The Noel Letters (The Noel Collection #4) - Richard Paul Evans Page 0,33
shorter than usual since it wasn’t the weekend, but we still waited nearly half an hour to be seated.
We ordered family style so we could share everything. We got egg rolls, wonton soup, chicken fried rice, and a dish called Five Taste Shrimp. I was just glad to be with him again.
Dylan asked, “How old were we when we met? I’m thinking eleven or twelve.”
“It was seventh grade, so a couple months before I turned twelve.”
“Right,” he said. “Your birthday’s on Christmas.”
“How sweet, you remembered.”
“It doesn’t take much of a memory. You were named after the day.” He frowned. “I always thought that was unfortunate.”
“That I was named Noel?”
He smiled. “No, I love your name. I meant having a birthday on Christmas.”
“I know, right? I hated having my birthday on Christmas. The old ladies at Sunday school used to say, ‘You’re so lucky, you share a birthday with Jesus.’
“I always thought, Oh yeah? You try sharing a birthday with Jesus. Then when I was older I’d say, ‘Actually, no one knows what day Jesus was born. The Bible doesn’t tell us, and it’s unlikely it was December twenty-fifth, since shepherds probably wouldn’t be hanging out in the dead of winter just in case angels dropped by, and historians tell us that the celebration date was chosen by the emperor Constantine for political reasons, because it coincided with the existing pagan festivals.”
“They must have been impressed.”
“I think they were horrified. They would usually just walk away without saying anything.”
“I would have been impressed,” he said, taking a bite of egg roll. “How old were you when you said all that?”
“Nine.”
He shook his head. “I definitely would have been impressed.”
“My mom said I was a little girl with a big attitude.”
“That’s the Noel I remember.”
“The thing about birthdays, it’s the one day a year we get a little special attention. But when it falls on Christmas, forget about it. Most people viewed it as a two-in-one deal, so if I got a gift, they’d just say it was to cover both events.”
Dylan laughed. “Your parents didn’t celebrate your birthday?”
“No, my parents got it. We did an unbirthday party every June twenty-fifth, with a cake and candles.”
“You made out a lot better than I did. I didn’t know people celebrated birthdays until I was eleven.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “You had it rough.”
“For a while,” he said.
Our waiter brought out our entrees, and we both filled our plates. Dylan waited until I had food in my mouth, then asked, “Do you remember the first time we met?”
I finished chewing and said, “It was your first day at school, and you were already in trouble for something. The teacher sent you to the principal’s office.”
Dylan grinned. “That sounds about right.”
“I thought, I could like this guy.”
“That’s really what you thought?”
“Actually, I thought, He’s really cute. Then I thought, I could like this guy.”
“The first time I saw you, you were giving a book report in front of the class. I thought, That girl is really pretty, and why does she talk like that?”
“We already established that I talked like an adult.”
“Thesaurus Rex,” he said. “Then, after I got to know you and met your parents, I realized why you did. I thought they were the smartest people I had ever met.”
“They were smart. I knew my father was smart because everyone said he was. When I was fifteen, I found out that he belonged to Mensa. I only knew because I saw a letter from them and asked what Mensa was. He told me so matter-of-factly that I didn’t think much of it.
“I knew my mother was smart because I could ask her anything and she’d know the answer. And if she didn’t, she’d stop what she was doing and look it up.
“Most parents get annoyed when their kids ask too many questions, but she encouraged me to be inquisitive.” I smiled sadly. “After all these years I still miss her. Sometimes I find myself forgetting things about her. It scares me.”
Dylan’s expression turned somber. “I’ll never forget that morning you called to tell me she had died. And then going to the funeral with my parents.”
“That’s when everything changed for me.”
“It was just a few months after that that the Sparkses asked to adopt me.” He frowned. “I think that was when things between us started to change.”
“We were going in different directions. You found a family, and I lost mine. Then my dad shipped me off, and that ended us.”