"Take a Look at the Five and Ten" by Connie Willis

A Christmas novella from one of my favorite authors. Willis is a sci-fi author in the classic sense, and especially with her short fiction tends to pick one idea or concept and really focus on it. In this case, it’s traumatic flash bulb memories, the phenomenon where moments of extreme trauma get burned into one’s memory in unusually vivid and unusually long-lasting detail. While I do, as a rule, adore Connie Willis, this one felt a little bit phoned in. Cute and fun story, but not one of her best.