Chapter 6
December 25th
Ellis
After the pancakes were eaten and the food from Edie was put away, Ellis sat and pretended to want to watch the news on their tiny old TV. He wanted to see how long Casey could contain his excitement, but as predicted, it wasn’t many minutes before he practically bounced next to Ellis. Casey kept peeking at the gift under the tree, probably thinking Ellis couldn’t see him, and Ellis had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.
Casey jumped off the couch and bounced to the kitchen where he gulped down a glass of water. He wiped nonexistent breadcrumbs from the counters and scrubbed the stove again, even though he’d already done it once.
His eyes never left the sad-looking tree.
When Casey couldn’t come up with any more made-up chores, he came trudging back
