It was just before Christmas, and Cream Pump Street was glowing with Christmas spirit. Sparkling red and green lights dazzled along every porch and eave, capped with the chilly touch of icicles, all except Amando's house.
Amando's mother, Lisa, had never put in the effort to decorate their house. She claimed it was because she was always so busy taking shifts at the grocery store, trying to pay off their bills and groceries, but Lisa took many nonconsensual days off from her job. Every time she felt like it, she would take a day off from work to sort herself out, no matter if it was stress, a hangover, or a migraine she was having.
But this December was much different than the norm, Amando quickly noticed. Lisa would leave earlier in the day and come back later in the evening than she ever had before, contrary to her job-skipping habit that tended to worsen around the holidays.
On a day where Lisa was out working past her usual hours, Amando decided he needed some fresh air, so he put on his mom's down jacket and snow boots and stepped outside into the crisp winter air. Looking for something to do, Amando trudged through the snow to the mailbox to find a pile of envelopes inside. He stroked briefly through the mail, the tips of his fingers going numb and red in the frigid wind, when a voice from behind him made him jump.
"Ohhh! Is that Amando?!" Called out an old, fervent voice. He turned in the direction of the voice to find it belonged to Mrs. Daisyshine, the plump middle-aged woman who lived opposite them. Her lengthy blond curls heaped across her back as she craned her neck to face him.
"Oh, hi, Mrs. Daisyshine," Amando returned, analyzing her astounding strings and bows of glimmering lights. It was no wonder she won the annual Neighborhood Holiday Lights Contest each and every year.
"Isn't this just the most wonderful time of the year?! There's so much Christmas festivity and joy in the air!" Mrs Daisyshine trilled from across the street, her words dripping with sugary enthusiasm as she began to string up lights above her doorstep. "Oh, I just love it!"
"Yeah, it's pretty cool, I guess," Amando said.
"Oh, dearie me!" Mrs. Daisyshine gasped suddenly. She turned around and stumbled down her ladder towards her front door. "I nearly forgot! I've made you and Lisa some treats for the holidays, give me one sec!" She came out of the house just as swiftly as she went in, with what looked to be three pounds of cookies and chocolates in her hands atop a giant festively-painted ceramic plate, secured down with saran wrap. Judging from the cutesy streaks and curls of paint on the plate and the meticulous plumes of icing on the cookies, Amando could tell that everything he was about to receive had been homemade by Mrs. Daisyshine herself.
When she handed him the plate, he almost fell to the ground under its weight.
"Oh! Oh, you got it, dear?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, I got it," Amando mustered.
"I'm really sorry to make you do this; I've been having trouble spotting Lisa, and if I waited any longer, I might have been unable to resist them myself! Ohoh!"
Amando's mouth began to water as he caught a whiff of the cookies' luscious aroma. His mom never let him have a whole lot of sugar at once, but with her off at work later than usual...
"Wow! Thanks!" Amando said.
"And tell Lisa I wish her a happy holidays!" Mrs. Daisyshine said warmly. "Oh! And tell her she's welcome back at the church anytime."
Amando bid her goodbye and hefted the gargantuan largesse into the house. When he reached the kitchen, he plunked it down on the island, took a few deep breaths, then began to peel back the saran wrap, the sugary fragrance of chocolate and gingerbread sending him up to cloud nine. And then he heard the garage door open.
"Ugh," he groaned. The one time he wished for his mom to return later in the evening...
He scarfed down two ornamental little gingerbread men before Lisa came bustling through the door, bulky bags of groceries in her arms. She slammed the garage door shut behind her. "Oh, hey, Amando," Lisa said when she saw him. Wearily, she set the grocery bags down on the counter when she seemed to catch the saccharine aroma. "I smell something," she said suspiciously, and when she peaked around Amando at the island, she saw it.
"What. Is that," Lisa growled. Amando looked between her and the plate, unsure if she was referring to the cookies.
"A gift from Mrs. Daisyshine! Across the street!" Amando chirped. He grabbed a generously-frosted sugar cookie from the plate and was about to take a bite when Lisa charged towards him and smacked it away, fragmenting the treat upon impact, and sending it to the floor. "Hey! What'd you do that for?!" Amando cried.
Her face determined, Lisa snatched the cookie off the floor and tossed it into the trash. Then, she reached for the festive plate.
"Mom, wait, what are you doing?!"
And before he knew it, all of them were gone, dumped into oblivion right before his eyes. Next, she tried to cram the large plate into the trash can, and when it didn't fit, she rapidly threw, shook and knocked the trash can around until Amando heard a loud crack! and she closed the lid. "I will not have any trace of that horrible woman in my house!" She vociferated, full of vehemence. "I do not want to see a single thing that horrible woman brings into this house, do you understand me?!"
His eyes swimming with tears, Amando choked on his words.
"YES or NO?! Do you understand me?!"
Shaking, Amando nodded, and Lisa stomped off to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
