ALL THE LIGHTS ARE ON IN MY PARENTS' HOME when I pull up. I run up the porch steps and let myself in. Trish, Mom and Dad are in the living room, taking ornaments off the Christmas tree.

"Hey. Did I miss something? Isn't it December seventeenth?"

The three turn at the sound of my voice and greet me with smiles all around.

Trish speaks first. "Grandma left about a million messages for you. We decided to spend Christmas in France." She dances up to me, trailing icicles in her wake. "You can come, can't you?"

I don't know what to say. I never expected this-that they'd be leaving so soon. I can't go with them. In the car, I was prepared to let them go. But not now. Not this soon. I wanted time to get used to the idea. Time to make them understand that my life is here.

Then a wonderful thing happens. My mother takes Trish's arm in one hand and mine in the other. She turns us toward the tree. "It's all right if Anna can't come this trip," she says, squeezing my arm gently. "We really haven't given her much notice. She has a business to run as well as a partner who depends on her. There will be plenty of opportunities for Anna to visit when we're settled."

I glance over at my dad, realize as he does what her words mean. Somehow he did it. He made her understand that my life is here. We grin at each other.

Trish hands me a small, rectangular box from underneath the tree. "Then you have to open your present now," she says. "Go on."

I take a seat on the couch and tear away the paper. I recognize the symbol on the green box before I even open it. "Whoa," I say at first sight of the stainless-steel and gold Rolex. "This is too much, Trish. I can't accept this. You shouldn't have spent this much money."

"It's from all of us, honey," Dad says, joining us on the couch. "It's to remind you of your family. Each time you look at it, you'll know we're a plane ride away. This is just one Christmas. There will be others. We have all the time in the world."

I look from one wonderful face to the other. Time. I'm hit with a surge of such powerful love it leaves me breathless. They can't understand what time means to a vampire. I don't fully understand it myself. Nor do I understand what lies ahead for me. What I do understand is the sacrifice my mother is making. For me. She's letting me go. The fissure between us is gone, healed with a single selfless act.

I slip the watch on my wrist. "I'll never take it off," I tell them, feeling the tears roll down my cheeks, not bothering to try to stop them or to wipe them away.

Soon we're all crying.

Crying.

What a magnificent, liberating, human thing to do.