The Modern Mrs. Claus

Chapter four- February 11th

I stared around the factory. I was so suprised at how this thing was really taking people by storm. I had about twenty people working for me, half of them were here in the factory wrapping presents and exchanging gossip, while the other half was recruiting new members.

"Diana! I'm a little confused with this present!" A women called me over, I had no idea who she was, but I smiled and allowed her to show me, "see? I can't wrap here because of the plastic!" I nodded and took the present from her and brought it up to my desk, seperate from the rest.

As I tackled the task of wrapping this (as it turned out) incredibly hard-to-wrap toy, I thought about how we only had eleven (was it eleven? Or ten?) months left until christmas 2012. How was I supposed to assume I would get this all done by then? 

I know I needed to hire a lot of trucks to ship these toys off to the airport. And, like, fourteen private jets to fly it to Africa. That's a couple billion dollars there, and our only sponser is Oak Dental and Health. A local organization. Very local.

"Diana!" "Diana! Help with this present!" "Can you explain this thing to me again Diana?" "DIANA!" "DIANA!" "DIANA!" "DIANA!"

"ARRRGGGHH!!!!!" I screeched, "I need a break! People! I'll be back in an hour! Please continue! I need to think about something!"

Everybody was staring at me. It took me just a minute to realize that the people who were screaming my name were in my head, "I'm sorry, I think I'm going crazy... I'm just going to get a cup of coffee then start again okay people? Take five!"

All the people put down their presents and moved towards the refreshments area, which consisted of a plastic table holding plastic cups, a coffee maker, and tea.

I was the first there. I grabbed a plastic cup and filled it with decaf black coffee. Then I brought out a chocolate mint from my pocket and ate it quickly.

"Remember people, we end at eight! One hour to go! And about..." I counted the unwrapped presents in the pile, "one hundred and two presents left!"

So far, we had wrapped enough presents to give to... About two hundred kids, including the presents we'd probably wrap in the next sixty minutes.

"Diana, are you sure you can do this?" A man called out, I recognized the voice of my husbands coworker, "Listen George, we won't give enough for everyone. That's just plain impossible. But we can give enough to the most needy. We can do this!" I put my fist in the air, "this will work!"

A few cheers rose up from the small crowd of ten people. I smiled then went to the pile of toys and grabbed a few. Suddenly, the door to the factory opened and the other ten troopers came in, stomping late winter snow off their boots, "Sorry Diana, no one wanted to. Said they had to... Get ready for Valentines day, most of them," grumbled my friend Jackson. I threw my head back and yelled, "gosh dang it! we're not getting any luck are we? But thanks guys, you did your best!"

After another hour of tedious gift wrapping, I went home and opened my laptop computer. I had about two hundred emails, more than half of them spam. After a few emails, I found one from my daughter, Sheila.

Dear mom,

i miss you. I wish you came two months ago.

I have a great oppurtunity for your project, my school is doing this thing where they announce any local or regional charity projects in their newspaper. It's kinda a contest, so I entered your name and what your doing, and maybe they'll put you in...? But other than that, nothings going on :)

Your daughter,

Sheila

I smiled widely, I love my little Sheila so. Great girl. I'm glad I don't have to go out there though. Robert still hates me.

I scrolled throught more emails until I came upon another one labeled PS!!

OMG! I FORGOT TO MENTION!

THEY WANT THE PERSON WHO RUNS THE ORGANIZATION TO GO UP ONSTAGE AND MAKE A SPEECH ABOUT IT, TELLING WHY THEY STARTED IT, YOU KNOW THAT STUFF. SO YOU HAVE TO COME HERE IF YOU WIN. THEY ANNOUNCE IT DURING AN ASSEMBLY AND THAT SAME ASSEMBLY YOU WOULD MAKE THE SPEECH. SO YOU HAVE TO COME OUT HERE BY MARCH 16TH

SORRY MAMA

SHIELA

Forget what I said about being a great girl! She just took four hundred dollars out of my wallet by writing my name on a piece of paper. Damn it Sheila, you could've thought that through!

Dear Sheila,

Why did you do this? I have to pay four hundred dollars now and waste probably a week I could use on my project to come to a contest about a thousand people are entering that I will LOSE. I will love to see you, but you know Robert, he'll kill me! You should've thought this through! I still love you, and the good thing is if I do win this it'll get this whole thing off the ground, but it's not that easy! I when is this assembly again? Please send me the details.

Your mother,

Diana

"Diana! You home?" Came my boyfriends voice, "yeah, I'm up in our room, can you come up please?"

As he made his way up, I started preparing the two emails, "what is it Diana?" he asked me, his outlined shadowed my the light outside the room, "read this," I told him, holding up my laptop.

He came into the dark room and took the laptop away and sat on the side of the bed. After a few minutes, he looked at me, I could see the anger on his face, "I really don't like Sheila." He growled.

"Don't say that Jonah! She was doing it for the best and-"

"I read your response, your not actually going are you?" he growled.

I hung my head. He sighed, "Diana, I'm actually liking what you're doing now, this is your best project yet. You can't just throw it away with a wasted promise! Doesn't Sheila's school have, what, a thousand kids in it?"

"How was work?" I asked weakly. Jonah just shook his head, "Fine. listen, I guess I'm all for it as long as you find someone to take over the project for you while your gone, okay? And I don't want you just paying for this, it's a dent in our budget, tell Sheila to pay for it. Her daddy gives her that much money in one day anyway," he said shaking his head.

I threw my hands around his neck and kissed him, "thank you thank you thank you!"

He laughed softly and hugged me back, "love you too."