A Winter Discovery Read Online Free Page B

isn’t gonna be good,” Reese said to Tanya.
    Tanya reached across him for another pretzel. “What do you mean?”
    “They told him to get a huge tree and he’s coming back with this little thing. They’re not gonna be happy, and you know what they’re gonna do then.”
    Tanya took a couple of Skittles and kissed him on top of the head. “It’s okay. Just watch.”
    Reese wasn’t sure what Tanya meant by “okay,” because the kids were terrible to Charlie when he got back with the tree. That didn’t seem okay at all. Unless you thought it was okay to make other kids feel bad. Reese looked up at his sister. She didn’t think that was okay, did she?
    Tanya looked down at him. “It’s okay . Watch.”
    It took a few more minutes, but everything finally did turn out all right. Really all right, actually. It gave Reese that goopy feeling when Charlie came out and saw how everyone had decorated the tree and then they all started singing. When the movie ended, Reese just sat back against the couch, not even wanting some popcorn for a few seconds.
    “Wow,” he said.
    Tanya smiled at him. “Great, right?”
    “Definitely great.”
    “Best Christmas show ever. Know what I’m saying?”
    “I loved it.” Reese wasn’t positive that it was the best Christmas show ever, but it was definitely up there.
    Tanya got up to go to the bathroom and Reese stayed on the couch thinking about the show. He was so glad things turned out okay for Charlie. It would have been terrible if the kids just kept laughing at him. He never liked it when kids laughed at other kids.
    “Hey, Tanya,” Reese said when she sat down next to him again, “does Charlie Brown have a mom?”
    “Yeah, sure he does. She was one of those squawky voices.”
    “How come she wasn’t on the TV?”
    Tanya grabbed another pretzel. “Actually, you never see grown-ups in Charlie Brown cartoons. You never even hear them speak. You just hear that wah-wah sound.”
    “How come?”
    “Just one of those things.”
    Reese stared at the TV screen, which was now blank. “Hmm. I thought maybe Charlie was like us.”
    “What do you mean?”
    Reese turned his head to look at his sister. “You know; no mom.”
    Tanya leaned toward him and gave him a hug around the head. “Yeah, we haven’t talked about Mom since I came home. You thinking about her a lot?”
    Reese nodded, which was a little hard to do since Tanya was still squeezing his head. “A whole lot lately. Because of the snowflakes.”
    “Snowflakes?”
    “The non-melty ones.”
    Tanya gave him another hug and then sat back on the couch. “I’ve been thinking about Mom a lot too. I think it’s Christmas and everything.”
    “Mom really loved Christmas right?”
    Tanya looked up at the ceiling and chuckled. “Are you kidding? Mom wanted to marry Christmas. Mom wanted to start a family with Christmas.” She looked at Reese with a serious expression. “You do realize that I’m not saying that Mom wanted to leave Dad for Christmas, right?”
    “Huh?”
    Tanya shook her head really fast. “Never mind. Yes, Mom was very, very, very into Christmas.”
    That made Reese happy and sad at the same time. “I never got to spend Christmas with Mom.”
    Reese thought Tanya was going to hug his head again, but she just put her hand on his shoulder instead. “Yeah, I guess you were just a tiny baby the only Christmas she was around with you. I’ll bet she dressed you up in elf pajamas, though.”
    “Really?”
    “Just a guess, but it’s probably a good guess. She had me wearing elf pajamas until I was something like seven.”
    Reese thought of what Tanya would look like in elf pajamas now and he laughed. “Did she like Christmas music?”
    “Yep. She had it on constantly. You know the music that was playing during ‘Charlie Brown Christmas?’ There’s a CD of that, and Mom used to play it all the time.”
    “And decorations?”
    “Crazy amounts of decorations. She’d buy all these new