December 24, 2023, New York City

Jude had just moved to the city. He had not come from the country, just a small town on the outskirts of where he was living now. He had moved into a small apartment right in Chinatown.

Because rent was so expensive all over Manhattan, his apartment was very small. He had just finished university and he didn’t have a steady job yet. The idea to move to the city had been a gamble. Most businesses don’t want to hire people across state or city lines, so he had decided that moving near the place where he would like to work might pay off, that it might give him just that slight edge over someone applying from far away. So for now, he was unemployed.

The layout of his apartment was more or less a square. There was no living room per se, only a single room acting as his bedroom. There was a mattress on the floor, no bed frame, and cardboard boxes piled all over. The boxes were filled with his belongings, things he had acquired through the years, mementos of his childhood and past relationships, his life.

There was a wardrobe in the corner of the room, still empty. His clothes were in one of the many unopened cardboard boxes.

On the wall opposite from the door to the outside, there were two other doors. The first, opened into the bathroom. There was a shower, a sink and a toilet inside. A mirror hung by a string precariously above the sink, and the shower didn’t have curtains. He would have to buy those later. The second door opened into the kitchen. In it, there was a stove, and a countertop with a microwave. The countertop had empty drawers for utensils, and there was one cabinet on the wall for pots and pans. There was no fridge, so when he had gone to see the apartment before renting it, he had decided to buy a mini-fridge to keep by his bedside. He thought it could also act as his night stand. There was also a sink in the kitchen, but no dishwasher. Because he was by himself, the thought of always having to wash his dishes didn’t bother him.

His apartment didn’t have a washer or dryer, but he could find them in the basement of the building. The building itself was small. There were four apartments per floor and only three floors. His apartment was on the first floor since the first floor was the cheapest. The higher the floor, the more expensive the apartments were simply because of the potential to avoid noise. He was in the city now, and his windows gave out to the street. The noises of people walking and talking, of cars in traffic, and maybe even of construction would be unavoidable. However, that was not the case that day.

It was Christmas Eve; the streets should’ve been packed. Nevertheless, they were empty. Jude had gotten to his apartment three days prior, and that same night, a blizzard, with the heaviest snowfall in many years, had hit the city and had persisted until just that afternoon. The streets were still empty because the city’s snow plow trucks were still in the process of clearing all the snow. The storm had dumped five feet of snow on the city, so it would take a while for everything to go back to normal.

That wasn’t a problem for Jude, however. He didn’t know anybody in the city and had nowhere to go. He knew there was an enormous Christmas tree many blocks from his place, at Rockefeller Center, and he had planned to go there at some point after moving, but because the snow hadn’t stopped until just earlier that day, he hadn’t had the opportunity.

It was around 7 p.m. when he saw the flashing yellow lights of the snow plow truck pass through his window, which meant that they were clearing his street. That prompted in him an enormous desire to breathe fresh air and stretch his legs.

Quickly, and a little clumsily, he started opening boxes in search of something to wear. He found some boots, a set of thermal underwear, a pair of black waterproof pants that he used for snowboarding, a white, long-sleeved dress shirt, and a long, trench-like, beige coat with a hood lined with faux fur. Jude set all of that aside and headed into the bathroom.

He wanted to shower first, and because there were no curtains, he kept the water pressure low so as not to wet the whole bathroom. Still, it was cold outside, so the steam from the hot water filled the room. When he was done, he grabbed a towel and dried himself while still in the shower area before stepping out with the towel wrapped around his waist. He opened the bathroom door to let the steam out and started brushing his teeth while the mirror in front of him cleared again.

After spitting out the water to clean his mouth, he looked up and saw his face. Jude had shoulder-length, dark hair that he either tied in a bun or kept messy, big, dark eyes, strong eyebrows, sharp features, and a somewhat apathetic expression. His left eyebrow was split in two by a scar. His whole body had small scars all over it. Like snowboarding, Jude practiced other forms of extreme sports, which sometimes didn’t go all that well. When the weather was hotter, he would go either rock climbing or skydiving, for example. And to keep his body in shape during times when he couldn’t do anything, he practiced yoga. All of that took a toll, but Jude was proud of his scars. He felt that those were the scars of someone who had lived.

After brushing his teeth, Jude got dressed to go out. Before leaving, he looked in the mirror once more and brushed his hair with his hand. It was too damp to have it tied, so he just left it messy. Then, he grabbed a pair of glasses–without them, he was as good as blind–opened the door, and walked out into the freezing cold.

It had taken Jude about 45 minutes to shower and get dressed, so it was already quite dark outside. The stacks of snow on the sidewalks were very high, so Jude decided to walk in the middle of the street. There were no cars running yet, aside from the snow plow trucks, and the traffic lights were constantly flashing red, indicating that every intersection was supposed to act as a four-way stop sign. Because of that, the few people that were outside also took to walking in the middle of the street.

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Jude turned the corner on his block due north, in the direction of the giant Christmas tree. Down the street, by the next intersection, he saw an older Asian man shoveling a path in the snow from the street toward the door of a convenience store. Jude was hungry, and since there were no bars or restaurants open yet, he walked up to the man.

“Hello, sir. Is the store open?”

The man looked a Jude, sizing him up. He had never seen Jude, and the streets were mostly empty. It wasn’t unusual for convenience stores to get robbed when the city was shut down like that, so the older man had to be careful. However, he decided to trust the young man in front of him because of how polite Jude had been.

“I’m just about finished here. The door is open. Feel free to look around.”

Jude looked inside through the glass door, but decided to wait for the old man to finish before going in.

“Is this your store, sir?”

“It is indeed. I opened it many years ago when I first came to this city. Back then, I could barely speak English, but look at me now!”

“You speak very well! I wouldn’t even know you came from somewhere else if you hadn’t told me! Where are you originally from?”

“China. This is Chinatown after all. I needed a change, so I came here.” The old man finished clearing the sidewalk, and they both walked in the store. “Go ahead and look around,” the man said.

Jude went to the cold foods section. After looking through the cold sandwiches and pre-made meals, he found a chicken Caesar wrap, grabbed it and went to look for something to drink. Because it was cold out, he wanted something that would warm him on his way to the tree. So, he took an instant coffee stick and boiled some water in a small pot of coffee that was sitting empty on the counter. While he waited, Jude continued the conversation with the old man.

“So, you needed a change. If you don’t mind sharing, what happened?”

The old man looked at him for a second longer than normal before saying, “I was a doctor in China. To be honest, I loved my job. I had a family, and we were very happy. My daughter should be about your age now, actually. Anyway, there was an accident. My wife… There was nobody to operate but me. It was a small town, you see. I… I couldn’t save her. After that, I didn’t want to be a doctor anymore. I know it’s weird and I do miss it, but…”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“No. I don’t mind sharing. I’m just surprised you asked.”

“I just moved to the city and I got snowed in as soon as I did. This is the first time I’m out. I guess I just wanted to talk to someone.”

“I see… Kid, I don’t know if this city is for you. You seem too nice.”

“Haha! Don’t worry, sir. I’ll be OK.”

“If you say so…” The man looked above Jude’s shoulder toward the coffee pot filled with water and added, “Looks like your water is ready.”

With that, Jude picked up a styrofoam cup from the stack by the pot, added the instant coffee powder to it and filled it with hot water. Then, he went back to the old man and asked, “Do you happen to have any whiskey I can add to this?”

The old man chuckled and pulled a bottle of Baiju from underneath the counter.

“It’s not whiskey. It’s from back home, but when it’s cold like today, this really warms you up,” he said as he poured a shot into Jude’s coffee.

“Thank you, sir. I haven’t gotten your name. I’m sorry.”

“It’s Lee. And yours kid?”

“It’s Jude. How much do I owe you, Mr. Lee?”

“For the wrap and the coffee, eight dollars.”

“And the shot?”

“On the house!” the old man said with a grin on his face.

Jude paid the eight dollars and said, “Merry Christmas, sir.”

“Merry Christmas, young man! Be careful out there!”

Jude waved at the old man and walked back out into the cold, making his way north to the Christmas tree once more.

By now, there were more people walking the streets, and because there was almost no noise of traffic, the sound of laughter and conversation carried all around. With every block he covered in his walk, more people appeared on the street: kids having a snowball fight, a family building a snowman, an older couple drinking tea on the stoop of a building while looking out at all that empty white. A city with no cars wasn’t normal, so all of them were taking advantage of the quiet. It was Christmas after all.

However, soon, when he was just a few blocks away from the giant Christmas tree, he started to see cars on the street. There weren’t many, but the snow had been cleared much more thoroughly by Rockefeller Center, so even some yellow taxi cabs cruised around by that point.

He had finished the wrap and the coffee on the way, so Jude was feeling quite warm, even in all of that cold. It wasn’t long before he faced the tree.

The tree was as tall as the buildings around it, and in front of it, there was a massive ice skating rink. There were couples, families and tourists waiting to ice skate, or simply just looking at the tree together. There were Christmas lights everywhere, and statues of angels guarded the entrance to the skating rink.

Jude just stared at the tree. He was alone in the city, far away from everyone he knew, and he felt the pang of loneliness at that moment. But, he had chosen that path. He had left everyone behind to build something new. It was not like he had ever felt at home anywhere else, but, at that moment, he missed the people that he had met.

Once he came back to his senses, Jude looked around. By now, it was 10 p.m. He had taken his time on his walk up to the tree, and time had just simply passed by.

After looking at the time, and not yet ready to return home, Jude decided to look for a bar nearby and have a drink or two before midnight.