Summary

Christmas comes. Sweetland retrieves the artificial Christmas tree from the shed on Christmas Eve.. He remembers that when his mother was alive, she always insisted on a real tree. He remembers how Jesse responded to this artificial one, which has the electric lights built in. He bought it because he didn't know how to decorate a tree properly. Jesse found it mesmerizing, but the rest of the island folk made fun of it. Without electricity, it doesn't look very festive, and Sweetland regrets unpacking it. He decides to throw it in the dump.

He remembers the Christmas before, when Clara came over after they'd both been grieving Jesse's death and avoiding one another. She remarked then that he hadn't put up his tree. Pilgrim and she insisted he go get it, which he did. They got drunk together, quietly. Finally, Sweetland recalled...