Allie was a smart girl. It wasn't even that she was smart; it was just that, with how long she had been in the hospital and how many operations she'd had and how often her daddy was gone to find money for them, you learned to pick up on things other kids didn't have to. When the doctors talked about the scary stuff, they did it in long complicated words they thought kids didn't understand.
They were wrong. Allie understood a lot. It wasn't any different to dinosaur names, and Allie knew most of those because of the boy two beds away who had never left it and those times Allie had gone over to play with his dinosaur toys with him.
Daddy knew she understood too. She thought sometimes that was why he looked so sad, which was why she was determined to not make him look sad any more than she had to.
So she didn't like it when grownups thought she didn't understand, but it was just something most grownups did, and she was used to it. The thing was, Ghastly didn't act like that. She looked at him with big grey eyes, examining him closely, and she could tell that he actually did at least halfway believe that Grandad was Santa Claus. And when Allie turned to look at Grandad critically, the way he never stopped laughing and played with the bears and the kids, Allie knew he was right.
"His beard isn't long enough," she said, "and he's not as fat." He looked more solid. Like Daddy. Like who could slide up and down chimneys and do a lot of physical stuff and not get tired. "But Santa can't always go around in his uniform or else people will always recognise him and never leave him alone. And he can't really be fat or he won't fit down the chimney."
She nodded firmly, hugging her bear and laying her cheek on his its head, and savouring the warmth that filled her all up from the inside. "Yep. He's Santa all right."
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They were wrong. Allie understood a lot. It wasn't any different to dinosaur names, and Allie knew most of those because of the boy two beds away who had never left it and those times Allie had gone over to play with his dinosaur toys with him.
Daddy knew she understood too. She thought sometimes that was why he looked so sad, which was why she was determined to not make him look sad any more than she had to.
So she didn't like it when grownups thought she didn't understand, but it was just something most grownups did, and she was used to it. The thing was, Ghastly didn't act like that. She looked at him with big grey eyes, examining him closely, and she could tell that he actually did at least halfway believe that Grandad was Santa Claus. And when Allie turned to look at Grandad critically, the way he never stopped laughing and played with the bears and the kids, Allie knew he was right.
"His beard isn't long enough," she said, "and he's not as fat." He looked more solid. Like Daddy. Like who could slide up and down chimneys and do a lot of physical stuff and not get tired. "But Santa can't always go around in his uniform or else people will always recognise him and never leave him alone. And he can't really be fat or he won't fit down the chimney."
She nodded firmly, hugging her bear and laying her cheek on his its head, and savouring the warmth that filled her all up from the inside. "Yep. He's Santa all right."