How Lovely Are Thy Branches: A Young Wizards Christmas by Diane Duane Page B

that!” said Kit’s voice. “Just because some people can’t manage to find themselves a genuine collectors’ item like this…”
    Kit came down into the living room, turning toward the group gathered there, his mouth open… and then stopped dead.
    “Oh no,” Nita said, and started gasping with laughter. “Oh no!”    Because Kit was wearing black jeans and sneakers and a ridiculous hairy angora-knit crewnecked construction adorned with fake Icelandic patterns in red and white, and scattered all over with revolting embroidered green yarn Christmas trees with little sewn-on Mylar ornaments.
    They stood there in shock, staring at each other as Kit’s mama and pop burst out laughing in unison. “You look like the Bobbsey Twins,” Kit’s mama said.
    “Who?” said Kit and Nita in unison.
    Mrs. Rodriguez threw a glance at her husband, then gazed briefly at the ceiling as if begging for help from some unseen source. “Generation gap,” she said. “Never mind.” She headed for the kitchen.
    “I didn’t mean for you to buy it,” Kit said, “I meant for you not to buy it! So I’d be the only one having it.”
    “Emailing me pictures of the thing was no way to get me not to buy it!” Nita said. “What am I, six?”
    Dairine pushed past her toward the dining room, snickering. “No better than eight on a good day,” she said.
    “Whatever you do,” said an Irish voice from that direction, “don’t change. Don’t either of you dare change.”
    Nita turned. There, leaning in the dining room doorway, having apparently just arrived, was Ronan. He was in black, as usual… but for a change, surprisingly formal blacks. Trousers instead of jeans, shiny black brogues instead of goth boots, a very slim-fitting black shirt with black glitters in it, and to top everything off, a Santa hat in white and black.
    Nita burst out laughing. “What are you supposed to be, some kind of dark ‘jolly old elf?’”
    Ronan waggled his eyebrows. “Other people can worry about who’s nice. I prefer to concentrate on the naughty.”
    “I don’t even want to know,” said Kit’s mama as she came back into the room with a tray full of glasses of hot cider. “Nita?”
    Nita grabbed one. “You’re earlier than I thought you’d be,” she said to Ronan.
    “Wanted to get out before it got too crazy. We’ve got weather like you’re going to get.”
    That surprised Nita. “Can’t be the same system—”
    “It’s not. Trust me, we don’t need your help to trigger major snow events! We’ve got Siberia.” Ronan wandered over to where some buffet trays had been laid out on one of the low living room tables and went picking among the crackers piled up there. “And we’re getting hammered. A foot on the ground already and lots more coming. Heathrow’s closed, Charles de Gaulle is closed, Frankfurt and Geneva were just shutting when I left.” He found a plate for his snacks. “In fact, most of Europe’s a mess. Every wizard who specializes in that kind of thing is out in the cold right now. So glad I’m not one!”
    “Here,” said Kit’s mama, putting a glass of cider in Ronan’s hand. “Who else wants one?”
    Nita had a long drink of the cider and felt the world seem to settle a little around her. Whatever spice mix Kit’s mama had worked out to use in the stuff, Nita never got tired of it. The next thing she knew she and Kit were laughing about their sweaters, and she was stealing snacks off a plate he was holding, and the room was getting fuller of people. Her dad showed up, and the next thing Nita knew he and Kit’s pop and Filif were discussing the best management of the electrical outlets for the lights they were going to be putting on him, and Kit’s mama was laughing in the kitchen with Dairine at something Spot had just done, and the entertainment system was showing what appeared to be an ancient rock star playing a guitar in the nude.
    And Kit leaned over to Nita and said, “Anyway, I don’t