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A thin layer of soft-looking snow dusted the city, leaving the roads slippery with ice and slush. A small red-haired child stumbled around down the sidewalk, the perfect miniature of the willowy woman who chased after him good-naturedly. Both were smiling and laughing.
No one watching would ever guess they were fragments of a broken home.
It was a few days till Christmas, and what with the weather and bustle of shoppers and caroling moods all around, it was a perfect opportunity for mother and son to take a little holiday of their own. Traipsing through parks and slip-sliding down brightly decorated city streets, they could easily forget that they were any different from the other happy families shopping all around them.
Until they arrived at the candy store.
"But Mama, please," the child implored, gray eyes tracing the awfully tempting outline of an elaborately-decorated candy cane displayed in the window. The chocolate coating was a dark and rich color, the delicate stripes of white icing were perfectly even, and the red sprinkles made it positively lively and festive-looking.
"I'm sorry, honey, but we can't get that." His mother crouched down next to him, at his level. "I can't afford it right now."
Innocent, curious eyes met pained, guarded ones. "Why?"
She hesitated. "You'll understand someday, Silver, sweetie," she whispered, her voice barely able to be heard over the noise of others Christmas shopping around them.
Silver allowed her to take his hand and gently pry it away from the windowsill, let her pull him away. He watched the candy cane until it was completely out of sight.