“What’s that—that Krissmiss thing?”
The two of us were folding hand towels as usual, and Haru said something I didn’t really understand again, so I asked. She got mad.
“Rrragh! So you don’t have Christmas, huh? This world is such a drag. God is dumb as a rock—gimme Buddha!”
Haru has no trouble complaining about God, the world, or anything. I always worry she’ll be punished someday.
“Lupe, listen. Christmas is the funnest thing that happens all year. It’s a day where everything sparkles, everything’s exciting, and everybody’s a party person. It’s just the best.”
But she’s so bad at explaining things that lots of the time, even if I ask, I don’t get it.
Still, whenever Haru gets passionate about something, you pretty much know it’s going to be interesting. Trusting her about stuff like that never comes back to bite you.
“Huh. I’d like to be a...party...person? too.”
“Right? Right? Of course you do. I totally get it. So we have to celebrate!”
Haru got more and more excited, and even started singing a Krissmiss song or something. I was glad she was having fun.
Almost time for work...
A few days later, I regretted going along with Haru’s plan so easily.
Apparently we needed a huge tree for Krissmiss. She took me to a snowy mountain and said, “I’d like to cut this one down.”
“Umm...are we building a house?”
“No! Lupe, you’re hilarious.” Haru, wearing the mittens I knit for her, spread her arms wide as she said, “We’re going to stand this up right in the middle of the shop and decorate it! At the very top we’ll put a star!”
I looked up at the tree Haru was trying to take home. It seemed tall enough to reach the stars. I thought Haru was the hilarious one.
“I can’t see any way this would fit in the shop.”
When I pointed out that the two of us wouldn’t be able to carry it, she got discouraged and said, “Oh...”
“So is Krissmiss about decorating a tree?”
“Yeah, but you also make the area around the tree all sparkly, like really cute.”
“You can’t use a smaller one?”
“You can, but a bigger one is more fun.”
Hmm. I didn’t really understand what she was trying to accomplish. But she seemed to be looking forward to it, so I had to think of a solution.
“Oh. I have a customer who’s studying alphytemy. He says he has lots of trees at his house, so maybe he’ll let us borrow one.”
“No way, that’s awesome! Let’s do that!”
So we left the mountain and went to my customer’s house. He listened to anything I said, so I knew he would lend us whatever we wanted.
We borrowed a cart, and the two of us took a tree back to the shop. It was a little heavy, but Haru was feeling good. She said that when you’re starting something fun even the prep is fun, and that she had been prepping for some kind of local “school festival” before she came here. But apparently she moved before the festival started. Maybe that’s why she always wants to do things with everyone here.
“Are you okay, Lupe? It’s not too heavy?”
I answered that I was fine pushing from behind. When I lived at home I used to help my father with his work moving hay. I was in charge of the sheep and was good at praising, scolding, and generally getting them to listen to me. If my parents hadn’t sold me to pay off their debts, I probably would’ve been a shepherd’s wife.
“Thanks for always going along with my projects. You’re really nice, Lupe!”
The day I was sold, my mom told me I should smile because I had nothing. When I was crying, she taught me that the only way to be happy was to smile. Her hands were chapped, and it hurt a bit when she caressed my cheek.
“That’s not true!”
“Yeah, it is! You’re really like a mama!”
It’s easier for me to smile when the people around me are smiling. I only pretend to be nice because it’s impossible for me to smile by myself.
I’m not nice at all. And I hate my mom now. I didn’t want to be the type of mama who would tell people to smile even though I was crying myself.
“Oh, right. And we need to go to Sumo’s. There’s a critical item I need to ask him for.”
I had never told that to Haru, though.
After that Haru said she was going to go meet with Sumo, but I didn’t have the stamina for it, so I stayed back.
I stretched my legs out on my bed and thought, sometimes nodding off. What is Krissmiss, anyhow? Do you make the inside of your house into a forest and eat tasty food? What a weird event. I could see why Haru would like it.
Oh, right. I remembered something and got out my knitting kit. She had asked me to make a red, triangular hat.
When I opened the box, some gloves I had unraveled came out. They were my old gloves, and I was going to reknit them into socks for my little brother, but I stopped. At the time, I had thought I would be in the village the next year.
He’s probably big enough now that he can’t even wear socks this size.
I wonder what kind of boy he became.
On one of our days off a few days later, we borrowed the shop to hold a “Krissmiss Party.”
Even though the shop was closed, we invited some regulars and served food and drink. The atmosphere was surprisingly festive.
The tree we carried over was decorated all sparkly. There was even a star on top.
“Okay, everyone. All together now: Merry Christmas!”
Haru went around spreading merriment with something like tree branches standing on her head and a red berry on her nose.
Madam looked slightly annoyed, and Sumo, who I think provided all the food free of charge, didn’t seem upset to be wearing a matching nose and branches—though he did look sort of tired.
But eventually, Haru’s energy got everyone in a party mood. Madam was talking with the customers about how she hadn’t used her special dishes like this in a long time. Sumo’s cake was popular with the girls, and he was blushing from all their attention.
Haru’s an odd one. Sometimes she doesn’t know the sort of things that everybody knows, but other times she’ll suddenly say something that no one else has ever even thought of. There’s something unique about her.
I never imagined a girl like that would be a match for this kind of work, so I decided to teach her all sorts of things so that she wouldn’t be totally helpless if she ever ran away.
But whenever Haru fails at something, even if she gets upset, she’s ready to try again immediately; she’ll never be the one to quit. I think her guts are a bit insane, actually.
How can she keep trying like that? It’s hard for me to understand.
“Lupe, do you have a sec?”
Haru snuck up on me and then held out a parcel she’d been carrying behind her back. When I opened it, there was all sorts of yarn inside, the colors as varied as the Krissmiss tree.
“Merry Christmas! Today is a day to give presents to the people who are special to you!”
“What? It is? That’s what Krissmiss is?”
“Yeah, it’s the main thing.”
“You never told me that! I didn’t get anything for you.”
“Eh-heh-heh. Sorry, I forgot.”
That was definitely a lie. She kept quiet to surprise me.
“Thanks for everything. It’s because of you that I can survive in this job, Lupe.”
She looked so shy that I blushed, too. Agh, you got me.“Next time we’ll exchange presents, okay?”
Haru said, “Got it,” with a smile.
I mean it!
“Okay, of course I have presents for everyone! And the present-er is none other than Mr. Christmas himself, Santa Claaaaaau—”
“Waaaaaagh!”
Someone suddenly fell into the fireplace and then came flying out crying, “It burrrrrns!”
It was Mr. Chiba, looking even redder than usual.
“Hey, Chiba. You idiot, the presents are on fire. What the hell! Kiyori nearly killed herself baking those 500 cookies.”
“No, for starters, why is the fireplace lit?! Santa’ll die in a fire!”
“It’s winter, so yeah, we light it. But geez, just come through the door like normal! I’ve never seen a Santa actually come down through the chimney! This is why you’ve never been invited to a Christmas party!”
“I have one every year! With my family! I just didn’t go to the ones kids in our class had because I was too above them.”
I didn’t really get it, but the usual argument had begun. These two get along so well.
Chiba had burned the red hat I made, and his socks were a holey mess—maybe from scraping along the chimney? I really don’t get what he was trying to accomplish.
“Uh, huh? I’m sorry, Mama...”
Maybe because I was watching him so intently, he thought I was angry with him (even though I wasn’t really at all), and he dropped to his knees to prostrate himself right there.
Haru and Kiyori asked me to train him, but it’s working a little too well. He was like my little brother when I scolded him too much, so it made things awkward for me, too.
“It’s fine. I’ll knit you some new socks, so take care of them.”
“Yay!”
“Lupe, you’re too nice to him!”
Blue Cat Nocturne was closed that day, but it was even more lively than usual. Everyone seemed content and was in the mood to make others happy.
I even thought about maybe writing to my mother to tell her I celebrated Krissmiss with my friends.