Free Take Me There by Carolee Dean

home. There were no reindeer; it was powered by diesel and moved on wheels, eighteen of them. When I saw my father walking up the gravel driveway, pushing a new red bike, I turned to my mother and told her breathlessly, “It really is true. My daddy is Santa Claus.”
    I ran outside and jumped on the bike, without even stopping to say hello. Then I rode up and down the driveway, pumping my legs as fast as I could, catching snowflakes on my tongue, feeling the cold wind biting through my Spider-Man pajamas.
    Up close you could tell it was a truck with lights arranged to look like a sleigh, so it was easy for me to understand how other kids got confused. I also understood why lately, my father had been so secretive about what he was keeping in the back of his truck.
    It was about a month later that the police came and took my father to jail, and all my dreams went with him along with my belief in things like happiness and hope.
    Christmas and Santa Claus.

16
    W ADE NEVER CAME HOME THAT NIGHT . S ATURDAY MORNING I told Gomez he was sick, hoping I could cover for him long enough to talk some sense into him. I had just returned from cashing my paycheck and was about to leave for the day when Jess walked into the front lobby. She looked around and then proceeded to the front desk, where Gomez was going through the invoices.
    “My car is making a funny noise,” she told him. She didn’t even look in my direction, which was hard since I was standing less than three feet away. I wondered why on earth she’d come back. I was pretty sure after what had happened the night before she would never want to see me again.
    “How long?” asked Gomez.
    “It’s been doing it for a while. I forgot to mention it when I was here.” Only then did she glance at me, but she looked away just as quickly.
    “What kind of funny noise?” Kip asked as he came to stand beside me.
    “Kind of a chirp, chirp, chirp, like a little bird.”
    “What kind of bird?” Kip asked, smiling playfully.
    I mouthed the words
Leave her alone.
She looked like she’d been crying.
    “Oh, and the steering wheel has started shaking, but only when I’m coming off the freeway,” Jess added.
    “Rotor could be going,” I told her.
    “Can you fix it?” she asked, finally looking me full in the face.
    “Sure.”
    “I thought you were leaving,” Gomez said, trying to hide a smile.
    “Just pull her into the bay,” I said to Jess, ignoring him.
    She nodded and walked back out to her car.
    “Third time’s a charm,” said Gomez. “If you don’t ask her out, you’re a fool.”
    “She has a boyfriend.”
    “Then why did she conveniently forget to mention her funny little noise? She wanted an excuse to come back and see you.”
    “She’s not here for the reasons you think.”
    “Son, you got no idea why she’s here.”
    I walked back into the garage and saw Jess standing next to her car, chewing on her thumbnail, and I realized Gomez was right. I had no idea why she was there.
    I put her car up on the lift, took off the right front wheel and the caliper underneath, and then slid off the rotor.
    “Were those guys last night friends of yours?” she asked.
    “Nope.” I walked past her to the brake lathe and started shaving off the warped edge of the rotor. When I walked back to her car, I was surprised to find her still standing there.
    “But you knew them. Those guys from last night,” she said as if there had been no pause in the conversation.
    “Yep.” I slid the rotor back in place.
    “They were going to hurt me?”
    “Yeah,” I said without looking up at her.
    “And you stopped them.”
    It wasn’t really a question, so I didn’t answer her.
    “What were you doing there?”
    “Heard there was a big party down at the beach. Thought I’d check it out,” I lied, though it sounded like a good enough explanation.
    “You were following me.”
    I took a deep breath. “Sort of.” There was no use denying it.
    “Why?”
    “I saw you