A Christmas Memory *True*

I am five. Tomorrow will be my sixth Christmas, and then I will be six because that is my sixth Christmas. Mom says I can stay awake in bed as long as I want. I don't think she thinks that's very long. I'll show her. I'll count seconds until tomorrow morning and at 8:00 I will open my presents. 1. 2. 3. I swear on the function of my computer that I counted to 7,892 that night.

I wake to an alarm of ecstasy and bound from my bed. The thud of my naked feet on blanketed floor awakes Branden and he clambers out of his bunk so fast his head brakes a hole in the plaster ceiling. No matter. Because today I am 6. And Santa brought his sleigh and came in and now there are two sets of Bionicles and a Gameboy Advanced under the tree in the dining room. The pine tree. I try to make myself count to 10,000 but before I can start my brother has opened the door, flooding in a sea of hope that washes me along with it and I'm slipping on hardwood tiles as I run. My pants get snagged in the still swinging door hinge. No time for luxuries on the day of someone I think, so I slip out of the clutchy pajamas and race to the dining room. Tree tree... there it is. Presents? Presents? PRESENTS?! Behind the tree in the window all around the house. No presents. I pee on my feet. It is warm, but not comforting in the least. Branden is crying too because there are no presents. No presents?

Beneath the empty tree, concealed by low hanging plastic and recycled turf, a single sheet of plain copy paper folded inwards on both ends and creased in the middle forms an unsatisfying stand. No Bionicles this year. Nothing this year. Just a letter. Because the house is empty but for two crying kids, crying at Santa's metaphorical poop. The tears come in torrents.

Branden picks up the complex sheet and begins to read with a voice saturated with dissapointment, staccatoed with hiccups of sorrow...

"Sorry Brody and Branden. I forgot to deliver your presents last night. Don't worry. I'll drop in later. -Santa"


It sucked.




~Merry Christmas Readers! Hopefully better than mine! And a happy New Year! (Or Hanukkah or Islamic New Year or whatever it is else that you may celebrate.)