Christmas

Christmas is both a period of rare closeness between the narrator and Apollo and the occasion for a last, uncertain hope that the threat to their home might be delayed. The holiday gathers the book’s domestic pressures into a month of winter walks and a plea for mercy.

The Semester Break

At the end of the semester, the narrator tells her family she cannot travel to be with them for Christmas. The monthlong break before teaching resumes means she will hardly ever have to be apart from Apollo. Rather than treating winter as an obstacle, the two of them welcome it: they walk and walk, liking the cold and the city in winter. The sidewalks are less crowded, there are fewer gawkers, and freezing weather makes Apollo less likely to stop for one of his rests.

A Hope for a Christmas Miracle

Christmas also frames the narrator’s response to a final warning from the building management office. She considers speaking to the landlord, resisting the assumption that he must be heartless and allowing herself to imagine that he might be compassionate. At minimum, she hopes she can beg for more time. She calls the managing agent to ask for the landlord’s number in Florida, but is told that the number cannot be given out. The appeal does not secure contact; the hoped-for holiday reprieve remains unresolved.