A Christmas Wish

The mall was bustling with people of all shapes and sizes. There were adults, children, teenagers, and older folk. Amongst all the chaos was a Santa Clause. The Santa Clause sat in a straight back chair with tinsel and ornaments attached to it. He awaited the next child. The elf with blonde hair told him that this would be the last child of the day. He was delighted with the news. He was already sweating in the suit and the large overhead light above him didn’t help decrease the perspiration. He was already thinking about removing this suit and driving home in his car with the windows down. He didn’t care if it was winter; he needed the air. This suit was suffocating him and the beard was quite itchy. If it were up to him, he’d leave now and drive home to his wife. He was already picturing him and Mrs. Clause sitting down to another deliciously home cooked meal. Every time he tried to cook anything decent, he burned it. His wife was never too happy about it, especially when the kids got angry that they had to wait an extra hour to eat. He always apologised, but everyone still glared at him as they ate their meal in silence. His son was coming home from university for Christmas and so he needed a ride. Clause wondered if the car had enough gas in it. He thought it did, and decided to stop thinking about removing himself from this chair.

The next child was approaching the chair and the Santa Clause beamed at him, though inside, he was itching like crazy. The boy had short tufts of brown hair and was bundled up for winter. Clause knew that it was cold outside and he was happy he had brought his leather coat with him; his long warm leather coat, the best shield from Mother Nature’s shrilling winds.

The boy was now sitting on his lap and looked a bit nervous as Clause readjusted his glasses. He dealt with children like this little boy all the time. They always seemed so scared to be sitting on the lap of a stranger, but he was no stranger, he was Santa Clause. He knew it was the age of shyness and so he spoke calmly to this boy.

“What is your name?”

“Alfred,” squeaked the little boy.

“Alfred, what a wonderful name.” He always said something around those lines as it cheered the children up and children loved complements. “And may I ask how old you are?”

“Five,” replied Alfred.

“Now Alfred, what would you like for Christmas?”

“Nothing, really,” came the reply.

Clause didn’t know what to say to this odd response. A child always wanted something, especially at 5 years old. He knew that that the boy was just shy and needed a bit of coaxing. He dealt with children like this every working day.

“Well, there must be something. You can tell Santa.”

The boy shook his head.

“I’m happy.” Santa scratched his beard. What was he going to do? He could just kick the kid off his lap, but he knew he couldn’t do that.

“Aren’t you happy Santa?”

Clause couldn’t believe what he was hearing: Now the child was asking his

questions? He didn’t know how to respond, but knew children wanted the truth so he told the little boy,

“Yes, I’m happy.”

“I’m happy too.”

Reviews

[StillShorterThanYou]

that's really cute. It's true, we all want love and a family

[Andy Ruffett]

It's what we all need.