"The small one was the joke. The big one's free on Christmas Eve. Store policy."
"Do you miss it? Going the regular way?"
He considered the red and green lights sliding over the wood like slow fireworks that had agreed to be polite.
"I miss thinking I was invincible. I don't miss pretending the fall didn't change the map. Maps are allowed to get redrawn. I just wish redrawing didn't take so long."
Elena nodded. She understood maps that changed. Hers had changed when her parents left, when the management track became a myth told by tired managers to keep good waitresses from quitting, when the Greyhound cancelled and left her with a red dress and nowhere required, only places chosen.
Mikey intercepted them near the mural, cheeks bright as hard candy.
"Uncle Jake, the DJ said there's a snowflake contest later. I need to be a snowflake. An advanced snowflake."
"You are already a snowflake," Jake said. "You're orange. That's advanced by any scientific measure."