“Why?”
“Because yesterday is why the job exists.”
Marissa nodded.
“You going back with more authority is the opposite of pretending.”
Devon raised his hand jokingly.
“This feels like school.”
Caleb pointed.
“Then answer.”
Devon lowered his hand.
“I think you should go back.”
“Why?”
“Because somebody needs to be the person management hates.”
Everyone laughed.
Caleb smiled.
“Helpful.”
Kelly Ames spoke from the back.
“I think you should go back because if you leave, the lesson becomes that the safest person got pushed out.”
The room became quiet.
“That’s not the lesson I want.”
Neither did Caleb.
Christmas Eve morning, Caleb called Peter Langford.
“I’ll accept.”
Peter exhaled audibly.
“Good.”
“On the conditions we discussed.”
“Yes.”
“And one more.”
Peter almost laughed.
“Of course.”
“No press release naming me as some hero employee.”
“Why?”
“Because this wasn’t one mechanic saving an airplane.”
Caleb looked toward the Christmas tree.
“It was a system that almost punished someone for using the authority they were already supposed to have.”
Peter was silent.
“So if you say anything publicly, talk about the policy.”
“Understood.”
Caleb returned to Northstar January second.
Not December twenty-six.
Peter initially asked him to return immediately.
Caleb refused.
“I promised my daughter Christmas.”
Nobody argued.
Christmas Eve, Caleb and Nora spent the morning baking cookies badly.
Carolyn had been the baker.
Caleb could repair a complex aircraft system but repeatedly burned sugar cookies.
Nora considered this evidence that mechanics were overrated.
In the afternoon, they drove to the cemetery.
Snow had begun falling lightly.
They cleared Carolyn’s headstone.
Nora placed a tiny evergreen branch beside it.
“We have a tree this year.”
Caleb swallowed.
“I think your mom knows.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not very scientific.”
“No.”
Nora smiled.
They stood there for a while.
Then she asked, “Would Mom be mad you got fired?”
Caleb laughed softly.
“At me?”
“At the mean guy.”
“Oh.”
He imagined Carolyn hearing Graham’s phrase.
Technical discretion overrides management priorities.
She would have destroyed him verbally.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“Nora.”
“What?”
“Christmas spirit.”
“I’m being honest.”
Carolyn again.
Christmas morning came quietly.
Nora woke Caleb at 5:41.
“Santa came.”
“Santa needs boundaries.”
“Dad.”
“Six.”
“Dad.”
“Five fifty.”
She dragged him from bed.
The apartment smelled like coffee and pine.
The small tree glowed.
Nora opened gifts slowly because Caleb had taught her that opening everything in thirty seconds ruined the morning.
She disagreed but complied.
The telescope was last.
She screamed.
Then hugged him so hard he almost fell backward.
“You got it!”
“Apparently.”
“I thought we didn’t have money.”
“We’re okay.”
“Can we see Saturn?”
“Probably not from the living room.”
“Outside.”
“It’s freezing.”
“Saturn doesn’t care.”
Caleb laughed.
They carried the telescope to the balcony.
Clouds covered most of the sky.
No Saturn.
No stars.