Sometimes Christmas traditions can come about in unconventional ways. Sometimes they come about in small moments and new experiences.
City sidewalks, busy sidewalks dressed in holiday style.
In the air there's a feeling like Christmas.
Children laughing, people passing, meeting smile after smile.
And on every street corner you hear:
Silver bells, silver bells. It's Christmas time in the city.
Ring-a-ling, hear them sing. Soon it will be Christmas day.
-Stevie Wonder
It was late by the time they finally made it back to Audrey's place, so they dropped her off and headed back to the apartment. At first Jon was afraid that he was going to have to carry Shawn inside as he had trouble waking the boy up. He managed to get him conscious enough to trudge inside and to his bed before the teen fell asleep again. Jon was about as tired as Shawn was and didn't even bother to change his clothes before going to bed.
The next morning, Jon regretted his decision not to change his clothes; he felt grimy and gross. Before taking a shower, he thought it would be best to check on Shawn. He found the boy standing in the middle of the apartment looking around him in awe.
Someone, in the middle of the night, had decorated their apartment for the season. The decorations Jon inspected looked very much like the leftover ones from Audrey's place.
Shawn turned to Jon with a funny look on his face. "She was here last night."
"Looks like it," Jon agreed with a small smile.
"But she didn't let us know."
"I think that was the point."
Shawn gave him a meaningful look. "I think she loves us."
Jon was quiet for a while, before he finally said, "She loves you, Shawn."
The teen shook his head slightly, smiling to himself. "We talk, you know."
"Right."
Shawn shrugged at the sarcastic remark. "Believe what you want."
Jon gave his charge a frown. "Hunter," he said warily. Curiosity was getting the better of him. In fact, what was said in the conversation Shawn claimed to have had with Audrey was driving him crazy. "Do you actually know somethin'?"
Again, Shawn shrugged. Then his eyes lit up. "Hey, it's early. Let's go over to her place right now and have breakfast fixed for her when she gets up."
He knew they shouldn't do it. But then again, they shouldn't be doing any of this. So, he said, "Not a bad idea, kid. Yeah, we can do that."
As they left the apartment, Jon couldn't help but ask again, "Shawn, do you actually know somethin'?"
Shawn grinned and took off running to the truck.
December was a month that was both loved and hated by teachers and students alike. Teachers and students both loved the month for its excitement and light spirits and holiday break.
Teachers hated it because even the top students lost focus during the final weeks before the break and everyone else was completely checked out, making it nearly impossible to get anything done.
Students hated it because they were still in school.
The last full week of school was finally over, and Shawn couldn't wait for Saturday morning. Even though he didn't know everything that was planned for the day, he was overflowing with excitement to see how Jon and Audrey were planning to fulfill the rest of his Christmas list.
After school, he and Jon went over to Audrey's as was the routine now. While the adults sat down on the couch to unwind after a long day, Shawn went directly to "his room" to change into a fresh sweatshirt. "His" room was the spare bedroom he'd taken over despite Jon insisting they weren't moving in. For the past few weeks, every time they went over to Audrey's, Shawn had taken it upon himself to bring a piece of clothing from his closet and Jon's. Just in case. He wasn't sure what it was just in case of, but he felt it was necessary in a way he couldn't explain.
He opened the closet door and inspected the clothing inside. He pushed Jon's shirts, the ones his teacher had been complaining about not being able to find, to the side looking for his gray hoodie. He rummaged around for a while until he remembered he was keeping his clothes in a pile in the drawers. Once he had the right sweater, he quickly changed and rejoined his teachers, plopping himself in between them and getting an annoyed look from Jon for it.
Chinese food on the weekend was becoming a trend and Shawn liked it. After dinner Jon made Shawn do his homework and get it over before it was forgotten amid all they had planned for the weekend.
Not long after he closed his last book, Cory called, and Shawn headed to his room to talk to him. Cory was stressed over what to get Topanga for Christmas and hoped Shawn might have some ideas. What should have taken a brief time to discuss dragged on for almost two hours as Eric kept interrupting them and disconnecting the call to force Cory off the phone so he could talk to the girl of the week. Finally, Alan intervened and gave Eric the boot off the phone, and they were able to finish their call.
It was around 10 when he wandered out of the back bedroom and found Jon and Audrey already asleep on the couch in front of the TV. Audrey was curled against Jon in a tight ball, her head resting on his chest. Both of Jon's arms were wrapped around her. She looked cold. Shawn grabbed one of her thick knitted blankets from the basket near the couch. As gently as he could-he didn't want to wake them- he laid the blanket over them. He placed a pillow at the other end of the couch and gingerly wiggled into place, careful to not to put his feet too far down the cushion and accidentally bump Audrey. The blanket was so oversized that it was big enough to cover him as well. With the three of them under the same cover it soon became very warm. Within minutes, Shawn was fast asleep.
It was the smell of coffee and the shaking of the sofa that woke Shawn the next morning. He was startled by the coffee-scented earthquake and jumped into a sitting position only to find that it was Jon shaking him awake and not an actual earthquake.
"C'mon," Jon said. "We need to get to the apartment and change clothes. We're going out to eat this mornin' before we head to the mall."
"We don't need to go back," Shawn said, groggily. "We've got clothes here."
"Uh, no we don't. You must have been dreamin'."
"We've got clothes in my room."
"You don't have a room here." Shawn was persistent, if nothing else, Jon had to admit. He still wouldn't let go of the idea of them moving in with Audrey.
"Yes, I do," the teen insisted, pointing at the door down the hall.
"Shawn, I told you we're not movin' in."
"So don't move in," Shawn retorted, pushing the blanket to the side, and standing up. "Do what you wanna do and I'll do the same."
"Hunter…"
"Do you really wanna go all the way back to the apartment to change?"
They stood there staring at each other for several minutes, one as stubborn as the other and neither wanted to concede.
"Fine," Jon huffed, tired of the standoff. "Let's see what you've got here."
When they finally joined her in the kitchen, Audrey didn't seem overly surprised to see that they had changed without leaving her place. Jon guessed she knew that Shawn was collecting clothes in the spare bedroom.
"Are we ready to go?" she asked, rinsing out her coffee mug.
"Yep. I'm hungry," Shawn said. "Where are we eatin'?"
"I thought we'd stop at this place on North 22nd Street," Jon told them. "Sun Happy Diner, somethin' like that."
"Sounds good to me," Shawn said heading towards the door.
"Wait," Audrey grabbed her purse and coat from the closet. "Isn't North 22nd Street a long way off from Franklin Mills?"
"Yeah, about that." Jon had changed their destination early that morning and hadn't yet had a chance to tell them. "I thought we'd get out of Philly and head to King of Prussia. They've got a pretty big mall out there."
"Works for me," she shrugged.
"Great," Shawn said, trying to rush them along. "It works for everyone. Can we please leave?"
The Sun Happy Breakfast Diner was located on a busy street in a worn-out brick building that had seen twice as many decades as Jon, Audrey, and Shawn combined. The tired yellow awning on which the partially chipped off name of the diner was painted on looked like it was about to give up and lie down on the pavement. Shops on either side of it were out of business, most of them vandalized in one form or another.
This was not the kind of place he intended to take Audrey and Shawn. The name Sun Happy Breakfast Diner invoked images of bright cheerfulness and a family-oriented place to eat.
This was none of that. It wasn't even a diner.
I gotta stop takin' food recommendations from guys at a bar, Jon thought as he tried to come up with an alternative place to eat.
"Why are we just standin' here?" Shawn asked. He was unbothered by their environment. This was uptown as far as he was concerned. "I'm hungry."
Jon didn't answer. He was still thinking. He'd been in Philadelphia for nearly three years, but rarely ventured to this side of town so he had no idea where they could go instead.
"Why are we standing here?" Audrey asked.
He was embarrassed he'd brought her to such a dump. "This isn't what I expected," he sheepishly said.
"What were you expecting?"
"I dunno," he said rubbing the back of his neck. "Somethin' that doesn't look like drug deals go down regularly inside."
Audrey laughed and took his hand. "It might have great food. We should at least try it."
He knew Shawn wouldn't care about the potential health code violations inside, but he was surprised that Audrey didn't. "Are you kiddin' me? You really wanna go in there?"
"You don't?" At the look he gave her, she tipped her head to the side and said, "You grew up in the Village in the 70s, right?"
Not the age thing again, he groaned internally. Out loud he said, "Yeah."
"The nicest street in the Village then looked ten worse than here. But these little holes-in-the-wall have some of the best food. And lots of families went to them. Mine did."
Jon had to admit that she had a point. In the chaos that surrounded New York in the 70s and 80s people still found the good in the City. Food was definitely one of those things. And some of the absolute best places where a lot of families dined were the ones where drug deals did go down regularly.
He shrugged and led the way into the restaurant.
If the outside surprised Jon, the inside surprised him even more. Instead of the roach-infested, germ trap he was expecting, the Sun Happy Breakfast diner was surprisingly clean. The tables and décor could have been from the 70s or earlier, but everything was well preserved and clearly taken care of. There was a comfortable, cozy atmosphere that reminded Jon of the diners he went to as a teenager with Audrey's dad.
Enhancing the atmosphere were kitschy, old-fashioned Christmas decorations that decked the interior with a retro warmth. The Christmas tree by the cashier's counter was a tall artificial tree bedazzled in tinsel, snowflakes, sewn fabric ornaments, papier Mâché doves, bows, and yarn swags.
The trio was seated at a booth in the back corner of the restaurant. The plastic tablecloth scritch-scratched every time one of them touched it. The menus weren't fancy, just basic fonts on plain white paper simply stating what was being served. As they looked over their breakfast options, the little diner was suddenly flooded with people: regulars and couples, but mostly families stopping in for breakfast before going Christmas shopping.
"I like this place," Shawn said as he buried his nose in the menu.
Audrey nodded her agreement. "This reminds me of Ricci's on Lafayette."
Relieved that his choice wasn't a complete miss, Jon smiled at the mention of one of his favorite diners back in the City. "Yeah, t does now that you mention it."
After deciding on what she wanted, Audrey excused herself to the bathroom leaving Shawn and Jon to squabble over what grits were and why they were on the breakfast menu with fish. Their waitress came by shortly after she left and introduced herself as Marge.
Marge reminded Shawn of a cross between Flo and Alice from that one TV show about a diner in Phoenix that Jon sometimes watched. She had hair like Flo and sounded like Alice.
"So, sweetie," she said to Shawn. "Whatcha want this mornin'?"
Shawn, who had made up his mind five times already, squinted thoughtfully at the menu. "I want the pancake stack, two poached eggs, sausage links…" He pursed his lips together trying to remember what else he wanted. He was tempted to get the grits just to prove Jon wrong that he'd hate them but decided against it. "I guess that's all."
"Okay, Sweetie, I've gotta a Jayne Mansfield and Adam and Eve on a log."
Shawn blinked. He was certain he had not ordered any people and didn't understand what Marge said.
Merriment danced in the server's eyes. She always had fun with customers new to the diner game.
The teen looked at his teacher who was watching him with his hand over his mouth. Jon offered no help and seemed amused by his confusion.
"No, no," Shawn said to Marge, bewildered. He repeated his order carefully.
"Yeah, I got that, Sweetie," she grinned. "You want anythin' to drink? Cow juice for a growin' kid?"
Shawn couldn't hide his disgust and confusion at the suggestion.
What kinda weirdo place did Jon bring us to?
He stared at Jon who continued to watch him. He could see the grin on his teacher's face even though his hand was still over his mouth.
Marge was struggling not to laugh. "No cow?"
"No," Shawn said, "I really don't want a cow... anything. Just water."
"Dog soup, got it."
Shawn stared at her with mouth agape. He was beginning to worry about their server's sanity.
His concern increased when Jon's order of bacon and eggs, biscuits and gravy, and orange juice came out as cluck and grunt, heart attack on a rack, and a Florida tonic.
As Marge scribbled down the order Shawn leaned over the table as far as he could and hissed, "I think this was a bad idea after all. I don't think they serve food here. Can we go somewhere else?"
Jon moved his hand and just grinned at him.
Marge stuck her pencil in her bouffant hair for a moment as she turned to a new page of her order pad. "Cup of mud, hun?" she asked the English Lit teacher.
"Yeah," Jon said. Then glancing at Audrey's empty spot added, "Make that two."
"Pair of drawers," she said keeping an eye on the teen. "Anythin' with it?"
"One with cream and sugar, nothin' in the other."
"I'll bring ya a cup of mud and a hot blonde with sand."
"You will not!" Shawn, whose mind immediately went to women and bikinis, was appalled by this offer, and slapped his hands on the table to punctuate his outrage. He glared at the woman and was about to demand a change in servers when Marge started to laugh. She reached out her hand and patted his shoulder.
"I know your mama's a redhead, honey. And I'm not tryin' to set your dad up with a blonde," she said as her shoulders shook with laughter. "I was talkin' about the coffee."
The teen was not convinced but he softened slightly at the way she referred to Jon and Audrey.
Jon was laughing, too. It was nice not to be on the wrong end of a joke for once. "Diner slang, Shawn," he finally told him. "It's just how they talk here."
Shawn glanced at Marge then arched an eyebrow in a skeptical look at Jon. "Are you sure?"
"I ate almost exclusively out of diners in college, yeah, I'm sure."
"He's right," Marge confirmed. "Short-order cooks are a special kind of folk and you gotta speak their language. Speak it long enough and it's all you'll speak." She laughed again and gave Shawn a wink.
Shawn relaxed and allowed himself to laugh with them. He grilled Marge for a minute about the slang to get a better understanding of it. Although, he wasn't sure he'd ever drink milk again after hearing it called cow juice. That was just…gross!
After taking Shawn and Jon's order, Marge asked Jon, "And what'll the Missus have, honey?"
The tables turned again, and Jon was now put on the spot. Shawn stared at him with the goofiest smile on his face. The smile was so unnerving that the English Lit teacher had trouble responding. Eventually he managed to get Audrey's order out: battery acid (grapefruit juice), broken hen berries (Scrambled eggs), and dough well done with cow to cover (buttered toast).
"Ah, Missus!" Shawn squawked after Marge left. This was Jon's payback for not telling him about diner slang sooner. He sat back in the booth seat and hugged himself looking pleased. "She thinks you and Audrey are married! See, I'm not so far off base!"
"Hunter…" The sudden flush of color to Jon's cheeks gave away his emotion.
Shawn was still laughing to himself when Audrey returned. Jon shot him the dirtiest look he could in warning not to say anything.
"Dad ordered for you," Shawn grinned at Jon in response.
An elderly couple, who were passing by at that moment, smiled and the woman told them they were a lovely family.
Jon carefully watched Audrey's response. Her smile was as big as Shawn's as she thanked them kindly and spoke to them for a moment. When he glanced at Shawn, he saw the teen was still giving him that deranged grin. He ducked his head and studied the Christmas patterns on the tablecloth, so he didn't have to look at the kid across from him.
Shawn and Audrey began to plan out their trip to the mall by making a list on a napkin of the stores they wanted to hit. With food clearly on his mind, the first place the teen wanted to go was the food court. Jon was more or less along for the ride and didn't care where they went although the food court was last on his list.
The diner was now full of people doing the same thing the trio in the corner were doing. It was impossible to tell the difference between them and the "real" families that surrounded them.
Marge brought their food out and, as Audrey predicted, it was better than most of the food at the upscale places in town.
Eventually their conversation turned to holiday traditions and what Audrey did growing up. Although her Christmases were pretty close to what Shawn wanted there was one thing, she mentioned that he had forgotten all about- sledding.
"Center City is the big sleddin' place here," he told them. "It's out by the Art Museum. The front is a crowded mess, but if you go to the back steps there aren't as many people. And it's funner."
Jon nearly corrected Shawn's grammar then thought better of it. He wasn't his teacher today. Instead, he said, "There are hills back there?" He had been to the Art Museum several times but was unaware the landscape was suitable for something like that.
"No," the teen said. "You sled down the stairs. You can catch some big air if you do it right."
"You can probably fly without the sled too if you hit the steps right," Audrey chimed in. "The Art Museum sounds like Highbridge Park in Washington Heights. You just gotta be ready to bail before you hit the fence."
Shawn and Audrey went back and forth swapping sledding stories while Jon was once again left out. Audrey noticed this and attempted to pull him into their world by asking, "Did you ever go sledding at St. Nicholas in Harlem? That was one of my favorite slopes."
Jon stared down at his plate and shrugged. "I've never been."
"So where did you go?" Shawn asked, shoving a forkful of runny egg in his mouth.
He shrugged again. "I've never been sleddin'."
His companions stared at him in surprise.
"You've never been sleddin'?" Shawn didn't know what to make of this revelation.
"Skiin' yes, sleddin' no."
"Wow. Even I've been sleddin' with and without Cory." Shawn felt an inexplicable sorrow for his teacher. Sledding was a basic cold weather activity that everyone did. It was something anyone could do because you didn't need money to go sledding. You just needed snow, a hill, and a piece of cardboard. Depending on the slope and condition of the snow, you didn't need the cardboard; you could get away with just your butt.
The teen set his fork down as he thought about what little he knew about Jon's childhood. He felt even sadder for his teacher and wished he could do something for him. He'd never known anyone who'd never been sledding at least once.
Shawn looked to Audrey for help. She nodded that she understood the intent behind the look and slipped her arm around Jon. "What time do you think we'll get back from the mall?"
Jon frowned, "Around 3 or so."
Audrey gave Shawn a sly smile. She reached into her purse and pulled out her coin bag. Handing him some change she said with a wink, "Why don't you give Cory a call and see if he can come sledding with us this afternoon?"
Shawn grinned. He loved that she was often on the same wavelength with him, at least where Jon was concerned. He slid out of the booth and headed to the payphone by the bathroom.
Jon shifted uncomfortably. He hadn't thought about something as simple as sledding since he was a kid. He used to ask to go all the time but was turned down by his parents because "that's not what we do". The nannies weren't allowed to take him either.
"You don't have to do this just for me, Aud," he said morosely. "I've never been sleddin' but it's no big deal. If anythin', I oughta be takin' you guys skiin'."
Audrey turned to look at him. "Haven't you ever wanted to go sledding?"
"Yeah, when I was kid. I'm turning thirty-four next month." The words caught in his throat. There was that age thing again. He sighed. "It's a little late now."
Audrey studied him for a moment. "I don't see why it should be. Besides, I think Shawn would rather go sledding than skiing because that's what everyone else will be doing."
Jon shrugged. "Yeah, I guess takin' the kids and watchin' will be fun."
"You aren't going to try it?"
"I'm too old, Aud," he gave a harsh laugh and Audrey could hear a bitter tone to it. "It'd be weird."
She wouldn't accept that excuse. "Lots of dads sled with their kids, Jon. You'd hardly be the only one over 30."
Lots of dads sled with their kids. That statement struck Jon like a mallet hitting a gong. That statement rolled off her tongue so easily as though Shawn was his son. He sat there leaning on the tabletop with one arm on top of the other trying to digest what she'd said. But he couldn't, at least not now. So, to deflect attention from himself, he said, "You gonna go too?"
Audrey flipped her long hair over her shoulder and gave him a mischievous smirk. "Try and stop me!"
Jon shook his head. He found it impossible not to smile at her enthusiasm.
Shawn slid back into his seat looking happy. "Cory's waiting for us."
"He knows we're not comin' until 3, right?" Jon asked. He could just imagine Cory in his red parka and blue gloves sitting on the couch waiting for hours.
Shawn nodded. "He's just desperate to get out of the house. He said Morgan's been singing Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer since she got up and she only knows the chorus."
Marge came by with the check and, with Cory waiting, it was time to leave. As Jon paid the bill, their waitress came over to him, gave him a friendly smile, and said, "Merry Christmas to you and that beautiful family, honey."
"You, too." He said with a smile. As he put his wallet back in his pocket, it occurred to him that the mention of family didn't seem as odd as it had before. In fact, he was beginning to feel a warm comfort every time he heard the word.
He was smiling and whistling a Christmas carol when he rejoined the "family". He and Shawn took Audrey by the hand as they headed to the truck and to the King of Prussia mall.
Strings of streetlights even stop lights, blink a bright red and green as the shoppers rush home with their treasures.
Hear the snow crunch. See the kids bunch; this is Santa's big scene and above all this bustle you hear:
Silver bells, silver bells. It's Christmas time in the city.
Ring-a-ling, hear them sing. Soon it will be Christmas day.
