December 23rd 5:59 a.m.

Paradise Falls, California

Jeep Hanson POV

I bolt awake, breathing hard and covered in sweat. I switch on a lamp, illuminating my incredibly cramped bedroom. Not much larger than the bed itself. I've got shaggy hair, a sensitive face, clearly not big on sunlight.

A couple of ancient Silverstream trailers are bathed in the eerie blue light of night's final moments. It looks like the trailers haven't moved from this patch of barren ground in decades.

A single strand of colored Christmas lights dots the trailers roof lines, marking the season. One of the trailer doors creaks open and I step wearily out into the cool western morning. Home.

Nothing but desert for miles in all directions, save for a two-lane highway and a weather-beaten truck stop diner that I and my father will open for business in a few hours.

I gaze up to the diner's slanted roof where a large sign glows like a beacon in the darkness: PARADISE FALLS GAS N' GRUB. I take a moment to contemplate the sign.

''You okay, Jeep?'' I hear Charlie ask me and turn towards her. Charlie is a very pregnant girl of about twenty, standing in the trailer doorway, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Even with the trailer-trash veneer, she's strikingly beautiful.

''Sorry to wake you, Charlie.'' I say.

Charlie gets out of the trailer while rubbing her belly.

''Wasn't you. He's been kickin' up a storm all night. Must know somethin' I don't.'' Charlie says. She approaches me and sees the strain in my eyes.

''Another bad dream?'' she asks. I struggle for a moment before nodding.

''It's just stress, Jeep, that's all. You do too much worryin'. About this place. About your dad.'' Charlie says and then pauses. ''About me...'' Charlie says and I have a glimmer of a smile.

''You're the only thing I like worrying about.'' I say.

''See what I mean? You're worried about a girl eight months pregnant and it isn't even your baby. Now that's enough to give anybody nightmares.'' Charlie says and I turn away, dejected.

''Go ahead, make fun of me. Everybody else does.'' I say.

Charlie POV

I turn Jeep back around.

''C'mon, I was only kiddin'. You know how much I appreciate everything you and Bob are doing for me, but a month from now, this baby'll have a new family and I'll have to start thinkin' about what the heck I'm doin' with my life.'' I say but Jeep shows his distaste in me givin' up the baby.

''So, you're still going through with it?'' Jeep asks me.

''Jeep, I'm not ready to be a mama. Lordy, I can barely take care of myself as it is.'' I say.

''I could help you. We could do it together, you know? I want to.'' Jeep says and I smile sadly as I'm not ready to be a mama. And Jeep deserves someone else.

''You gotta stop carryin' the weight of the world on your shoulders.'' I say. Jeep nods, hiding the fact he's dying inside.

''Now can we go back in? I'm freezing my butt off out here.'' I say, rubbing my arms.

''Go on. I'll be right there.'' Jeep says. I kiss him on the cheek and head back to the trailer. He watches me, with longing in his eyes. With the clank of the door, I'm back in the trailer.

Inside the diner

7:05 a.m.

Hyacinth Violetta Potter POV

''I don't know whether I like it very much being seen around with an angel without any wings.'' I hear from the TV to see A Wonderful Life playing on the crummy TV.

Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey has just met Clarence, his guardian angel-in-training. The signal rolls and snows in and out. I hear a whack, which causes the image to momentarily improve and then slowly roll back the other way.

''Oh, I've got to earn them and you'll help me, won't you?'' I hear Clarence say.

Bob Hanson late 40's, owner and proprietor of this fine roadside establishment, attempts to fix the old TV hanging in the corner above the counter by banging the stuffing out of it.

The restaurant itself has the kind of grungy diner charm that you'd hope to find in a place last renovated in 1963. An old plastic Christmas tree strung with flickering lights and tinsel occupies a lonely corner.

Next to that, a faded diorama of the Nativity scene. The kind you might order off the Shopping Network. Bob seems to consider the TV with a frown. He deftly rolls an engraved silver zippo back and forth over the nicotine stained fingers of his right hand.

It must be a nervous habit. I can tell just by looking at the man that he's a beer drinker. Behind the counter, a black man named Percy Walker in his 60's is cooking up a storm on the grill with spectacular one-handed dexterity.

You do get pretty good at this sort of thing when your other hand has long been replaced by a metal hook. The dog tags around his neck tell the story. His white cook's hat has been temporarily replaced by a red Santa hat.

''Lord as my witness, Bob, one of these days that thing's gonna hit you back.'' Percy says as he cooks the Dursley's meals.

I hear a whack before Bob starts talking.

''Whaddya talkin' about, Percy? We got a special relationship here.'' Bob says before I go to the bathroom, I hear another whack. I come back out after a few minutes.

''Yeah, they got names for that kind a relationship.'' Percy says.

The jukebox on the other side of the diner starts up with the Merle Haggard tune "I'm a Lonesome Fugitive".

A stunning looking sixteen-year-old girl with dyed-black hair and a piercing or three, is leaning seductively over the jukebox, swaying gently to the music. The headband doubling as her mini-skirt reveals her knock-out figure in a way that really doesn't leave much up to the imagination. She's a billboard of rebellion.

"It's disgusting." The woman says.

"You're right. It is disgusting." The man says.

Watching the scintillating action from a booth across the diner is a conservatively dressed suburban couple. Sandra and Howard Anderson. Fish out of water.

"Really, how can she go out in public wearing that?" Sandra asks.

"I don't know. Why don't we just ask her?" Howard asks.

"Howard, don't. You'll embarrass me." Sandra says.

"Audrey, honey? Your mother was wondering if you got dressed this morning with the specific intention of showing your ass off to the entire world?" Howard shouts across the diner.

The girl who we now know as Audrey Anderson turns to Howard with a caustic smile.

"Yeah, that's cuz I woke up hoping to get double teamed by a couple of meth head truckers in the bathroom of some desert shithole." Audrey tells her dad. "Good thing we stopped here." Audrey tells her dad.

And with that she turns back to the jukebox. Percy watches the exchange discreetly from behind the counter. Loving it.

Howard turns back to his wife with a rigid smile.

"I feel satisfied with that answer. I really do." Howard tells Sandra.

Sandra buries her face in her hands.

"I'm being punished for something, I know it." Sandra says.