Claim the Blame

Claim the Blame


“Honest Santa, it wasn’t my fault. I kept track. Just read my Blog. It’s all there, month by month.”

“I know. I’m Santa. I know if you’ve been naughty or nice. You remember that?”

“Now you sound like God. That’s the only other person who knows if I’ve been naughty or nice.”

“Do you really want to argue with me? Let me remind you that it says in your Blog, right there on July 22, you did something very naughty. Do we really need to rehash this?”

“It wasn’t my fault. Molly was the ringleader. I just happened along after it was all over. I was guilty by association.”

“Uh huh. It states here you were in the middle of it all. Molly isn’t even mentioned.”

“Really? Perhaps I spelled her name wrong.”

“I read Nancy, Sally, Joseph, Marty, Phyllis, George, Peter, Ned, Joel, Jon, and Connie. No mention of Molly. That’s quite a gang. And you aren’t even listed.”

“I just heard this second hand. I wasn’t involved. I had to work for mom that day.”

“Oh really? How were you working for mom? Your mother worked at the library that day. You were home all day, supposedly watching your sister and brother.”

“That’s what I meant. I was working for mom. I was the mother.”

“Staying in your room? Writing in your Blog? Surfing the web? Playing games on the internet? You were just ignoring your sister and brother all day, weren’t you?

“Ah c’mon Santa. They never listen to me. I told them to sit and watch TV.”

“You’re supposed to watch them. So you were naughty on July 22. Admit it. Claim the blame.”

“So they wandered off. They ended up at the library with mom. They are such tattle-tales. I got in trouble.”

“Alright. Now we’re getting somewhere. Then what happened after that?”

“I went to Connie’s house to see if they were there. But the other kids, Nancy and all those names you read, and me started walking to the store. You know, ‘Laddies’ store around the corner. We wanted to buy some candy. It was all Ned’s idea.”

“Did you have any money to buy candy?”

“No. But Ned said he knew that Laddie would let us have some. He knew we could get some for free. So we walked in and Ned started talking to Laddie while the rest of us took some candy.”

“You know that’s stealing.”

“Now I do. We had to go back and apologize and pay when our parents found out.”

“Any other incidents you want to let me know about?”

“You’ll have to read my Blog. But really, Santa, they were innocent mistakes. Honest.”

“Jennifer, this Christmas is unusual. I’ve got to cut back. You get one gift.”

“Only one?”

“Don’t push it.”

“Do I have a choice?”

“No.”

“Can I say I’m sorry?”

“Too late.”

“What is it?”

“A second chance to be good.”

W/C 492