if i could put us in a snow globe (then maybe we could let it go)

Christmas is only a few days away now, and all Emily can think about is who’s not going to be there. All she can think about is that maybe Luke will realize it’s Christmas, and the magic of the season that so many movies are famous for will just… activate itself, and Luke will come home. The tiny flame of hope that’s igniting itself in her chest keeps getting bogged down by sudden blizzards of sadness, sudden callbacks to the sound of the door slamming, or specific angry words that left her son’s mouth. Words that he meant -- ones he had to mean -- because Emily was suffocating him. She drove him away, and now she has to spend Christmas without him. Mitch won’t get to be with his son, because Emily wrecked it all.