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Hello!

There’s no way I’m going to get read up on this thread, so I’m just going to jump into the deep end with a funny story I wrote (in time for Christmas):

Coal for Christmas

It was dark and scary when the power was out.

We and the Goodman’s was snowed in. The firewood was wet, so the smoke was so thick it made my sister Jayla cry. Momma was nervous. “How’s the rest of the wood?”

Daddy rubbed the stubble on his chin like he did when he had bad news. “It ain’t good. The snow’s got to it. We don’t have much dry stuff left.”

I knew us kids had to talk. Now.

Soon, it was just me, Jayla, and Mandie Goodman. Mandie stood up and cleared her throat. “We have a terrible situation,” she said, “The wood is bad. If we have no wood and no power, we have no heat. And no heat means… death.”

“What?” Jayla cried.

“We’ll freeze in the snow.” Mandie was serious. She was the smart one. She got A’s in school and only one B ever. I ain’t that smart, but I know’d she was right.

“What we do?” Jayla asked.

I saw the stockings hangin’ sad by the fire. I got an idea. “Mandie, don’t coal start fires?”

“Yeah…”

“And Santa’s coming tonight…”

Her eyes lit up like Christmas lights. She know’d what I was thinking.

She stood up: “Everyone, be as naughty as possible. Santa’s bringing coal tomorrow.”

~

We had a real naughty plan: Jayla was gonna eat all the candy canes, and Mandie was gonna draw on the walls.

I was gonna be the naughtiest one.

I was gonna burn the tree.

I chopped away at those branches with my pocket knife, smilin’. Santa was bringin’ coal for sure!

Momma walked in while I was cuttin’. She had that look on her face like a mad bull. “Is you cuttin’ up the Christmas tree?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” I answered, kickin’ myself for being all polite-like.

“Why is you cutting it?”

“To be bad,” I answered.

“Well!” Her voice got like an angry whistle, “You is being bad, and you is getting a whippin’ for that.” She didn’t know what to think about me cuttin’ the tree up.

“But Santa gonna bring me coal, right?”

Momma stopped for a bit. Real quiet-like, she said, “You was tryin’ a get coal for the fire, was you?”

Mamma started cryin’. “Oh, Gabriel!” She came over and hugged me. “God’s gonna keep us safe, okay? Santa ain’t the one lookin’ out for us, God is.”

When Momma get all sad, it makes me start cryin’. “I just wanna help, Momma.”

“I know.”

~

I woke up the next morning to everyone singin’ “Joy to the World”. The fire was blazin’ from the old Christmas tree branches. What was best of all, though, was that the lights were on. Power. We ain’t gonna die.

‘Santa’ brought me an orange and a train, but I know Santa ain’t real; I was so naughty, a real Santa would’a got me coal.

Not that I was complainin’.