Listening for Clause

The room was filled with multicolored lights shining from the corner of the room, where the large Christmas tree stood. This was the moment I had waited for all day. Justin and I were on the floor, crawling around, not because we were young, but because we were trying to decide which present we would one tonight.

The square and rectangle packages with my name on them came in all sizes and colors. There were the mostly red ones with a pattern of Santa on them. He looked like a Rockwell Santa, but without the Coke as I so often see him this season. There were a few smaller green one with carton reindeer on them. Some had a simple bow. Others had ribbon that sompletely encircled them. I didn't care what they looked like, I was trying to tell by the shape and feel what was inside. An Atari game or a book? Is that clothes? I don't want to open clothes. I was narrowing my options down.

Justin had selected his, it was very clearly a shirt box. On the inside I was screaming, "Nooooooooo," but I had my own decision to make. Mom and Dad patiently waited. I turned back to the two I had left. I had a small one, which was either a book or a video game, and a much larger, mystery gift. This mystery gift was roughly the size of a shirt box, but larger and the weight was wrong for a shirt. It had a couple weird lumps in it, making me thing it was a disguised package. It was risky, but I settled on it.

Justin opened first, and as I expected, he got a dress shirt. I'd like to say I was kind in his mysery, but that's probably not true. The only thing that probably kept me from rubbing in the fact I knew he heap was going to get a shirt, was I had my own gift to open. I was up and I wasn't going to waste any time. Popped the tape on the bottom and quicky lift the lid.

Here it was, my Christmas Eve gift. The lumps, I learned, we rolled dress socks. These decieving items were on top of a dress shirt, not that unlike the one my brother just opened. This was n top of a pair of dress pants. I put the box aside in disgust. We had both been duped. Mom and dad were both smiling like Sylvester trying to convince Granny he doesn't know where Tweety is. They won this round.

The rest of the evening was all about going to bed, because bed meant Christmas and the good gifts would be coming soon. With pajamas on and teeth brushed, we went to bed. My new room was right off the living room, so I couldn't sleep. I lay in the dark listening.

My Dad was watching some Old movie, which made it hard to hear anything else. I could hear my Mom fiddling around in the kitchen, probably cleaning up from dinner or preparing something for tomorrow. It was both hard to tell and hard to ignore. I don't know what else she was doing, but there were loud noises in the hallway. I knew Santa's secret, but in my mind I was thinking, "Go to bed so the gifts will arrive.".

My Mom kept working, the sound of the movie filled my room and sleep swallowed me straining to hear what tomorrow would bring.