Blake walked into Cade’s room, a few nights before Christmas, and was hit…with a soccer ball.
“What was that for?”
“You weren’t supposed to open the door right then,” Cade answered with a shrug.
“So you hit me with a soccer ball?”
“No, I was trying a new trick shot.”
“What kind of…” Blake stopped for a moment, gazing around at the numerous coloured candles lit up in Cade’s room taking up literally every space in his room.
“Seriously Cade? What is with all the lights in here?”
“It’s Christmas,” he answered with a half-smile.
“So? You’ll go blind.”
“I’m trying to see something.”
“Do you realize how hot it is in here?” Blake asked, wiping the sweat off his forehead. Cade just shrugged, gestured for Blake to move to the right, then kicked the ball at the door.
It hit the door hard, then bounced off the corner bookshelf, knocking several candles to the floor, before sliding past the goal on the right. Cade sighed heavily, turning away dejected while the a small fire started among the candles on the floor.
“Uh, Cade?”
“I can’t believe it.”
“Cade?”
“Should have gone in.”
“Hey Cade, you might want…”
“I think I need more speed on it.”
“CADE, YOUR FLOOR IS ON FIRE!”
Blake still has dreams about that day, several weeks before Christmas, when he came home to an empty house. At least, most of his house was empty, except his room. All that he had was still there, but with something else that wasn’t there before. On his desk, which was covered with various folders, papers, and textbooks that he planned on studying at some point…later…maybe. Then he saw it, placed on top of the mess, was a note…
Blake is not as into decorating for Christmas as Cade. He kind of prefers darkness, but Cade gets after him a lot, and I mean a lot, about decorating his room. So as a joke, Blake sets up two candles with a pile of tinsel between them. But it’s not just the simple set up. These are candles you have to see to believe. The colour is best described as pale yellow. They are moldy, crusty, and old, burning with a really dim orange light. They also lean a lot to the right, yet somehow don’t fall over. The wax seems to be melting all around making the candles look like they are tired of standing.
In their new home, Cade and Blake have a new tradition of decorating the tree by making it kind of a race. They each get a box with the same decorations. When the clock starts, they have to get all of their decorations on their side of the tree. Whoever gets theirs up first wins, but they have to stay on the tree. It gets pretty intense. Cade tries to shake the branches while Blake tries putting his decorations on. Blake plucks needles off the tree and throws them at Cade to distract him. But I can’t tell you how many times each of them has won, they won’t let me reveal that to you for some reason. They’re really secretive about this competition.
I’m not kidding about how secretive they are about this. Both kids circle their home several times making sure no one is hiding outside, getting ready to spy on their competition because of course lots of people must be dying to watch Blake and Cade decorate their Christmas tree, right? They then put up dark curtains, or blankets over the windows to make sure no one can see. They struggle to get the curtains or blankets to stay up. They keep falling. Finally they figure out to just temporarily tape them to the walls around the windows. You would think they would remember to do this first every time now, but they never do. They still struggle until finally realizing that they won’t hold up without tape. Then, the competition begins.
Blake walked slower than he ever had before across his room toward the note. He didn’t know what was written on it, and he hadn’t really thought about it yet, but somehow deep down he knew what it was. He felt an anxiety he had never felt before or since. But he had to read it. His house never felt as silent as it did when he read that note…
Cade casually spun around, walked slowly over to where Blake was standing, watching the small fire spread in his room. Then Cade took a bucket of water barely visible behind ten colourful candle lights and put out the fire. Blake just shook his head while Cade smiled brightly.
“You do realize you have like every candle in the world in here, right?” Cade’s smile faded.
“I still don’t have the two I’m looking for…”
