Brian looked up briefly from his hand-held mural of tiny freaks, and checked out the jolly old elf.
“Nope,” he said, and went back to drawing.
When Brian took the effort to verbalize his answer, it was pretty much definitive.
Jeff sighed, then took hope again. “What about you, Davey?”
Davey had taken on the look baby rabbits save for approaching wolves. His eyes were bugged out, his mouth (for once) was closed and downturned, and any thoughts of Pinky were gone as both his arms clung around Jeff’s leg.
“What do you say, Davey – wanna talk to Santa?”
Davey feverishly shook his head ‘no.’
“Aw, come on - Santa’s your friend! He brings you presents!”
Again, the vociferous horizontal head-wagging.
“But you have to tell Santa what you want for Christmas! Otherwise, how’s he going to know what to bring you?”
Davey’s lips parted ever-so-slightly, and seemed to move.
“What? I didn’t hear you.”
Again, Davey whispered. Jeff bent over at the waist.
“What was that?”
What he said was barely audible. i wanna somethin somethin.
“What?”
“i wanna bubble baby.”
Bubble Babies were the hit of the holiday season, the toy of choice amongst the five-and-under crowd. They were cute little alien creatures fashioned from clear plastic bubbles, in over five dozen different varieties. Mr. Carruthers had been extremely vexed at their success, and had considered launching a copycat line at one point.
And, of course, they were sold out all over town.
“Don’t you want to tell Santa so he can bring you one?” Jeff asked.
Davey shook his head ‘no’ in a blur.
“He’s not going to hurt you, Davey.”
Davey’s answer was to dart behind Jeff and peer from between his knees like an unarmed soldier in a bunker. Just over the hill was the Enemy, with his small green footsoldiers and eight tiny reindeer.
Jeff gave up. “Alright…alright, then. Some other time.”
As they walked off, Davey stayed behind Jeff’s legs, using them as a protective shield. But he kept his eyes glued to Santa as they moved farther and farther away. His face took on a look of worry…like a man walking away from his dream car because it was just a bit overpriced.
Jeff’s thoughts had moved from Santa and on to the gifts he had gotten. Elise’s was nice…he thought…he wasn’t sure. It was a CD alarm clock, so she could wake up to a CD she liked in the morning. Was it enough? He wasn’t sure. She was really great with the kids, and he wanted to get her something else…but he didn’t want to be inappropriate. He was a little worried about explaining why he got it, if he had to – because that entailed thinking of Elise waking up, which meant she was in bed, which was not appropriate, so it was a thought he always pushed away. He couldn’t believe he could even think about that now, he was so close to the Christmas tree and the Ornament, for God’s sake - but he wondered if a CD alarm clock was kind of cold. He’d thought about a nice cashmere sweater, but immediately pushed that thought away. That was inappropriate, because that would entail thinking of Elise wearing it, because he would probably get a tighter sweater, not a bulky one – although a bulky one would be okay, wouldn’t it? Though it would still mean he would have to make that choice, and imagine what she looked like in a tight sweater, and that was TOTALLY inappropriate, so he just didn’t allow himself to think of Elise and sweaters anymore.
That’s when Davey made his move.
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Copyright © 2008 Darren Pillsbury. All rights reserved.
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