Chapter 17: Jingle BallsDecember 24. Thursday
Christmas Eve
The breakfast club meets in the kitchen and cram around the smallish table between two windows that overlook the backyard. Shoulders, hips, and legs brush together. As Willa tries her hand at eggs Benedict, a mess in the making. Chatter ranges from the excessive snow that still plummets down from the Channing sky, to Bill and Pam’s whereabouts.
“Bill’s missing again. No surprise,” Jake says. “We all know he’s been missing for years.” His head rests on Soozie Butterfly’s left shoulder, exhaustion hitting him this morning. The smell of m*******a billows from his Led Zeppelin T-shirt and Nike running shorts; his bedtime attire.
Soozie is done up like a drag queen, dressed for a disco party, even at nine-twenty this morning: heavy
