Summary

Seventeen-year-old Nell begins by saying the words she now sets down have been encouraged to be written by her 18-year-old sister, Eva. Nell admits she would have rather used the notebook in which she writes for her studies. It is Christmas Day. Nell hopes by next Christmas everything will return to normal – that power will come back, computers will work again, planes will return to the sky, and so on. Nell and Eva live in an isolated house at the end of a mountain road, a house they once shared with their father and mother. Their mother has been dead for more than a year due to cancer. For the present Christmas, Nell has given Eva a repaired pair of Eva’s dancing shoes. Eva’s gift has been the notebook, which she says she found behind her dresser. Nell wishes she could give...