Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky by Sandra Dallas

pickles.”
    “Carl’s going to love the snowman. It’ll make up a little bit for not having a Christmas tree. We always had one. My mother would put it up when Carl was in bed on Christmas Eve. He’d wake up in the morning, and there it would be, all decorated. We couldn’t afford a very big tree, but Carl didn’t care. It was having the tree that counted.”

    A few days later, Hiro said, “I wish there was a way we could get a Christmas tree for Carl. He’s a little boy. He doesn’t understand why Christmas is so different here.”
    Tomi thought that over. Hiro and Wilson weren’t such big boys either. A tree would make them all happy. She thought for a long time. Then she said, “What if we made a Christmas tree?”
    “Jeepers! You don’t make a tree. They grow,” Hiro said.
    “I know that. But what if we make a fake tree?”
    “Out of what?”
    “Roy could get some scraps of lumber from the workshop, and he could build the trunk and branches. Then we could cut out green paper and glue it to the wood for the needles.”
    “That would be an awful funny-looking tree.”
    “I didn’t say it would look like a real tree. But maybe that doesn’t matter. After all, Wilson said it was having a tree that mattered.”
    “How would we decorate it?” Hiro asked.
    “We could make paper chains and cut out snowflakes. I bet Mrs. Hayashi would make some origami birds.”
    “I don’t know how we’d sneak it into their apartment.”
    “We wouldn’t. We’d leave it outside their window, just like the snowman.” The sun had come out, and the snowman had already melted to half its size.
    When Mom and Roy heard Tomi’s idea, they were enthusiastic. Roy offered to make a skeleton tree with lots of branches. Mom said she would ask one of the cooks for flour to make flour-and-water paste. Hiro and Tomi could use paper to make paper needles and glue them to the branches.
    Each evening, they worked on the tree, cutting out snowflakes and making paper chains and hanging them from the branches. Mrs. Hayashi brought a dozen birds she had made from folding pieces of paper into shapes. Ruth even made a paper star for the top of the tree.
    Once Wilson knocked at the door, asking Hiro to comeand play. But Hiro had to say he was sick. He couldn’t open the door for fear Wilson would see the tree. It was a surprise for Wilson, too.
    The Itanos waited until Christmas morning to set out the tree. They were afraid if they put the tree out earlier, it might snow, and the paper needles and decorations would get wet and fall off. But Christmas morning was clear. Just as the sun came up, they carried the tree outside and placed it directly in front of the Wakasas’ window.
    “Carl might not see it, so we’ll have to tell him it’s there,” Tomi said.
    “Wait until they’re awake,” Mom told her.
    As they passed the Wakasas’ door, however, they heard Carl through the thin wall. “Is it Christmas yet, Helen?”
    Helen said something the Itanos couldn’t make out, and they heard her walk across the floor.
    “Can I open my present, Helen?” Carl asked. Wilson had told them that Helen had ordered a sweater from the catalogue for her brother.
    “They’re awake,” Hiro said, and before Mom could stop him, he knocked on the door.
    “Merry Christmas,” the Itanos shouted when Helen opened the door.
    “Not much to be merry about,” Helen complained.
    “Yes there is,” Hiro told her. “Look out the window.”
    Carl rushed to the window and pushed aside the curtain. Then he turned around, a look of joy on his face. Wilson was behind him. He stared out at the tree, then looked at the Itanos. “A tree? You made a Christmas tree for us?”
    Hiro nodded.
    “Look, Helen. We have a Christmas tree!” Carl shouted, his face beaming. “It’s the best Christmas tree in the camp. Heck, it’s the best Christmas tree in the whole world!” Helen slowly went to the window and put her face to the glass. She stared outside for a