Chapter 10“Five.” Dillon was rushing down the fire escape at 11:55 P.M. on December 24, and the only thing on fire was him.
“Four.” Kit was doing the same across the alley.
“Three.”
Neither one noticed the cold.
“Two.”
Though the temperature was barely double digits.
“One.”
They ran across the alley toward each other, into the glow of thousands of sparkling Christmas lights fighting off the dark quiet of night.
“Look what you did!” Kit pointed. “Mr. Stickler for perfect decorations put up blinking Valentine’s Day hearts on Christmas Eve!”
“I did.” Dillon had hung ten. On and off, on and off, the red flash brought an aura of a motel vacancy or an Amsterdam brothel, but also fun. “And what’s this?” Dillon stopped at one end of a length of twisted clothesline laid out along gray pave
