I was just sitting in front of a store at the mall, feeling kinda bored—my mom was inside shopping for some Christmas stuff and she said it was okay for me to sit outside, if I stayed right in front of the store—and I could see that little Santa house, you know, the cute little wooden house they put up in the mall every year near Christmas so that kids can go in there and sit on Santa’s lap and then get a candy cane—not the real Santa—I know there’s no real Santa—what I meant was, the guy dressed as Santa—and anyway it was raining pretty hard so there weren’t too many people at the mall—it was one of those outside kind of malls—and there weren’t any kids at all in line to see Santa, I guess ‘cause of the rain, and I was thinking about how last year my mom let me go into that little house to see Santa—the guy dressed as Santa, I mean—just so I could get a candy cane, even though I already knew last year there’s no Santa, because I really wanted a candy cane and she said it would be okay to go in there just to get the candy, but this year I felt like I was too old even for that, like I’m too big of a kid and it would look really strange, and that was making me feel kinda depressed, because I really, really like being a kid (doing homework sucks, but I like playing football or Magic cards with my friends for hours and hours, and I like going to bed early, all warm and cozy with one of my stuffed animals, and I even still like sitting on my mom’s lap, which she still lets me do), and now I was too old even to get a candy cane—it was just what was happening to me and there was nothing I could do about it—when all of a sudden, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and there was Santa (the guy dressed as Santa, I mean), standing right next to me, smiling and handing me this big candy cane—it was hella big—and I felt kinda embarrassed (I think I turned red) but I said thanks, and that was the strangest coincidence—I mean, I was just sitting there thinking about how much I wanted a candy cane when he—the guy dressed as Santa—came over and gave one to me—and when my mom came out of the store, I told her what happened and asked her if I could eat the candy cane right after lunch, and she said yes.
by Nina Zolotow
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