boiled down to one thing: money. After his dad had taken off, leaving them in terrible debt, his mom simply couldn’t make enough to cover their bills. They cut corners, patching old clothes instead of getting new ones and walking to avoid having to put gas in the car. But first the electricity was cut, then the gas, and then they were on the verge of being kicked out of their home.
That was when Joe’s mom sat down and explained that she needed to make a hard decision: It would be tough on both of them but she was going to enlist in the marines. Money would be tight for the next few years as they paid off their debt and she served, but the work she was doing was important, worth the sacrifice. There were other things she might have done to make money, but this was the one she believed in: fighting for the country she loved. And in the end it would help them both.
Joe had readily agreed. He accepted leaving everything he loved to live with Uncle Leon and going to a strange school where everyone hated him. He learned to block out his fears that his mother would be harmed in the line of duty. And he had even accepted that there was no way to spend Christmas with his mother, that despite her five-day leave to the base in Florida they could not afford a plane ticket to northern Pennsylvania. But now, thanks to the Angel Tree, they could.
Which was amazing but also a problem.
“Do you want to come over for dinner?”
Joe looked up but of course the boy was talking to his friend, not Joe. Joe was passing Dobb’s Hill, where a bunch of kids were out sledding, shrieking as they flew down the icy hill, then milling around at the bottom, talking and making plans to hang out together.
“Yeah, let me just call my mom,” the other boy answered.
No one noticed as Joe passed by, a slight shadow under the glowing streetlights.
And this, of course, was Joe’s problem. His mom believed that Joe loved Pine River, that he had friends over all the time and that he’d never been happier. She believed these things because that’s what Joe had told her. If she knew the truth, she would be concerned about him and that wouldn’t be right. Joe told her stories of his good friends and good times in Pine River to make her happy, so she could focus on staying alive and not worry about her son back home.
Until now when she was actually coming to Pine River and would see that not only was Joe friendless, he was hated. So when Cami asked if he would help out with finding GB, Joe had jumped at the chance to do something he could tell his mom about, something that involved other people. Sure, he was happy to thank GB, who had given him the best gift ever. But he’d never have agreed to a plan involving Max if it wasn’t for his mom.
Joe had reached the run-down building that housed a Laundromat on the first floor and two small apartments above. He looked up and saw that the windows in Leon’s apartment were dark. Joe never knew how to talk to Leon, who usually came home late and mostly pretended Joe wasn’t there, so this was a relief.
But as Joe climbed the narrow, rickety stairs, there was a hollow feeling in his chest that came from one too many dinners alone. This emptiness that was Joe’s whole life was exactly what his mom could never see. And so, as he turned the key in the lock and opened the door to the smell of old socks and burnt burgers, Joe vowed to keep meeting Cami and Lucy, and do whatever he could to stay connected to something in Pine River, something that would make his mother happy.
It was a lot harder to convince his family that they needed to go the Angel Tree than Max had thought it would be. Fiona had a cold, his dad was exhausted from a double shift at the post office, and his mom had planned a night of laundry and an early bedtime. None of them wanted to venture out in the polar night air, even though the tree was only half a block away.
“I promised Mr. Pink,” Max pleaded, his eyes on the clock, which now read 6:46.
“I don’t understand any of this,” his mom said with a sigh. “But I suppose a promise is a promise.”
“What could Mr. Pink want?” his dad wondered, slowly pulling on his winter jacket.
“He didn’t say anything?” Max’s mom asked as she stuffed a complaining Fiona into a fleece vest and the secondhand coat she’d picked up at the church thrift shop.
“No,” Max said, opening the door to the apartment in hopes that it would encourage his parents to hurry. He had had his own coat on for the past ten minutes and was starting to sweat.
“All right, let’s go,” his mom said, her voice tired. Max saw the dark circles under her eyes. His mom always had insomnia when she was anxious about something and from the looks of things she hadn’t slept in weeks.
His family made their way down the narrow stairs and out through the lobby.
“It’s too cold,” Fiona whined.
Max squelched the urge to give her a pinch.
The town square was deserted as Max’s family made their way over to the Angel Tree. A light snow was falling, the icy kind that was more crystals than flakes. Max could feel them clinging to his eyelashes and brows.
“So what are we waiting for?” his dad asked.
And then they saw it, a line of people walking toward them led by Mr. Pink. At first the others were in the shadows of the street lamps that hung on each corner of the square but as they came closer Max recognized Ann and Jim Bellows, who ran a local contracting firm, along with the town electrician and plumber, and Kira Cutler, who owned an architecture firm. Max’s heart was thumping hard in his chest as they came and stood before his family.
“Thanks for coming out tonight,” Mr. Pink said to Max and his family. “And we won’t keep you wondering about why we’ve dragged you out in the cold. Come the first day of spring, these people” — he gestured to the group gathered around him — “and a slew of helpers are going to start breaking ground on your new house.”
Max’s mother gasped and grabbed his father’s arm, which wasn’t a great idea because his father looked like he was about to faint.
“We wanted to gather here at the Angel Tree to tell you in person,” Mr. Pink went on. “Because this tree symbolizes what our community is about and here, at this tree, the call for help is answered.”
Max’s father still looked stunned but his mom reached over and rested a hand on Max’s back. “Did you put up a wish?” she asked softly.
Max nodded, his throat suddenly too thick to speak.
“I don’t know if we can accept this,” she said, turning back to Mr. Pink. “The insurance will only cover part of the expense and —”
Mr. Pink held up a hand. “We know,” he said simply.
“But the cost, your time,” Max’s father said, looking around. “It’s too much to ask of any of you.”
“We give it willingly,” Mr. Pink said, and the group around him, their faces bathed in the light from the Christmas lights strung on the buildings around them, nodded.
Max’s father opened his mouth to speak again but his mom put her hand on his arm. “Thank you,” she said, her voice hoarse. “Thank you so much for this incredible gift.”
Mr. Pink grinned. “Merry Christmas,” he said.
Fiona stepped forward looking up at Mr. Pink with wonder. “Are you Santa?” she asked.
Everyone laughed, including Max, but as he looked around at the people gathered there to help his family, he did feel like maybe Santa had just paid them an early visit. Then he glanced at the tree behind them, dark against the blue-black night sky, and knew that what had happened tonight was something even better because it was real. It was the Angel Tree that had brought together the people of Pine River to make his impossible wish come true.
So I’ll pick you up in an hour?” Lucy’s mom asked as Lucy opened the door of their car on Friday after school, a frigid breeze slipping in from the parking lot of Pine Forest Christmas Trees.
“I think that’s enough time,” Lucy said, stepping out and then holding the door for Valentine, who hopped out next to her. “But I’m not sure.”
“I don’t mind waiting,” her mom said. “We want to be careful not to tire Valentine.”
“Right,” Lucy agreed, leaning down to rub her dog’s head. The vet had okayed an hour or two of activity for Valentine, and Lucy wanted to be sure to follow those orders carefully so that Valentine could continue to heal. “Thanks, Mom.”
“Happy to do it,” her mom said. “It’s about ten steps to the front gate but it looks like your friend is coming to get you.”
“See you later,” Lucy said, closing the car door and following as Valentine began leading her to the gate.
“Hey, Lucy,” Cami said, her boots crunching in the snow.
“Hi,” Lucy said. She heard a rustling sound, most likely Cami waving to her mom as she drove away.
“So we’ll wait for Joe and then — oh, wow!”
Lucy was about to ask what had Cami so excited when she smelled clean gym socks, fried eggs, and hot cocoa, and heard Max’s laugh.
“Surprised?” he asked as he came up to them.
“I can’t believe you’re here!” Cami exclaimed joyfully.
“Yeah, well, my Angel Tree wish came true so I figured I owed it to GB to be part of your big thank-you celebration,” Max said. Max always sounded cheerful but today his voice was positively exuberant.
“What wish?” Cami asked.
“Oh, no big deal, just a whole new house,” Max said. He was making light of it, but Lucy could hear that he was bouncing on his toes as he spoke.
Cami squealed in delight and Lucy heard the soft sounds of her hugging Max.
“Oh,” Lucy exclaimed, suddenly remembering her dad’s new volunteer job. “I think my dad is going to be helping out!”
“Awesome,” Max said. “Tell him I said thanks.”
“That’s so cool,” Cami said, giving her arm a squeeze.
“And here’s someone that’s totally not cool,” Max muttered.
The Angel Tree Page 6