Christmas joy is a matter of perspective. For some, it’s the happiest time of the year. For others, not so much. Twenty-nine-year-old Mick, the son of crack addicts, isn’t exactly a dyed-in-the-wool Scrooge. Mick’s been on his own from childhood. As a teen, he even lived in a shelter, where for a short time he had a boyfriend. After the boyfriend left, Mick squatted in the historic Orpheum Theater. While living there as its self-appointed custodian, Mick has watched others celebrate the holidays from a distance, never able to share in their merriment. Only his Technicolor dreams enliven his dull, clandestine life until one day the world around him begins to change. Mick is surprised when a man named Jim buys the Orpheum and plans to restore it. Something about Jim rekindles Mick’s longing for a better life and a little holiday magic for himself. Can Jim give Mick the hope he needs to accept his happily ever after?

The Orpheum Miracle

Before I could bury myself too far into coming up with an answer, he added, “Yeah, I’d really like to get to know you.”


Well, now, he could have punched me in the gut. I was surprised. My instant reaction was to ask why. Fortunately, employer/employee manners caught up with my mouth and closed it before I squeaked out something stupid.


I looked around the empty theater lobby, searching for I didn’t know what. Answers?


Suddenly I’d become alive, a person who somebody else saw, and I didn’t know what to do. Since it was only him and me in the whole building, I got no help in untangling why he wanted to go to dinner with me.


Luckily, I had my fifty-eight dollars in my pocket from today’s work. I had money to burn, and someone to light it on fire with.


Why not go? It couldn’t be much different than sitting down at one of the trencher tables at the shelter and eating with whoever was sitting across from or next to me, could it?


Chapter 5