Chapter 2

Valarie tried to concentrate on her book, but it was just too cold. Her fingers hurt, her toes hurt, and she couldn't stop shivering. Finally, she put the book down and pulled herself into a ball under the blankets. Eventually she warmed up enough that the shivering stopped. She lay there, listening to the kids talk.

"I wanna han'gaber."

"For Christmas?" Bobby sounded surprised. Valarie wasn't, not really. Ryan had asked for one constantly at the center, and even after didn't quite seem to understand that all the burger places they passed were closed for good.

"Yeah, a han'gaber and French fries." He repeated, "I want that."

"Oh, I like that," Vanessa cut in, "I'm changing mine, I want some milk, an' not the powder stuff they gave us at the center. If we ask for stuff like that, he'll give us enough to share, right? Write it down for him, Bobby." They chattered on for a while, and their voices faded to a distant murmur as she drifted off to sleep.

Valarie woke to her little sister shaking her. "Val, wake up, it's time to eat."

She crept out of the blankets and moved over to the stove. Matt had built up the fire, so it wasn't as cold as before, but it still wasn't warm. The bowl Matt handed her felt good in her hands. Warmed up by the hot food inside, it smelled better than anything they'd eaten in a while. Valarie tried to eat it slowly, so she could enjoy the unexpected, but even though it was fuller than normal, her bowl of rice and raisins disappeared way too fast.

As she scraped the last of the sticky rice from the bowl and licked it off her spoon, Matt uncovered the pot and served out more. He gave everyone three whole spoonfuls. It wasn't until after she'd eaten it all that she realized how full she felt. She hadn't eaten so much since the first few days at the shelter, before the strict rationing started.

The little kids had already finished their food, and were busy ripping up paperback books and twisting the pages up to use in the stove. Valarie inched closer to Matt and whispered in his ear. "Why did you make so much food? We don't have much left."

He looked over at the others, then back to her, acting casual, but she could tell he was worrying again. He spoke in a normal voice, easily loud enough for the others to hear. "Can you help me collect snow today? Bobby will take a turn cleaning up so you can have a break from it."

Valarie tried to match his tone, he obviously wanted to talk to her about something and she was afraid she knew what it was. "Okay, but you have to take care of the bucket, I'm not going to touch it."

He grimaced, but it was mostly for show. "Fine, I'll do it, but only because you asked so nice. I'll wait for you on the roof, I promised Nessa you could help her finish the letter first." He patted her on the shoulder, checked his pockets, slung his rifle over his shoulder, and slipped out of the plastic tent.

Valarie moved a little closer to the fire, enjoying the heat. It didn't really work well, because no matter how close she got, one side of her was still cold, even if she got so close it hurt. Vanessa looked up from the book she was working on, and noticed she was done eating. She dropped it on the pile they'd brought over from the bookstore a couple of days ago and came over clutching the letter. She handed it over, looking up expectantly. It was written on card stock and folded in quarters. Valarie unfolded it and read the front quickly, there was a map showing where they were, with the address of the building, and the letter her little sister had only needed a little help with. On the back side there were the Christmas lists in four different handwritings. Vanessa pointed at each section, then at a blank space. "We decided to only ask for one thing, just one thing we really want. We want to make it easy for Santa. This space is for you, just write down what you want most and we'll send the letter right away."