Excerpt from A Little Magic
The icy streets of Chicago were silent save for the sound of a single pair of tennis shoes pounding against the pavement in a steady run.
Noel’s breath turned white in the frigid nighttime air and though it was Christmas Eve, there was no sign of it on the dirty, rundown streets she was traveling. Her greasy hair flew behind her in a bright banner of gold as she desperately clutched the brown paper bag filled with tiny trinkets for her brothers and sisters.
Technically there was no blood relation, but those living at St. Clarence Orphanage were the closest she had to family. Weaving her way between parked cars and down alleyways, she hurried through the darkened streets, praying she wouldn’t meet with any trouble. She had to get home as soon as possible. The precious gifts she carried were the only presents the younger children of the orphanage would receive from ‘Santa.’ While Noel’s illusions of Christmas had been shattered at an early age, she didn’t want the same for the tiny tots of St Clarence. They deserved to hold onto what little magic they were able to grasp.
Using a parked car as leverage, she leapt over a large patch of ice, a small grin touching her lips as she made it safely to the other side. A quick glance around told her she was not too far away from the place she called home. If she hurried, the front door would still be unlocked when she arrived. It would save her from having to jump the rusty chain link fence and climb in through the back window.
Noel had almost made it to the corner of Harmony Avenue when a patch of black ice sent her sprawling. Pain exploded behind her eyes as her head met with the sidewalk. Dazed, it took a moment for her to recover, but when she did, she gingerly pushed herself to her knees. Noel looked down to see her frozen red hands cut and torn, one knuckle bleeding slightly.
“Perfect,” she muttered to herself as she rose to her feet, her sharp eyes instantly searching the ground for her gifts. The brown bag lay a few feet away from her and she picked it up counting the gifts quickly. She was missing three.
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