"Want to come to my house?" Mickey asked Dino.

"When don't I" Dino asked. "You're my brother who only lives a few doors away." They hauled their backpacks onto their backs and walked out of the school.

When the boys arrived at Mickey's house, they played video games for a few hours and ate the fruit snacks leftover from Mickey's lunch.

Around 5:30, the front door opened and closed.

"Mickey!"

Dino stood and donned his coat and backpack.

Mickey's mom walked into the living room. She glanced at Dino with a cold look in her eyes. "Don' you have a home?"

"Mom!" Mickey yelled.

"Did you do anything I asked? Like put the casserole in the oven or finish the laundry?"

"Uh. No, sorry Mom, I forgot," Mickey said.

"Uh huh." Mickey's mom walked away and went to the kitchen.

Dino walked toward the front door.

Mickey followed him and opened the door.

"I'm sorry I got you in trouble with your mom again," Dino said.

"I'll be fine," Mickey said. "She stops being mad after five minutes."

"Bye. See you later." Dino stepped through the doorway.

"Bye." Mickey shut the door.

Dino walked toward the park. Mickey's mom didn't mean to be rude. She was a maid at the Fairview Motel, and at Christmas time, was always tired. The Festival of Trees always attracted tons of tourists. Off to see the Christmas lights display. Christmas at the Park. His favorite holiday event since he was little. It cost five dollars for a car, but it was free if anyone walked. They couldn't really charge someone if they walked on a public trail. The cold didn't bother him. Reds, blues, yellows, greens, and pinks. All those colors shined and danced in the display. His favorite display was the little train covered in lights that advertised for the BNSF railroad. The little train always made him smile.

Time to go home. His backpack grew too heavy, and his stomach growled. Hopefully there was ramen left in the cupboard, and Big Bozo had fallen asleep. Dino turned left when he reached the sidewalk, walked past Mickey's house, the Dunbar's, the Caspars, old lady Wolff's house, and then reached his house. He opened the front door.

His mother stood there. "Where have you been!" She shouted.

Maryann sat at the bottom of the stairs with a suitcase on either side of her, not sitting quietly in her room doing her usual ton of homework and wearing her backpack.

Dino looked at his mother again. "What's going on?"

"You're leaving now," his mother said.

"What are you talking about? Dino asked. Where are we going?"

Maryann grabbed the handles on both suitcases, stood, and walked toward Dino. "We're staying at the Christiansons for a few days."

"I don't understand," Dino said.

"Let's go, Dino," Maryann said as she handed his suitcase to him.

Dino looked back at his mother as they walked out the door and into the night.
Maryann turned right and walked toward the four-way intersection. She stopped out of view of their front window.

"The Christiansons live six blocks from here," Dino said. Tears pooled in his eyes. "Tell me what's happening, Maryann."

Maryann set her suitcase on the sidewalk and clasped Dino's shoulders. "Mom and Big Bozo had another one of their epic fights. Of course, they were drunk, maybe high too, I don't know. Calling each other names and pushing each other even worse than ever before. Big Bozo said that if we didn't leave, he would. So, Mom made us leave." Tears pooled in Maryann's eyes, and she hugged her brother tight. After a minute, she lifted her suitcase again, and they walked to the Christiansons.

Dino looked at all the Christmas lights on the houses along the way. The lights so bright and beautiful.

###

"Don't worry," Maryann said to Dino as he lay in one twin bed and Maryann in the other in the Christiansons attic that night. "At least they're family and we'll both stay at the same schools."

"Yeah," Dino said. Bella, Mrs. Christianson, and Mom were first cousins, but Mrs. C had four kids of her own and a husband to care for. She gave turkey sandwiches and milk to him and Maryann for dinner since she had already cooked and cleaned up before they arrived there. It was the best dinner he and Maryann had eaten in weeks. With his stomach full, he fell fast asleep in minutes.

###

At school the next day, Dino was walking to his next class after Algebra when he heard, "Dino dumpster dives for his dinner! Dino dumpster dives for his dinner!" from a group of boys and girls that he passed. The gossip and rumor mill at the school had no comparison. Fast and vicious.

Dino kept walking, without saying a word.

"Dino dumpster dives for his dinner! Dino dumpster dives for his dinner!"

Thank God it was the last period of the day, and he could go "home" to the Christiansons. He wanted to go home to his mom and their little, dilapidated house next to the train tracks. He liked to listen to the lonely whistle and feel the house shake when he laid in bed at night. He wanted Big Bozo out. Go back to the way things were before. In the South Side of Chicago, the park was too far away now to walk there after dark. Even the Christmas lights were taken from him.

At school the next morning, the group yelled at Dino again. "Dino dumpster dives for his dinner! Dino dumpster dives for his dinner!" He ignored them like Maryann said he should do, but this time, they pelted him with pens, pencils, and paper balls rolled so tight that they felt like baseballs. Only a week until Christmas vacation.

On his way home from school at the end of the day, Dino got lost in thought. Suddenly a bully from the group, Brandon, stepped onto the sidewalk in front of him.

"Hey dumpster diver," Brandon said. "Where ya going in such a hurry?"

Dino tried to walk past him, but Brandon tripped him. Dino fell onto his right knee and ripped a hole in his jeans.

Brandon shoved Dino onto his stomach, kicked him, and then walked away, laughing. "Bye dumpster diver."

Dino stood. His knee bled and stained his jeans. There had to be a better option for him and Maryann. Had to be. Not that he didn't appreciate the Christiansons, but their house was already a full house.

###

"I'm going to look for a different place for us to live," Dino said to Maryann when she got home from school.

"You're not going to a homeless shelter," Maryann said. She shivered. "They always have roaches, rats, and the other people rob or harass you."

"I'll find somewhere for us to go. We can't stay here forever."

Just then, footsteps sounded on the attic stairs. Justine Christianson opened the door. "Hey Maryann. Can you help me with my English homework before dinner?"

Maryann smiled. "Sure. I'll be down in a minute."

Justine nodded and closed the door.

Maryann looked at Dino. "Dino, I don't want to hear about going somewhere else. We're safe and sound right here. Maybe after Christmas we'll talk about it more."

"We're safe and sound for now," Dino said.

Maryann sighed. "Oh Dino." She climbed from the old, dusty chair and went downstairs.
After dinner, it was dark. Dino stood on the Christianson's front porch and looked at everyone's Christmas lights before he walked to the city library's branch location only two blocks away. "Internet and big screen here I come," he said to himself. He told Mrs. C where he was going and didn't worry about any of those bullies showing up. Didn't really care at this point. He left the porch and headed toward the library.

"I found it," Dino whispered to the computer screen at the library. He wrote down the address and telephone number of Grace House. He'd come back to the library tomorrow and use the telephone in the lobby to call them since he didn't own a cell phone, and he wasn't about to use anyone else's.

###

After school the next day, Dino called Grace House and made an appointment for him and his sister to meet with the staff the next day. People from the Catholic Church worked at Grace House because the church managed the place, but he could use a little faith or God in his life, although HE hadn't shown up in his life a whole lot lately. All he and Maryann had gotten for years was drug addicts, alcoholics, and just plain creeps. When he returned to the Christiansons, he went to the attic, sat in the old, dusty chair, and worked up the courage to tell Maryann when she got there. She would be mad.

He was right.

"You did what!" Maryann yelled. "We'll be separated!"

"We can visit, and besides, you'll be going to college in less than a year. We'll make new friends at Grace House and learn new things. What do we have to lose?"

Maryann sighed. "Oh, alright. We'll go to the meeting. I'll hear what they have to say."

Dino smiled. "It's at the girls home here on the South Side, so we can walk there."

Grace House's environments were exactly what he and Maryann were looking for. They moved to Grace House two days before Christmas. He decorated his room with a set of Christmas lights that Maryann bought for him at the Dollar General store. His roommate didn't mind. His roommate had already fallen asleep. They lived in clean, safe environments, attended new schools, and didn't suffer from constant anxiety about their living situation.

Dino stared at the lights as his eyelids grew heavy. Christmas lights and hope. The best presents he ever got.