Chapter Twenty-Two
Christmas Shopping, an Unexpectedly Dangerous Pastime

"I went shopping on Black Friday with my mom once back in New York. These two old ladies got into a fistfight over 99 cent towels," I said, looking at how busy the mall was a few days before Christmas.

"I have 16 little kids I need to find stuff for. 16, Percy." Grover didn't seem to hear me. "And no matter what I get, someone ends up crying about how Harriet's Barbie is prettier, and Steven's truck has more wheels, and this is the exact same thing they got last year."

He made me happy to be an only child. I only had to get something for my mom, and she'd told me exactly what she wanted, right down to the shelf I could find it on in Victoria's Secret. I don't think she realized no guy would be caught dead in that store. Pregnancy was doing weird things to her mind.

"Get each of the girls the same Barbie and each of the boys the same truck." It seemed like the easiest solution.

"Taylor thinks she's too old for dolls. Tucker was born two weeks ago."

"Gift cards?"

"You're a genius."

Apparently Grover and his brother, Giles, liked to wait until the last minute to get their Christmas shopping done. He'd asked me if I wanted to come with, and I didn't need to be asked twice. My house was getting more and more suffocating.

Grover stopped at some toy store. "If I get each kid a $10 gift card, that's $160," he bleated morosely.

We wandered around the store for a few minutes. The shelves were looking pretty picked over. "So, what's your family story?" I finally asked.

"Do you want the long or the short version?" He picked up a cheap doll that had bright pink hair, then set it back down.

"Short, I guess."

"Greta's 30 and on her second marriage. She has six kids: Taylor, Todd, Tammi, Tiffany, Teagan, and Tucker. She's an accountant. Gram's two years younger. He's a dentist with four kids: Steven, Kat, Andrew, and Mary. He's kind of a jerk, and his wife is filing for divorce. Gabby has three kids. She had Angel three months after graduating high school, and Sarah and Jessie are identical. Gladys is a stay at home mom. She's got Harriet, Julie, and Wesley. And then there's Giles, who is a senior in high school and is probably going to marry his girlfriend as soon as they're done with college."

"That's the short version?"

"Yeah. And they all come to our house for every holiday. It's terrible. I'm getting each kid a $5 gift card. That's all I can afford."

I wondered what a Christmas with more than just your mom was like. Not that I was complaining – she'd always done the best she could with whatever money we had at the time.

Grover bought all 16 gift cards. "I spend $30 on Greta's family, and she's probably just going to get me an ugly sweater or something."

"That sucks. I have to go to Victoria's Secret."

"What? Why?" His eyes widened. Yeah, that was the normal guy reaction.

"My mom wants perfume for Christmas, and apparently Bath & Body isn't good enough."

"Okay, well you have fun in there. I'm gonna wait outside."

I gulped and headed into the ridiculously pink and girly store, trying to remember which perfume my mom had said she liked the best. They all smelled the same, anyway.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" a perky brunette asked me. The store was packed with girls desperately trying to find stuff, but of course the one guy got singled out as needing help.

"No, I'm okay."

I compared bottles of perfume for a few minutes, trying to figure out which one my mom would like best based on the name. Grumpy old women were pushing past me, grabbing what they wanted and quickly walking away. Grover probably thought I'd died in here or something.

You know that feeling you get when someone's right behind you? It was making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I hoped whoever it was would just go away.

It didn't happen. In fact, it got worse. Whoever it was pressed their sweaty hand over my mouth. "Hello, Percy," she hissed sweetly.

The Graces had decided not to get together for Christmas. Praise newborn baby Jesus.

However, Grandpa had decided to come to Michigan for a few weeks to visit with me and Nell. Well, he was more interested in visiting me, but Nell didn't know that.

"The food is really good, Nell," Grandpa lied, pushing his burnt chicken around on his plate. She'd tried. She'd failed. She was extremely emotionally unstable. Hence, we were trying to be nice about how terrible her cooking was.

"Yeah, really good." I shoved another bite in my mouth. Even if it normally would have made me gag, I was hungry. I was eating for three people.

Three people.

My mood immediately dropped about ten levels.

Nell had been really tired last night, so I'd picked up Grandpa at the airport by myself.

"I didn't get an abortion. I've seen the doctor twice. They're twins." I'd told him immediately once we were on the highway.

He'd just calmly fiddled with the radio station. "Does Nell know?"

"No."

And that was that. No questions about the future. Nothing. Absentee parenting at its finest.

Back to the present situation. Nell and Grandpa were talking about the couple horses we still kept out in the old stable. Ginger had cataracts in both eyes, and it was obvious that Torpedo was lonely. I'd only gone out to see them a few times since coming back home – I didn't like the horses, and they certainly seemed to hate me.

"If we got a few mares, we could start the business back up," Nell said. The business that closed even before my Grandpa was born.

"It's not that easy. Times have changed. None of the big businesses do it like that anymore," Grandpa argued. "All the big businesses use artificial insemination. And even if you could get something going, it's not profitable. Or necessary – we have plenty of money."

Delicate emotional state, I wanted to remind Grandpa. Wait, why was I defending Nell?

But to my surprise, Nell held her ground. "Thoroughbreds used for racing can't be conceived through artificial insemination."

"So you want to sell racehorses?"

"Why not? We used to be one of the best sellers in the country."

"50 years ago!" Grandpa scoffed.

I quit listening to their conversation, mostly because I knew nothing about breeding or racing horses. Yeah, call me an ungrateful rich girl. Nell, however, was more passionate than I'd ever seen her.

My phone started vibrating. Grover was calling me. Nell and Grandpa were still going at it, so they didn't notice when I walked out of the room to answer.

"Thalia, I need help," Grover said the second I picked up. Or that's what I think he said. He was talking way too fast.

"Okay, you need to slow down."

I heard him take a few shaky breaths. "Percy went in to Victoria's Secret an hour ago to get something for his mom, and he still hasn't come out yet. He's not answering his phone or anything and I don't know what to do and I went looking for him and couldn't find him and I need help and-"

"Where are you?" I interrupted.

"The mall in Degis."

"And Percy's missing?" I hardly knew who Percy was, but Grover seemed really scared. And he'd been really nice the one time I'd really talked to him.

"Yeah."

"Okay, I'm gonna drive over."

Nell and Grandpa were still going at it. I wondered how long it would be before the waterworks started on her part. "My friend has a friend who's missing so I'm driving over to Degis. I'll be back eventually," I shouted through the door. I don't think either of them heard me.

Half an hour later, I found Grover sitting at a bench at the mall. "My brother left already. I told him I was getting a ride home with you. I hope that's okay. And-" Again with the talking way too fast.

"Grover. That's okay. Now, what are we going to do?"

"Well…I haven't actually gone into the store yet."

I could have slapped him. "I just drove all the way over here, and you haven't even gone into the store yet to see if maybe he's just having a hard time deciding what he wants." He opened his mouth to defend himself. "Okay, whatever. I'm here now. I'll go look for him."

Victoria's Secret was an explosion of pink and strong perfume. My mom had loved the store; I hated it with a passion. There were a few flat-chested girls hopelessly looking at pushup bras, some grannies raping the clearance rack, and a few other people just browsing.

No Percy.

"Can I help you with something?" a brunette wearing ten pounds of makeup asked me.

"Yeah. I'm looking for someone. A guy." That should have been descriptive enough. People of the opposite sex avoided this store like the plague. "Dark hair, umm…"

"Was he shopping for perfume? Is he your brother?"

"Yeah." Why the hell not? Whatever got her talking.

"He left with your mom through the back door. She said he wasn't feeling well." This wasn't going well.

"Our mom's dead."

"Well, she was here. Big sunglasses. Her hair was wrapped up in this ugly scarf, no offense to her. She was darker…didn't exactly look a lot like him."

I pretty much ran out of the store and grabbed Grover. "Call Percy's mom. See if he's home."

He did what I asked while desperately trying to keep up with me. "Mrs. Jackson? Is Percy home? No, okay. Just wondering." He looked at me helplessly. "What's going on?"

"Well, it looks like we need to report a missing person."