A suitcase wasn't high on Elly's Christmas wish list. Not this year. This year she desired a much smaller item, such as could be found nestled in velvet inside a hinged box. She had hoped the large package now opened beside her was a mere ruse, a clever trick by Brandon to keep her guessing. No such luck. She pasted on a smile and looked at him.

"It's Louis Vuitton," he said with a defensive air.

"I see that. Thanks." She turned her gaze back to the suitcase's brown checkered pattern, crumpling the wrapping paper she'd ripped off it. "It's exactly the one I wanted...last year." She muttered that snarky little addendum. But seriously, she'd spent months hinting about a ring and proposal only to be given the gift she'd solicited for last Christmas. Does this mean if I wait another year...

"There's more." Brandon gestured towards the suitcase. "Open it."

Elly brightened. She turned over the suitcase to find the zipper pull. Brandon had been messing with her. After three long years they would finally be engaged.

Do I want a summer wedding or fall? Maybe spring? Can I plan a wedding in less than six months? Will he agree to get married before finishing residency? Do I have to ask his sister to be a bridesmaid?

She flipped up the suitcase's lid and discovered a smaller, matching suitcase. Her face fell, but only a moment. She pulled the second suitcase out and opened it, too. Empty, save for some balled tissue paper. Elly slumped lower on the couch.

Brandon checked his phone. "I should go now."

"Already?" Elly searched his face for an expression of regret, but saw only the slight scowl he employed when concentrating. And right now that concentration remained directed at his phone. His thumbs tapped the screen. "But you like my gift, right?" Elly asked.

"Yeah." Brandon tapped his thumbs a few more times before lowering his phone and looking at her. "Of course." He flashed his smile as he picked up the small box from the end table. "I'll wear them next week at the party." He returned the box to the table and rose from his perch on the club chair's armrest.

Elly leaned forward with her head tilted, but Brandon either didn't notice or purposefully ignored her subtle request for a kiss. Affectionate gestures had never been his strength. Elly knew this. Yet disappointment weighed on her heart as she stood and followed him to the foyer. "You won't at least come home to sleep?"

He shrugged on his coat. "If I get a chance to sleep, I'll do it there. You know this."

Elly sighed. "Yeah."

Brandon's mouth turned down as he opened the door. "Hey, look. We'll have time together next weekend. At my parents'." He jutted his jaw towards the sofa. "Chance to use your new luggage."

Three days with his family. Elly forced herself to smile. "Yeah. I'll see you Monday, though?"

"Probably." He stepped out. "Late, though. Don't wait up."

The door shut behind him and Elly sighed again. She turned and faced the silent living room. Another holiday alone. Even the furniture seemed dejected, their empty seats blaming her for their disuse. In the beginning, things had been different. They'd hosted parties, gone out with friends. Brandon had spent every possible moment with her. Now he spent every possible moment at the hospital. Such was the lot of a neurosurgeon's wife.

No, not a wife. Not yet. Not even a fiancée. A girlfriend.

And lately, nothing more than a roommate.

Elly's eyes fell on the gift she'd given him. The gold cufflinks had been another subtle hint at the piece of jewelry she herself desired. As usual, her cue had gone unnoticed.

As had Brandon's stethoscope. His favorite one. Elly scooped it from the coffee table and ran to the apartment door. Brandon was already rounding the corner to the elevator lobby, talking on his phone. Elly hurried down the long carpeted hall after him. She stopped when his voice carried back to her.

"No, I didn't ask her yet. I didn't have time."

Elly peeked around the corner. Brandon stood at the elevator doors.

"She'll want to endlessly talk about it, and we'll have more time for that in The Hamptons."

Elly's belly fluttered and she held her breath.

After a pause, Brandon chuckled. "No, they have no clue. They're going to be thrilled. I'll make the announcement at the party." The elevator door opened and he stepped inside.

Elly ducked back to the hallway. The Hamptons. New Year's Eve. His parents' party. That's when she'd get her proposal.

With a squeal, she pranced her feet and waved her arms. In a last show of exuberance, she swung the stethoscope. It smacked her in the head.

***

"What's that!" Evelyn drew back from the wrapped package Elly held out, her quavery voice indignant. "Why are you putting that in my face?"

"It's a Christmas present," Elly replied.

Evelyn scowled, making no move to accept it.

Elly sighed and returned the gift to her lap. "Do you want me to open it for you?"

Evelyn didn't reply, her head bobbing to the rhythm of the rocking recliner.

Elly held the feelings of rejection at bay. She slid her fingers under the adhesive tape and unwrapped the gift. "See, Aunt Evie? It's a birdcage. See the birds?" She dropped the wrapping paper on the floor and touched Evelyn's shoulder.

Once again Evelyn drew away, but when she saw the birdcage, the scowl lines disappeared and her face lit with delight. "Birdies!"

"Yes," Elly said with relief. "Birdies."

Evelyn held out her hands and Elly transferred the cage to her.

"Parakeets," Elly added. "Just like Fred and Ginger. Remember?"

"Little budgies. Pretty little birds. Will you sing for Evie?" Evelyn puckered her lips and whistled a tune at the colorful creatures snuggled on the swing.

Elly smiled. This was the great-aunt she knew. The years had further wizened Evelyn's face, and her hair had turned a snowy white, but this happy, cooing woman was as familiar to Elly as her own parents. As she watched Evelyn chatter at the birds, she found herself inside an unbidden memory.

Elly stood next to the ornate stand, looking up at Evelyn. The old woman twittered and talked to the fluttering parakeets, feeding them bits of apple. When the slices ran out, Evelyn turned her palms up toward the birds and apologized.

Elly wondered if her great-aunt truly understood bird speech.

Evelyn turned, leaning over with her hands on her knees, her dancing brown eyes inches from Elly's. "What about you, little Elly-bird? Would you like something to eat?"

Elly hesitated before nodding. "I like apples."

"Oh, I have something better than apples for my most favoritest birdies." Evelyn beckoned her to the kitchen, where she took the lid off a tall white jar with painted fruit on the side. She pulled out two chocolate-chip cookies and winked as she handed them to Elly. "Your grandma isn't here, so it's my job to spoil your supper."

Elly pulled herself back to the present, blinking back tears. She didn't want to remember the past. The happy times only brought back the pain. The regret.

She shoved aside the memory by doing what she did best: talk. "I have a client who makes the birds. Needle felting, it's called. She showed me how one day. Said I could do it, too, but I need something to keep my mind working, not my hands."

Evelyn remained focused on the cage, but that didn't deter Elly. "She has an Etsy store. Does pretty well with her birds and other animals. She hired me last year as a virtual assistant. Artists, you know. Terrible with numbers. Anyway, I didn't invoice her a couple months in exchange for her making me these. Took me forever to find the right cage, though. Finally found this one in a thrift store off Union—"

A thin woman clutching a doll entered Evelyn's bedroom, sweeping her head back and forth, muttering and peering at the floor.

Evelyn noticed her, too. She reared up in the recliner and shouted, "Get out! Get out!"

Elly jumped from her chair and rushed to the woman's side.

"You don't belong here!" Evelyn yelled. "I'm going to call the police!"

Elly gently took the woman's arm. "Can I help you, Mrs. Neubaum?"

"I saw him come in here," Mrs. Neubaum said. "I saw him come in here."

"Get out!"

"The little man." Mrs. Neubaum looked at Elly, her childlike eyes pleading for confirmation.

"Yes, he came in here, but he ran out again." Elly pointed to the hall. "I saw him running to the dining room."

"Oh, thank you, thank you," Mrs. Neubaum said as Elly steered her out the door.

With Mrs. Neubaum dispatched, Elly turned her attention back to her great-aunt. Evelyn glowered at the doorway as if daring her uninvited guest to return. Then her eyes caught Elly's.

"She's always chasing leprechauns," Evelyn said with derision. She twirled her finger at the side of her head. "Cuckoo. Just cuckoo."

Elly chuckled at the irony of her aunt's observation. Evelyn grinned too, her eyes twinkling with conspiratorial merriment, just as they had when she plied Elly with treats. Once again Elly was transported home. Back to family. Back to a sense of belonging.

Evelyn looked away, her eyes taking on their distant glaze, and just like that, the moment passed. She retreated back into the shadows of her mind, her expression resuming its usual grumpiness. Then she noticed the bird cage in her lap. "Oh! Look at the little birdies! Pretty little budgies. Will you sing for Evie?" She whistled her encouragement at them.

Elly threw away the wrapping paper before sitting again on the folding chair in front of her aunt. "I won't see you next weekend. I'm spending it with Brandon's family. I think he's going to ask me to marry him. I'm really hoping so. It's time, don't you think? To get married?" She didn't expect a reply. She'd grown used to the one-sided conversations these past several years. Instead, she filled the pauses with imagined responses.

"You've been together over four years. Living together for three. I should think that's way past time to get married, Elly-bird."

"I married Oliver," Evelyn said, startling Elly out of her thoughts. Evelyn had brightened, her face aglow with joy far beyond the happiness at seeing the birds. Elly recognized this expression; she saw it only when the older woman spoke of her husband.

"He was so handsome. I loved him with all my heart and soul." Evelyn gazed at a point far beyond Elly, rocking with slowing movements as her smile faded and the glow dissipated. "We had four wonderful years." Her expression took on a serene sadness as she lay her head back and closed her eyes. "I never found another after he died."

Elly longed for such a romance. A love so great not even dementia and the passage of six decades could diminish it. A love which generated an inner radiance uncontained by mere flesh and bone.

A love to last a lifetime.

Like what I have with Brandon.

Deep down, in the recesses of her heart, she knew what she had with Brandon was a pale imitation. Like the felted birds in the cage.

But she didn't want to think about that.

Elly stayed another hour, playing on her phone while her aunt slept. At last she picked up her coat and kissed Evelyn's forehead. "Merry Christmas, Aunt Evie."

When Elly arrived at the facility's entrance, an older, heavyset woman blocked the door, humming a tune and swaying. When she saw Elly, she smiled. "Hello, dear."

Elly smiled back. "Hi. Can I help you?"

"Oh, no thank you, dear," the woman replied, her voice robust and confident. "I'm going home. Walter will be here with the car." She continued to sway, her expression happy.

Elly glanced around for an aide. She didn't want to risk letting out a resident. The door required an exit code for good reason. This woman wouldn't last long in the December weather dressed in nothing more than slippers and a flowered mumu.

"Are you lost, dear?"

"What?" Elly asked, looking at the woman again. "Me? No. Are you lost?"

The woman laughed. "Of course not! But if I were, I would just count it as an adventure. A detour. A unexpected path." She leaned forward, placing an age-spotted hand on Elly's shoulder. "That's where all the adventures lie. That's where you find what you're searching for." She released Elly and spread her arms wide. "Why, that's where I found my Walter, isn't it? When I wasn't even looking for a man!" Her belly jiggled up and down as she laughed. "I found what I needed most when I was lost." She nodded with confidence, her eyes piercing Elly's. "That's where you'll find it, too."

"Find what?"

The woman spread her arms again. "Why, everything!"

"Tilly! There you are." A dark-haired woman scurried up, taking the old woman's arm.

"I'm just waiting here for Walter," Tilly said.

"That's fine," the aide replied, patting her arm. "I'll just wait with you." To Elly she said, "Do you know the code?"

Elly nodded. She slipped around the duo to punch the numbers into the panel. The door clicked and she pushed it open. She shot a quick smile at the aide. "Thanks."

As the door closed, Tilly called to her, "The road less traveled, dear! That's where you'll find everything you lost!"