Christmas had seemed especially bleak to Royce for the last several years.

He couldn’t help but remember the last Christmas they’d spent as a family, the last time that Petra had really seemed like his daughter, just before his dad got sick. He could remember the smiles he’d gotten from Petra when he’d given her that really nice girl’s bike, and how thrilled she had been to get a laptop of her very own. Although Maxine had thought she was a little young for either one, he’d overruled her, and Petra had given him a cuddle that still stuck with him over all these years.

There had been a nice family dinner too, the last time his widowed father had been present. The house had been fancily decorated, and it had seemed like a warm, close family gathering that he had wished could last forever.

He still wished that it had lasted forever, but it wasn’t to be. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Things had started to go to hell not long after that, and the good times had never returned.

The first Christmas or two after the breakup had been especially devastating as he remembered what could have been if Maxine had only kept her panties on around Milt. Once he had loved Maxine despite her faults and had wished that things could continue the way they had once been, but it was wishful thinking and he knew it.

The memory of those first Christmases alone had taught him a lesson: though he might wallow in self-pity, it didn’t do him any good to just sit around the house alone and brood. The stores – all of them – were pretty quiet over the holiday, and most employees wanted to be home with their families. Since he didn’t have much else to do, he was in the habit of picking out a store and helping out for the day just doing what needed to be done.

He could do just about anything needed around the stores with the exception of meat cutting, which was a skill he just hadn’t had the time to learn. It took a long time to learn to be a competent meat cutter, and there had always been more important things he needed to know. He remembered back when he was still in high school, when he’d decided he wanted to follow along in his father’s footsteps. Once that had been worked out, his father had decided to train him for the job right by having him do just about every job in the stores the company had then. He had, even to being an assistant meat cutter, where he learned that there was even an art to grinding hamburger.

He had been assistant manager of the Upper Avondale store for a couple of years when he was promoted to managing the Willow Street Store not long before that last Christmas. He had just been getting settled in there when his father had his first heart attack and started the downhill slide. There had been nothing else he could do but try to fill in for his father the best he could. He could not have managed it at all if Steve Winsocki hadn’t been the leading assistant manager at Willow Street. Steve was very experienced in the job and really should have gotten the promotion, except that everyone involved knew that Royce wouldn’t be holding the position long and would be moving up to the corporate office as soon as he had some time in a store manager position.

But his father had never been able to make it back to work, and hadn’t even been able to provide a lot of guidance. Royce had been thrown into a job that was well over his head, and would never have been able to keep things going without Steve watching his back at Willow Street while Hazel helped him learn his way around the main office. Somehow they’d made it through, at the expense of hours on top of hours of work each day; it was his absence that had probably opened the door to his breakup with Maxine, and all that had resulted.

Although he usually just dropped in on a store, it wasn’t the case on Christmas. He was actually on the schedule for an eight-hour shift at Upper Avondale so some lucky employee could have Christmas with their family.

He didn’t have to go on shift until mid-morning, so he took the extra time to do a little more poking around the Wilson Subs locations and the new Sandy’s Super Subs sites. The Wilson stores were closed for the holiday, so there was little chance he would be noticed giving them the once-over. The Wilson stores in general didn’t look bad, but they didn’t look all that good, either; it was clear that snappy new decorating would make the Sandy’s stores look pretty good by comparison.

While he was snooping around, he spent a little extra time looking at the Peavine Street location. That was the one where they had two locations for future Sandy’s, the one next to the Wilson Sub shop was an old drive-in that had featured carhops until it closed. The building itself was probably big enough for a Sandy’s, but it was right next door to the Wilson shop, which would have made opening another sub shop next door a little hard to conceal. Still, it was a redevelopment area, and that space ought to be useful for something.

Considering the lightning that was going to strike in a few months in the areas he’d been snooping around, he was feeling pretty good for a Christmas morning, for him anyway, when he walked into the Upper Avondale store. He wouldn’t have wanted to call the place empty but it was less than busy, and a lot of the sales seemed to be last-minute things that had been forgotten in the preparation of family holiday dinners. A surprising number of sales were turkeys, and he wondered how some housewife could forget that.

Chris Hovington was the assistant manager in charge that morning. He was a good man, and Royce figured that he had store manager potential when he had a little more experience under his belt, at least if there was a place to move him to. “How are you this morning, Chris?” Royce asked when he saw him.

“Oh, not too bad considering it’s Christmas.”

“I hope you don’t mind having to work today.”

“No big deal. The wife and I had our gift giving last night, and we are going to have dinner after I get off, so everything works out. Since it’s just the two of us, it makes things a little simpler, and this gives me an excuse to not have to go to my in-laws.”

“Now I think we’re getting down to the real reason. Anyway, I’m here to work. Where do you want me?”

“Why don’t you get a cash drawer and set up on Register Two? We’re not really that busy, but Maria on Register One is having some problems. I’d like to give her a break.”

“What kind of problems?”

“Family problems,” Chris shrugged. “She’s not real happy and is having trouble keeping her mind on what she’s doing. She’s a good cashier, but she’s having a bad day.”

Royce signed out a cash drawer from the office, and pulled on the Pafco Supermarkets signature red apron to signify that he was an employee, then went to Register Two. Since Pafco had several hundred employees spread out among the ten stores of the chain, there was no way Royce could remember everyone. He tried anyway. At first glance he recognized Maria, although he could not have stated her name without Chris’ prompting. She was a shortish woman, pretty well built with a big head of hair, and he remembered her as being perky. “Good morning, Maria,” he said as he began to set up the register.

“Oh, good morning Mr. Palmer,” she replied listlessly. “What brings you here?”

“I have nothing better to do on Christmas Day,” he replied simply and honestly. “I might as well be doing something as opposed to doing nothing.”

“Yeah, I guess,” she replied with little enthusiasm as she turned to look at him.

Royce raised his head to look at her, and he could see that she had a hell of a shiner on the eye farthest from him, and an attempt to cover it up with makeup hadn’t worked very well. “Maria,” he said gently, “don’t tell me you ran into a door.”

“OK, I won’t,” she replied without a trace of humor. “Can I tell you that Hector, my so-called boyfriend was drunk and in a mood to fight?”

“He hit you?”

“Yeah, more than once, too. He wanted something I wouldn’t give him, so he took it out on me with his fist. I feel like crap, but I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t need the money.”

“Is this the first time he’s done it?”

“No, it’s not, but well, he’s, well . . .”

“I get the picture. Have you had a doctor look at that eye?”

“No, but it’ll be all right. Besides, there aren’t any doctors open at this hour on Christmas, of all days.”

“The Urgent Care Clinic at the hospital is open. It’s always open. Go lock up your drawer and tell Chris that I told you to go get it checked out, and don’t clock out. I’ll cover for you.”

“We’re not supposed to take off like that.”

“Maria, who owns this store? I said to go get it checked out.”

“I don’t have a car, and it’s too far to the hospital to walk.”

Royce reached in his pocket and pulled out his car keys. “It’s the blue Ford Focus with the Pafco Supermarkets logo on the side out in the employee parking lot.”

“I . . . I really shouldn’t do this,” she said. “I mean, it’s not . . .”

“Maria, just go do it. We’re not that busy and it’s obvious that you’re hurting. Get fixed up, and pull yourself together. Just get back before six, since I don’t want to have to walk home.”

“But Mr. Palmer . . .” she shook her head and paused before saying, “Thank you,” as she took the car keys. “I’ll be back as quick as I can.” She busied herself for a moment with her till, then took off for the office, while Royce started checking out a woman who was coming through the line with a turkey and a bag of potatoes in her cart.

A few minutes later Chris came out to the registers, looking apologetic; there were no customers at the moment. “I should have done that,” he told Royce. “I guess I just didn’t think of it.”

“It’s something you always want to keep in mind,” Royce replied casually, but thinking that maybe Chris needed a little more seasoning than he’d thought. “The way my old man put it was, take care of your employees and they’ll take care of you.”

“You know that’s going to be all through the employees by the time things are over with.”

“So? Is it bad for the employees to know that their boss is concerned about what happens with them?”

“Well, when you put it that way, no. But you realize that the reason she was reluctant to go is that she’s afraid she’s going to have to talk to the police, don’t you?”

“I figured that, but at the same time if this isn’t the first time it’s happened, maybe she really ought to talk to the police. There is no excuse for that kind of behavior, and it always amazes me at the number of women who will put up with that kind of crap time and again.”

“Yeah, me too. Are you going to be all right running the registers by yourself?”

“I will be so long as it doesn’t get a lot busier than this. It’s not the first time I’ve done this, you know.”

As expected it was not a busy morning. The flow of customers was sporadic, sometimes with several minutes passing between them, but occasionally with two or three in line at once. Royce had no trouble handling the customers, and even doing the bagging needed; he still got the chance to wish everyone a merry Christmas. At least it took his mind off of his own troubles and loneliness.

It was a couple of hours before Maria returned and gave his keys back to him. Her eye didn’t look quite as bad, but at least part of that was that she’d taken the time to fix up her makeup. “So how did it go?” he asked.

“They said they really can’t do much about the way it looks,” she said quietly. “But they gave me a shot and some pain pills, and I feel better even though I don’t look much better. Do you want me to take back over now?”

“It’s not necessary,” he said, “and if you’re taking pain pills you might be running the risk of getting woozy and making a mistake. It’s been pretty dead around here. Why don’t you just bag for me while I run the register? If we get busy, you can open since it’ll probably only be for a few customers. That’ll give us a chance to talk.”

“That sounds good to me. Look, uh, I really appreciate what you tried to do for me, even though it may not do a lot of good. Thank you again, Mr. Palmer.”

“Maria, right at the moment we’re just co-workers, so why don’t you just call me Royce?”

“OK, Royce,” she replied a little uncertainly, not sure how well she liked being that informal with the big boss. “Thank you. You’re a good man. I just wish I had one.”

“Maria, if I had a woman as good as you are, I sure wouldn’t treat her the way you’ve been treated.”

“I didn’t think you would. I wish my so-called boyfriend felt that way.”

“It’s too bad he doesn’t. Look, Maria, many years ago I found my wife in bed with another man. Do you think I should have hit her?”

“I wouldn’t blame you if you had. That’s pretty raw.”

“Well, I didn’t. There have been times that I’ve been sorry that I didn’t, but I didn’t. As far as I’m concerned that wasn’t enough of a reason to hit her. That didn’t mean that the situation didn’t need to be taken care of, but that didn’t include hitting her. It takes a real louse of a man to hit a woman, if you know what I mean.”

“I know,” she sighed. “But what are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying that you ought to think about whether you want to live in fear of him doing it again, or doing something about it. It’s a decision you have to make, but you have the power to make it. The price is whether it’s worth it to walk away from him. I made that decision when my wife cheated on me, and although I’ve paid for it I don’t doubt that it was the right one to make. It was either walk away or live with a cheating slut.”

“I’ve thought about it. Believe me, I’ve thought about it. But it wouldn’t be easy.”

“It wasn’t easy for me, either, but I did what I had to do. You have to be the one to make up your mind what’s the best thing for you.”

“Thank you, Royce. I guess I knew that, but it’s hard.”

“So, if you need a pep talk, give me a call. I may not be able to help very much, but at least I can be someone to talk to.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Maria, I think it’s important to keep my employees happy. Not just on the job, but in their lives, so I try to help where I can. Just take my advice to think real seriously about where you want to go with your life, then do what you need to do.”

About that time a customer showed up with a cart stacked high with obvious dinner makings. Royce couldn’t help but tease the customer a little, saying, “Nothing like putting things off to the last minute, is there?”

“It’s not quite the last minute,” the older woman said. “We’re having our dinner tomorrow, since my son and his wife are with her parents today.”

“All right, that makes sense,” he smiled. “Just consider yourself lucky that you’ve got a family to have a Christmas dinner with, even if it’s a day late. There are all too many people who don’t even have that.” And I’m one of them, he added mentally, although I’m not going to say that to a customer. “So you have a good holiday with your family, and Merry Christmas to you.”

The flow of customers stayed light, so he and Maria had more chances to just stand and talk. She was nice to talk to, at least once they got off the subject of the troubles she was having with her boyfriend. It turned out that she’d been working for Pafco for several years, and routinely did a number of different things – she wasn’t just a cashier every day, but was a rotating fill-in who could be assigned to different areas. It was almost a mirror of what Royce had done for his father when he was learning his way around a supermarket. She seemed smart and articulate, and he knew that in normal circumstances she was perky and friendly.

It also turned out that Maria had some time in college, back before she’d gotten married and her daughter Ramona had been born ten years before. Ramona’s father Reuben was now dead, and looking for his replacement brought her people like Hector, though he just hadn’t worked out very well.

Without saying anything about it, it struck Royce that she might have potential to be an assistant manager, and he had a gut feeling that she would be good at the job. Pafco always needed experienced assistant managers, since it was company policy that a manager or assistant had to be present at all times the stores were open unless something unexpected came up. Most of the stores were open twenty-four hours a day, although night work ran more toward stocking than it did to sales. That meant they needed at least five managers or assistants at each store, and it seemed like they were always coming and going.

That wasn’t something to run by Hovington, who had already left to go to his own Christmas dinner, but he made a mental note to mention the idea to the store manager the next time he caught up with him. Store managers often were focused only on their own location and not on the bigger picture; the manager here might think he had adequate assistants, while Royce knew that other stores were hurting for them.

Since Maria had come in a lot earlier than he had, it was soon time for her to go home. “Thanks for talking with me, Royce,” she said as she started to cash out her drawer, which hadn’t been used much since her return from the hospital. “You’ve given me some things to think about, and you really brightened my day. I really owe you one, so don’t be afraid to call on me if you need something.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” he said. “You have the best Christmas you can, at least what’s left of it.”

“The same to you, Royce. The same to you.”

As she walked away, he couldn’t help but wonder why a sweet woman like her would wind up with a louse like her boyfriend seemed to be. Or, for that matter, why he wound up with a slut like Maxine, or Petra with a jerk like Barry appeared to be? How do you avoid mistakes like that, ones that will just rip your heart out?

In any case, Maria had aroused his interest a little, and not only as a solid employee. That hadn’t happened in a while. His experience with Maxine had done a pretty good job of turning him off of women, and he’d stayed away from getting involved with anyone since the divorce. Oh, in the early years he’d tried dating a little but nothing had worked out, mostly because he was leery of getting involved with another Maxine or someone else who was just as bad.

At times he’d considered looking for a good, dependable call girl who could provide a little sex and companionship for a couple of hours every now and then just to ease the tensions. He’d rejected the notion mostly because it had seemed like more trouble than it would be worth. He didn’t feel like he was that big a slave to his desires anyway. Still, Maria had at least reminded him that it was possible to have a pleasant conversation with a woman, one that might grow into something else.

It wasn’t something he wanted to get involved with right now. He had too much on his plate considering his project to fix the Wilson’s little red wagon for the crap they’d pulled on him years before. Besides, getting the new string of sub stores open, which while it was part of the Wilson project had implications that would continue long after he’d left them in the dust, so it deserved careful attention.

But when things settled down a few months up the road, it might well be something to consider. He wasn’t sure he wanted to go as far as marriage and parenthood again; he still felt he had been burned a little too badly by Maxine and Milt, no matter the chunk he planned on taking out of their hides. If nothing else, having a girlfriend might help him avoid another lonely, desolate Christmas like the one he was having, and this one had been better than most.

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