Reckoning

Only a week to go before Christmas. Lola was eager for it to arrive for multiple reasons. First, it meant that Mom made Danish pastries, which everyone ate while they opened presents on Christmas morning. The pastries took two days to make, so Mom only made them once a year. The tradition was one of the highlights of the holiday and was something Lola eagerly anticipated as soon as the tree went up.

Second, it would be their first Christmas together as a family. They’d all been together for the holiday last year, but at the end of the day, after Christmas dinner was finished, Martin and his two children, Alice and Russel, returned to their home in the next town over. Now Mom and Martin were married, so they all lived under one roof. In their new house. In a new state. While the move had been hard, Lola was glad they would be together now, instead of driving back and forth between the two residences.

Third, and most important to Lola at the moment, the arrival of Christmas day would mean the end of Alice’s incessant bragging about what her mother had sent her for a gift.

‘I know it is a Walkman. I can tell from the package. Feel how heavy it is. More weight on this end.’

‘Yep, you’re probably right,’ Lola answered, holding the smartly wrapped package and giving it a light shake to assess its density. Handing the gift back to her step-sister, she watched Alice put it back under the tree with the reverence usually reserved for Baby Jesus.

‘My mom, she asked me what I wanted and I told her a Walkman and, of course, she loves me, so I know that’s what she got me.’

Lola nodded blankly. Another six days of this. She wasn’t sure she would make it. She was only two years older than Alice, but Lola’s mom said that made her more mature and she should be tolerant of the constant chatter about the gift.

‘My mom understands what is popular. She definitely got me a Walkman. Dad and your mom probably got me socks, but my mom got me a Walkman.’

Yes, that much was true. Mom and Martin probably did get everyone socks and underwear. ‘Necessities of life’ Mom called them. But not great Christmas gifts. Lola was trying to be understanding. She wasn’t a baby anymore and understood that Martin had started his new job only a month earlier and they’d just moved into a new house that could accommodate the five children of their blended family. Money was probably tight. While disappointing, socks and underwear would be fine.

‘My mom is so much cooler than your mom. She knows how to shop for a gift for the ones she loves.’

Lola gave Alice a sharp look. That last part was unnecessary and hurtful. Lola wanted to fire back that at least her mom didn’t dump her children and run off with a younger man. She didn’t though, partly because she’d overheard her mom telling Grandma and knew she wasn’t supposed to know that’s what happened, and partly because it would be cruel. Still, it couldn’t go unanswered. Alice shouldn’t be mean about Mom that way.

That night, Lola waited until everyone was asleep, snuck downstairs, and pulled Alice’s gift from under the tree. Carefully, cutting the tape along the fold lines of the gift, she lifted the wrapping paper flap and slid the box out from its brightly colored covering. Opening the box, she found the much-ballyhooed Walkman and removed it, replacing it with a Ziploc bag full of dirt and pebbles approximately the same weight. She’d slipped outside and scooped the dirt out of the garden during the nightly chaos of teeth brushing and showers at bed time. Shifting the dirt around to mimic the Walkman, she closed the box, slid it back into its paper sleeve, and carefully retaped the flap, lining the new tape up with the old.

After placing the ‘gift’ back under the tree, Lola slid the Walkman safely under the couch and returned to bed.

The remaining days until Christmas passed quickly. Alice’s never-ending commentary about the Walkman continued, but didn’t bother Lola, now that she knew the gift box her step-sister picked up and shook daily was filled with soil.

Christmas morning arrived and everyone gathered in the living room around the tree. Still wearing pajamas, munching on Danish, they took turns watching each other open gifts and complimenting the items given and received. When Alice picked up her mother’s gift, she showed it off, waving it in front of each of the other children in turn, then sat down and tore the wrapping paper off. Pulling the lid off the box she gleefully looked inside and…found a bag of dirt. Alice was stunned silent, not comprehending what she was looking at. No one said a word. And then suddenly the void was filled simultaneously with Martin bursting out in a barking laugh, Alice violently sobbing, and Mom yelling, ‘LOLA!!’

Lola sheepishly pulled the Walkman out from under the couch and handed it to Alice and said, ‘I’m sorry, Alice.’

The din died down and Alice wiped away her tears, pulling the Walkman to her, holding it like it would run away. Lola endured the harsh scolding her mother gave her, while catching Martin trembling in suppressed laughter out of the corner of her eye. Perhaps, Lola wasn’t the only one that had found Alice’s bragging about the Walkman tiresome.