Sunny drew a line through the "7" square on the calendar hanging next to her bed. The month of December had waltzed right in and lingered around an entire week before finally deciding to make itself known.
Christmas was still a few weeks away but looking at the days on the calendar made the time span feel much smaller especially since Hal's gift hadn't been purchased yet…or even properly funded.
What she wanted for her Uncle Hal was a beautiful, beige and leather laptop carrying case with nickel-brushed zippers and crimson, satin lining. But even after pulling all her savings together and searching the living room sofas for any forgotten coins trapped in the confinements of the cushions, it was still only enough to continue to look at the item on the website she found it on. She highlighted the price again with her mouse and sighed when a few generous dollars didn't magically melt off of it.
"What are you doing?"
Sunny quickly minimized the screen before realizing the voice was too gravely to belong to Hal.
"Nothing."
"You got rid of that screen pretty quickly to be doing nothing."
Dave gently commandeered the mouse from her and brought up the window again. He was using the little bit of computer savvyness Sunny had given him against her.
"Nice computer bag." He said. "Prospective Christmas present for Hal?"
She nodded.
"Hmm. Is that the price for one?"
Again, she nodded.
"I want to give Uncle Hal something special but I'll never have that much money."
"Sunny...it doesn't have to be this computer bag, you know. Hal will most likely cry over whatever you give him."
Sunny shot a half playful, half scolding look at Dave. He loved to make fun of Hal's sensitivity.
"I know but that computer bag is so perfect for him! Besides, he doesn't ever buy himself anything nice. I want to give him something that doesn't come from a thrift store."
Dave's expression sobered as he nodded.
"Yeah. Hal deserves that. You both do."
"Maybe I could sell something," she suddenly said as her gaze searched the value of her own belongings, "on a site like Ebay."
"You're eight, Sunny. I don't think you have a lot of stuff to sell."
"I have an old digital camera that I don't use anymore."
"Got about a hundred more of them?"
"Hey, it's a start!"
"Sunny, if you're going to sell something, it's got to be more valuable than a single digital camera."
"Something valuable like my cookware…"
"Yeah. Exactly." He turned to look at Sunny when he finally caught up to her tone. "Sunny, no."
The little girl smiled. "What?"
"I know what that smile means and it's a bad idea...and if I think something is a bad idea, the outcome is probably nuclear!"
"I can cook eggs in any old pots and pans, Dave."
"They're the most important things you own, Sunny. You saved up for nearly a year for them."
"I know," she confessed, "but they're not the most important things in my life. You and Uncle Hal are. "
Dave sighed and gave her decision a quick nod of reluctance.
"Okay, Sunny. If that's what you want then I guess I can't stop you."
She smiled again at Dave, this time putting the radiance of her morning wheat eyes behind it.
"I know it's a little crazy but I really wanna do this for him."
Hal adjusted the present under the tree one more time before he stepped back to observe it. He had only moved it a centimeter—maybe less, but somehow, he felt better about the new position.
But he still wasn't satisfied with the wrapping job.
"What are you doing, Hal?"
"Merry Christmas Eve, Dave."
"Are you rewrapping Sunny's present? Again?"
"Uh…m-maybe."
Hal stripped the gift of the snowman-adorned wrapping paper and tossed it into a nearby trashcan, filled and nearly overflowing with casualties from previous efforts.
"Hal, you do realize she's going to look at it for about three seconds and completely Wolverine it."
"I still want those three seconds of her looking at it to be perfect. This is the first Christmas I've gotten her something nice and I want it to be—"
"Perfect." Dave finished. "Yeah. I got that much. Still doesn't justify you wrapping and unwrapping those damn things thirty times in the last couple of days."
"This is the last time. It kind of has to be. I'm running out of wrapping paper."
Hal held up his purchase again—an internet-scoured collection of top notch, professional grade cooking utensils. Stainless steel, lifetime guaranteed and, according to multiple websites, recommended by the world's top chefs.
"Do you think she'll like them?"
"Of course she will, Hal. They came from you. I just not quite sure why she needs a two hundred dollar spatula and a four hundred dollar slotted spoon."
"And I'm not quite sure why you know what a slotted spoon is."
Dave grunted. "Let's just call Food Network a guilty pleasure and not talk about it again."
Hal shook his head at his friend and looked back down at the cookware. "She shows real interest in cooking and I want to support that as much as I can. Think about it, Dave. After everything we've been through, after everything she's seen and heard over the last couple of years with us...and she wants to be Rachel Ray. That's nothing short of a miracle to me and if it costs a million dollars to keep her like this then I'll happily spend it."
"Well," Dave lowered himself into the chair adjacent from Hal, "I can't imagine what you'd have to do to get that kind of spending cash. I don't even like to imagine what you must have done for the money for those."
"It's not important." He picked up the wrapping paper and unrolled the last piece off the tube and smoothed it over the table top surface in front of him as much as possible. His hands carefully tucked and folded to the contours of his gift for Sunny, taping the ends and cutting off portions he didn't need. When he was done, he held it up, an appeal for Dave's famous quiet approval attached to his face as he did.
"It looks exactly the same way it did the last hundred times you wrapped it, Hal." He paused and let the engineer's shoulders drop a little before he continued. "It's perfect."
Sunny and Hal were both already holding their exchanged gifts in their lap when Sunny blurted out in excitement: "Open mine first, Uncle Hal!"
Hal examined the lumpy, lovingly wrapped and shapeless package. "What is it?"
"Just open it!"
Sunny had trouble containing herself as she watched the final scraps of paper fall to the floor and Hal take his first looks at the laptop bag she'd snuck past him in broad day light back to her room when it had been delivered two weeks ago.
"You like it?"
Although Hal was nodding his head, he removed his glasses and sunk his face into his hands.
"Uncle Hal? Are you okay?"
"Yes, Sunny…I'm fine. I'm crying because I'm happy. I love this. Thank you."
"Uncle Hal…if you were actually crying because you hated it, you'd tell me, right? You wouldn't lie to me, would you?"
Hal motioned for the little girl to come over to him and she did. He brought her into his embrace and rested his head against hers. "I really do love it, Sunny, it's just… I don't know what I'm going to do with it."
Sunny nearly laughed in her confusion. "You put your laptop in it, silly. It's a laptop bag!"
"I know what it is. I don't have a laptop anymore, though."
"What happened to it?"
Hal got up to fetch Sunny's present from across the room and handed it to her, tears still building and falling around his attempt to smile for her. "Merry Christmas, Sunny."
Sunny found herself soon fighting back her own tears as her gift from Hal began to peek out from under the perfect wrapping job concealing it.
"I sold my MacBook to get you those."
"What? But...but why?"
"Because I only used it on missions, Sunny, and Dave and I haven't been on a mission in almost half a year. It was virtually collecting dust…"
"You're lying, Uncle Hal! You used it every day and took it with you everywhere! That's why I wanted to get the bag for you."
"Look, Sunny," he said, holding her face in her hands, "it doesn't matter how much I may or may not have used it. That laptop wasn't as important to me as seeing you open a real Christmas present this year."
"Uncle Hal…I have a confession to make."
"Yes?"
"I really can't use your gift either."
"Why not?"
"Because I used the money from selling all my cookware to buy your laptop bag."
"Sunny. Tell me you didn't!"
"I just wanted you to have something nice for a change…something that wasn't second-hand. I don't even miss them, Uncle Hal. Really!"
Sunny's dam finally broke and her eyes began to pour. Hal draped himself around the little girl again and kissed her on her head.
"It's alright, Sunny. They're just material things—things that can be bought again. All that matters is we get to spend another Christmas with Dave and with each other, right? Although, this does remind me of a story…"
"No it doesn't." Dave was rounding the corner into the living room carrying two stacked boxes when they had dried their eyes enough to look at him. "I know that story and that's not the way this one's going to end. After Sunny told me she was going to sell her cookware on Ebay to get the money for your computer bag, I figured it wouldn't be long before you got the same bright idea in order to buy her gift. You guys do, afterall, share a brain sometimes." He presented a box to each of them. "Merry Christmas, guys."
They both hesitantly lifted the lids and let out the same gasps of surprise when they looked inside.
"My laptop!"
"My cooking pots!" Sunny looked at Dave, "That means you were the Ebay user that won my auction. Magi1972."
"That's the same user that won mine. I'm impressed that you pulled that off with all of us living under the same roof, Dave. That was pretty clever."
"I thought so." Dave admitted.
"I didn't really get you anything, though." Hal said. "In all the years I've known you, you've never much of a Christmas guy so..."
"I'm still not a Christmas guy so you can relax and I technically didn't get you guys anything."
"Thanks for this." Sunny managed to get out before the urge to wrap her arms around Dave's neck became too much for her.
When Dave had reached his room and closed the door, he retrieved his calendar and checked the clock next to him.
11:58PM
He drew a line through the "25" square and flipped ahead twelve months. He slid his gaze over all the little squares before making a bold, blue circle around the one for Christmas Day.
"If I'm still alive by this time next year, maybe I'll be a Christmas guy, Hal."