Ticket 1207 by Robin Alexander

decorate that tree with yo woman.”
    Jill blinked. “What did you just say?”
    Johnny narrowed his eyes for a second. “I said it’s on the house. Are you sure you’re okay?”
    “I’m…I’m fine.” Jill smiled uneasily. “It’s been a long day. Thank you so much for this, you’re very sweet.”
    “You think I’m sweet, what’s on yo couch is sweeter and spicier than a pickled pepper, fool.”
    Jill’s jaw sagged as she stared at Johnny.
    “Good night then…are you sure you’re—”
    “Oh, yeah,” Jill said with a shaky laugh. “My sinuses are messed up, I feel like I have cotton in my ears.”
    Johnny nodded as he stepped out onto the sidewalk. “Everybody I talk to is complaining of that. It’s all the rain we’ve been having. Merry Christmas, Jill.”
    “Same to you and yours, Johnny.”
    Jill locked the door as Johnny walked away and stared at Theo’s sign. “Marie, are you messing with me?” she asked, hoping Theo’s dead aunt wouldn’t answer. “I need a chicken foot.”
    *******
    “You’re a confident woman,” Shawn said as she stared at her reflection in Jill’s kitchen window. “When she gets back, you just ask her—nicely—about that slip of paper. If she freaks out about you digging in her stuff, you…well, it wasn’t exactly digging. It was on the bookshelf for anyone to see. Or…you could just ask later.”
    Shawn turned her back to the sink and tried to look casual when she heard Jill come through the door. “I went with the wine, is that okay?”
    “That’s great.” Jill dropped the pizza on the table, walked over to Shawn, and clasped her face in both hands. “You’re a real person, that’s what I like about you. That’s why you seem so magical to me.” She continued to hold Shawn’s face and narrowed her eyes. “You are real , right, not a dream? Because I kinda feel like I’m losing my mind.”
    “You’re the dream,” Shawn said with a smile. She took Jill’s hands, pulled her even closer, and kissed her. “That’s real.”
    “Yes, it is.” Jill smiled. “I just heard your stomach growl, let’s eat.”
    They took the pizza, popcorn, and the wine to the coffee table in the living room, and Jill turned the TV on. She scanned through the channels until she found the one playing back-to-back Christmas movies. Shawn held her thumb up as she chewed a bite of pizza—thoroughly.
    “I love the Grinch, but I hated Rudolph as a kid. I still do.”
    “What’ve you got against the superstar reindeer?” Jill asked.
    “Nothing against him, I just hated how the other reindeer and Santa treated him in that cartoon. I think Yukon Cornelius should’ve taken over for Santa, he had more heart.” Shawn waved her pizza as she spoke. “That show made such a social statement. If one is different from the herd, they’re shunned, the family is ashamed. Santa was a bigot. He only liked Rudolph in the end because he was useful. Rudolph should’ve kicked snow in his face and said, ‘Bite me, bearded butthole,’ but he didn’t. Rudolph was all about delivering those toys because he was the bigger deer.”
    Jill pointed at Shawn. “Yeah, and that elf in charge of the toymakers, he was a jerk, too, when he was so mean to the one that wanted to be a dentist. Elves need dental care, too. You can’t tell me that one of them never had a toothache. You’re right, that show was all about celebrating the differences.” She shook her head. “I can’t even go there with the misfit toys being exiled to that island.”
    “Right,” Shawn said with a nod and smiled wistfully. “My brother and I were the most well-behaved kids between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Mom used to tell us that elves were watching to see who was naughty or nice. We’d get into an argument, and she would say, ‘The elves are on patrol, you little shits, and if they catch you behaving like a couple of hyenas, you’ll get coal.’ Sometimes, she claimed to see one looking in the window, and