December exclusive - "Christmas Time" - Part 5 🎄❄️

What’s worse? The big boy saying a swear word, or getting kissed on the mouth?

Katie staggers back, hitting the back wall. The lift continues its journey downward, only adding to her sense of nausea. She’s lucky to have stayed on her feet. She’s lucky to not be head over heels.

Luke gives her another of his serious, strained looks. “Well? How do you feel?”

How does she feel? Katie considers the question, and then replies by wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “Yuck,” she declares. “That’s…yucky.”

Luke’s expression changes. He looks confused, and then scared, and then he rolls his eyes. “Hang on.” He jams a finger at the lift controls, and they stop at the second floor. The doors open to an empty hallway.

“Where are we going?” Katie asks, her voice a dull whine. First the swear, then the kiss, and now a diversion. Katie isn’t sure what lives on the second floor, but she’s pretty sure it’s not Santa Claus.

“It’s okay,” says Luke, and he presses the door-open button.

Katie scowls. “There’s no one th…hey!” She cries out indignantly when Luke reaches for her hairband and pulls it away. Her face goes the deepest of reds. She points accusingly. “That’s mine!” She’s ready to stamp her feet, she’s on the verge of hot tears. “It matches my dreh-ess!”

“Yeah,” Luke says, giving no sign that he’s about to return the hairband. He looks out into the hallway, presses the door-open button again, and says, “You’re pretty as a Christmas princess and all that.” He looks at her steadily. “But how do you feel, Katie? Now that I’ve kissed you. Now that I’ve taken off that damn hairband.” He taps her temple gently and asks gently, “What’s going on in your head, old friend?”

Katie opens her mouth to tell Luke exactly what’s going on. That she’s going to tell the doctor lady about him, that she’s going to tell her mummy, and that even though he’s a big boy and too old for time outs or red bums, he’s still going to be in the biggest, worst amounts of trouble.

And then Katie closes her mouth. She takes a breath. She swallows, grimacing at the driest feeling at the back of her mouth.

“Yuck,” she mumbles. She looks down at her outfit. She looks back at Luke. And she sighs. Because she knows who she is, more or less. Because sitting on Santa’s lap is no longer close to the top of her to-do list.

“Mother-ducker.” She picks at the red velvet material. “Mother-quacking-ducker.”

“We don’t have much time,” says Luke.

“What happened?”

Luke shakes his head. The lift door closes. He presses the button for the basement. “Let’s see if we’re in luck.”

“Luke, what’s- “

“Quiet,” says Luke, gesturing with his hands. “Not a word.” He holds the hairband behind his back, and the doors open on the ground floor. There’s no one there.

Luke nods, and the lift continues on to the basement. He takes Katie by the hand along a hallway, and they arrive at a room filled with outfits organized by age, and Katie isn’t too surprised to find that all the outfits marked 15-16 are styled for a much younger child.

“Here,” says Luke. He picks out a duffel coat, bobble hat and mittens. “Put these on.”

“Just tell me what’s- “

“Put them on,” Luke orders. “You need the hat, so they don’t see we took off the hairband.”

Katie pulls on the hat and then pushes the offered coat away. “Now. I’m the lead agent. Tell me now.”

Luke takes the time to look out into the hallway. And then he whispers in Katie’s ear, his warm breath tickling her skin.

“They broke us. The agents with frozen ages. It’s been too long, for you and me, probably for Jessie, Rachel, and the others. They didn’t know until your contact was about to end, until the blood tests.”

Katie wrinkles her nose, and she might look adorable, this pretty teenager in the childish dress, looking as if she’s been told that she’s not getting the Christmas present she wanted. And in truth, that’s pretty much what’s happened.

Her first question is age appropriate. “Do you think my mum knows?” she whispers back.

It’s Luke’s turn to wrinkle his nose. “Your mum’s on board.”

And Katie’s knees could buckle, she could curl up and go to pieces. Instead, she just nods. “Yeah, I can…I can believe it.” She walks along the clothing aisle. “So what’s the plan? They’re just going to mentally regress all of us?” She feels a tightening in her chest. “Oh God, are they sending us to Ngatea?” She looks at Luke with desperation in her eyes and her voice rises. “Miss McKay told me that place was a myth! Just a scary story to keep agents in line!”

Luke puts a finger to his lips. He walks over to her and whispers, “This whole place is probably wired for sound.” He dresses her in the duffle coat and puts the mittens on her hands. She’s warm enough now for a December day in Parkdale. She looks as though Luke is doing his job.

“You’re not going to New Zealand,” whispers Luke, fastening the toggles on her coat. “You’ll stay right here, but they don’t want you to remember…” He sighs. “They can’t have the agents leaving, not physically stuck, not knowing what we all know.”

It’s a lot to take in. But after fifteen years in Parkdale, Katie finds it easy to believe. The PPA have told her for years that they trusted her, believed in her. But she was a fool to have trusted them.

“They don’t want to hurt you, exactly,” says Luke.

Katie sniffs. “Just want to turn my head to mush.” She imagines what her mother bought her for Christmas, what’s wrapped with ribbons and waiting in the cupboard under the stairs. And she imagines just as well that if Luke hadn’t kissed her and removed the treated hairband, that she would have love her new doll.

“They want to protect the town,” Katie says. “And I’m…we’re all dispensable.” She clasps her mittened hands together and then looks at Luke. “What about you? You’re getting a different deal?”

“They know I wasn’t going to leave, so they thought I could be part of the solution.”

Katie shrugs. “So why aren’t you playing along?”

Luke raises his eyebrows. “Seriously?” He puts his arms around her. “Because friends, Katie. Because truth and honour and all that fucking stuff.”

“Ducking right.” The teenage girl smiles at him. “So what happens now?” And in the moment, she can’t imagine a plan that gets them out of Parkdale with their minds intact. Because Luke is a great guy, but he’s just one man.

“There’s-“  Luke stops talking. He looks towards the doorway. “Someone’s coming,” he whispers. “Just getting changed,” he calls out, and he closes the door.

“Everything okay?” says the voice from the hall.

Katie’s stomach feels like a hot stone. It’s her mother.

“Everything’s perfect,” Luke calls back. “She just wants to look perfect for Santa.”

Katie hears her mother’s laughter. So pleased, so relieved. “That’s my Katie,” she says brightly. “Okay, honey, take your time, Mummy will be right here. I came to collect you; we can go visit Santa together!”

Luke looks at Katie urgently, and Katie takes the hint. “

“Yes, Mummy!” she calls out, as sweetly as she can manage.

And then Luke takes Katie down to the far end of the room. “Wasn’t expecting that,” he says in a low voice. He smiles, but the anxiety has returned to his face. “Slight change of plan.”

Katie looks at him helplessly. She didn’t even know the original plan.

For the second time that day, Luke pulls clothing off Katie’s head.

Seriously?

“You have to wear the hairband,” says Luke.

Katie bats it away. “No way,” she whispers. “It’ll make me all smooshy.”

“Not if you focus. The kiss did a good job reversing Sucette’s helmet, you just have to keep thinking mature thoughts and you’ll be okay.”

Katie holds up her fuzzy hands. “How do you know?”

“It’s not just me,” Luke replies. “There are others, and I’ll explain…I’ll tell you the whole thing later, okay? But if I don’t convince your mother that you’re mentally regressed, then we’re dead in the water.” He gives her a pleading look. “Please. I know, a crazy situation. But you have to trust me.”

Katie almost barks a laugh. Her world has been turned upside-down. But what choice does she have?

She sighs, nods, and stands still while Luke brushes her hair with his fingers and then puts the hairband back on her head.

As soon as it’s in place, Katie can feel the tingles designed to reinforce the treatment she’d received from the helmet. A warm, ticklish sensation that dampens her anxiety and makes her blink sleepily and think again about the doll that is surely her present from Santa.

“Okay?” Luke asks.

Katie nods. She frowns. “You gotta…you gotta not forget about me, yeah?”

“I promise.” He pulls her in for a hug. “It’s more than me, Katie,” he whispers urgently. “We’re going to fix all of this.”

Katie nods again. She smiles. She trusts Luke. Of course, with the hairband, she’s encouraged to trust any grown-up. She’s encouraged and rewarded for being such a good girl.

Luke looks deeply into her eyes and says softly, “Keep thinking mature thoughts, Katie. Keep thinking about cocktails and boring history essays.”

Katie nods obediently. And then she raises a mittened hand. She blurts, “And kinetic and potential energy!”

Luke cringes at the high volume, but he laughs as well. “If that’s what it takes.” He winks at her. “Come on, show time.”

They walk hand in hand back down the clothing aisle, Luke opens the door, and Katie rushes into her mother’s arms.

THE END    (FOR NOW...)

“Parkdale agent Katie makes a mistake, and now she's the one wanting to sit on Santa's lap."