Crumpled

Chapter 16: A Really Lovely Christmas Present

 Another Saturday dawned on New York. The snowflakes kept on falling steadily as the weather started to get colder and colder while the Sun started lengthening its play time of hide-and-seek by hiding behind the clouds more often. Everyone got on with their daily business which I guessed by the increasing number of cars and buses on the road. Even though the weather was quite dark and gloomy, everyone seemed to be in high spirits which could be easily seen why as the boys and girls strolled around as if in Neverland, to the nearest shops to start buying things for Christmas. All this, I watched as I stood in the terrace, looking down into the street.

 I had woken up early today so when I went downstairs, Mom was only preparing breakfast. Giving out a yawn, I said, “Good morning, Mom.”

 “Good morning, dear. What happened to make you wake up so early today?”

 “Well, let's just say it's the 'Spirit of Christmas'!” I replied, stretching out my hands.

“Haha! Christmas is still 3 weeks away. Anyways, after breakfast, we will be going for shopping today since we have to buy new outfits for Christmas.” Mom said, pouring out a cup of coffee for me. 

“Oh no! Shopping!? I'm gonna be so bored!!'” I groaned. I always appreciated Mom but even then, there were some things which I really dreaded about her and Sarah and that was shopping. Generally, I would complete my shopping very fastly within 5 minutes but-oh dear!-Sarah and Mom would take nearly a century to finish their's.

It was Sarah's shopping process which I hated the most. The way she steps into a clothing store and looks at all the clothes, it’s as if she's seeing clothes for the very first time. From then on, it's constant bugging for me-

“Hey Harris! How does this dress look on me?” or “Hey Harris! Don't these stripes look fantastic!?”' while Mom would ask from the other end, “Hey darlings, how does this look on me?” or “Don't I look beautiful in this?” (Yeah I know, Mom can be really bananas when it comes to shopping!)

I was the 'rivet' between these two ladies, keeping mum and sitting on a chair, fed up! Shopping with girls can really be tiresome! I mean, I don’t see any difference between boy-shopping and girl-shopping. Boys shop very fast and get the clothes they want while girls just gawp like apes over a dress for, like, a day! I mean, why can’t they just learn from the experts like us and become professional shoppers? Duh!

“HARRIS!? YOU’RE POURING COFFEE ALL OVER THE FLOOR!!” yelled Mom angrily, snapping me back to reality as she exclaimed at the dark-brown mess that was forming on the floor.

“Huh, what!” I exclaimed, startled, dropping the coffee mug onto the floor. It was as if the ‘Big Bang’ has happened in our kitchen as my 10-year old coffee mug said its last goodbye to me, shattering into a million pieces on the floor. More mess. I remained rooted to the spot, closing my eyes and pricking up my ears, bracing to hear whatever my Mom was gonna say. I slowly raised my head to meet a pair of fiery-glowing eyes, boring into my own.

“That-that-that was such a precious….” and before she could continue, I immediately dashed off to a corner of the kitchen where the cleaning cloth was hung and lifting it up from its hook, I dashed back to the scene of the…umm…mess with the cleaning cloth in one hand and the waste collector in the other. Without a word, I kneeled down and quickly cleaned up the mess within minutes, arranged everything and yet, the only appreciation I got was more furious glaring from Mom.

“Oh c’mon, Mom, we can still buy another mug!” I said, smiling sheepishly.

Slowly, smile of amusement came on Mom’s face. She sighed and said, “Well, looks like that's another thing whcih has to be added onto our shopping list- buy another mug. My dear Harris! Whatever will you do when you go out shopping with your wife?