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Annie had almost taken Kevin to the concert hall, but there was a church closer by. She didn't regret her decision, because mass was on, and she heard his sweet young voice as he sang clearly, like a bell. Or an angel. She sang more softly, allowing his voice to carry. While a few people in the congregation looked down on her for her rags, covered in feathers and pigeon droppings, they looked at Kevin with a soft expression as he sang along to 'O Little Town of Bethlehem' and 'Silent Night', all the traditional carols.
He looked at his watch after the service was done, biting his lip.
“Do you have someplace to be?” Annie asked, while everyone else cleared out. Kevin's shoulders slumped, and he clutched his bag close.
“Yeah,” he said, and he watched children filing past. The church was nearly empty, a cold breeze coming through the open doors. A red-haired woman came in late, passing others as they left, and she glanced at them but looked away again. Most people did when they looked at Annie. Another person, a man, came in the side doors. “I've gotta get on with that good deed to wipe out the bad ones. Good thing they count for double.”
“If I can help you, I will,” she said. They startled as the bridal march began to play on the organ, and the man and the woman met in front of the priest. Annie gasped. “Oh, how romantic! They must be getting married.”
“Ugh, grown-up mushy stuff,” Kevin grumbled, but she noticed a small smile on his face.
“Do you think they need witnesses? We could offer. Unless you need to run off.”
“I might have time,” Kevin said. He could check a map, see if they were close enough to Duncan's toy store, as well as his aunt and uncle's place. If not, he could get a cab. He probably had enough cash left. If he told them it was an emergency, they might go faster.
“Hey!” the dark-haired man called out. He'd been talking with the woman and the priest. “Are you guys free for a few minutes? We need witnesses.”
“It takes more than few minutes,” the red-haired woman replied wryly.
“If you don't mind a couple of strangers,” Annie said, and they walked down the aisle towards the trio. The dark-haired man looked Kevin over.
“Well, you're probably too young to sign a legal document,” he said, smiling. “But we're happy to have you here anyway.”
“Just one signature will be enough,” the priest said.
“If only Susan could be here, but I didn't know why we were meeting,” the woman said.
The short ceremony began. Kevin had never been to a wedding before, but he was pretty sure they were usually longer than this, and not this late at night on Christmas Eve. And they were usually supposed to have a lot more people, right? Or maybe that was something movies got wrong. But the ring was sparkly, and the couple kissed (he looked away), and then they had to sign a piece of paper. The lady with hair even more red than his mother was Dorey Walker; he'd never heard the name Dorey before, but then his brother was called Buzz, so what did he know? And the man she'd just married was called Bryan Bedford. Kevin kind of recognised him, and wondered why.
“Wait, weren't you on the front of the paper this morning?” he asked, as Annie finished signing the marriage certificate. “You were the guy who got Santa out of jail!”
“That I did,” Bryan said, still smiling. He couldn't stop smiling, at Dorey, at the priest, at everyone and everything. “I guess it's easy enough when the guy really is Santa Claus, huh?”
“Yeah, I kinda wish I got to meet him, maybe he could've taken me back to Chicago in his sleigh, so I'd be home for Christmas,” Kevin said. They were gathered in the priest's office. Kevin had only been in churches before, never in a priest's office. It was pretty ordinary, like a normal office, but with a couple of crosses and a picture of Jesus. He thought it would be a lot more mysterious, or at least less office-y.
“Where's the rest of your family?” Dorey asked, glancing at Annie, who shrugged.
“I only met him today,” she said.
“Yeah, she helped me when I was stuck in Central Park this evening,” Kevin said. “I freaked out and screamed in her face, so I took her for hot chocolate as an apology. Then she brought me here so we wouldn't be stuck in the cold. We've been talking as we walked along. Annie's really nice, and the birds in Central Park like her. She's like a pigeon whisperer or something.”
Annie chuckled at that, but Dorey and Bryan weren't put off by his rambling.
“Kevin, where's your family?” Bryan pressed, while the priest watched, concerned.
“Florida,” he said. “I got on the wrong plane by accident and ended up here. I had my dad's bag, which had his wallet, so I checked into the Plaza, but they told me it was stolen and they were calling the police, so I ran. Then I ran into the Wet Bandits, who tried to steal from our house when I was home alone last Christmas, and they said they were gonna kill me, but I lost them in Central Park. I tried to find somewhere else to stay, but New York's so creepy at night. My Uncle Rob lives in New York, but his place was empty; he and his family must still be in Paris. Except their eldest, Heather; she lives in Chicago, to go to university--”
“Wait a minute, did you say you were home alone last Christmas?” Dorey said, while Bryan was speaking quietly to the priest.
“Yeah, they forgot I'd been banished to the attic, and left without me when they went to Paris for Christmas last year,” Kevin said, with a shrug. Annie shifted closer to him on the sofa and put an arm around his shoulders, making a soft sound, like one of her pigeons.
“They shouldn't have done that,” she said. “How long were you on your own?”
“Less than a week,” he said. “I've only been in New York since yesterday, but it feels like much longer. I didn't wanna go to Florida, but I didn't wanna be on the run from the police, either.”
“Kevin, the Wet Bandits are criminals who broke out of prison,” Bryan said, as he dialled something on the phone. “Did you last see them in Central Park?”
“Yeah, but they were planning to rob Duncan's Toy Store tonight,” Kevin said. “Midnight. I got the whole thing recorded on my Talkboy.”
“We've been selling those at Cole's,” Dorey said. “I remember Kris sending some of the kids to get toys from Duncan's. It's a beautiful store. It's been open since I was a little girl. I used to love going there. Even Susan does.”
Bryan spoke to someone on the phone, maybe the cops. At least he didn't tell them where Kevin was, just where the Wet Bandits were going to be. Kevin looked at the time; it was a good thing the cops would be going there, because he wasn't going to have time to set any traps. Not even if he got the fastest cab driver in the world.
“Kevin, do your parents usually forget you like this?” Dorey asked gently.
“I know I can be kind of annoying at times,” Kevin said. “It just hurts that they take the older kids' side over mine all the time. This last time, it really wasn't my fault. Yeah, it was my fault that I got separated from them at the airport, but not the fight. Buzz started it.”
“Tell us about it, Kevin,” Annie said.
“But... it's getting late. Don't you all have somewhere to be?”
“This is important,” the priest said. “Please tell us, son.”
The whole story spilled out. The recital at school, Buzz doing something with the candles, Kevin didn't know what, until he heard his siblings later laughing about it again while they were going to bed and he was stuck in the attic again by himself. Always being stuck with bed-wetting Fuller when everyone stayed over. Uncle Frank always taking shots at him. Then the previous Christmas, Marley saving him at the last minute, setting up traps because he didn't know if he could trust the police, after stealing the toothbrush and realising that the guy coming to steal from him had been dressed as a cop. Not knowing if the police could be trusted to be on his side, knowing that adults never were before. Not his parents, not his aunt and uncle, not his cousin Heather, not the teachers at school who bought Buzz's fake apologies and let him pass his classes despite his low marks. And Buzz making fun of Kevin for getting good marks in school, and their parents letting him get away with it because “He's just jealous, Kevin”, “He's just trying to make you angry, Kevin”.
The police called back and said they'd caught the Wet Bandits red-handed, and Mr Duncan was taking the money straight to the kids' hospital. He was grateful for the tip-off, and wanted to know who was responsible. Bryan assured Kevin that he wouldn't be in trouble for using his father's own money to support himself; his parents were responsible for keeping him clothed, sheltered, and fed, and the hotel should have been more vigilant. He would defend Kevin, if he had to, and spoke to Mr Duncan on the phone himself.
“Yeah, it's okay, Kevin will come home with us,” he said, looking at Dorey, who nodded. “He'll be safe for the night. His family's in Florida. You're welcome to come to Christmas lunch with us, if you don't have any other plans, Mr Duncan.”
He gave an address, and then was able to hang up.
“Are you sure it's okay for me to come with you?” Kevin asked.
“You can't spend the night on your own,” Dorey said. “I have a daughter around your age. She'll be happy to have someone else to talk to, other than grown-ups like us. Annie, would you like to spend Christmas lunch with us as well? We can send a cab for you.”
“That would be wonderful, thank you,” Annie said.
“And you'd be welcome too, Father,” Bryan said. “I'm sure we'll have enough food to go around.”
Once it was all settled, and phone numbers and addresses exchanged, Annie went on her way, the priest locked up the church, and Kevin was driving back to an apartment with Dorey and Bryan. It was weird; he'd only just met them, but Bryan had defended Santa Claus himself, so he had to be trustworthy. And Dorey was a mother. They were already being way nicer to Kevin than most people were, just like Mr Marley, and Annie, and Mr Duncan. They asked him about himself, what kind of things he liked to do. He told them about the choir, about studying science at school, about wanting to be part of a family who liked him one day. He didn't mean that last one to slip out, but it'd been a long day, with a lot of scary encounters, and he just wanted to sleep.
They helped him out of the cab, and took the lift up to Dorey's apartment. He had to sleep on the sofa, but it was better than being stuck in Central Park. And he could see the tree from here, with its decorations. Dorey apologised for there being no presents for him, but Bryan reminded her that Santa would find him anywhere, and ushered her away as Kevin's eyes closed.
In the morning, Kevin was woken to find someone sitting on the floor in front of him, cross-legged, in a dark green dress. She had straight brown hair and wide eyes.
“Who are you?” she asked. “Did Mr Kringle leave you here?”
“Are you...” He sat up straight, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Are you Susan?”
“Yes,” she said, her back straightening.
“I'm Kevin,” he said. “You must be Dorey's daughter. She told me about you.”
“Are you my brother?” she blurted out.
Kevin tried to process that thought, but didn't have time before Dorey and Bryan walked into the room, both wearing dressing gowns.
“Hey, Susan, look what Santa brought you for Christmas,” Bryan said.
Susan gasped as she jumped to her feet.
“Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed, as she ran forward into their arms. Dorey was holding a cup, which smelled like it was full of coffee, but she kept it out of the way so Susan didn't jostle it. She held her daughter close, and Kevin felt his eyes prickling with tears. He wanted that. Sure, his mother held him close last year when she found him at home on Christmas morning. But how much of it was out of guilt? How much of it was relief to find him still alive? If he'd died, his family – and his parents in particular – would've been in a lot of trouble. He knew that. They were lucky he got by alright on his own.
Susan asked if he was her brother. What did that even mean?
“Now all we need is a house!” Susan said, pulling back from her mother and step-father. “I mean, I'd wanted a baby brother, but an instant brother is just as good.”
“Brother?” Bryan said, and then he looked at Kevin. “Ah.”
“What're you talking about, Susan?” Dorey said.
“What I asked Mr Kringle for,” Susan said. “I asked for a father, a house, and a baby brother.”
“Oh,” Kevin said. “Now I get it.”
“Susan, Kevin's just staying until we can...” Dorey paused, and looked at Bryan.
“Kevin was separated from his family, so he's staying with us for now,” Bryan said. “But he can be like a brother to you. And we've got some extra people coming over for Christmas today, for lunch, if we can rearrange the furniture to fit everyone in. Maybe we should... not that I really have much extra room at my place, but I didn't decorate much for Christmas...”
“Maybe we should open presents and then think about it,” Dorey said. “Kevin, did you want to have a shower or a bath? I got out some extra towels for you last night. I'm afraid we don't have spare clothes for you, but we could launder the ones you're wearing before lunch, if you don't mind wearing a really big dressing robe in the meantime.”
“That'd be great, thanks,” Kevin said. It'd be awkward sitting around watching the others opening gifts when he didn't have any himself.
He came back out, swimming in a big robe left in the bathroom for him, and found the others smiling eagerly. Susan was holding a wrapped present.
“Santa left this for you!” she said, almost bouncing on her heels.
Kevin smiled widely; it looks like Bryan had been right. Dorey held his clothes while he took the gift from Susan. Sure enough, there was a tag on it with his name, and the writing he'd seen each year with a gift Buzz somehow never got his hands on.
Kevin, I know you're far from Chicago, but I hope this will be your new family. Trust Bryan to help you, Dorey to love you as her own, and Susan to be the sister you should have had. Kris Kringle.
“Whoa,” he whispered. He tucked the card, with the small but neat writing, into his pocket, and then opened the wrapping carefully. Inside was something which looked like a journal, but with weird plastic covering over the pages. He realised it was like the old photo albums his parents had, where you could put photographs of any size inside, instead of the usual albums where you slotted the same sized pictures inside, even though you had to tilt your head to see some of them. His initials were on the front in gold.
“That looks neat,” Bryan said.
“I've been taking pictures since getting to New York a couple of days ago, but I haven't got them developed yet,” Kevin said. “None with me in them, since I was on my own.”
“We'll take some photos today then, so you can have some for your album,” Dorey said. “I'll just put these in the wash. We don't have cereal here, Kevin, but we have bread for toast, and eggs, bacon... Susan and Bryan will help you. I'll be back in a minute.”
Breakfast was great. It was much better to eat with other people. Kevin was okay with toast and cream cheese. He was used to scrambling for whatever he could get at meals, but everyone was so nice and polite, passing everything back and forth. He wasn't used to being asked what he wanted, pressed to take more. And he couldn't help thinking of Santa's note...
What did he know that Kevin didn't? Was something going to happen to Kevin's family? Had it already happened? Or did they just... not want him?
He'd wondered that often enough over the years. Whether he'd been adopted, and that's why they didn't like him. He'd asked once, and they'd shown him pictures from the hospital, shown him his birth certificate to prove he wasn't adopted. His siblings had to be nice to him for a whole two weeks, and it was the best two weeks of his life. But they went back to normal after that. It didn't matter that he was really a McCallister.
He worked it out eventually, when one of the kids in his class complained about her parents having another kid; she said they already had enough people in their family. With another baby, there'd be crying all night. There'd be less money to go around, less food; it'd be harder to go on holidays, with more people to book rooms and travel. She'd have to share her toys and give her old clothes to the new baby. And Kevin realised that's why his older siblings didn't like him; he was the interloper. Even though his parents made a lot of money, they didn't want to share their food and toys with him. They didn't want to share their parents, house, and holidays.
They didn't want him because he was new. Their parents chose to have him – or maybe they didn't, he'd heard some babies were 'accidents' – and his brothers and sisters didn't get any say in it. So they took it out on him, even though it wasn't his fault.
But if this family wanted him... would he be better with them? Susan wanted him. And if they didn't want him, maybe Annie would? He'd rather be with a family who didn't forget him, or forget to remember him; he didn't want to be the pigeon in the family anymore. He wanted to be loved and liked by the people he had to live with.
Lunch came, and Annie, Mr Duncan, and the priest – Father Beattie – showed up one after the other, all rugged up against the cold weather. Annie was wearing clean clothes. Mr Duncan brought presents for everyone, and Kevin gave Annie one of the turtle doves. She held him close, whispering her thanks into his hair. He was back in his clothes, still warm from the dryer.
After lunch, and dessert, they rearranged the furniture again to sit in front of the TV and watch The Christmas Carol from 1951. Kevin was snuggled between Annie and Susan. Dorey got a call from work, asking her to do some pictures at a catalogue house while it was still snow-covered, but she told them it would have to wait until after the film was over. Once it was, the others left, and the four of them left for the catalogue house.
Susan grew excited when she saw the house.
“This is the one I told Mr Kringle about!” she exclaimed. “It's the house I asked him for!”
“I don't think Santa gives people real houses for Christmas,” Kevin said uncertainly. “Doll houses, maybe. Or gingerbread houses.”
“Well, we were thinking we'd have to get a bigger place,” Dorey said.
They met Dorey's co-worker at the door, and he told them about their Christmas bonuses, while handing Dorey the keys to the house. She thanked him and wished him a happy Christmas, though she freaked out a little when he mentioned Mr Kringle. Susan ran straight inside, and Kevin followed her. It was more interesting than talking to the grown-ups.
“Look, look, this must be your room,” Susan said, pointing across from the room she was in. Kevin poked his head into a room which had a single bed, was painted in blue instead of pink, and was decorated for Christmas, with its own tree. It had a train set on the floor, and one of those rugs for playing with cars he'd always wanted, but his parents thought was too childish. He left; it felt intrusive. Susan wanted a baby brother, after all, not a brother a couple of years older than her. He looked in her room, where she was hugging a teddy bear she'd found. It had a tartan ribbon around its neck, and the red matched the red coat and hat she was wearing.
“What about your parents?” he asked.
“Let's look,” she said, and she put the bear back down and grabbed his hand. She led him out of the room and down the hall, and found a master bedroom, then they went across the hall where they found a nursery, which was big enough to be turned into a normal room one day. At the end of the hall was a bathroom with a shower-bath combo, a toilet and a double sink.
“It's perfect, isn't it?” Susan said. She led him back downstairs. “Let's check out the backyard.”
He didn't mind being led around. This was her Christmas wish, after all. Kevin had wanted his family back... or had he just wished for a family? Maybe Santa knew what he wanted – or needed – better than he did. Maybe Kevin had been too much of a pain this year to get what he wanted, and Susan had been better than him. His good deed last night was enough to get a present from Santa, but not to get his family back.
At least the children's hospital got the money from Mr Duncan, and Mr Duncan had been so grateful he'd brought along a heap of presents to share with everyone on Christmas Day. Kevin got a remote control car, which he'd also never been allowed by his parents, in case the other kids got jealous, or he tripped someone up.
“Look, there's a tree swing!” Susan said, tugging on Kevin's hand as she pointed.
“It's a nice one, too, not made out of a tyre,” he said.
“Oh, I wouldn't mind if it was,” she said, smiling up at him. “I'm just happy to have a backyard.”
“We have a backyard in Chicago, but no one ever wants to play with me,” Kevin said. “If your parents buy this place, and I'm still here long enough, I'll be happy to push you in the swing. It'll be nice to have someone to play with for once.”
She squeezed his hand and rested her head against his upper arm for a moment. Then she led him back to the front door, now that Dorey and Bryan were inside with them.
“It's just like I hoped, and there's even a room for Kevin, plus one for a baby,” she said, and Dorey's eyes widened. Kevin tried not to smile or laugh at that. “Are you buying it, Mom?”
“Uh, yes, it seems like Mr Kringle has already somehow pushed through the paperwork, and we just have to sign it,” she said. “Mr Shellhammer was surprised to find out that I was married, and... and that we had taken in a child. For the time being.” She glanced at Kevin, who shrugged.
“My family's still probably in Florida,” he said.
“If your father's credit card was reported as stolen, that was probably so they could track where it was used,” Bryan said. “Which means they'll now know where you are. Whether they can get here soon depends on flights. Travelling at Christmas is difficult, flights are usually booked out.”
“I don't mind. I just don't want to put you out.”
“There are already beds upstairs, so Kevin won't have to sleep on the sofa tonight,” Susan said.
“We're not moving in on Christmas Day,” Dorey said firmly. “But we'll try to make the sofa more comfortable tonight, Kevin, I promise.”
“No, it was great--”
“Kevin can have my bed! I'm shorter than him, so I can sleep on the sofa.”
“Let's just go home,” Dorey said. “I need to process all this. And we have more Christmas movies to watch before the day is out. We'll talk about this later, and think about moving in tomorrow.”
Bryan wrapped his arm around her waist as they walked out, with Susan talking to Kevin, still holding his hand as they walked out ahead of her parents, telling him about how wonderful it would be to live in a proper house finally, and how they would go to the same school, and he could meet her friends before the holidays were over...