Trust And Hope

Chapter 21

"Are you sure you can't wear just a little elf hat?" Jocelyn asked, holding up a green elf hat.

"Isn't it enough that I'm going to sing?" Miles frowned at the elf hat.

"Well, yes, but the kids really like it when you dress up for them," I said.

"Why won't you wear a tiny Santa hat?" Jocelyn asked.

Miles shrugged. "I guess I'm just not that big on Christmas."

Jocelyn gasped, horrified. "You don't like Christmas?"

"I didn't say that," Miles said. "I just said I'm not too big on it."

"Why?" I asked, trying not to sound nosy.

"It's just..." Miles looked down, then up at me, meeting my dark eyes. "My dad died around Christmas three years ago. That's when I lost my sight."

I nodded understandingly. "Yeah. I get that."

He looked at me with a wariness in his eyes that I had in my eyes with a lot of people myself. "Really?"

I looked down, fidgeting with my locket. "My sister Eva died two days after my birthday three years ago. She was my twin. I haven't had a birthday party since she got sick. I think I was six, maybe."

"I was the only boy in my family so me and my dad were really close," Miles said. "It's probably nothing like losing a twin, but it's still really hard for me." Miles stared up at the ceiling. "The Christmas after my dad died I refused all gifts and told everyone all I wanted was my dad back. Of course it was stupid, but I guess it was my way of coping or something."

"The birthday after Eva died- my twelfth, I locked myself in my room and didn't come out the entire day," I said, trying to keep tears from spilling down my cheeks.

"That..." Miles' voice trailed off. "That really sucks."

That was when Jocelyn got up and walked out. I figured it was because she felt uncomfortable, but she returned with an oversized cowboy hat, ginormous sunglasses, and a Nerf gun.

"You can wear these if you want," Jocelyn said, handing him them.

Miles felt both, and his eyebrows knit together in confusion. "Are these... sunglasses?"

"Yep," Jocelyn smiled. "And a cowboy hat and a Nerf gun."

Miles looked confused. "What would I even be?"

"You know how you told Teagan and Tyler you were a spy for Santa?" Jocelyn asked. "Well, you'll be the spy of Christmas."

Miles took the items and a mischievous grin spread across his face. "I kind of prefer 'Secret Agent Man', you know from the movie?"

Jocelyn winced. "How about we stick to Santa's Secret Agent?"

Miles pretended to pout. "Fine." He put on the cowboy hat and pulled it down over his face. "How do I look?" he asked in a deep voice.

I grabbed the brim of his hat and yanked it up. "Does that answer your question?"

Miles scowled at me. "You're mean," he said, his lip folded out like a couch.

We went to Teagan's room and she and Tyler looked up from the game they were playing.

"You're a spy, aren't you?" Tyler bounced on Teagan's bed a little.

Miles pulled down his sunglasses a little so he could peer over them and tipped his cowboy hat at him. "Santa's Secret Agent at your service, little man."

Teagan grinned. "Tyler wants a pet dinosaur for Christmas. Could you tell Santa that?"

Miles nodded seriously. "Of course I will. And what about you, Teagan? What do you want for Christmas?"