Yuletide Immortal (The Immortal Chronicles Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

For my ma… I want you to get something for her.”
    There was nobody else in line.  All day long kids had been coming up with one or both parents beside them, or standing within line-of-sight.
    “That’s very nice of you, Davey.  Is she not here?” Santa asked, conspiratorially.
    “Nu-unh,” Davey said.  Implied was that she was shopping in another part of the store, only because the notion that he had come all the way downtown alone was far-fetched.  It was not unusual to see unattended children playing in public—far less common today—but this was in the middle of the city, after dark, in a place without a swing set.
    “Ah, it’s a secret, then!” Santa said.  He was also looking around for her.  “Well you must tell Santa before she comes back.”
    Davey smiled.  “Yeah… a secret.”
    “So what can we get your mother for Christmas, Davey?”
    “A flower vase,” the boy said.
    “A vase ?  What an interesting idea!”
    “Not just a vase, right?  Not none of the stuff they have here.  A special vase.”
    Santa looked at me.  There was a sparkle in his eyes that I understood to mean he could tell he was approaching a good story.
    “And what makes this particular vase special, Davey?”
    Davey’s eyes fell.  He looked embarrassed.  “I got sick.”
    “You were sick?”
    “Uh-huh, last Christmas.  And ma, she didn’t have the money to pay for doctors so she hocked it.  And it was her favorite thing.  She used to tell me, Mr. Santa, about how when she came here from the old country, how she kept this vase wrapped up in all her clothes so it wouldn’t get broke.  It’s been in the family a real long time.  She called it a… airy something.”
    “Heirloom?”
    “Yeah, that’s it.  We don’t got a lot of those, not like other families.  You know, not like the ones with money.  We had just that one.  And she had to sell it because of me, so… that’s what I want for Christmas.”
    “Well!  That’s a very special wish, Davey!  Santa is going to have to put a special elf on this one.”  He was looking at me, and I can’t even tell you how much I wished, in this moment, that I was already down the street at the bar.  “Can you describe the vase for Santa?”
    “Yeah it’s kinda like, blue with white flowers.”
    “That’s good!  But that describes a lot of vases, Davey.  Can you tell me something very special about it?”
    “Like what pawn shop she brought it to,” I said.  “That would be helpful.”
    “Oh, yeah, mister, I know that!”
    If there was any justice in the world, the pawn shop he named next would have been the same one owned by my friend and passport counterfeiter.  It wasn’t.  This one was in a different part of town.
    “So,” Santa said, “a blue vase with white flowers in the Bowery pawn shop.  Now, I am sure a clever child such as yourself knows the address where you and your mother live?”
    “Sure, but… don’t you already know where I live, Santa?”
    “We-ell, of course I do, but you know how difficult special elf helpers can be!”
    *   *   *
    Dinner was steak at a restaurant down the street.  Santa talked me into a proper meal, which was probably a good idea as I have attempted to subsist on beer and pretzels a number of times and it always ends badly, and after a day spent in a department store I was just about ready to have that kind of evening.  He only suggested this as a way to keep me sober long enough to convince me to help out this kid, but it was still a good idea.
    Santa, in case you ever wondered, likes his steak rare. 
    “I know just where the shop is,” he was saying between bites.
    “I do too, but that doesn’t mean I’m going there.”
    He laughed.  “Of course you are!  Why wouldn’t you?  Aren’t you curious?”
    “Not really.  You go.  Tell me about it when it’s over.  Better yet, write me a letter, I don’t even know why I’m still in this town.”
    “We’ll go together.  And